Namaste India,

I am very humbled and immensely filled with honour and pride to be recognised by PALM India with this prestigious Global Industry Leader Award.

Allow me to express my sincere gratitude to PALM that has brought together so many of our industry friends and family on this night.

When I think back to 1989, when it all started, I had a very simple dream and that was to create great equipment and make it affordable for musicians. As a struggling student myself and playing in piano bars to make a living, I couldn’t afford the equipment to build my own recording studio.

My life is about immense passion that ignited when my father, a nuclear physicist and church organ player, built the world’s first electronically controlled pipe organ. At the age of five, I was able to watch over his shoulder as he built this massive instrument in the attic of our own house. On Sundays he would entertain our neighbours, whether they liked it or not.

This was the time when I fell in love with music and electronics and when I reached 16, I built my own Synthesizer. That is now 40 years ago and when I look back, I feel extremely blessed that I was able to pursue my passion in life.

I am a true believer that passion is the essence of life.

Please accept my apology, that I am unable to attend today, but please allow me to share the reason why I cannot be with you on this special evening.

I am currently in Zhongshan, China preparing for the opening of our ground-breaking 3 million square feet and fully automated manufacturing and innovation compound.

We call it MUSIC City.

After close to four years of designing and building our new home, plus investing US$ 100 million, we are proud to soon open the industry’s most sophisticated manufacturing facility.

Imagine a fully transparent glass building, where people can communicate with and see each other, look out and enjoy nature, where offices and tables are shared. At MUSIC we are embracing a culture of collaboration and teamwork, rather than authority; and at MUSIC we are celebrating communication rather than silo’d thinking.

We’d love our customers to become an intrinsic part of our Company so they can fully enjoy an amazing customer experience.

Our goal is to provide you with the ultimate accessibility and visibility into our organization – right down to the shop floor, where a customer anywhere in the world will be able to follow through a web cam how we assemble his product. We want to invite you into our house so you can sit right next to us.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

The Indian Pro Audio Market is amongst the most aspiring markets in the world. India has witnessed some very dynamic changes in last years and at MUSIC we firmly believe in evolving with these changes.

Because of you, we have grown considerably in India and we’re looking forward to continuing to deliver our world-class products and customer experience to this country.

We are strongly investing into resources to serve our Indian customers, a market which is full of rich culture and values which India inculcates to inspire the entire globe today. This can be sensed in the quality of Indian artists and musicians. Such diversity needs to be complemented by only the best audio solutions and customer experience. This is at the very heart of what our people at MUSIC stand for.

27 years ago I started my company in my living room. What an incredible journey this has been since.

However when you celebrate success, you must always remember the people who helped you on the way as without these people, we wouldn’t achieve anything. I am extremely grateful for all the people who touched my life and hence I like to dedicate this award to our amazing 3,500 staff, our incredibly loyal customers, and especially you, our global sales partners whose unwavering support is truly appreciated.

I am extremely proud of our 3,500 amazing people who only have one goal in mind – to deliver fantastic solutions for you, our customer.

Thank you once again and I look forward to visiting this beautiful land, India, very soon.