Logitech CEO's View of the Consumer Tech Landscape

Logitech CEO's View of the Consumer Tech Landscape

WSJ

Tue, September 22, 2026 at 4:58 PM GMT+3

• LOGI -1.11%

Hanneke Faber shares how her company has been affected by a combination of tariffs, inflation and the rising cost of microchips. She also gives a broad outlook on regional consumer tech markets and discusses how these factors play into Logitech's pricing and growth strategies.

0:00 spk_0

So we're kicking off the UN General Assembly. We're thinking big about the state of the world, where we are. You run a company that I think a lot of people here know. You make products that we use at work or at home, whether that's a keyboard, mouse, whatever that might be, gaming equipment.So you sell globally, you manufacture your products globally. How do you run a company in this moment when it feels like we're dealing with so much from wars to tariffs to trade tensions, everything else?

0:26 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, thanks, Chip. Thanks for having me, and yes, hopefully you all have our mouth. If you don't, come talk to me.How do we run a business these days? Um, Logic is quite special. Um, we are a Swiss company, but we have two headquarters, one in Switzerland, one in the Silicon Valley. We're listed both in Switzerland and on the NASDAQ, uh, and we manufacture in China, and China is also our number 2 market. So I, I, I feel like I have a pretty privileged view of the Americas, Europe, and Asia.Um, and how do we run it these days? I've been here almost 3 years now in this job. We've been dealt, um, a lot of body blows, um, between tariffs, um, wars, uh, and now chip shortages. So I think the key word is resilience, um, you know, how do you build resilience into the system?And at the same time stay focused on growth because there's so much opportunity at this time as well with AI and the way it changes the way we all work and play, which is what we focus on, um, so yeah, I would say that's the short of it.

1:35 spk_0

So wanting, wanting that resilience, wanting to sort of be ready to deal with anything, but like what have you done? Like what does that look like inside the company when you don't know sort of what's going to come around the corner that could upend how you operate?

1:46 spk_1

So I think the first thing.we make actual stuff, right? So resilience in our, in our supply chain is, is the foundation of it all. So when it was Liberation Day and the tariffs hit, um, about 40% of our products for the United States were coming out of China. Um, at that point we knew we had to change that fast, um, so we already were making a manufacturing in 5 other countries as well, um, so we call that China plus 5.And so in April we were 40% from China. By December we've been able to take that down to 10% from China. What are some other countries? Um, Mexico, uh, and then in Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Um, so we were able to move that around quite quickly. That is the foundation of our resilience to have that supply chain footprint that does not rely on any one country but it's really spread.Um, and then the portfolio as a whole is another way to be resilient. So we have about 1/3 of the business in the Americas, 1/3 in Europe, and 1/3 in Asia. So you know, whatever happens, that kind of insulates you.Um, and then what we sell, so we focus on work and play. Now here, you know, some people with AI are saying none of us will be working anymore, um, in 3 years.

3:08 spk_0

Do you believe that?

3:09 spk_1

I don't know that that's true, but if that is true, what will we all be doing? We will be gaming.

3:16 spk_0

So this is good for you no

3:17 spk_1

matter

3:17 spk_0

what.

3:18 spk_1

So the portfolio in a way is also resilient.

3:22 spk_0

This isgreat. And so, but when you think ahead about what's coming, what are you telling your team to prepare for? I mean, we have elections here in the US in November, plenty of uncertainties, you know, it's sort of, of where, what, what those supply chains look like and everything else too. What are, what's your guidance to the team at this moment?

3:39 spk_1

I, I want us to stay focused on growth, and that means being really close to our users, which are both, um, B2B users, um, and end users, you know, people like all of us who work and who game.What do they need going forward, and there's exciting things coming coming that that will help us grow. The fact that we are all working from everywhere these days is great for us versus just in an office. When you're working in an office at home and in planes, trains, and automobiles, you know, you need 345 mice. This is good for us.You need video conferencing. We're the global leader in video conferencing. Only 20% of global video conferencing or global meeting rooms have video conferencing, which is crazy. We all expect to have video conferencing everywhere, um, so there's such opportunities for growth on the work side because of the way things are changing.And then there's opportunities on the what we call play side as well. Um, if you've heard of GTA 6, it is coming, um, and that's, you know, a huge opportunity for the whole gaming ecosystem to grow. Yeah.

4:46 spk_0

And so when you look out there, like you have a great sense of sort of how companies are feeling, how consumers feel. What does your data tell you about sort of the strength of the economy, what looks worrying, what's strong, like, you know, globally, how does, like, where, where are the sort of.strength and weakness. Yeah,

5:02 spk_1

I would say certainly the US continues to be remarkably resilient, um, from a consumer point of view, um, and of course gaming is more of a want than a need, so it's also up to us to make you want our stuff, but the business has been very good here. um, EMA, so Europe and the Middle East, a little more subdued at the moment, uh, because of the war.Um, but not bad, um, and China a little more subdued, but it's the world's biggest gaming market by far. It's had tremendous growth in the past few years, and I don't think it's going to continue to grow. I mean, it's been growing at like 20% plus. I don't think those numbers will stay, but it will continue to have solid growth, uh, from what, what we see. And then businesses, about 40% of our business is B2B.Businesses have just had great earnings, so it's been pretty easy for them to invest in the kind of products we sell.

6:04 spk_0

And if the conflict in the Middle East continues, does that make you change anything? Does that, does that concern you about the holidays? Does it concern you about sort of next year if we, if, you know, if this, if this sort of state of things just remains as it is rightnow?

6:15 spk_1

Yeah, no, of course it, it concerns me on many levels. First of all, the humanitarian cost of all.Of this, but from a business point of view again it comes back to resilience. People still, even in wars, and we've seen that in the Ukraine actually the last few years, people still need to work and they still want to gain. So for our business we still want to be able to serve these markets and we've made some changes in our supply chain to, of course you know with the strait being closed, where we take products from, how we move them around anemia.Um, and we'll continue to be agile there.

6:51 spk_0

Yeah, yeah. Is there an example of that of like how you've, how you shift around?

6:55 spk_1

Yeah,so we, uh, we, our biggest distribution center for EI actually was in, is in Dubai, um, but right, and that that was serving even parts of Eastern Europe, uh, and parts of Africa, and we've, we've changed that, and now our distribution centers in Holland and even in China serve part of those regions because it just is not very practical at the moment to have that go through Dubai, yeah,

7:18 spk_0

yeah.So you mentioned AI, you mentioned the jobs apocalypse. Obviously there's been a much bigger concerns about just what AI does to humanity, you know, going forward. I wonder what do you make of, of some of those concerns that we've heard from the Frontier Labs in the past few weeks, and does it change at all how you approach AI internally, how you think about baking it into your products, whatever that might be?

7:39 spk_1

Yeah.Definitely, um, so I would say there's, there's the product angle to that and there's the kind of responsibility angle to that. From a product point of view, it is critical that people feel in control of the AI that they're using, so simple things like.Shutters to close your video conferencing open and close so you know whether it's listening or not. Lights that are on. I just saw on the news this morning that a couple of European countries want to outlaw the meta glasses because it's not clear enough whether they're actually taping you or not.So that sense of control we really try and design into every product and that's that will be even more critical in the age of AI um and then responsibility for us as a company, um, you know, 2 years ago we published online our responsible AI principles that are out there for everyone to see privacy, security, accountability, fairness with the details of how we leverage that in our products.Um, I think that's missing honestly, um, uh, of many of the companies out there messing with AI, um, so we, we, we, we've been there for a while and we use those principles. We have a weekly meeting with our, um, head of legal and our head of software engineering.Where all new AI products go through and we check, you know, are we true to our own responsible AI principles? Um, again, the industry's got a long ways to go here.

9:12 spk_0

Do youthink it changes? Do you think it changes employees' willingness, for example, to use these tools?Or for consumers to use them if they think, oh, there's actually big existential risks out there where this technology goes.

9:24 spk_1

Yes, for sure. So I'd say we see it less in our employees because we, I think we've done a good job at first of all sayingFor us at Logitech, this is not something where we just want to get rid of 20% of people. What we're trying to do is grow faster with the people we have because we now all have access to AI. So that's been the approach from the beginning and people trust us that that's what we're doing and that's what we are doing so.I, I haven't seen a big change there, but in consumers certainly even 6 months ago it was really cool to call a product like an AI camera. That was cool. People wanted to buy it. Today, um, not so much.

10:06 spk_0

You see that in your data or you see that in sort of data

10:08 spk_1

and also in qualitative um consumer research that we're doing.

10:12 spk_0

And so what about too just the way that I mean we've we've heard so much about people not even typing anymore, speaking into their devices and that sort of thing, does that change how you

10:20 spk_1

build? Yeah, so we actually love that. So that is a real change. Well, actually on a personal level, I don't love it, like my husband's a big voice user.It's so annoying, but anyway, yeah,

10:34 spk_0

um, you're just doing speak to textile. God, yeah,

10:36 spk_1

nightmare.Um, but it is an additional modality for work and that's a good thing. So you know, we, I, I think of Logitech as kind of the eyes, the ears, and the hands of AI, um, you know, we do cameras, we do audio, we do, we do keyboards, we do mice, but voice is another way that we can help you. So we're the market leader in microphones. We're very big in headsets, um, and we just launched.For example, last week, an MX keypad, which is an AI control center for coders, um, that you can also speak to, so it just adds another modality which is good and it adds new products and creativity, and some people go crazy with voice, so because we watch coders all the time, um, and of course, yes, they're coding with microphones, they're coding with headsets, um, they're speaking to their code, but some because they want to go so fast, some are using gaming pedals.To code now with voice, so that was new to us, but hey, we're a market leader in that too.

11:39 spk_0

So, but given, you know, given that you are in Silicon Valley, you have a great sense of sort of how these other companies are sort of thinking about all this. What would you like to see the Frontier Labs do? What would you like to see the US government do when it comes to regulating AI, if at all? Like how should, what do you think is sort of the responsible way to proceed there?

11:56 spk_1

Yeah, I, you know, I, I, I'm not gonna advise the US government necessarily, but I think for each company to decide for yourself what is a responsible use of this awesome new technology is really critical and to be public about that and to be using it. So that's what we try to do at Logitech, and I'm sure there's other companies that are doing it, but I'd love to see even more of it.

12:21 spk_0

So you know, the UN has sort of outlined its big risks, and of course AI is one of them. Deepening inequality is another, but also climate change, and, and I, and I sort of wonder when you think about climate change, I mean how does that affect your business? How do you think about sort of whether to stick to your climate goals or not? Like what is sort of the state, I mean, how much is it even talked about within Logitech now?

12:43 spk_1

Yeah.So yes, we still talk about it, um, so we just celebrated, well, actually next week is the actual date we celebrated our 45th anniversary which for tech companies ancient, um, so the average I think they last is 5 years, so.Um, and sustainability has been important for us from the start, and I want this company to have another 45 years at least, so that means sustainability is critical for us going forward as well, and that's not charity. I, I just wanna be super clear on that. We're not just doing that because it's the right thing for people on the planet, of course it is, but it's.Good for the business. So why is it good for the business? Because our B2B customers have their own climate goals. So we're their scope 3. So if we want to win an RFP in every RFP of a B2B customer, there is CO2 impact that you have to fill out. When we do better, we win that RFP. That's one.Second, Gen Z consumers, all else being equal, they don't wanna pay for it, but all else being equal, they'll pick the product that's more sustainable, so we take advantage of that. And finally, sustainability is often a cost saving. So plastic for us is a big focus area reducing virgin plastic. Um, when you lightweight a product or you go from paper, from plastic to paper.It's almost always a cost saving. So these are good things for the business. That's why we do it. That's why it's sustainable to do sustainability and to move towards our ambitious targets.

14:15 spk_0

And have you done that? Have you gone from plastic to paper? Oh what does that look like?

14:18 spk_1

Yeah, on every mouse, and we do millions of mice every month

14:22 spk_0

in the packaging or

14:23 spk_1

in the packaging, yeah, and people said it couldn't be done because, you know.You're at Walmart, you've got to see the mouse through the plastic. Well, we've done it, and it's actually, you know, last quarter mice again were up 12%, so I see it,

14:35 spk_0

yeah, but I feel like so many companies, a couple of years, you know, a couple of years ago announced big goals for 2030 climate and, and, you know, their, their, you know, efforts to reduce emissions and all that, and we've just seen them either walk that back, stop talking about it, whatever it might be, um, yeah, what do you make of that?

14:50 spk_1

Yeah, so we, this, this precedes me. So in the early 2020s, Logitech also put up big goals 50% CO2 reduction by 2030, uh, Scope 12, and 3, which is hard to do. Um, I think it's super important that we stick to it. We have stuck to it. We report every year, and I'm proud of our teams. We've actually made progress. So Scope One and Two, we're almost at -50%, and scope three, we're at -30%, which is kind of unique.And it's, it's doing what, you know, I just said, uh, was one example of it, but, um, but we're very clear on the things we need to do to get to -50 while we grow, by the way, which makes it harder.But it's one renewable energy, uh, especially with our suppliers, 2, designing every product for sustainability, with a lower carbon footprint than what came before. And 3rd, innovating because we still don't have all the answers. So you got to come up with new ideas too.

15:49 spk_0

What's the next sort ofBig holy grail that you're trying to solve to sort of reduce these emissions even more to deal with this. I mean, is there, do you, can you design a product with no plastic in it whatsoever? Like what is that? What is for

16:00 spk_1

sure, for sure. So right now we are scaling, scaling all the good ideas across our portfolio is probably the biggest idea because again we put out a lot of product.But um recycled plastic certainly is a big deal right now, so we're at 80% of our products that are made with recycled plastic, which is huge, um, you know, if you look at big other plastic users and consumer goods, Procter and Gamble, Unilever, those kinds of companies, they're at 20% and they're pretty proud. So we're at 80%. That makes a huge difference in our carbon footprint.And what I love as well is today at a time where virgin oil is obviously at really high prices, virgin plastic is also at very high prices. Now using 80% recycled plastic actually again is a big competitive advantage because those prices haven't gone up like the prices of virgin.So this is resilience, by the way as well. So this is where it all comes together. So sustainability is not charity, um, it's actually good for business.

17:06 spk_0

So that's actually a good segue. You mentioned two of your former employers, Procter and Gamble and Unilever. You have a background in beauty of working at big consumer products companies. When you take this job leading a tech company, what do you bring from that world into how you manage, into how you think about products and just doing this job?

17:25 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, sometimes I do have to like pinch myself. I'm like, 03 years ago I was selling ice cream.Uh, a Unilever, so it, it is very different, but then again it's also, there's also a lot of similarities, you know, in the end you got to be really close to your consumer, your user. How is he or she liking that gaming wheel or that video conferencing piece of equipment.Um, so that consumer closeness is important everywhere, um, and then you gotta look at where the growth is, build a strategy, motivate your people, and do that globally. And again, PNG and Unilever, I'm super grateful to my times there. They were also very global companies like this one,

18:06 spk_0

that consumer closeness, like what did those companies do to understand how consumers are.Their products and then how does that change sort of how you do them now within

18:13 spk_1

Logitech? Yeah, so it's part quantitative, part qualitative. I think the qualitative piece at Logitech was new, like at a Procter and Gamble you're very used to go do in-home visits. So you go in India and you go look how people wash their hair. It's always fun, or how they cook their food.Um, that was not something we were doing at Logitech, so that's been kind of an eye opener to people. I like going into people's homes and see how they work, work from home, or, you know, or how they're gaming.

18:42 spk_0

Do they know that the CEO has arrived and now wants to watch how they game, or yeah,

18:46 spk_1

no, um, but we, we, I, you know, wherever I travel, I, I, I, I do that with the team, and you just, you notice other things from hearing people talk about it, so.That's something that I brought, but then there's a whole quantitative part of it, and that's where AI actually brings a lot of speed to us. So we, and this, this precedes me, but we're always very close in our product development to, uh, users. So we give them first prototypes, they use it, we videotape that comes back, and then we, we improve based on that.With AI, um, that goes much faster now, you know, you can really assess 30 consumers in almost no time, um, and, and make the next prototype. So our, our, our, our pace of, um, launching has really sped up.

19:36 spk_0

Interesting. Um, I wanna go to the audience and see if there's any questions for Hanukkah. Obviously got many more of my own, but would love to give anybody in the chance in the room the chance to ask a question. We have mic runners, um, yeah, let's go right here up in the front if we could.Uh, and if you don't mind introducing yourself and just your name and title.

19:52 spk_2

Sure, thank you, Matthew Cotey, uh, Chair of mergers and acquisitions, Fox Rothschild. Do you see yourself moving in the defense space at all at the intersection of gaming and, and dro uh drones and, and kind of branching out into that technology?

20:08 spk_1

It's a great question. Probably not right at this point in terms of actual products for combat. We don't design those today and we don't have any plans to do that. We do find some of our products actually being used drone controllers and stuff, but they're not necessarily designed for that.I do see a bigger business opportunity in um what we call B2B verticals um we are very small in government in general that just hasn't been a focus for us in the past we are focused now on government education and health care as a growth space and departments.Of defense actually are an increasingly growing vertical for us because obviously there's a lot of money there but not with products for combat just you know they also need video conferencing and mice and keyboards and the normal stuff so I would say that's where the immediate opportunity is but certainly you know a little sadly so but there's a lot of money in defense at the moment.

21:07 spk_0

We put another question right here up front.

21:16 spk_3

Hi, thank you very much, uh, Derek, director of sustainability from Teleflex. Um, I'm curious your thoughts on the evolving sustainability regulations globally and, and how that's changing or not changing your approach to sustainability, reporting, uh, product requirements, EPR, etc.

21:34 spk_1

Yeah, um, I, I.Obviously we're we're really close to new rules and regulations around the world, um, some loosening, some tightening, so you know Europe still is adding, for example, new battery legislation which changes a little bit in our product development.But I would say in terms of reporting we're going to just stay the course. I think it's very important when you have these ambitious targets out there like we do that on an annual basis you report against those targets, otherwise they stay something in the very far away future. So we put out an annual non.Matters report that's pretty detailed on our carbon reductions but also some of the other sustainability goals that we have and part of our compensation is linked to the carbon reductions so that provides an additional motivation for our people to deliver on those.Great.

22:33 spk_0

I think I saw a few other hands, other, other questions.Well, I have one of my own. I, I don't, I don't see others at the moment. Um, when you think about sort of just pricing right now and thinking about sort of how to deal with this, given, given that there are these complexities that we've talked about, consumers are kind of all over the place, obviously we've talked about, about that. How do you, how do you think about sort of just how to price your products and sort of whether consumers are willing, and businesses are willing to sort of pay?

22:59 spk_1

Yeah,no, so.At Logitech we have a really high innovation pace, so we launch about 40 new products a year, and that is our main way to grow ASP's average consumer price, because new products we launch at a premium price because they have premium performance, otherwise I wouldn't be launching them.So that ongoing is the way to do it. Like the newest gaming mouse, the Super Strike. If you're a gamer and you don't have a Super Strike a little plug, you must haveone.

23:28 spk_0

How much does that cost? How much is a Super Strike? What is that? Like how

23:30 spk_1

much? So that's $180 which you know your average gaming mouse, ours is probably about $60 so.That's a massive premium, but for a massively better performance. It broke the clicking speed. Guinness World Record. It's amazing. Um, yeah, oh, totally, yeah, um, anyway, so that's, that's the way we usually, um, increase our ASPs, and it's an important part of our growth.Now, um, certainly in the last couple of years with tariffs and with commodity price inflation and with the price of chips, um, we've, we've decided two times that we also needed to take a more, you know, across the board price increase, so we increased prices in the United States across our portfolio.Um, in, you know, uh, when was Liberation Day 25, right? Yeah, time flies. So in 2025, the combination of all those factors made us take a price increase in the United States and then more recently globally on our video conferencing equipment which depends on memory chips.We've taken a price increase this May because the memory chip shortages are real, and we can still get enough, but they have gone up in price alot.

24:49 spk_0

Do you see those changing at all, the chip shortage? Does that look any better going forwardor

24:53 spk_1

no? No, I've spent my summer begging, borrowing, and stealing chips, not stealing.So I don't want to stealbegging and borrowing.

25:01 spk_0

You're sending emails. What does that look like in your role? Like you're traveling

25:04 spk_1

in Asia and finding chips and in Switzerland actually, where some of our chip suppliers are too. So, um, so it's, it's, it's a real thing, this, you know, AI is eating my chips. It's absolutely real.And almost every single one of our products depends on some sort of chip, so that's, that's been a challenge for the business.

25:27 spk_0

How

25:27 spk_1

long

25:27 spk_0

do you think that lasts?

25:31 spk_1

I don't have a crystal ball, but I, I don't see it getting a lot better for another kind of 12 to 18 months.yeah,

25:39 spk_0

so I guess in this our final moments together when you think about what's ahead and how you prepare for this, um, if there, the election here in the US in November, if there is a change of control in, in the Senate, House, whatever that looks like, does that change how you run the business and does it change sort of how you think about what's ahead?

26:01 spk_1

Probably not, you know, we're not politicians. We, we sell mice and keyboards, which, and I, and again, you know, kind of whatever happens, people need to work and people need to game. What we're trying to do is help them to be a bit more productive when they work, help them perform better when they play, and do all of that in ways that are better for people on the planet, and that doesn't depend necessarily on.Who controls the House and the Senate,

26:28 spk_0

right, right. And, and what's your outlook then for like just what next, what the sort of next 12 months looks like just economically and everything else too.

26:36 spk_1

Yeah, I mean, I, I certainly hope that the resilience that we're seeing really with consumers around the world stays, and it certainly would help if this war in the Middle East concluded in for that to stay, um, but again, the consumer has been remarkably resilient. Some businesses have had pretty good earnings, so if that continues, I'm optimistic.