In his first interview since being appointed Head of CE at Samsung Australia, Phil Gaut has shared his key messages to retailers and his goals for 2025.
Gaut was appointed as Head of Consumer Electronics at Samsung Australia on 1 April – and will be responsible for the TV and Home Appliance portfolios.
As a specialist executive in the IT and Display categories, Gaut has spent the last 12 years working for Samsung – six years in the UK and the last six years in Australia. Prior to joining Samsung, Gaut spent four years at Acer and seven years at Sony – including managing the company’s Vaio laptop business.
Four weeks into the new role and as the company prepares to launch its local TV, audio and home appliance showcase to the industry this week, Gaut says he is very keen to hit the ground running.
“I have the luxury of taking the role after being with Samsung for 12 years – so the company is not new to me. I have also had the benefit of working in some different markets, so I am able to bring a slightly different perspective to the role.
“We are entering a time when we are launching some amazing products and we need to remind retailers about our strengths as well as our hidden secrets.
“What really excites me is we are about to bring to market the best television I have seen in the last 10 years, and home appliances such as the 32-inch Family Hub refrigerator has amazing consumer applications.
“We have a phenomenal opportunity in front of us over the next 12-24 months, but I am not naïve to think that we haven’t got things to do.
“We have an amazing array of product to get into the marketplace and have it represented in the way it should be represented. When I look at where I want this business to be on 1 January 2026 – we need to have amazing ‘peak periods’ and all of the work we will do internally and with retailers over the coming months will work towards that as our core objective.”
Gaut has confirmed he is looking to recruit ‘characters’ that can be ‘positively-disruptive’ for two new roles in the company’s Home Appliance division.
“One of my key goals is building a team for the future,” Gaut said.
“This has been critical to my success previously in the display business that doubled in value from 22 per cent to 47 per cent market share over a six-year period. I didn’t do that by myself, I did it with an amazing team of people supporting me and being brilliant and doing their jobs. I don’t confess to know the answer of every challenge that the retailer or manufacturer faces – my job is to make sure that I surround myself with the best available talent.”
“I am very lucky to have people in my TV team like Simon Howe and Maxime Dupont. Our Home Appliance leadership needs to be a focus – we are currently recruiting for two major roles – the head of Home Appliance business and head of product for the Home Appliance business and getting the right characters into those roles is an important priority for me.”
“I am not going to rush and put people into roles that are not going to be successful. My job is to find a combination of two people who can bring that Home Appliance category to life. It is a category with amazing products and it needs a team that can shake the tree and make it exciting.”
“I like characters and people who are positively-disruptive as well as individuals with high energy and with a good understanding of the landscape to make that happen We are looking for a strong dynamic leader who is going to be positively challenging and bring some excitement to the category. The product management role is ideally someone who is well-disciplined and somebody who can understand all of the hidden secrets and get under the skin of the business and understand the detail of the category and bring that to the forefront of the market.”
“We have the potential to tell some rich stories in Home Appliances and therein lies an enormous opportunity.”