This Is What It Was Like Ringing the Bell
It’s not unusual to hear bells ringing this time of year. They remind us we are entering a season of celebration, joy, and gratitude. But the bell I had the honor of ringing yesterday – the NASDAQ market closing bell – sparked indescribable emotions for me.
The last time I was at the Nasdaq MarketSite Studio in Times Square was in May 2019 to celebrate Zebra’s 50th anniversary. At that time, Zebra had approximately 7,000 employees and a $14 billion market cap, which was a tremendous milestone considering Zebra’s humble beginnings.
Now, we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of Zebra’s initial public offering (IPO) as a $30 billion-dollar company with over 9,000 Zebras around the world! (For comparison, Zebra Nation had less than 200 employees when we went public in 1991.) Wall Street believes that Zebra’s prospects are brighter than ever post- pandemic as the trend supporting our business have accelerated.
To say we have progressed through a rather intense growth period would be an understatement. These past two years have been especially fast-paced, as we worked diligently to ensure your front-line teams have what they need to operate smarter and more efficiently. However, the people I have the pleasure of collaborating with every day have kept me grounded through it all. And I’m proud that, even as our vision and market reach have expanded, we have never strayed from our innovative roots, values-based culture and entrepreneurial spirit on which Ed Kaplan and Gary Kless built the company.
Our goal is to help you meet your goals. Every acquisition, new hire, and engineering decision we make is meant to ensure we have the right people and resources to solve your problems so you too can better serve your customers and reach bell-ringing milestones. We know that, together, we can do remarkable things for companies, communities, and citizens around the world.
Related Reads:
Anders Gustafsson
Anders Gustafsson became chief executive officer and a director of Zebra Technologies on September 4, 2007. Prior to joining Zebra, Mr. Gustafsson served as CEO of Spirent Communications plc, a publicly traded telecommunications company. At Spirent, Mr. Gustafsson redirected that company's growth strategy, divested non-core operations, integrated historic acquisitions and streamlined the organization to realize significant cost savings. Prior to Spirent, he was senior executive vice president, global business operations, of Tellabs, Inc. While at Tellabs, Mr. Gustafsson also served as president, Tellabs International, as well as president, global sales, and vice president and general manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Earlier in his career, he held executive positions with Motorola and Network Equipment Technologies. Mr. Gustafsson holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a master of science degree in electrical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was a Fulbright Scholar and received numerous fellowships and scholarships for academic excellence.
