Chet Pipkin, the founder and chairman of Belkin, says technology has become more personal with Australian customers leading the way in shaping the market.
Mr Pipkin sat down to talk to Tech Guide during his visit to Australia and shared the insights behind the creation of Belkin, a globally successful company that creates tech devices and accessories.
If you own a PC, smartphone, tablet and have wireless network – chances are you already own at least one Belkin product.
In 1983 Mr Pipkin, despite having no computer experience to speak of, could tell the PC industry was going to explode – and he wanted to be a part of it.
“It was a conscious call – I was a teenager at the time and hoping to make a positive impact on people and the world – hoping to do it a way that might be bigger than not and it looked like this PC was going to explode – so we jumped right in,” he told Tech Guide.
HEAR THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW WITH CHET PIPKIN IN EPISODE 120 OF THE TECH GUIDE PODCAST
“I have always been a tinkerer – taking things apart and sometimes I was even successful in putting them back together – I didn’t know a lot about PCs specifically till we actually got going.
“We recognised it was going to be a lot bigger than we can imagine and there were people were talking about “we’re never going to need one of those” and “you will never find one in every home” so there was definitely a tempered view but our underlying belief was that it was going to be much, much bigger than we were capable as understanding.”
So what’s the secret to success? Mr Pipkin has been described as the American Dream and was one of the original entrepreneurs who had a vision and a goal who achieved them with remarkable success.
“Our formula is a pretty simply and straightforward one – it really is to focus on people,” he said.
“What are the kinds of experiences that people want to have for themselves their children, their family, their education and their work then for us in parallel to that really deeply understanding tech and then getting a good grasp with the gaps that exist between what people really want to do and what a particular form factor or device or operating system allows them to do.
“Then [you have] to be really good at filling those gaps and not to do that in any way except through a team of extraordinarily great people – it’s really the only way to scale.”
Belkin has recognised the evolution of the PC and the transition into the smartphone age and the opportunities it presents. It was this idea that created the company’s WeMo range of smart home automation products.
“It’s not about the speeds and feeds but rather the things that matter in my life and I’m having insights into that,” he said
“If we think about the initial explosion of PCs it was driven by things like desktop publishing and spread sheets and word processing and the things we want to do,” he said.
“Now it’s “are my kids home from school”, “is my irrigation system running even though it’s raining outside”, “I know it’s dark – are my lights on”, “are the appliances that can cause damage to my home off now that I’m away”.
“So it’s the next chapter in all of these experiences in our lives that the smart home and connected home and broader internet of things is going to allow us to experience.”
And how do Australians compare to the rest of the work when it come adopting and using technology?
“I find Australians to be really engaged and very curious about their technology, with a hearty appetite to embrace new products and solutions,” he said.
“I feel that for them it’s not just the opportunity in the moment, but stretching the boundaries of what it could become.
“It’s a very powerful market for us in many ways because of this, as it actually helps to make us better and is one of the many reasons that the ANZ region is so important to Belkin globally.”
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