Sonos’ New (Old) Ecosystem Strategy

Today Bloomberg published a profile of Tom Conrad, the new CEO of Sonos. Conrad’s strategy is to create a reliable whole home audio ecosystem:

Conrad […] is looking to a new path for Sonos: Sell people on the flexibility and convenience of its whole-home system more than any singular product.

This is effectively a “back to basics” strategy similar to Steve Jobs’ upon his return to Apple in 1997. Like Apple in the 1990s, Sonos strayed from its foundational principles (simple, reliable home audio) and recklessly entered new product categories outside its core competency. It must return to the reliability, premium quality, and simplicity that made its products superior to other home audio systems. In 24 years since its founding, Sonos has no true competitor with meaningful scale. By refocusing on building around an ecosystem instead of isolated, individual products, Sonos will succeed in defending its leading market position, rebuild trust, and put the app fiasco firmly in the past. Conrad’s strategy is the right one.