Vision - November/December 2007 - (Page 50)

CEAnewsline sbc member profile most valuable program she has attended. It enabled THIEL Audio to identify some much-needed changes within the company. “I had to face the hard reality that there were two people in my organization in key positions really holding us back,” says Kathy. Management issues aside, a real challenge for smaller companies like THIEL Audio is finding high-quality, small-batch suppliers. “We have enlisted the aid of consultants, engineering and QA/QC firms, who represent THIEL to our vendors for inspection, quality control, solving engineering manufacturing issues and the like,” says Kathy. THIEL Audio has always sold products overseas, and since the mid 1990s has increasingly moved to overseas manufacturing of several components to remain competitive. “We are generally happy with the quality of goods and services we get from China and India,” she adds. She predicts a strong push to produce more overseas. Kathy describes the business climate for her company in the near future as, “adapt, adapt, adapt!” For SBC information, contact Deb Kassoff, (703) 907-7655 or dkassoff@ CE.org. • of Lexington, Ky.-based THIEL Audio, is a CEA member and recognized industry leader. In addition to founding CEA’s Small Business Council (SBC) in 2004, she served as CEA’s Chairman of the Board in 2003–2004 and has held numerous leadership roles within the association during her 30-year tenure in the CE industry. Kathy got her start in the CE business in of high-performance audio, THIEL has 1977. Shortly after college friend Jim Thiel expanded its product line to cover customdeveloped his first loudspeaker, the THIEL install and multi-room solutions and has Model 01, he recruited Kathy to help sell it. re-examined the way it designs and marTHIEL Audio’s line of loudspeakers fea- kets new products. “We have been adapting tures high-performance music and home to this new reality with the conviction that theater models that provide the most real- high-quality ‘anything’ never goes out of istic listening experience possible. Starting style,” she says. As the current chairman of the SBC and with just $20,000, Kathy recounts the comthe driving force behind its development, pany’s first year exhibiting at CES and the cross-country trip in her hatchback loaded Kathy is passionate about the Council’s real-world value for small and emerging CE with the company’s booth and products. THIEL’s growth has come amidst con- companies. She says the SBC’s educational stant challenges in the market and the shift programming has delivered tangible results to home theater and portable audio. As con- for her company. She found CEA’s Gazelle’s sumer demand for flat-panel displays, iPods training, aimed at helping small compaMR_Vision_ad.5SIZEOL.pdf 10/16/07 3:47:59 PM and all-in-one audio systems slowed sales nies grow business and increase profits, the kathy Gornik, president and co-owner C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 50 November/December 2007 www.ce.org http://www.ce.org/research http://www.ce.org/research http://www.ce.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Vision - November/December 2007

Vision - November/December 2007 Contents Shapiro's Spectrum In This Issue The Economist C4 Visionary Tech Speak Going Global Eye on Business Tech Policy Special Supplement: CES Unveiled 2008 CES Technologies to Watch Eastern Europe Embraces CE M&A Fest Displaying the Future CEA Newsline Market Insider Just the Stats

Vision - November/December 2007

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