George Wang: Hey, Bracken. Yeah. First question is maybe you can give more color just in terms of the latest B2B consolidation in terms of the go-to-market kind of sales force? And how are you guys applying learning’s from the consumer vertical kind of innovation there to apply to the B2B vertical?
Bracken Darrell: Okay. Well, first, I would say, we’re trying to unlearn our consumer vertical into the B2B because I think our strength in consumer is something that really doesn’t lend itself too much to the B2B side right now. We’ve taken €“ we leverage as much of that as we possibly could have during the first five or six years in the business. And now we’re building new muscle, which is how to be a B2B company. And I’m excited about our potential there. We have a long way to go to really be, I think, first class in that space, but I think that’s the upside here is how do we become a great execution engine in B2B. So I think it’s still early days in that path. We’ve got the right resources in place. We’ve got the right capacity.
And we’re putting step by step, process by process, compensation plans, everything into place to really become stronger in B2B. So keep asking us about that. I think it’s more of the hot spots of our business and one of the areas where as we improve, I think we can improve our performance.
George Wang: Maybe you can unpack a little bit in terms of the installed base refresh/kind of upgrade cycle kind of against the macro, if the economy will slow further, how do you think this installed base refresh going to play out? Do you think that it’s going to be delayed, or do you think it’s just a more temporal kind of headwind there?
Bracken Darrell: You’re talking about on the desktop side, the mice and keyboard?
George Wang: Yeah. Just across the portfolio, mostly on the PC installed base and also on the gaming as well?
Bracken Darrell: I think, if there’s a dramatic slowdown that goes on for a long time, it’s certainly €“ it is going to delay the installed base refresh across almost every category you can think of in the world, including probably ours. But I think ours are €“ if you look at our products, whether it’s personal workspace or video, they kind of are required for the new world we’re in. So I’m not sure that you can €“ on the €“ in the office, for example, Video Collaboration. While there may be a delay, it feels like there is short term, it’s really hard to imagine that lasting a really long time, because in the hybrid world where you’re doing so much video like we are all right now, it’s really hard to imagine not to enable many rooms.
So I think that’s €“ I think, I’m pretty positive on that. Yeah, it could be €“ there could be some kind of a delay in that. It looks like there was this quarter, but I don’t know how long that can go on. We’ll see. On the workspace side, this is so central to what we do now. Everybody on this call is sitting in front of a desktop with some stuff in front of them. And I would guess 90% of you don’t have really exactly what you need, even if you don’t realize it quite yet. So I think that upgrade cycle is coming, and it’s already started, and it will continue for a very long time. And maybe if you’re really an optimist, then I’ll stay away from going too far on this, but I think you can imagine it’s become more central to our lives as part of our homes and things.
So the upgrade cycle could even accelerate. But I think regardless, I think there’s a good strong upgrade cycle ahead of us. And could it be slowed down a little bit? Yes. Will it be stopped? No.
George Wang: Yeah, I’d like to squeeze in my last question, if I may. Can you kind of give more color and impact a little bit in terms of the recent market share gains across key categories? They’re super encouraging. It seems that largely is outgrowing the industry. Is there any sort of levers and the kind of differentiation you guys have to — for this to sustain the current market share gains?
Bracken Darrell: We announced last quarter that we had launched 20 — or announced 20 new products, and it’s kind of a reflection. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, of course. We’re actually trying to do fewer bigger. But I think it’s kind of a reflection of our investment. We started nine or 10 years ago really focusing on design, which means putting the user in the middle of the action. And we’ve really matured that approach. Meanwhile, we’ve kept investing in engineering over 50% in four years in our total spending on engineering. And certainly, the — that’s happening across all of our categories. So I feel very, very good about the innovation engine here, and it’s the primary driver of growth, but it’s not the only one. The go to market on the B2B side is a big opportunity, too, and we’re going to keep investing there.
George Wang: Bracken, thank you.
Nate Olmstead: Maybe just one other. You started to mention the go-to-market. I think some of the things the teams have been doing around analytics and in e-tail or on Amazon, I think have also continued to be really impressive. In-house share numbers look really good at Amazon in across the categories. So I think it does start with the products, and you look at the ratings on the products, and you can see those are quite good, George. But I also think that you have to tip your hat to the go-to-market team with their — what they’re doing around analytics.
Bracken Darrell: Really agree with that.
George Wang: Great. Thank you.
Bracken Darrell: Thanks, George.
Nate Melihercik : Thanks, George. Our final question this morning is from Michael Foeth at Vontobel. Good morning, Michael.
Bracken Darrell: Hi, Michael.
Michael Foeth: Yes. Good morning. Hi. Thank you.
Nate Olmstead: Hi, Michael.
Michael Foeth: Two questions from my side. If you could give some more color on the appointment of Prakash to the CEO — COO position, sorry. And sorry, what sort of gaps do you think you need to fill there? What improvements you’re seeing on the operations side? And the second question would be regarding your thoughts on the creator economy. As we go into recession, do you see particular dynamics developing there and how you position yourselves to harness those opportunities?
