in 350 words summarize the article & state your opinion.

article link: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Fender-hits-the-right-notes

THOUCHT LEADERS I February 25.2001 Fender hits the right notes CED Andy Mooney riffs on the boom in quitar sales during COVD-19 and rethinking business models for the post-pandemic world. by Blob Woods Nearly a year insto the Covib-19 pandemic, mallons of us have taken up now hobbies, such as baking bread, bicycling, bird- watching - and playing litat. Thats beautiful music to Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, the market leader in the bockdowns began last yeur in March, Fender cEo Andy Mooney went ieto beh-tightening mode. tanceing orders: aharterieg explores o wide ronge of Its headquarters in Scottsdab, Ariz, and Los Angeles, closing factories in Corons, Call, and Ensenada. Mevico: and criticol decisions foced by furbugtiog production wokers. chict exicutives around the world. Far more insigtt, see PnCiciosivery Then, in what Mooney deecribed as a goodwill geeture, the private company - maipority owned by Hawail-based Senco Pacific Capital and Tokyo-based Yamano - offered Eander Plax, its subseription-based online plattorms for lewring guiltar. bass, and ukulew, free for 90 days. Within weeks, the app attracted nearly soocooo first-time playen. Just as sudsenty. many of those newbles stated tuying up iconio Fender quitars (Stratocasters, Telecasters. Jazzmastersi as wel as amplifiers, efflects pedals, and other geat: By October, Mooney was eyeing record sales. Marcus Millec. MER. and scores of other players. This iends a credibility and caches that make Fender an in-demand brand among those who boch appreciate and want to make music. In a recent Zoom interiew with stretegrbusiness term his home office in Hollywose. Mooney - a bonglime quitarlat himsell - taked about how he has fine-tuned the brands proud kegacy since taking the reins in 2015. S+8: What hapgened to your business when covio-18 hit and lockdowns went into effect throughout the United States? worldeide closed. Our oftices and factories closed. We were staring at the edge of a cataclyamic drop-off in saien, 50 our focus was on cash preservation. We did everything possitile to mitipate cash fiow. We canceled orders. everybody in the company took pay cuts trom 51050 peroent, and we cancelect bonuses. 320021 Fender tib te rightrotes we willget sighificunt growth again in zeer ast beyona having a tived der. Nas, Duner and Ouknelierer? lewasing the seperturity to connect with twis sew cohort of eustomurs? 322021 Fender hits the right notes at $10000 on new quitars. If we take just the milion new people who came into cur app. they represent an incremental $1 bilion of retal sales, on top of whatever arganic growth the industry returns to. Our programs with first-time playern include manketing initlatives, product initiatives. and philanthropy, On the marketing siden, wen now hwe an online first-time buyert guide experience caled Find Your fender to help people through the declsion-making process about what type of guitar to buy, because it can be a pretty confusing. somewhat intimidating experience. We are coeninuing to invest in Fender Plyy. The data we get from that propam shows us the degree to which consumers are engaged. As of earty Decermbec we had 204000 paying members of Fender Play. Who subseribe to the app for an werage of 4 months. We offered Fender Pluy tree for three months again during the halidays. and I belleve welipet another 250000 members. who otherwise would not have access to them. We have partnered with the Los Angeles Unitied School bistrict, which is the second-largest public school oystem in the U.S. after New Yorkt. fim pleased with the progress weve mase there, because ifs giving teachers a way to engage kids in music, which has a broad range of besatts. They get the instruments and access to Fender Pliaf far tree. Wo want to do everything poseble to encourage, engage. and create products for frat-time players, to make the experience more accessible to them. You can qet into the Fender brand for S100 to S260 through our Squier brand of entry-ievel instiuments, or free through the Fender Flay Foundation. As fotis become more combortable and adventurbut with the instrument we encoutage them to come up in price. Irom Squier to our Mevican-made guilars and utimaney to guilan made in the Corona tactary. And, if they can attord it to cur custom Mod Shop, whure you deolon your own model it tenda to be an evolving process. S-B: How has the pandemic's disuption to the physical retali iandscape mode you rethink the future of Fender 's direct-to-consumer [02C] ]-commerce business? athough i dont think theres a dealer out there that does not have a website. There are very different growsh rates in all three categories, and those qrowth rates have become even more probound among dealers during the pandemic. Some have adfusted realy wel. and others are strugqing. but everybody understands the necessity now. Naturaly, those with a preexisting online presence were able to stift more quichly and adapt to the new demand. Our onice beC business qrew nicely last year, and we see it as alnost an adunct to the rest of eur business. The average retailprice of an American-made Fender quitar is $1500 to $1.600. There is a lot of whiceling and 66 dealing as consumers try to find the best price. We never cut prices on our webaite and never compete with We want to do everything our dewler base an price. possible to encourage, engage, and create People come directly to us for quitars they cant find anywhere ebe in the e-commerce system. the a Auddy products for first-time Guy poka dot-emblazoned Stratscaster er a left-handed guitar, We also do a healthy DeC butiness with Mod Shop. our online quitar custorrization experience. even though Mod Shop is abso available to all of our desler players, to make the bact. And people buy a lot of accessories trom us - caps, T-uhine, fags - that are haved to find in dealees' experience more accessible to them." stores. The tocality of our business has gone from 50 percent online to about 70 percent, it was heading in that Grectian aryaay. it moy gain or lose a littie. but its not goieg to go back to 50 percent, for sure. S.B: Are you seeing any demand from customers for "greener" quiltars made from sustainably sourced or reclaimed woos? MOONEY: Everyehing we make from wood comen through sustainuble forestry. The big thing now, unfortunately, is the deutruction of American ash which is being rwaged by beeties. Weve had to righate to other wood forms, inclusing pine and alser. We stia have access to American ash. but iss becoming more and more difficult to acquire. For any compary in the woed business. which we kind of are. t think forest husbandy and ecvironental stewardahip is woven into the DNa. Weve done a heat of bings to get better utilization of trees that are felied. And were using woods that look moce aesthetically attractive, where you can see the grain for example, with mahogany wood, multiple guitar manulacturess 'ohare' diflierent parts of the tree for their instrumens. Specitically, tor our American Accuatanonic seriec. while other manufacturers seek to use the center portions of the tree. Fender's specifications ulilize the cuter sections of the tree. This way we colectively utilize more of the tree. 2/2021 Fender hits the right notes S+B: How, if at all, has elimate change affected your supply chain? MOONEY: I cant honestly say if the beetle infestation is a result of climate change or not. What I can say is that moving guitars around the world these days and ensuring they show up in the consumer's hand the way that they're supposed to, is a challenge, because youre getting climate-reated extremes. Its about temperature change from high to low or vice versa. As our acoustic quitar business grows, were building temperature-controlled areas in our warehouse to mitigate temperature change. We're adfusting our freighting of quitars, so they spend less time in transit and end up arriving in high quality. Spending a lot of time on an ocean container is not a particularly good thing for a guitar to do. S+B: As an iconic brand among demographically diverse consumers and musicians, how has Fender reacted to last year's social and racial protests and ongoing calls for reform, in terms of biring, advancement, and leadership development? MOoNEY: May 25 [ when George Floyd was hilled] was a big day. As an executive team, we paused to ask ourselves, "Are we doing enough, and are we doing it quickly enough? We decided that the answers were no and no. Since then, weve hired about 41 people, 81 percent of whom represent diversity. Paula Boggs has joined our board of directors as our first African-American female executive. We launched our first signature guitar with our first black female artist, H.E.R., a few months aga. We have doubled down on our commitment and accelerated a lot of the work that we had been doing. We have put in place the "Rooney Rule' [ the National Football League policy that requires teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head coaching jobs] It's very easy to create unconscious bias in the hiring process. so weve mandated that the process doesnt start untess there is a diverse roster of qualified candidates avalable. That takes a Ittle more time in some cases, but it's a good thing, because were seeing an expanding group of candidates in the process. One of the other interesting things thats going to happen when were looking to hire peopie now, particularly in a work-from-home environment, is that we dont have to just think about candidates in Los Angeles or Arizona. If we want to hire people from Atlanta, Chicago, or New York, it doesnt mattec. I characterize this as a positive, in the sense that it widens the pool. We can now absolutely get the very best. It ereates difforent chalenges with on-boarding and acculturation of people into the company. Well learn to adjust to that. S+B: Speaking of working from home, are you planning to reopen your offices anytime soon? MOoNEY: We have formally communicated to people that were not even considering reopening untilithe third quarter of 2021 . We have started to go through a process in which [ we identify] some people who do need to be in the office 100 percent of the time and some people who never need to be in the office. And then there are a whole bunch of people who are somewhere in between. I dont see us ever returning to the old ways of too percent of the people needing to be in the office 100 percent of the time. l also don' see a retum to travel, domestic or international, at the level conducted in the past. I mean, I havent been on a plane once since March, and business is doing just fine. S+B: What about Fender's production facilities in California and Mexico? MOONEY: Both factories are working five days a week, so were very happy about that. We have stringent coviD-related safety protocols in place and a lot of testing of employees is being done at all locations. Even here in Hollywood, Monday morning is testing day. You don't get in the office that week unless you test negative on Monday. Were in back orders, so were not really supplying demand right now. But, as I say, were going to have a record year, so were getting product out the dooc. And we could get even more out the dooc, based on consumer demand right now, if we increased production