How new CEO Hanneke Faber plans to grow brand Logitech

Faber, who took over as global CEO of the global consumer electronics company in December 2023, talks about how they stay differentiated from competition, plans to expand business in India, and more

By Naini Thaker Forbes India Staff

Published: Aug 26, 2024 02:59:26 PM IST

Updated: Aug 28, 2024 04:08:52 PM IST

Full Bio

Hanneke Faber, CEO, Logitech; Image: Bajirao Pawar for Forbes India

Hanneke Faber describes her purpose as ‘do well by doing good’. She wants to win big in the market, by doing what’s right for people and planet. With close to 30 years of experience in FMCG—stints at Unilever, Ahold Delhaize and Procter & Gamble—she has aced brand building. Since December 2023, she joined Logitech as its global CEO.

With Unilever, she laughs, “I was selling tea and Horlicks, so this [Logitech] is very different.” Faber joins Logitech from Unilever where she led their $14 billion nutrition business as group president. Her responsibility spanned more than 150 countries, and included global brands like Knorr and Hellmann’s, research and development, the B2B Unilever Food Solutions business, and a supply chain of about 60 factories and contract manufacturers around the world.

Being a part of the tech world was a dream for Faber. “It's just such an exciting business. It's the future, and within that, Logitech, is a good fit given my background.” While the products being sold are different, “the focus on the consumer is similar”.

One of her priorities at Logitech will be marketing and brand building. The company clocked in sales of $4.30 billion in 2024. “Logitech is a great brand—it is reliable and affordable. But there are somethings I’d like to do over the years, to make the brand really iconic,” she says. Logitech has a large global footprint for a relatively small company, with a presence in more than 100 companies. In a lot of these geographies, including India, Faber says, “there is an enormous opportunity”.

In an exclusive conversation with Forbes India, she talks about the tailwinds that will help Logitech grow, the India opportunity, her vision for the company, and more. Edited excerpts:

Q. What are the key growth drivers for Logitech?

In lieu of plain, commoditised hardware, Logitech focuses on design-led, software-enabled hardware. Every piece of our hardware is designed aesthetically and ergonomically. It is a key differentiator.

Several long-term trends are expected to help Logitech with its future growth. First is hybrid work—working between office, home and on the go—that is now an established model across the world. This means, the need for multiple workspaces, video collaborations, and solutions to boost productivity and creativity are likely to grow.

Gaming has now gone mainstream. The continued penetration of gamers worldwide is an opportunity for Logitech. Lastly, artificial intelligence (AI). Logitech is innovating to help people access platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT faster and more fluently. Earlier this year, we launched Logi AI Prompt Builder Software. This automatically captures text that one has selected to work with, offering pre-defined recipes of commonly used queries, such as Rephrase and Summarize. These queries can also be customised. This saves a lot of time and clicks, with virtually no disruption to your workflow, when working with ChatGPT.

Also read: Generative AI can boost productivity without replacing workers

Logitech is also leveraging AI to deliver superior audio and video experiences, such as in its Video Collaboration portfolio. And, of course, AI is also helping drive productivity for Logitech internally.

Q. What are your strategies to grow the India business?

Most of Logitech’s products are linked closely with personal computers (PCs), used by gamers and software engineers, among others. The penetration of PCs in India is relatively low. Where India is at today, China was 20 years ago. It will definitely, not take India another 20 years to get there, so that is a one big opportunity.

Some of Logitech’s premium lines, such as The Master Series, includes products designed specifically for software engineers and advanced users. There are more software engineers in India, than people in Switzerland, so that’s another great opportunity for us.

Lastly, gaming is fairly popular in India, but people game on their phones. As it continues to develop, they will move to larger screens—so that could be a driver for us.

Q. In terms of competition, how is the company positioning itself?

We have presence across 13 different hardware segments—from mice and keyboards to web cams and video conferencing. Of these, we are the market leaders globally in 11 of them. So I believe we are well positioned.

But, only the paranoid survive. So I’m always paranoid about the competition. We are always benchmarking, to make sure that our products are superior. Honestly, competition is good, it keeps us honest. But we’re not afraid, we just need to stay on our toes.

Q. So far Logitech has no presence when it comes to laptop or PCs. Why is this and do you want to foray into this sector in the future?

It is unlikely that we’ll get into laptops or PCs. Our sweet spot is playing around with accessories and helping people use those computers in more productive ways. We have a simple, bold mission: Logitech extends human potential in work and play.

We are very focussed, and it’s our differentiator. It’s a luxury to be focussed. Some of our competitors are everywhere. But for us, a left-handed mouse is a pretty big idea, and a gap that they might not be interested in. I love niches like these. So we’ll leave the computers to someone else, and focus on design-led accessories.

Q. In terms of in-house manufacturing capabilities, there is nothing in India at the moment…

Not at the moment. Although, we’re always looking at it. But we have made a big investment in innovation and engineering in India. We have about 450 software engineers and designers in Chennai, that are developing products for the world. This makes India, our biggest software innovation site.

Currently, we have 40 percent of our manufacturing in China, and the rest is diversified across Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico and others.

Q. Logitech has tied up with the likes of Apple, to make accessories. Tell us more about such partnerships

Since we are Swiss, we partner with everyone, and we’re neutral. We share great relationships with not only Apple, but also Microsoft, Zoom, Google and Meta, among others, for our entire product portfolio. For instance, with Apple, when they launched its new iPad Pro earlier this year, we also launched our new combo touch iPad cases and keyboards.

Also read: How 2024 is shaping up for Apple: What you should know

Q. What are Logitech’s top five markets globally?

We don’t disclose exact numbers. But the US is by far, our biggest market followed by China and then the European markets. But I hope India will break into that top five or six, very soon.

Q. Are there any new segments or markets that you are hoping to enter?

We are constantly innovating. Logitech launches close to 30-35 new products every year. We have new mice, keyboards—essentially our core products—that will replace older ones, to ensure we have superior products.

Second, we launch new and innovative products in the market. For instance, we launched ‘Casa Pop-up Desk’ in the US, UK and Australia. This is mainly for creators—many of whom are women working from home, don’t have a home office, and often work from their kitchen table. Casa Pop-up Desk, which is one compact kit, with a wireless keyboard, wireless touchpad and a book-like case that transforms into a laptop stand. And it is ergonomically designed. Again, this product is for a very niche audience—almost like a niche within a niche, and I love those.

Q. What kind of investment does the company make in terms of R&D?

We invest close to six percent of our sales in research and development—which is very high in our segment. But R&D is the lifeblood of what we do. We have to constantly innovate to keep our core products superior and innovate new products. Logitech is a product and innovation company, with a great brand on top of that.

Q. Which areas are you hoping to double down on?

There are couple of areas that I think Logitech is going well, but that we can probably still step on. One of them is B2B. In this sector, we have a ‘teenager’. We haven’t been at it, for as long as some of our competitors. We have great products, especially when it comes to video collaborators. But our capabilities are not quite as strong yet, in terms of sales and marketing to corporate customers.

The second one is sustainability. Logitech is a real pioneer in tech, when it comes to sustainability product design. Close to two-thirds of our products are made with recycled plastic—in this we are definitely light years ahead of the industry. While it is important for the planet, it is also a differentiator, especially for B2B customers, because all of them have carbon reduction targets. So when we have more sustainably designed products that our competitors, we create preference.

Q. What global challenges are you currently observing?

We are noticing that customer demand is stabilising, but it’s still uneven. For some sectors, like gaming, we are seeing that demand is coming back, however, workspaces maybe not yet.

In most large tech companies, with their limited budgets, they are having to prioritise cybersecurity and AI (things like Copilot licences), so they are not spending enough on our kinds of products. Then of course, there are geopolitical tensions, that are beyond our control, but don’t help.

Q. What are some key lessons that you’ve learned in your career so far?

I think one thing I live by is—never check a bag. Outside of its literal meaning, it is symbolic as well. The world moves really fast, and today is probably the slowest day of the rest of our lives. Never checking a bag also means, sure you can look at the past, but be ready to embrace change. You have to stay open-minded, listen to your consumers, to your partners, technology and trends and competitors.