When Christine Schyvinck joined Niles-based Shure in 1989, she was a newly minted graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison looking to combine her interests in engineering and music. Last year, Schyvinck, 50, became president and CEO of the 92-year-old audio electronics-maker.
Consumers may know Shure for its phonograph cartridges and microphones, including the classic “Elvis mic.” Some of those early designs are still sold today. But as technology and the music industry have changed, Shure has too.
The company has an expanding global footprint, with more than 2,000 employees and more than $500 million in annual sales. It’s developing new products that use software to make “smarter” equipment. And it’s opening a new office in the Loop in the spring, where corporate customers will be able to test-drive its audio conferencing systems — the fastest-growing segment of Shure’s business.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Q: Were you interested in music before you came to Shure?
A: I was actually debating between engineering and music as a high school student. I played French horn and piano. I had this turning point in my life where I was at my French horn teacher’s house having a lesson one week and he’s telling me about how he’s worried he doesn’t know what his next gig is going to be. I sat there and thought music might be a good hobby, but I’m not sure I want to make a living on this gig-to-gig thing. When Shure came to campus, to me it seemed like the blend of two great worlds.
Q: You started out in quality engineering. Did you know at the time you wanted to move into management?
A: About five or six years in I did. There was a moment where there was a management position that was going to open up, and I thought I would get it and I didn’t. I talked to the (vice president) of quality, who said, “Well, you never said anything.” I just thought, “I’m doing a good job; they’re going to tap my shoulder,” but I realized I had to take my career by the reins and make it happen.
Q: How did you come to take on the top post last year?
A: Mrs. (Rose) Shure (who served as company chairman until her death last year) asked me to do that in 2001.
Q: What took so long?
A: Either she was really prescient or she thought I needed a lot of training. That was the way the Shures worked: Everything was about planning for the future. They wanted this company to be this great entity that provides solutions for people way out into the future. I came back the next day and said yes.
Q: Were there strategic changes you wanted to make when you came in, or were you already part of those decisions?
A: When the passing of the baton was announced, my main theme was “stay the course.” We’re staying the course, but I want to make sure we don’t hold back. We have so many opportunities in front of us, and we have really good growth right now. We’ve traditionally been pretty conservative. If there’s a change I’ve brought to the table, it’s just opening up the conversation and making sure people know that they can ask if they can have a tool or make an investment to make something happen.
Q: Shure has been incorporating a lot more software in its products over the last five to six years, such as the ceiling tile-based conferencing systems for corporate meeting rooms that give people more control over sound. What was going on then that made software more important?
A: We had the transducers, we had the cartridges, we knew about sound information, and we had the digital signal processing capabilities (to make the ceiling tile system), but it was never a thing a consumer or a company could use until the software came to fruition and there was a user interface where they could control what was happening.
If I went back seven years ago, I could count on both of my hands how many software engineers we had. Now we have more software engineers than any other kind of engineer. It’s not about being a software company; it’s the way products have evolved. I call it software that enables hardware.
Q: There have been a lot of changes in the music industry over Shure’s history. How does that change what Shure does?
A: Our brand is really well-known with people that grew up when people would get a band together in the garage. What we’re trying to tap into now is with millennials and Gen Z and understanding how our products can help them with content creation and music-making. Everything is pretty much digital at this point. People who grew up with the garage band and mixers and all the hardcore hardware, it’s really changed. We do have a lot of tools that up-and-coming musicians can use, and the big push we have right now is trying to make ourselves more present in social media. We have new people we brought on in marketing who really understand how to make that connection between us as a manufacturer and the end user. We’re not Kleenex; we’re not a brand everyone knows.
Q: Do you want to be?
A: I think that in our industry, we’re Kleenex. But not everybody on the conferencing side of the business knows us. We need to tap into them as much as we need to tap into the 16-year-old trying to create some music on his computer.
Q: Shure’s business has transformed over the years, from the rise of the professional audio business, to the move to wireless technology, then bringing that technology to boardrooms and consumers. What’s next?
A: Internet of things. You can’t turn around without someone hitting you over the head with that one. As we get more into boardrooms, how do we make sure our products plug into the right networks, and with cybersecurity an increasing concern, how do you make sure your product isn’t the leak? We’re trying to make our customers’ lives easier through connectivity.
Q: Shure is a private company, but what can you share about how things are going?
A: We had a great fiscal 2017, which ended in May. Now that we have the first four months (of this fiscal year) under our belt, we’re growing at healthy double digits compared to last year, and we thought last year was good. And we’re expanding into different places around the world. When I started we had five locations in North America, and at this point we have more than 25. Some of these products, you have to be able to demo them to sell them.
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