Companies
A look inside Plantronics with CEO Ken Kannappan
by Sara Isenberg
Publisher, Santa Cruz Tech Beat
A recent trio of articles in the Silicon Valley Business Journal by reporter Lauren Hepler gives readers an up close inside look at Plantronics.
A wall of ears inside Plantronics’ industrial design lab. All new employees have molds made of their ears, which designers use to build new products. Employees then use the prototypes at work for on-site product testing. (VIcki Thompson)
Santa Cruz-based headset maker Plantronics Inc. has spent the last several years overhauling its headquarters with help from San Francisco design firm Gensler (also the designer behind Facebook’s Menlo Park campus). The goal of the redesign: Enticing highly sought-after talent, encouraging more efficient and collaborative work and cutting down on real estate costs.
While the cool-office-as-a-talent-attraction-mechanism fad is nothing new, Plantronics did have a unique entrée to its redesign process, CEO Ken Kannappan told me.Open work environment at Plantronics. (Vicki Thompson)
The company’s work with unified communications systems — which integrate phone lines, emails, IMs and other communications tools — also served as a starting point for the campus makeover. Mobile working tools that untethered workers from their landlines pushed Kannappan to re-think both office design and even his stance on working in a corporate office.
Read the trio of articles here:
- Inside Plantronics’ mod Santa Cruz headset empire, February 27, 2014
Plantronics CEO Ken Kannappan (Vicki Thompson)
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/02/26/inside-plantronics-mod-surf-themed.html
- Plantronics CEO hobbies: Omaha Hi-Lo, white water rafting, trail biking, February 28, 2014
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/print-edition/2014/02/28/plantronics-ceo-hobbies-omaha-hi-lo.html - Plantronics CEO on Tijuana tech talent, how he saved ‘millions’ by nixing cubicles, March 3, 2014
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/02/28/plantronics-inc-ceo-ken-kannappan-on.html
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Sara Isenberg publishes Santa Cruz Tech Beat for the benefit of the extended business and technology community. When she is not volunteering her time for the tech scene, Sara makes her living by managing software projects, web strategy planning, and providing development team services (including account management, vendor management, strategic partner management, beta project management, referrals to qualified technical team members, and more). Please visit her website: Sara Isenberg Web Consulting & Project Management, or contact Sara by email if you have any project management, account management, or Development Team leadership or service needs.
Tagged Ken Kannappan, Plantronics
