LAS VEGAS — Telex Pro Audio Group President Matthias von Heydekampf has resigned from Telex’s new parent company, Bosch. In a coversation with FOH on Friday, April 20 Heydekampf cited personal reasons for leaving, and said he was still very pleased with the direction Bosch was taking Telex, now Bosch Communications Systems.
“I’m just not the type for matrix organizations, so I had to draw the conclusions, and take the consequences.” The term “matrix organization” referes to a philosophy of management that seeks to combine the advantages of a purely functional structure with a structure more suited towards products and project oriented businesses.
Heydekampf, who helmed Telex for the past five years, still stands by the Bosch acquisition. “I would do the deal in a minute again, because I think it’s best for the brands and the best for the company, so I’m actually very happy with what happened — and what is happening — to the company. It just personally didn’t turn out to be favorable for me, but I can live with that one.”
Even though he’s leaving, Heydekampf still has strong ties to the company, and doesn’t know what he’ll do next.
“I have no future plans,” says Heydekampf. He plans to take some time and reset his brain before deciding what future directions he will take.
“After 10 years in the industry you’re in your little world and you don’t think straight. And I want to think straight again, and that will take a while. So I’ve forced myself to not even think about what I’m going to do until September.”
Heydekampf was caught off-guard when we asked him what he was most proud of accomplishing with Telex, but recovered quickly.
“Probably that I created a vision for the company, and that I motivated a lot of people in the industry to do added value, and not go the easy cheap way, but go for the superior professional sound solutions. If you asked our employees and distributors and dealers, they could explain to you that they are the added value company. We go for the top sound and we don’t go for price point, but we go for problem solutions,” Heydekampf said, speaking again as part of the company, referring to “our employees” and “our vision.”
“When I started the team — there was no worldwide team and they weren’t very motivated. I think now we have a very motivated team,” Heydekampf continued. “Which is important for me.”
