Ing. Stefan Granitzer MBA

‘We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy the gift of hearing. We connect people to the world – with passion and love for hearing’. We offer first-class, all-inclusive hearing restoration services to those who suffer from a disabling hearing loss. We provide the highest standard of hearing care through our private clinics in Austria and China. • My contribution is the development of the global business strategy and setup strategic partnerships, and managing operations across APAC.

• Developed ‘industry first’ program to maintain strong engagement and relationships with Key Opinion Leaders (Influencers). Championed the program's execution. • Responsible for ongoing competitor analysis, competitive positioning and staff training by implementing a new Strategic Selling methodology.

• Executed challenging marketing communications and product management roles both regionally and globally. Roles involved program management, manufacturing, logistics, R&D, sales, finance, regulatory, and reimbursement issues. • Worked with cross-functional stakeholders in a matrix organisation for the development of the strategic roadmap, launch of next-generation technology products and new categories. • Spearheaded paradigm shifts in reimbursement strategies, and market segmentation.

• Provided decisive direction in aligning corporate goals and clarifying project strategy and activities to ensure achievement of deliverables for two critical product launches that were subsequently awarded the Australian Design Award (2008) and Red Dot Award (2010). • Played key role in strengthening the Cochlear image through a new master brand direction focused on customer-outcome research and development of an interactive 3D animation of Cochlear’s innovation vision.

• Appointed to a management role that had been vacant for multiple years for a region in need of operational efficiency to optimise business services, customer care, and sales. • Planned and implemented a clear turnaround in performance and productivity, including a scalable product introduction process and standardised sales and marketing communications process while improving relationships with key industry organisations and strengthening the company’s perception as scientific thought leader.

• Asked to orchestrate a turnaround of a struggling services business by establishing a localised spare parts repair model, a complex initiative requiring a major paradigm shift. • Successfully overcame widespread resistance in securing a strategic partner, overhaul pricing policies, create new processes, adapt sales operations, and maintain customer loyalty. • The new business model increased quarterly revenue stream 5X over 3 years with 30% profit, and reduced supply chain expenses more than 50%.

• Changed priorities rapidly when the company acquired a larger competitor. Focused on M&A related issues such as adding new customer segments – as staff turnover rose to 50% along with quality and sales issues. • Instituted a major turnaround strategy and stemmed turnover by restructuring the team by focusing on coaching, and realigning culture and vision. • Restored service to the customer while driving down operational costs through an innovative channel partner program and localised repair model.

• Exploited a massive business opportunity for more complex, large-scale projects with strategic customers, yielding roughly $7M in repeat business with Siemens Shanghai and Huawei and closing an additional $4M in orders in the emerging telecom market of China. • Developed world-class field engineering team in China, Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore that could assume maintenance of existing solutions and implement future solutions independently.

• Provided expert engineering support to an international sales force and all existing accounts across Central and Eastern Europe. • Contributed to opening up several strategic accounts where technical design was key, and achieved timely delivery of an innovative, first-of-its-kind automation solution to Blaupunkt Automotive.