A great example of Customer Obsession is the resilience, tenacity, and creativity that we have demonstrated to maintain availability for our Super Partners amidst the Global Supply Chain difficulties resulting from war, pandemic, and electronic component constraints. The Music Tribe Values serve as a reminder to all of us that through Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, Bold, and Engage, we can create competitive advantages even at the most challenging of times. Here are some examples of how the Music Tribe Values in action, demonstrated by many, made a difference!

Teamwork

The sheer amount of collaboration across the globe to secure electronic and spare parts, figure out logistics and manage suppliers was phenomenal. This was on top of making sure that the Tribers all over the world who were impacted by COVID were supported in their healthcare needs. Let’s read Richard Powell’s story about how Tribers from three different UK offices came together to relocate parts from Kidderminster to Hitchin.

Relocating the spare parts logistics function, from Kidderminster to Hitchin was a massive challenge. Thousands of different SKUs, making up tens of thousands of individual parts needed to be located, repacked, and made ready to ship to the new location.

The call for help came through to the Aston team in Hitchin, and three of the Availability and Customer Quality team relocated to Kidderminster for four days to lend a hand.

During this time, I saw colleagues from three separate locations come together, all with the common goal of getting the job done. The team went the extra mile and worked extended days as they knew the clock was ticking. I was so pleased to see these Tribers’ dedication, putting in a hard day’s work right up until the end.

The project didn’t end when the last pallets of spare parts left Kidderminster for Hitchin. Organizing thousands of parts into a brand-new racking system took more teamwork and diligent attention to detail. All of this allows us to work more efficiently while quickly and easily obtaining the spare parts we need for any repairs or service requests from our Customers.

The Tribers I’d like to highlight for special mention are –Andrew Hunt UK1, Paula Yarranton UK1, Phil Harris UK1, Russel Rimmer UK1, Andrew Provan UK3, Ben Lindus UK3, Tom Boughen UK3, Jared Garrison UK3.

There were of course, many more Tribers involved with bringing this project to completion, in roles both big and small. All of which were critical to the success we now see.

Respect

Throughout these challenges, keeping customers informed was key to our success. Providing them with updates in a timely manner shows our respect for the business they bring. Similarly, supporting suppliers through COVID restrictions and finding ways to challenge the status quo with everyone’s best interest in mind has strengthened our relationships with them. We can also read about another aspect of Respect toward your fellow Triber which was demonstrated recently by Krishna Kumar as shared by Vishnu Singh.

Krishna is a very humble and down-to-earth person; he treats everyone with respect and so respect for him comes naturally. That is something I admire a lot in Krishna. He cares for and helps each of us like we are family and we are very fortunate to work with such a leader.

It matters a lot to me as in my whole career, I have never experienced such care and respect from any of my leaders in the past. We have a lot to learn from him like not flaunting power or position and asking tough questions, yet still being respectful.

Here in Music Tribe we believe that communicating in a clear, calm, and respectful manner while demonstrating humility will accelerate teamwork and grow mutual respect. This is a major part of our culture we’d like to demonstrate to ensure productivity and provide quality work for our Customers.

Integrity

While it would be tempting to cut corners to keep customers supplied throughout these challenges, the integrity of our products and the way that they are supplied are non-negotiable. Validating components, and running accelerated tests on alternative parts to ensure the highest quality and product integrity for our customers is important in maintaining their trust in us. The story below from Samuel Bergqvist shows us how Christopher Olofsson demonstrates Integrity which is also about being honest and transparent with your colleagues.

Christopher Olofsson is a vital part of the local INNO team here in Sweden. The list of his direct contributions to this company would be quite substantial.

It might sound strange, but as important as it is to have those far-reaching visions of greatness – it is equally important to have those people around you that help you keep your footing and stay grounded. The people who don’t always agree with you, who tell you “No” when you need to hear it. “This isn’t realistic”, “I don’t believe this is the right way forward”. It isn’t because he doesn’t want to help or shies away from doing the work - it is because he wants to help you succeed and stay focused on working smart and doing what we can to provide a better service in the long run. That transparency and honesty is something I’ve come to value immensely. Here in Music Tribe, Integrity is a strong foundation of how we aim to be as individuals and as a business to ensure that we are accountable to ourselves and towards others. I know that if there is trouble on the horizon, he’ll always be there to tell me. I can also feel safe in that when he tells me “I’ve got this” he really does. 

Bold

Now more than ever, Music Tribe’s creativity and resourcefulness have been put on the spot – and we have delivered. Bold and innovative decisions were made to continue serving our customers as best as we can while delivering the best versions of our products. Read about how Gary and Salvador were both vital in creating new platforms and code bases for physical hardware as shared by their colleague Andrew Jump.

FPGAs are at the heart of many of our products. They provide the beating heart of our Mixer products. Last year we heard that our primary supplier Xilinx could no longer support us with the supply chain situation. So, what to do? Panic? No. Give up? No. Innovate? Yes. Be Bold? Absolutely.

When this issue arose there were 2 people who immediately came to mind to be Bold and drive the Innovation for this problem – Gary Cook UK2 and Salvador Grey DE1. Both are massively experienced and used their prodigious knowledge to great effect.

Between them, they have not only developed a strategy for redesigning the platforms, but they have also re-implemented much of the code base and have proven their concepts in physical hardware. They have also been instrumental in driving Vendor selection. Thanks to Gary and Salvador we have a good platform on which to build moving forward. This is a great example of how the combination of Innovation and being Bold can be used to great effect to find out what our Customers truly want and ensure that they can get the best products at the right time and for the best value.

Engage

Listening was another key element to our success in the past couple of years along with working with suppliers, identifying options to provide solutions based on customer-expressed needs and priorities. Through constant and honest engagement, customers understand that we cannot supply everything at the same time and have found themselves willing to work with us around these constraints. Find out how Debra and Shawn listened to their internal customers to create a positive work environment as expressed by their colleague Nicky Balderosa.

One of the most difficult hurdles in any initiative is Change Management. Music Tribe has gone through many firsts in the last 12 months, including and maybe most importantly our OKR Performance Review exercise.

I would like to commend the amount of hard work and dedication my colleague Debra Tan and my boss Shawn Wong have put into this program, along with the enormous help from the rest of the HEAR team. From conceptualizing the communication strategy to creating the training materials and delivering back-to-back workshops, to creating a playbook and recording instructional videos, they’ve done it all to ensure that each Triber understands how his/her role contributes to the success of the Tribe.

The things we do ultimately create a positive work environment for our Tribers which gives them the connections and support they need to be able to perform better and provide products and services that inspire them to do many great things.

Summary

Despite numerous challenges over the past years, we have been able to maintain, and in many ways, improve our customers’ trust in us. Through Teamwork, we were able to weather the storm of the global supply chain crisis and support our Tribers affected by the pandemic. We respected our customers’ time by keeping them updated and supporting them amidst all the restrictions the pandemic brought. We maintained our integrity by refusing to lower the bar by validating components and testing parts to keep our products at the high standard our customers expect. Tribers became bold and creative in finding ways to better serve our customers. To top it off, we listened to our customers, kept engaging, and worked with them to find solutions that best meets their needs.