Noel Lee (executive)
Noel Lee | |
---|---|
Born | California Polytechnic State University | December 25, 1948
Occupation | CEO of Monster Inc. |
Noel Lee (born December 25, 1948) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Monster Inc.
Lee graduated from
Lee's audio cables met corporate resistance at first, because most audio cabling at the time was
Early life
Noel Lee was born in
Lee took an interest in music as a child; he described himself as having a more diverse taste in music than other kids his age.
Engineer and drummer
Noel Lee's first job out of college was as a laser fusion design engineer at a government-run nuclear research center called the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[1][3] On nights and weekends he played drums for an Asian country rock cover band called Asian Wood and worked on his home audio equipment.[1]
In 1974, Asian Wood was given an opportunity to go on a world tour. Lee quit his job as an engineer in order to be the band's drummer.[1][5] Asian Wood's members moved to Hawaii to start their tour, but it was cancelled two weeks later. The promoter wanted a straight rock band without country influences.[6] This left Lee and his family stranded in Hawaii until they could earn money for travel back home.[1] The band reinvented itself, covering Top 40 popular songs in order to attract work. Asian Wood took on other gigs around Hawaii for 18 months before breaking up.[6] Lee continued doing solo gigs for six months after that, before returning to the Bay Area for an engineering job with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[5] He also worked as an independent salesperson for several small speaker companies in San Francisco.[1]
Monster
Noel Lee is credited with turning the audio cable market into a "profitable
Origins
In the late 1970s, Noel Lee wanted to improve the sound quality from his home audio equipment. He didn't have very much money, so Lee experimented with ways to create a better sound by improving inexpensive cabling.[3][6] At first he worked out of his family's apartment and later in his in-laws' garage,[1] which they rented from family after moving to the Richmond district in 1978.[5][9] Lee experimented with different widths, winding methods, and qualities of copper and insulation in audio cables[9][10] to find an alternative to the zip cord audio vendors gave out for free.[5][10] He compared different wire constructs, while listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.[2][10]
Lee called the 12-gauge audio cable he created "Monster" due to its size.[1] According to Vision Magazine, the first Monster cable was "a low-resistance twin-axial stranded design."[2] Lee manufactured the cable by hand on a ping pong table and sold it door-to-door.[5][10] According to Lee, Pacific Stereo was the first electronics retailer to give him a chance to sell Monster cables in their store.[10]
Lee spent $50,000 in personal savings to demonstrate the cables at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Chicago in 1979, using a borrowed portion of someone else's exhibit area.[9][11] Lee received a positive response at the event[1] and founded Monster, Inc. (formerly known as Monster Cable Products) later that year.[1] Lee received an order from a Canadian distributor[10] for 30,000 cables.[2][9] The distributor wouldn't pay until the products were shipped,[10] so Lee took out a $250,000 bank loan to pay for the production of the cables.[1][10][12] According to Lee, he started the company without business experience or a strategy.[7][8]
Lee was met with resistance, because the audio industry at the time didn't believe cables made any appreciable difference in the sound[3][9] and wire was generally provided for free.[2] Lee demonstrated the difference between Monster cables and zip cord to convince consumers that expensive equipment was wasted on cheap wiring.[7] Sales rose as retailers saw high profit margins selling the cables. Lee provided incentives to retail salespeople to sell the cabling, rather than spend money on advertising. Some critics say this practice creates aggressive salespeople.[3][5]
Establishment and diversification
Within six years from when it was founded, Monster had $50 million in annual revenues and 400 employees.[1] The company's growth was primarily due to Monster training sales staff at electronics stores to bundle the cables with other electronics purchases, an effort the company spent 15 percent of its revenues on by 1998.[1] Lee kept the company private and grew the business,[5] despite pressure to go public.[10]
In connection with his background as a musician, Lee founded the record label Monster Music in 1999,[1] signing Van Morrison's daughter Shana.[5] Monster created numerous divisions as it diversified into other products, such as Monster Performance Car, Monster Game, Monster Photo and Monster Computer.[4] By 2003, Monster produced more than 1,000 products, including power cords, gaming accessories and cooling products.[1] According to a 2005 USA Today article, Lee and his company were developing furniture with high-end electronics built-in, wireless products to replace audio cords and a user interface to consolidate the consumer's control of their electronics.[3] Lee and his son worked with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine to collaborate on the Beats brand of headphones, which was later acquired by Apple for $3 billion in 2014. According to Business Insider, Beats Electronics denies that Monster had a role in the design of the headphones.[13] Lee said Beats had no engineers on staff and it spent millions in research and development to get the product started, but that their contract was poorly constructed, giving all the intellectual property to Beats when it wasn't renewed.[13]
In 2004, Lee bought the rights to the San Francisco 49ers football stadium, which was renamed to Monster Park. Citizens and local government protested that a public facility adopted a corporate name and a local ballot was passed to revert the stadium name after the four-year deal with Monster expired.[3][5] The sponsorship was partially contentious due to a recent layoff of 120 local employees.[10]
Personal life
Noel Lee is divorced with two children.[5] His son Kevin Lee, sometimes referred to as "Little Monster",[5] started working for the company[13] and developed the M-Design product line of high-tech furniture.[5] Lee's son later quit Monster and started his own audio company Sol Republic in 2010.[14] Lee has a degenerative nerve disorder that prevents him from walking without a wheelchair or Segway, which he says was caused by exposure to toxic doses of radiation when he worked as a fusion engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[3][5]
Lee enjoys collecting gadgets and has a collection of old sports cars. He enjoys socialising with musicians and counts Carlos Santana and George Benson among his friends.[5] He is a member of the Asian Business League of San Francisco. He donated $75,000 worth of audio cables to the Los Angeles Unified School District.[1] Lee describes his business ethic as "24/7; sleep when you're dead."[5] He lives in Hillsborough, California.[3] Lee is also known for throwing large parties at the Consumer Electronics Show and spending time with celebrities at the event.[11]
References
- ^ ISBN 9781573563444.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Stevens, Cindy (November–December 2010). "Monster's Noel Lee - Down to the Cable". Vision. Archived from the original on 2013-09-28. Retrieved 2013-05-09.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kessler, Michelle (January 16, 2005). "Monster move puts name on Marquee". USA Today. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Eglash, Joanne, Head Monster is Mad About Music, Cal Poly, retrieved February 26, 2013
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Evangelista, Benny (November 8, 2004). "'Head Monster's' winning ways". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9781558625440. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
- ^ a b c Miller, Paul (February 2008). "Wired for Sound". HiFi News.
- ^ a b Guttenberg, Steve (July 3, 2012). "Monster Cable". Home Theater. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Wilkinson, Scott (October 12, 2012). "Monster Founder Noel Lee Gets Geeky About Cables". Home Theater Geeks. Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. Archived from the original on April 3, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Safer, Will (April 30, 2009). "How Monster Cable got wired for growth". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
- ^ a b Williams, Stephen (December 22, 2011). "CES Watch: Monster's Noel Lee to Launch New Lines". Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ^ "Head Monster". TIME Magazine. September 11, 2005. Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c D'Onfro, Jillian (May 11, 2014). "Here's An Interview With The CEO Who Missed Out On The $3.2 Billion Apple-Beats Deal". Business Insider. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
- ^ Carnoy, David (August 23, 2011). "Monster founder's son flies solo with Sol Republic headphones launch". CNET. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
External links
- Lee, Noel, Life is tough for an HDMI cable (PDF), Monster
- Noel Lee Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2020)