Brand Leadership Magazine  ·  Case 03 – Comfort Audio

Listening to
Your Vision

Interview with Inger Rydin, former CEO, Comfort Audio

A fast-growing and successful company on the threshold of a major international expansion. Former CEO Inger Rydin explains how she used the brand platform as a tool for leading the organisation and driving the business forward.

A dream assignment

When Inger Rydin was given the role of leading Comfort Audio, the brief was clear — grow the business. Inger Rydin brings extensive experience from a range of senior positions within international companies and a rich bank of knowledge to draw on. Her passion for building strong brands, and her developed understanding of how strong brands contribute to better business and profitability, runs as a common thread throughout her career. During Inger Rydin's time as CEO of Comfort Audio, the company doubled its turnover with strong profitability, and the international expansion intensified.

– This was a dream assignment for me. As CEO I had the opportunity to put my ideas and experience into practice from a platform where management had the ability to make the decisive brand-strategic decisions. In a sense, my own career is an example of how the brand question has evolved — from being the responsibility of the communications or marketing department, to now sitting on the CEO's or the board's desk.

World-leading technology

Comfort Audio was founded in 1994 by August Pansell and Carljohan Lagervall, two engineers who, after their studies at Halmstad University, won a commission from the Swedish Labour Market Board — to develop a hearing aid solution for people in working life. The initiative was based on the fact that hearing impairment is often a reason why people take early retirement, even though they both can and want to work if given access to the right aids. This frequently creates problems for the individual and represents a significant waste of resources from a societal perspective.

The entrepreneurs August and Carljohan developed new technical solutions that made it possible for people with hearing impairment to function in their working environment — for example, to actively participate in meetings, training sessions and use telephone services. Comfort Audio has been successful and has grown steadily since its founding, and is today the global technology leader within its niche.

But like most entrepreneurially driven companies that grow quickly, Comfort Audio reached a size where an entirely different structure, clearer strategy and governance were required for continued development and growth. This is where Inger Rydin entered the picture — first as an external consultant and then as an employed CEO. The company was facing an extensive change process, and as part of a rapid expansion Inger Rydin recognised early on that Comfort Audio needed, among other things, to review its identity and develop a brand platform to build the Comfort Audio corporate brand.

– When I received the assignment as an external consultant to develop a new business plan, both management and key people in the organisation were involved. In the process of formulating the overarching business objectives and strategy, it also became clear that there was a lack of a shared picture of who we were, what we stood for and how we presented ourselves. There was an opportunity and potential here to develop especially the emotional dimension. When I was hired as CEO, it was therefore one of the areas I addressed. The brand platform is a management tool that the CEO, together with the management team and board, can use as a long-term compass in business development. The role of core values in developing culture and brand in a rapidly growing organisation is very important.

Highlight the business value

A critical quality for a CEO is the ability to sell ideas to both employees and the board. When it comes to brand issues, this can in some cases be a challenging process since these questions can be perceived as abstract. The argument must therefore always start from the business value that a strong brand generates. By starting from the company's current identity, existing brand equity and how these elements could be complemented or strengthened, the owners were persuaded of how the investment in the brand process could be a sound business investment for the future.

"Just as with other parts of the business, you also need to set goals for the brand work — only then can management gain yet another effective tool for leading the organisation and encouraging individuals to take greater responsibility."

— Inger Rydin, former CEO, Comfort Audio

– There was a strong, genuine Comfort Audio spirit, but it had not been concretised or described as part of a long-term strategy. Management agreed and saw great value in developing the brand platform from the existing culture, and in this way securing the brand's DNA in the future expansion. Pulling together the strategic whole was also necessary. For the organisation to strive in the same direction, a shared target picture is needed, and it must become clear to everyone how vision, mission, core values and brand experience are connected. Just as with other parts of the business, you also need to set goals for the brand work — only then can management gain yet another effective tool for leading the organisation and encouraging individuals to take greater responsibility, says Inger Rydin.

Once a company has decided to initiate a brand process, it is important that management takes the time to discuss and define what it is and what purpose the brand platform serves. In these discussions it often becomes apparent quite quickly that there are as many opinions as there are people in management — the key is to find the threads that lead to a shared understanding and insight.

– Comfort Audio has always been a company driven by technical ideas and innovation, but there is also a strong interest in design. Initially I think it was the connection between the brand platform and design that opened up the understanding of how one can work strategically with a brand. Design is an expression of the brand's personality and helps create strong relationships with the target group — and therefore also loyalty. Expanding this way of thinking from the product to the company then became a natural process, says Inger Rydin.

Vision work

Opinions often diverge on what constitutes a good vision. Some argue that a vision should be achievable within a reasonable timeframe in order to engage the organisation, while others argue that it should largely be unattainable. Some are content with simple formulations; others place more weight on the content itself. What matters is finding a business-driving formulation that everyone in management can stand behind and is motivated to communicate throughout the organisation.

Inger Rydin is familiar with the description of the traditional twists and turns in vision work, but at the same time has a clear view of what she considers a good vision to be.

– The vision should paint an attractive and engaging picture of the future that ideally also describes in what way we have improved our customers' lives if we achieve it, says Inger Rydin. At the same time it must not become too idealistic and sweeping — we all want to create a better world. A vision must describe what you want to change, but also what you as a company have a realistic opportunity to contribute. A good vision should engage, be something to strive for, and inspire action in line with the business plan. If it does that, everyone will be able to contribute by adding value from their own role and area of responsibility — and in doing so also contribute to building the brand.

The discussions around developing Comfort Audio's new vision took the customers' life situation as their starting point. Studies that have been carried out all point to the same thing: a person with hearing impairment feels strongly limited in their daily life — at work, at school or in their leisure time. The greatest obstacle, however, is the reduced self-esteem and discomfort one feels when unable to participate in a discussion on the same terms as those with normal hearing. It becomes an exclusion in which the person with hearing impairment does not feel involved. Since Comfort Audio's products, through patented technology, can offer or enable a superior sound quality — especially in situations with a lot of background noise — for a person with hearing impairment, this became the starting point for how the vision was ultimately formulated.

– Initially we discussed how to incorporate the superiority of the technology into our vision, but we realised this would limit our room for manoeuvre. Technology has a shelf life — it is not a question of whether it will be developed, but when. When we finally formulated our vision: "Hearing impairment should not be a barrier to the exchange of thoughts and ideas between people," we all felt it was a vision we could stand behind — and that could drive our business. It describes a genuine passion that exists among those who work at Comfort Audio. The vision is also ambitious and timeless — this is something we can strive towards tomorrow, but also in five years' time. Our ongoing goal, however, remains to be the technology leader within our industry and to focus on innovation.

Internal launch

The internal launch of the new brand platform was particularly important given the journey of change that Comfort Audio was facing. It becomes a decisive moment when the new strategy is to be presented — a strategy is, as is well known, only as good as its execution. An engaging and credible presentation creates acceptance within the organisation, and preparation for an internal launch is therefore time well invested.

Aware of what a successful launch can do for long-term success, Inger Rydin and her team prepared thoroughly for the company's annual kick-off at which the strategy was to be presented. In addition to developing traditional supporting material such as a brand book and graphic guidelines, workshops and dialogue exercises were also prepared, giving all employees the opportunity to immerse themselves in the new strategy. In smaller cross-functional groups, they discussed how the path towards the vision would be translated into action in everyday working life — and particularly the significance of the core values, both internally and in customer relationships. To frame the launch, the brand promise — Hear the Future — became the theme for the conference.

– At the large companies I worked at previously, the company's annual kick-off or conference is an investment for which the necessary resources are usually allocated to ensure a quality delivery. There you secure a direct return on investment by ensuring that participants contribute knowledge, and through various types of workshops and presentations they commit, in front of the rest of the organisation, to implementing the strategy within their area of responsibility. My feeling is that smaller companies could be better at this. For Comfort Audio it was important to carry out the kick-off as a first step in that direction — especially given the international expansion that had begun, explains Inger Rydin. It became a symbolic act that concretely and quickly helped move the internal picture forward of where we are headed, who we are and what we stand for. In this way the conference itself became an expression of the new vision and brand platform, says Inger Rydin.

A shared management tool

Comfort Audio has continued to develop both on the Swedish market and internationally. The brand platform is used as a management tool for developing new products as well as for developing communications and the internal culture. Starting from the brand promise, Hear the Future, Comfort Audio has developed international communications material to help the company position the brand in new markets.

Recently Comfort Audio launched its latest product line, Comfort Digisystem, at the annual audiologist congress in the USA. Participants and visitors were invited to nominate the best product innovation of the year — and that distinction went to Comfort Audio. Further value has thereby been added to the Comfort Audio brand.

About the Company

Comfort Audio develops and manufactures hearing aids for people with hearing impairment. The company was founded in 1994 and is today the global technology leader in hearing products. Comfort Audio is established in both Europe and the USA, and its products are represented in around twenty markets.