“Hardware is hard,” Hanneke Faber says, repeating the Silicon Valley truism about how much more difficult it is to design, make, and sell physical products than software.
asserted
it → say → software
It’s harder still when you’re pitching computer mice, keyboards, and webcams to office workers and video gamers — the kind of mid-priced consumer electronics that low-cost Chinese manufacturers have mastered.
asserted
manufacturers → ’ → that
That challenge defined the task Faber took on when she became CEO of Logitech in December 2023.
asserted
she → define → December
Sales at the Swiss-American group were falling after a brief pandemic boom, when consumers had rushed to equip their home offices, and one of its co-founders had publicly voiced concern about the company’s future.
asserted
one → fall → future
And Faber, a Procter & Gamble-trained branding expert who had been running Unilever’s nutrition business, was an outsider to the electronics industry.
asserted
who → train → industry
The former Dutch springboard diving champion is not easily intimidated by such tests.
asserted
champion → intimidate → tests
“Diving is a scary sport,” she says; it puts any fears about the CEO’s role in context.
asserted
it → say → context
When people ask her whether she feels nervous before an earnings call or a media interview, she asks: “Have you been up on the 10-meter platform and done a back two-and-a-half [somersault]?
asserted
you → ask → somersault
Faber’s time as CEO has featured “a whole bunch of body blows,” from tariffs to semiconductor shortages to wars that have disrupted supply chains.
asserted
that → feature → chains
But she has delivered 10 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, record margins, and a debt-free balance sheet.
asserted
she → deliver → growth
She has done so by accelerating the pace of investment in new products, while cutting costs and repositioning Logitech as “the eyes, ears, and hands of AI.”
asserted
She → do → AI
The most virtual of technologies is driving a hardware renaissance, she says.
asserted
she → drive → renaissance
Nowhere is that more visible than in China, she says.
asserted
she → say → China
And Logitech’s own renaissance would not have been possible without rethinking its approach to the export powerhouse that strikes fear into the hearts of many Western manufacturers.
asserted
that → rethink → manufacturers
If you can make it there…
“There’s 500 manufacturers of mice and keyboards in China.
asserted
you → make → China
There’s three in the rest of the world combined,” Faber says.
asserted
Faber → ’ → world
Logitech shifted some production to Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Mexico in response to US tariffs, but China remains an important manufacturing base and an increasingly vital consumer market.
asserted
China → shift → tariffs
Logitech is a market leader in most of its categories, even in China, but the intensity of the competition meant that it was losing market share there “hand over fist” when she started as CEO.
asserted
she → mean → CEO
Her response was to rethink the group’s strategy for the country, moving new resources into Shanghai and creating a “China for China” team of designers, engineers, marketers, and salespeople, with a single-minded focus on Chinese consumers.
asserted
response → rethink → consumers
The result is that, for the past several quarters, China has been Logitech’s fastest-growing market.
asserted
China → grow → quarters
She has also overhauled the group’s marketing approach, using AI agents to assess which of its thousands of pieces of content are working best on fast-moving social commerce platforms like Douyin and PDD, and allocate budgets accordingly.
asserted
which → overhaul → budgets
“In China, you can move and learn very quickly,” Faber notes.
asserted
Faber → move → China
China is where the AI-driven “hardware renaissance” is most visible, she says.
asserted
she → drive → ?
On each of her four visits this year, she has noted the proliferation of voice-activated AI wearables, like clip-on earrings.
asserted
she → note → earrings
There’s more talk than evidence of such devices taking off in the West, but “China is, in this respect, absolutely the future,” she says.
asserted
she → ’ → respect
The pace at which China’s consumer electronics market moves has made it a valuable laboratory for the global group, says Faber.
asserted
Faber → move → group
Logitech traditionally launches 30 to 40 new products a year, releasing all of them on the same day.
asserted
Logitech → launch → day
It now adds another eight to 10 products designed only for China, which has the largest gaming market in the world.
asserted
which → add → world
Within two or three months, it can see which ones have taken off.
asserted
ones → see → months
And “if they hit in China, they’re going to work in the rest of the world, too,” she says.
asserted
she → hit → world
Products like the G316 X gaming keyboard have sprung directly from this Chinese “testing ground.”
asserted
Products → spring → ground
“Having to compete in China is critical to win in the rest of the world,” Faber argues, likening the market to a gym that keeps companies fit.
asserted
that → have → companies
“The trends there are ahead of the trends in the West, and people react really fast,” she says.
asserted
she → react → West
“If you’re winning there, then you can win anywhere.
asserted
you → win → ?
It’s like the song about New York.”
asserted
It → ’ → York
Rethinking physical products for an AI-driven world
A Western company can still succeed in China with a strong brand and “design-led innovation,” Faber says, and she has been pushing to “up the tempo” on innovation across the global group.
asserted
she → rethink → group
A profitable company with a robust balance sheet “should be spending a little more” on research and development, she says, and some of the 6% of sales that Logitech steers to R&D is now devoted to inventing “new form factors” beyond mice, keyboards, and cameras.
asserted
Logitech → spend → mice
She will not say what those include, or whether ear-worn AI assistants are among them, but she notes that voice has become “a more important modality” at a time when office workers are talking to their AI agents and coders are speaking commands rather than typing them.
asserted
coders → say → them
That trend has been good for Logitech’s headset sales, she says, and has even opened new markets for the pedals it usually sells to video gamers for braking and accelerating in racing simulators like Gran Turismo.
asserted
it → say → Turismo
“Some coders, because they want to go so fast with voice, code with our gaming pedals,” Faber says.
asserted
Faber → want → pedals
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
