While visiting some trend setting factories in Japan a while back one thing caught my attention. There was quietness and space, there were people, no robots and automation and certainly no stress. The management regarded their old experienced workers as their most valuable asset, not the latest technology or piece of kit. They would use the master craftsmen as a council of elders to advise on key decisions and their implementation. 

 

These master craftspeople mentored a group of young recruits, where all the creative initiative and daily management was done by young and eager highly educated workers. This synergy between creativity and experience gave them an edge through faultless implementation of any new ideas using the trouble free scaling of production. Coming to think of it further, this is age old wisdom. We see the same in the army and in any old craft. There are masters and apprentices that eventually supersede their masters by adding their own to the already accumulated knowledge. Any battle will be instigated by politicians, planned by generals but fought by the soldiers from whom the new generals will emerge. When forming the team at Thrax I have aimed at observing those guidelines. 

 

Our team has members with life long experience in the fields of electronics and acoustics but also being ardent audiophiles all the time. Their knowledge and experience extends to areas not covered in any current academic curriculum. The other part of the team are recently graduated young professionals driven by the passion for audio and educated to the latest trends and cutting edge technologies. The team has drive and creativity coming from young engineers with the error correction and wisdom of experience of the elders. A combination we see as unique in our field. This way no aspect is overlooked during product design as each team member has a different specialty that adds to the whole. Everyone sees the product from a different angle. Often a creator gets blinded in self delusion and this is where a team is needed to ground the flight of ones wishful imagination and reset its compass bearing. This is also the atmosphere where a seed idea quickly grows into a major technological advance. Even with all that experience in the team we know we don’t know everything. We do not pretend to do and we are not afraid to ask. Knowing who and what to ask is the key for success.