Levin Consulting Insights

News & views within the consumer technology industry

2023 marked 50 years of CES attendance for Adam Levin, CEO of Levin Consulting. Over his career, he has attended and participated in >200 trade shows, ranging from CES to RetailVision, ECRM, the Housewares Show, KBIS and many others. There are four key traits that make for a successful trade show: retailers that vendors want […]

February 3, 2023

Circa 1981, I was in an Apple regional dealer meeting when a dealer asked a question that Steve thought was stupid (this was a common occurrence at dealer meetings). Steve started on a rant, saying “I don’t need any of you! We should have our own stores – and not count on dealers that are […]

January 25, 2022

With Labor Day now in our rear view window, I thought it would be a good time to send out another post in my series of Leadership. Traditionally, we think of CEOs and other senior execs when we think of leadership – I believe that leadership can emanate from anyone in an organization that showcases […]

January 25, 2022

The late Bill Campbell, well-known mentor for much of the key executives in Silicon Valley. Bill taught me a valuable lesson, one that more than 30 years later I still treasure … to be nice to all of the admin assistants out there. The story is simple. Back in 1986 we were getting ready for […]

January 25, 2022

Time for the first example of great CE leadership – Dick Schulze and his incredible transformation of Best Buy in the 1980s. At that time, traditional CE retail was all about advertising “loss leaders,” then using a commissioned sales force to step customers up to something that was profitable for the retailer. Most retailers were […]

January 19, 2022

Many non-work friends ask me why a certain retailer or vendor is failing or how they are going to compete in an Amazon world. I thought that I would take my 40 years in the Consumer Electronics industry and start a series on Leadership (why some companies prosper and others do not make it). My [...]

May 20, 2015