Bose

On the surface, Bose Limited is a good company with a great product that you can believe in. They have a strict high quality standard in store facilities, and their product. Bose is at heart a R&D company and manufacturer, and their foray into retail has been a challenging one.

The best parts of working for Bose are the company vision, products, and compensation. Dr Amarr Bose had a strong vision for his company, and created something great that is easy to buy into. Working for Bose you feel like part of this vision. The products are great, and innovative in many ways. Its fun to see whats new and they have a great way of making you excited about the new innovations. Plus you get to listen to music all day, how cool is that? 

Compensation with Bose is great. They pay very competitively, and have some great benefits and perks. In fact I would say some of the best I have ever seen in retail electronics. Even the part time staff get benefits, and access to all the perks. For a company that is not unionized, that's amazing.

Bose Limited is the Canadian administrative wing of Bose Corporation in the USA. However the corporate structure is confusing as there are many layers within the company. The Canadian retail stores are integrated into the American districts in a confusing pattern that makes management difficult. Most communication is prepared towards the american stores, and most strategies are specific to the american market.

Because of their american focus, just watch out for yourself if your Canadian as some practices might run contrary to your provincial or federal rights. It's not often, but it does happen, and they generally do not do it on purpose. Your Managers boss will be american as will all those they report to. This means the orders are not made attention to Canadian differences in mind.

If your Management, expect a very invasive job that will demand much of your life, and continue to expect more. It is expected you will work your daily 8.5 hour shifts, and extra frequently and not on a limited basis. A large part of this is the store structure in place. Unlike most retail chains, Bose has a major restriction on the number of people who have keys to open and close the store. This restriction is so abnormally tight in the industry that if anything happens outside the regular schedule, expect to be called into work. The restriction is so tight that there is no room on the schedule for any absence, and the simple act of filling a request for a few days off from a closer will require special permission from head office to grant a key to another individual temporary under severe restrictions. This will be your biggest source of disruption since many company policies will prevent you from taking any appropriate measures to insulate your business against this risk.

Finally I feel the company as a whole is struggling in Retail. While they are happy with some basic success thought north america, they are slow to adopt many systems that would be considered basic in most of the industry. Due to the size of the company, and its roots as a R&D manufacturing company, the company has created an obscene amount of layers of bureaucracy which constricts innovation, despite innovation being a key value within the company. From what I can tell their stores are profitable, but frequently under-preform compared to peers in their malls.

The retail segment of the company also lacks an overall strategy as can be seen by their fragmented roll-out plan in Canada. Stores are placed in areas only based on each markets individual projected opportunity, with little in the way of a higher level strategy that considers market footprint, local knowledge in habits and patters, inter store support, marketing support, and logistics. The primary strategy is place stores in markets seen as of high opportunity, and use infrequent but expensive national campaigns to support them. In most cases the marketing is a piggy back off american campaigns, and have limited to no effect in Canada. This is frustrating as it leaves the Canadian stores poorly supported.

Bose was a great place to work as they had a strong belief in excellent customer service and innovative products. My day to day tasks varied but we had a strong emphasis on hitting our KPI's and delivering the best customer service possible. 
In the six years that I worked for Bose, I learned more about building relationships with your customers and how it's important to do this to get repeat custom.
Management in Bose were very approachable at all levels and everyone regardless of role had a chance to voice their concerns in monthly town hall meetings.
The hardest part of my job was when we had to downsize our staff due to economic factors outside of our control, it's always difficult to let staff go when it is not performance related.
The most enjoyable part of my job is always people development. We had a low turnover of staff which gives me a lot of time to develop them and encourage them to develop themselves in the workplace. When I left, both the manager and assistant manager positions were filled by staff members that I had hired in lower positions in the company previously.

I started back in October 2022. I enjoyed the job but since January I have been feeling down due to the unsociable hours 18:00-02:00. They did ask if I wanted to change them to 14:00-22:00, but again since we are dealing with American customers/clients it were really much better. The company as a whole and the benefits that come with working here are great. The management is also brilliant as they do 1-1 sessions and actually want to guide you to succeed and hit targets. 

Excellent work life balance and a real sense of comraderie amongst staff members. Some out dated processes and overly convoluted methods creating an environment where sometimes things are done 'just because' as opposed to it being in the best interest of the customer or business.

I liked the working environment of the company, I had been assigned some duties and responsibility which made me more sincere to my work. Monthly review meeting with my superior, help me  to improve my skills and if any need to bring any innovation in my work, I always got the support from my mentors and heads

Bose was a really good way to be introduced into the technological field. Their products are considered outstanding and had taught me a lot while working for them. I mostly enjoyed talking to customers and being able to sell them these incredible and stylish products. Overall, one of the best jobs I have had the chance to work.

My experience at Bose corp. was so full of fun and learning. i have attended the most amount of product training in my entire retail experience in BOSE, but loved every second there. management is very young and energetic . hardest part was to go back home from work.

Very unprofessional work environment, this means sexism and mild racism are seen as OK in the workplace. Bose promotes long term employment and compensates their employees well, these are good reasons to stay.

Best place I've ever worked.  Management encouraged development, company is willing to invest.   There are opportunities to advance.  Pay & benefits  good.

Good place to work 
As long as you a good person you love it.
Treats others with respect 
Don’t be afraid to ask for help 
Be honest 
Be prepared to learn new skills 
Management are there to help you be the best you can be.

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