The head of a Wisconsin electronics firm remains upbeat at the industry annual trade show in Las Vegas. Michael Koss is President and CEO of Milwaukee-based stereophone maker, Koss Corporation. Koss says his company is well positioned to weather the economic downturn. "We're in a business that's kind of interesting, because it's a necessity," says Koss. "If you have a portable music player or MP3 player, for example . . . and your stereophones aren't working or you want to have better sound, you need a new pair. There's no speaker built into those."
Koss' company is now in its 50th year. He he says many firms apparently made last minute decisions to pull out of the Las Vegas show because of the flagging consumer economy, but he's fairly confident about the future. "What can happen in these times is when people keep talking about how bad things are, and actually start pulling back and don't have the proper mix of merchandise available for consumers to purchase," Koss says. "We've seen that happen before. I think that's part of the reason that you saw some downturn at some accounts during Christmas. In the electronics industry, if you're not out buying very expensive electronics, if you're looking at something more moderately priced, I think we're going to come through very well."