Unitron Introduces High-End Models In Its New Quantum And Moxi Hearing Aid Families

At last week’s AudiologyNow convention in Boston, Unitron showed its new premium hearing instruments for its Quantum and Moxi product families featuring better speech comprehension through improved location of sound.

Built on Unitron’s Era sound processing platform, the new Quantum Pro and Moxi Pro feature Unitron’s binaural spatial processing and SpeechZone automated directional technology to make it easier to understand speech in challenging listening environments. With SpeechZone, the two hearing instruments work together to determine the location of a sound and focus on it.

Unitron also showed its uDirect 2 and uTV 2 accessories. uDirect 2 uses Bluetooth technology to enable seamless wireless connection to entertainment and communications devices. It also acts as a remote control for quick access to essential features. Unitron’s uTV 2 accessory provides similar wireless connectivity for the television, sending stereo audio to both hearing instruments via the uDirect 2.

Hearing Aid Sales And Job Satisfaction Go Hand-In-Hand As Unitron Is Named One Of Canada’s 50 Best Small and Medium Employers

I’ve worked with hundreds of high-tech companies in my consulting career. By and large, their corporate cultures are focused less on the long-term job satisfaction of their employees than on having them work as many hours as it takes to achieve peak performance every day in a never-ending, constantly accelerating race to stay ahead of equally fast-moving competitors.

But ever since I’ve been involved with the hearing aid industry, I’ve seen a different side of the high-tech equation — companies and employees united by a mission and common social purpose.

The hearing aid industry is loaded with as much technology as any of the fast-moving hardware and software companies in Silicon Valley, and it’s got its share of die-hard competitors. Nevertheless, job satisfaction is generally very high.

If you want to know why, you should read the press release Unitron put out this month on being named one of Canada’s 50 Best Small and Medium Employers for the third year in a row:

“It is a terrific reflection of the spirit of the people who work at Unitron and the culture we collectively foster,” says Jan Metzdorff, President, Unitron. “We have the great privilege to work on products and technologies that make a real difference in lives of people with hearing loss. The highly personal nature of what we do gives our employees a shared purpose and common goal, which we see reflected in our survey results and in our ranking as a top 50 employer.”

The competitive study by Queen’s School of Business, Queen’s Centre for Business Venturing and Aon Hewitt, identified 21 key drivers influencing employee perceptions of their work experience, including people, work/motivation, opportunities, procedures, total rewards, quality of life/values, and corporate and social responsibility.

Among other things, the award recognizes Unitron’s recent investment in corporate social responsibility programs, including the Unitron Community Connection, an employee-led charity which has donated thousands of hearing aids to children around the world and raised more than $100,000 to provide hearing dog guides through the Lions Foundation of Canada.

Will HearingPlanet Still Give Objective Advice About Other Hearing Aid Brands When It Is Owned By Phonak Parent Sonova?

Audiology Online published an intriguing interview yesterday with a senior executive of the The Sonova Group, parent of the Phonak, Lyric and Unitron hearing-aid brands, among others, on why Sonova acquired HearingPlanet, the popular web site that provides detailed information on multiple hearing-aid brands for potential customers. In the AudiologyOnline Q&A, Sonova Group Vice President Alexander Zschokke says the acquisition will enable Sonova to “provide more leads” to the audiologists and other hearing health care professionals who dispense Sonova’s hearing aids. But the one question the interview doesn’t ask is, “Will HearingPlanet still give objective advice about other hearing aid brands when it is owned by Phonak’s parent company?”

HearingPlanet’s success for more than a decade has been based on its ability to offer objective advice to potential purchasers of hearing aids who may be confused about the many choices among different manufacturers’ brands, form factors, product types, and prices. On its web site, HearingPlanet notes that with “numerous brands and styles available,” hearing-aid buyers should “compare prices and technology across brands” and “choose a hearing care provider which offers multiple brands and models so that you can find the right hearing aid for your needs.” It goes on to provide a wealth of information that will help you research the various choices in the market, including a fact-filled comparison chart on 18 different hearing-aid brands that includes major features and pricing.

So there seems to be a potential built-in conflict between Sonova’s stated desire to use HearingPlanet to send more buyers to dispensers of Sonova-owned hearing aid brands, and HearingPlanet’s traditional mission to provide objective advice about multiple brands so customers will find the product that suits them best, regardless of the brand. Of course, this is the real world of commerce, where conflicts of interest abound (see: Goldman Sachs), and it would be self defeating for HearingPlanet to change its winning formula for one that favored one manufacturers’ brands over all others. As of today, the only possible sign of favoritism is the fact that Phonak is the first brand name on the HearingPlanet comparison chart, but that’s not a big deal — anyone who doesn’t look past the first entry on a comparison chart isn’t really looking for comparative information anyway. Otherwise HearingPlanet looks much the same, and we will see if the site changes at all over time.

The acquisition is an interesting example of the consolidation trend in the hearing-aid industry. Phonak’s CEO Valentin Chapero several years ago unsuccessfully attempted to reduce the number of hearing-aid manufacturers with global reach by making a bid to acquire GN ReSound (the acquisition was thwarted by a German antitrust court ruling, which, though later overturned, ended the acquisition bid for good). Since then, financial analysts have said the global hearing aid industry might consolidate through other mergers, through the leading manufacturers increasing their market share, and through the major players acquiring their distribution channels to capture more revenue and gain leverage from vertical integration.

HearingPlanet is a spectacularly successful generator of highly qualified leads to audiologists — in the interview, Sonova’s Zschokke notes that even though most of the people who go to HearingPlanet have never worn a hearing aid before, more than fifty percent of the patients HearingPlanet refers to a hearing health professional in its network go on to purchase hearing aids. So Sonova is smart to want to own HearingPlanet to make sure the leads keep coming to Phonak and its other brands. But let’s hope Sonova doesn’t kill this golden goose by undermining HearingPlanet’s traditional objectivity, depth of information, and excellent advice in any way.