Story by Neil Gaydon / President and CEO of SMART Technologies
I was brought into SMART Technologies more than 18 months ago to provide a new direction to a company loved throughout the world of education. I had a global platform to work with as SMART is the largest supplier of interactive displays to educators. We invented the SMART Board 20 years ago, first brought technology en masse to the front of a classroom and changed the world of education with our software and SMART Boards.
However, high penetration rates and budgets being redirected into personal devices and infrastructure meant SMART’s world was changing. Understanding the significant headwinds we were experiencing highlighted the need to diversify into new industries. While this meant significant restructuring, the methodology was simple: Create two independent business units to handle very different industries and customers, establish a customer-centric culture and come up with new product ideas that could disrupt markets that had become tired.
