Starkeys CEO: We are Disney World

A quote from his mother, but still relevant he thinks. Disney World has exactly the level of service he envisions with Starkey. “When an audiologist invests time by attending training sessions at our headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, I want us to provide the same level of service as Disney World. That every detail must be right, and curiosity has to be continually piqued. That feeling can then be passed on to customers. Because I believe that the cornerstone of any success starts with care. And in that, we want to be the best”.

American Brandon Sawalich is President and CEO of Starkey. He has an important mission: he and his team don’t want to be in the business of selling hearing aids; they want to be in the business of helping people. Brandon learned this important lesson from the man who started Starkey in 1967, Bill Austin. “I came to Starkey through a summer job. Bill was 49 at the time, the same age I am now. His reason for starting Starkey had mostly to do with the lack of service he was getting himself. I learned important lessons through his many experiences that I didn’t come to appreciate until later. He introduced customer service to an industry that had no customer service at the time. I learned from him what a caring heart really means, especially through his wonderful work in Starkey Hearing Foundation. I learned that caring means acquiring information and making decisions based on that information and then energizing the team. I learned that we must make mistakes because you never forget them and there is always a lesson in them. I learned what true customer engagement is. I would like to pass that on to the next generation as well. A caring attitude is always key”.

Forward

Always wanting to move forward, Brandon himself takes little time to reflect on successes such as the launch of Genesis AI last year. At EUHA, the next family – Edge AI – will already be launched. “I feel a great responsibility for the success of my team. Of course, we celebrate successes, but always as a team; I rarely stop and reflect on success myself. CEO is a title, I’m just Brandon. But if we want to be the best, we must be able to move quickly. And we can do that at Starkey because we are 100% independent and therefore different in the industry. There is never any reason for me to sit back satisfied. I’m always thinking: what’s the next step? For that, communication through the leadership teams with over five thousand employees is important. Several times a year we get together with the leadership teams, those are important moments. The biggest challenge for Starkey is always what the technology allows us to do. And feedback from our hearing aid wearers from around the world is, of course, essential to that. We want the very best available at that time for them. This never involves sacrificing quality for cost. That is absolutely in my DNA; I have always pushed myself in that. That is what I also mean by Disney World”.

Astronaut

Brandon wanted to be an astronaut when he was young. “Had someone asked me before if I would end up in this industry, I would have replied, ‘no way!’ I wanted the highest achievement, the stars. But I wasn’t good enough at math to be an astronaut, and even as a basketball player, which I aspired to be, I wasn’t at the top level. I was the manager of the team, though, and when I wasn’t on the court, I was busy encouraging others. I think the underdog position motivated me to show what I was capable of. The name Edge AI reflects that mentality as it refers to “living on the edge,” and is also synonymous with the word ‘boost’. Getting the best out of yourself every day, that’s what I did from a young age. An always positive attitude of ‘come on’. Our products make people’s lives better. It’s not about hearing loss, it’s about recognizing sounds. Pet nails on the floor, feet walking on the grass, you name it. Hearing better means living better. Caring for each other is what matters most. It’s a small world after all…”.