Serious business
No, we'd never salute a company flag. We simply worship black boxes ("Vier" Bayer).
Rumour has it that the company flag is hoisted and the company hymn sung in the early morning: investigations have proved that this is untrue, but such rumours may well be nourished by the nearly tangible "us" feeling among "d&b-ers". But this has nothing to do with magic oaths and rituals. On the contrary, this feeling arises from the definitely infectious, convincing involvement of all participants, their enjoyment in dealing with the product, and their awareness of its quality. The concept was right from the beginning. No innovation, elaboration or change in the system could alter this fact. This applies not only to the system concept itself, which still provides the basis even for the very latest, thoroughly developed systems such as the T-Series loudspeaker range.
No doubt, audio technology is a serious business (Kai-Uwe Layer, Daniele de Nitti, Dominik Ehring) ...
It also applies to methods of production and quality control, which, although they have been refined, improved and simplified through the use of computers, have never been substantially changed. Administration proceedings at d&b have undergone a similar development. All of a sudden, the loudspeaker designers were confronted with corporate tasks, administration, long-term planning. New colleagues had to be integrated and new competences allocated. This development was quite difficult at times and confronted all those involved with problems that exceeded the task of simply making loudspeakers.
... well most of the time that is (Sally Granger, Heinz Broeker, "Vier" Bayer).
In the meantime d&b has turned into what people may call a global player and has therefore undergone quite a few changes. But none of these could obliterate the actual objective, i.e. to produce well sounding, well-made audio systems, which are still built almost entirely by hand.
Sometimes we tend to exaggerate seriousness (participants known to the author) ...
d&b introduced standardization, IT support and departmental divisions in order to be able to concentrate on more essential matters. For example, seventeen members of the workforce, which meanwhile totals over one hundred and fifty, are delegated solely to the tasks of research, development and product updating.
... but then we go back to work quietly (Shinichiro Yonekura of d&b Japan).
