Founded on care - Oticon

<strong>Founded</strong>
on care
– Oticon through 100 years

WILLIAM DEMANT

<strong>Founded</strong> on care
– Oticon through 100 years

INDEX
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1
<strong>Founded</strong> on care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 – 17
Chapter 2
Oticon is born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 – 29
Chapter 3
The “Gang of Four” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 – 41
Chapter 4
The modern Oticon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 – 53
Chapter 5
Research that matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 – 59
Chapter 6
A century of hearing loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 – 71
Chapter 7
William Demant – the man
and the foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 – 75
Notes on William Demant’s family tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 – 77
Timeline 1800-2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 – 81
Bibliography, photo credits and illustration sources . . . . . . . . . 82 – 83

<strong>Founded</strong> on care
– Oticon through 100 years
is published by the Oticon
Foundation in celebration
of the company’s 100th
anniversary. 1904-2004.
Oticon A/S
Strandvejen 58
2900 Hellerup
Tel. +45 39 17 71 00
Printed by Bording A/S

PREFACE
This Centenary publication is a tribute to Oticon – the oldest hearing aid manufacturer
in the world.
When Hans Jørgen Frederik Demant founded the company in the early 1900s, he was
spurred on by a heartfelt desire to help his wife, who was seriously disadvantaged by
her hearing loss. His quest to find a solution resulted in the purchase of a hearing aid
identical to that used by the Danish-born, British Queen Alexandra at her coronation in
1902. This instrument was so useful that the Demant family decided to import more,
and so their mission to help other hearing-impaired people began. On 8 June 1904 Hans
Demant signed an agreement to become Denmark’s sole agent for American-produced
General Acoustic instruments and, as they say, “the rest is history” – 100 years of it!
Oticon was founded on the principle of helping hearing-impaired people to improve
their quality of life. A visit to Oticon’s headquarters in Hellerup, near Copenhagen, will
quickly confirm that the mission remains unchanged: To help people live the life they
want with the hearing they have. At a recent internal seminar a number of employees
were asked to describe why they enjoyed working at Oticon. One engineer replied: “I’m
not here for the money, but for the professional challenges and the fact that this is an
informal organization where people can plan and manage their own working day.” After
a short pause for thought, he added: “I also think that our products actually help to
solve people’s problems, which is a good thing.”
This Centenary publication is primarily about people: those who have managed the
company, those who have worked there and, most especially, those with hearing loss.
Oticon’s first 100 years have been characterized by an entrepreneurial spirit combined
with great stability – a combination that has made it one of Denmark’s most successful
international companies. During this time the company’s most important personality
was William Demant, who worked for Oticon for 75 years.
Oticon has enjoyed considerable recognition over the years – the latest accolade being
the “European Company of the Year” award. The company has also undergone a sensible
consolidation, establishing an even firmer foundation for the future.
The Oticon Foundation wishes to offer its congratulations to Oticon, its management
and its employees on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.
On behalf of the Oticon Foundation
Knud Sørensen
Chairman of the Board

Chapter 1
Oticon’s founder
Hans Jørgen Frederik Demant and wife Camillia Louise.

<strong>Founded</strong> on care
In the 1850s, Denmark was evolving at
lightening speed. Trade, commerce and
industry were booming, and the cities were
a powerful magnet for the many people
living in rural areas. One of the people
setting out for the opportunities of the city
was Hans Stefan Anton Ludvig Demant, a
man who would go on to create the foundation
for one of Denmark’s greatest commercial
successes: Oticon.
Most people know Odense as the birthplace of
Hans Christian Andersen, but the city was also
home to Oticon, the company that was to
become one of the leading hearing aid manufacturers
in the world.
Tower clocks and sewing machines
Hans Stefan Demant was born in 1828 and
lived in the same era as the father of fairytales,
Hans Christian Andersen. At the age
of 16, Demant became a watchmaker’s
apprentice. By the time war broke out in
1848, he was fully qualified in his trade.
As a soldier, he earned an extra shilling or
two repairing friends’ watches, so by the
time he returned home he had money in
his pocket. In 1854, even though times
were hard, Demant was able to open his
own watch-making business in Odense.
Good advice was expensive, but good
ideas were free – and Demant had plenty.
He began manufacturing sewing machines,
and despite fierce competition from the
strong American brand, Singer, business
went well. Demant made virtually all of
the components for the sewing machines
in his own iron foundry, and his factory
employed carpenters, painters and unskilled
labourers. By 1870, he began exporting
products and four years later, the
factory had 50 employees and a 4-horsepower
steam engine as its main source of
energy. In a few short years, Hans Stefan
Demant had become a wealthy man.
Time for two wheels
In 1882, Demant produced 1,400 sewing
machines per year, but a recession and
increasing competition from Singer forced
him to become more innovative. Demant
now saw his future in bicycles. Horses and
carriages were experiencing increasingly
cramped conditions in the rapidly growing
cities and bicycles became the new mode
of transport. Demant began manufacturing
“velocipedes” and “bicycles”. With a large
front wheel and pedals connected directly
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
The Oticon adventure
began with the manufacture
and sale of bicycles
and sewing machines.
Denmark’s first hearing
aid was probably sold
from this shop in
Kongensgade 57 in
Odense.
to the wheel, they were noisy and rather
shaky over the cobblestones, but nevertheless
another success for Demant.
Hans Stefan Demant passed away in 1897.
Since he was without an heir, his nephew
Hans Jørgen Frederik Demant took over
the business. Three years prior to his
death, Demant had established a family
foundation, and since Hans Jørgen was
already working for his maternal uncle, he
was familiar with both the production and
the business itself.
9

10
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Chapter 1
Hans Jørgen Demant helps his wife
Hans Jørgen Demant was born in 1854. He
married Camilla Louise, and the couple
had five children and were very well
respected in their community. After his
maternal uncle’s death, the production
of sewing machines and bicycles continued
unchanged under the brand name
H. Demant.
At the age of 42, Camilla Louise Demant
began to experience hearing difficulties,
which at that time was tantamount to a
life in isolation. Despite several consultations
with leading doctors in Vienna and
Berlin, no useful solution was found. But
a royal coronation in 1902 put Hans
Demant on the trail of new opportunities.
One of the first Danes ever to wear a
Hans Stefan
Demant’s employees
in 1890.
The Demants with their
five children in 1902.
William Demant (far left)
took over the company
after his father’s death.
The two eldest sons (at
the top of the photo)
both emigrated to the
USA.
hearing aid was King Christian IX’s
daughter – England’s Crown Princess
Alexandra. As she approached her coronation
in 1902, a young American by the
name of Miller Reese Hutchinson was
summoned to the English court. In the
late 1890s, Hutchinson had achieved success
with the world’s first electric hearing
aid, called the Akoulallion, and he now
offered the Crown Princess a chance to try
his company’s latest invention. The trial
was a success, and Alexandra heard the
bishop quite clearly during the coronation
ceremony.
“My father had heard about this instrument
from a friend in England, so he went
to London to buy one for my mother, who
suffered from hearing loss,” recalls Hans’s
son, William Demant, who later became
President of Oticon. The hearing aid he
brought home gave Camilla Demant an
opportunity to move out of her isolation.
“The ears thrive on sound…”
Camilla Demant and the English Queen

Queen Alexandra had inherited the disease known as otosclerosis from her mother. But thanks to
a hearing aid, she could clearly hear what the bishop said at her coronation ceremony in 1902.
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
11

12
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Chapter 1
In the past, there were many theories on
the causes of hearing loss. One of these
was that the ear lacked the exercise it
should have received through sound.
The Massacon was designed to provide
a “sonic massage” three times a day for
between two and five minutes at a time.
The ear trumpet was the
most common instrument
prior to the advent of
electric instruments in
the beginning of the 19th
century.
Alexandra were just two of many hearingimpaired
Danes for whom life was not
easy. In the 1800s, people with hearing
loss were often ignored and considered
slow-minded.
Hearing loss was no less common in the
1800s than it is now. But at the turn of the
century, society had become more aware
of hearing loss and the countless theories
as to its causes. Some specialists were of
the opinion that it was caused by a dysfunction
in the middle ear or a thickening
of the eardrum, which prevented sound
from penetrating the real hearing organ
– the inner ear. Doctor H.E. Cook from the
Ear Department at Cornell University in
the USA described hearing loss as follows:
“The ears thrive on sound, just as
the muscles thrive on movement and the
body on food. Deprive the muscles of
movement, and they will perish. The
same goes for the ears.”
This assertion was rather typical of the
age and described what was characterized
as “Catarrhal Ear Disease”. Treatment for
this involved using an instrument that
massaged the inner ear – called a Massacon
– three times a day for two to five minutes.
The Massacon was a battery-driven earpiece
that sent vibrations into the ear.
Assistive devices for the hard-of-hearing
were few and far between, and people
tried all sorts of methods. The Massacon
instrument is just one example, and it had
no effect whatsoever. But compared to
other countries, conditions in Denmark
were relatively good. In 1806, Denmark
became the first country in the world to
start a school for children with hearing
loss. A year later, the first tentative steps
were taken to introduce a type of hearing
service with the establishment of the
Royal Institute for the Deaf & Dumb,
which faced a huge challenge when all
teaching had to be performed in sign language.
Denmark also passed a law for the
education of deaf children. In 1866, The
Danish Association for the Deaf was born
purely by chance. A hearing-impaired

Norwegian had lost his job in Copenhagen
and wanted to return to Norway. When a
group of hearing-impaired people, who
were gathered at a restaurant, learned of
his plight, they immediately began a collection.
The Norwegian got his ticket home,
and the group decided to invest the remaining
money in founding a proper
organization for the deaf.
Bug-proof ear trumpets
The earliest chronicles of non-electric
hearing aids date way back to 1650.
However, it was not until 1800 that the
first mass-produced hearing aids were
launched in London – albeit non-electric.
Manufacturers went to great pains to camouflage
these instruments. Ear trumpets
built into vases, walking sticks and even
hair bands were not an uncommon sight.
Some ear trumpets were equipped with a
small wire grid – a feature designed to prevent
insects flying into the user’s ear canal.
Enter Alexander Graham Bell
One of the first attempts at designing electric
hearing aids was made in 1876 when
Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell invented
an instrument designed to improve
his wife’s hearing. He invented it at about
the same time as he invented the telephone.
In 1898, an American company called
Akouphone Co. introduced the first commercial
electric hearing aid – the one that
Queen Alexandra used in 1902 at the coronation.
Called the “Akoulallion”, it cost
400 US dollars.
Akouphone Co. later became the General
Acoustic Co. Their Acousticon instruments
marked the beginning of the transition to
commercial electric hearing aids. In the
period 1902-1928, Americans refined these
instruments, producing models for different
needs and budgets. For mild to moderate
hearing loss the price was 40 dollars. For
more severe hearing loss, they developed a
stationary tabletop model for 100 dollars.
The first instruments had large microphones
– because the larger the microphone,
the stronger the sound would be.
Demant becomes Danish agent
The news that Camilla Demant had begun
to hear better with the aid of an electric
hearing aid spread fast. Hans Jørgen
Demant was soon contacted by a number
of potential customers, asking whether he
could bring more instruments to Denmark.
Demant soon realized that there was a
bright future in being the Danish agent for
these new devices. At that time, he had no
plans to produce his own hearing aids.
Demant sent a telegram to General
Acoustic in New York, and the contract
making him the sole agent was signed on 8
June 1904. Demant began selling the
instruments from his home the following
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
spring. The following year, he began placing
American-style advertisements in the
newspapers. Electric hearing aids were
completely new to Denmark, and Hans
Jørgen Demant was aware that he had to
advertise in order to generate sales.
In the beginning of 1904, Hans Jørgen
Demant entered the sale of his very first
instrument in Denmark into his accounting
book. It cost 195 Danish kroner – or
about half the price of the tickets to New
York purchased by American-dream-seeking
Danish emigrants. That year, Hans
Demant became a wealthy man, with an
annual income of 1,800 kroner and a private
fortune of 39,500 kroner.
On 30 April 1907, Demant entered a new
agreement making his company the absolute
sole agent for the General Acoustic
Co. As part of the agreement, he made a
commitment to open new shops in Denmark,
Norway and Sweden.
The year after he became the agent for Acousticon, Hans Demant began his own marketing
campaigns, using American-style adverts. This particular advert for electric hearing aids may
well be the first of its kind in Denmark. It was printed in the Odense Weekly Review on 27
January 1905. In this ad, both “Acousticon” and “Massacon”are spelled incorrectly – an
error that was corrected the following week.
13

14
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Chapter 1
Both William and Jørgen Demant were studying at the Copenhagen Dental College when their father, Hans, died in
1910. The brothers decided to try to sell his surplus stock of hearing aids and this proved easier than anticipated.
They placed adverts in local newspapers and then made sales from hotels. Business went so well that William and
his mother decided to continue, while Jørgen completed his education as a dentist.
In his father’s footsteps
Within a few years, what had begun as a
small sideline became Demant’s primary
activity. On 4 April 1910, Hans Jørgen
Demant passed away after a long struggle
with diabetes. After the funeral, his widow
Camilla Louise and his son William took
over the helm of the company.
“After father’s death I sent a telegram to
America, asking whether I could take over
father’s agency. The answer was “Yes”,
and eight days later, I was on my way to
New York. In 1911, we became the representative
for the whole of Scandinavia,
opening offices in Oslo and Malmö. In
1913, I became the sole agent for Finland
and Russia, where we set up offices in
Helsinki and St. Petersburg respectively,”
writes William Demant in his memoirs.
Brothers in success
William and his brother Hans Jørgen went
on many business trips, making sales from
hotels. Prior to their trips, the Demant
brothers advertised their products in local
newspapers.
Many hearing aids were ordered from
New York, which William was able to sell
easily, but then came World War I. While
the Great War raged from 1914-18, neutral
little Denmark began to feel the consequences.
During the first few days of the
war, panic ensued at the Copenhagen
Stock Exchange, and this was closely followed
by escalating prices and a breakdown
in supplies. Demant’s offices in St.
Petersburg and Helsinki had to close. But
William continued to focus on building an
international distribution network for his
neighbouring markets, and he diversified,
investing in the sale of hearing aid systems
for churches.
Battle of the churches
By 1907, Hans Jørgen Demant had developed
the market for Acousticon church
hearing aid systems, and William continued
to sell to this market despite hard
times.
Demant had many a conversation with
priests and churchwardens who were not
always open-minded to his proposals. For
example, the vicar at Sankt Johannes
Church in Århus refused to acknowledge
that any hard-of-hearing people existed in
his parish. Demant’s determination to sell
church hearing aids finally bore fruit, and
by 1923, Acousticon instruments had

F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Founder of Carlsberg, brewer Carl Jacobsen commissioned
the building of the Church of Jesus in
Copenhagen. In 1907, the church purchased a
hearing aid system – an Acousticon Model BB,
which featured a double microphone and four
earpieces.
15

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F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Chapter 1
“The Acousticon consists of three different parts connected by a flexible
cord. 1: The earpiece, which is held to the ear. 2: The sound receiver, which
can be attached to the clothes. And 3: The battery which – once connected
to each end of the cord – can be hidden in a pocket or under a bodice.”
This description in the Acousticon User Guide revealed a fairly large
instrument that had to be worn both in the ear and on the body itself.
In the beginning of the 19th century,
hard-of-hearing churchgoers often had
great difficulty following the sermons,
since the pulpit was not equipped
with a microphone. William Demant
recognized great opportunities in the
sale of church hearing aid systems.
been installed in 70 churches. And William
Demant had become the undisputed market
leader.
A dedicated agent
In 1920, William Demant’s offices were no
bigger than 62 spm. Demant travelled
extensively, visiting customers and making
agreements with hospitals and hearing
clinics. He was fascinated by his work and
suggested to the Americans at every available
opportunity how they might improve
the functionality and quality of their instruments
by altering their construction. Most
of his suggestions were received politely,
but ignored completely. When Demant

communicated with Acousticon in New
York, he did so by telegram only.
“Contemporary hearing aids were made of
carbon. They had very powerful amplifiers,
but they were desperately heavy and
clumsy. The sound was transmitted via a
large earphone that weighed 185 grams,”
writes William Demant, describing the
instruments of the period. It was not until
1928 that hearing aids could be produced
with a relatively small earpiece that could
rest directly in the outer ear. In 1932,
American scientist Hugo Lieber invented
“The Bone Conductor” – a vibrator that
transmitted sound through the skull and
directly to the hearing nerve in the inner
ear. It suited all types of hearing loss, but
was particularly useful for problems in the
The Acousticon Coronation instrument, dated
1937. Hearing aids with “bone conductor”,
which were invented by American Hugo Lieber
in 1932, became available from 1933.
middle ear or eardrum. The Bone Conductor
was a breakthrough in hearing aid
research.
Crash and crisis
When World War I ended, yet another crisis
loomed on the horizon – the crash of
the New York Stock Exchange in 1929.
The US crash left severe scars on Europe,
where several countries found themselves
under severe economic pressure. In November
1931, Denmark’s currency reserves had
almost run dry, and the government was
forced to intervene in order to halt the
downward spiral. The Foreign Exchange
Control Office was established, one of
whose tasks was to regulate the import of
foreign goods. This involved imposing
harsh restrictions on American products.
F o u n d e d o n c a r e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Such major changes had colossal impact
on William Demant’s business. Prior to the
stock market crash, Dictograph Products
(formerly Acousticon) had begun to supply
only semi-completed instruments, which
were cheaper and demanded less currency.
William had to regularly approach Dictograph
Products for permission to produce
the parts of instruments that were always
missing due to the restrictions imposed by
the Foreign Exchange Control Office. As
usual, approval was only given for semilicenced
production from the USA because
no other alternatives were available:
Anyone wanting to trade with Denmark
had to accept these conditions.
17

Chapter 2
Charles Lehmann
In 1946, William Demant went into partnership with
Charles Lehmann to establish the “American Danish
Oticon” company, which later became Oticon. Charles
Lehmann was a valued friend, and Demant visited him
many times in the USA. Demant kept a photo of
Lehmann in his office until the day he died.

Oticon is born
By the 1930s, William Demant had won
customers all over Scandinavia. He had
five sales people who travelled the entire
region by car, giving demonstrations and
selling hearing aids at hotels and in
people’s homes.
The body in focus
By the 1930s, science and technology had
moved into the fast lane. The standard of
living had much improved, the average
lifespan had increased, and people nurtured
their bodies with diet and exercise.
The health craze had spread to most of
the western world, and in March 1939,
William Demant rented a stand at the
Health Exhibition at the Forum Centre in
Copenhagen. The event was a box-office
hit attracting an astounding 200,000 visitors.
Demant had borrowed a gigantic
model of an ear from a health museum in
Dresden as a teaching aid for people visiting
the “Acousticon W. Demant” stand.
He also promoted the systems he had
installed in cinemas, theatres and hospitals.
Science marches in
William Demant was a visionary who had
a strong desire to incorporate more scientific
methods in his business. He was
quick to acknowledge the necessity of
being able to perform systematic hearing
tests, which were by no means standard
practice at that time. William therefore
imported a machine called an Aurogauge
and employed a young audiometrist to
teach his staff to perform hearing tests
with it. The goal was to get closer to the
individual “hearing curve” to more closely
match people’s needs. William Demant’s
initiatives in the late 1930s were the first
manifestations of the audiology that would
make Oticon a leader in its field in the
decades to come.
The first modern instruments
Hearing aid development moved fast,
spurred by inventions such as the Bone
Conductor. What was unknown at the
time was that the Bone Conductor was
very suitable for those whose hearing loss
had arisen from defects in the middle ear
or eardrum. It was thoroughly unsuitable
for sensorineural hearing loss, however,
which is caused by weaknesses in the
mechanisms of the inner ear or in the
hearing nerve.
In the 1930s, Acousticon and two German
manufacturers made further improvements
to the electric hearing aid in areas
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
For many years, hearing tests were conducted
with the aid of a tuning fork,
which made them rather haphazard.
William Demant introduced more scientific
methods, and his company was one
of the first in Denmark to import equipment
for hearing tests (today called
audiometers).
Until approximately 1940,
most hearing aids were black,
because most people dressed
in black. Coloured models
would not come until much
later.
19

20
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Chapter 2
At the health exhibition in Copenhagen in 1939, William Demant displayed his entire
range of hearing aids plus systems for hospitals, churches, restaurants and theatres.

such as sound quality, durability and
effectiveness. Then development really
began to take off. Instruments became
electric thanks, in particular, to the massive
research performed by the American
Army. During this period, amplifiers with
radio valves were introduced into hearing
aids, powered by two batteries. The
valves were brought in from the small,
portable radios the army used.
Danish production
In the 1930s, William Demant produced
parts of hearing aids on licence. It was
important for him to acquire the best
equipment in order to produce superior
quality instruments, but importing goods
from the USA was difficult, and delivery
times often protracted. So Demant began
building much of the equipment in Denmark.
In the early summer of 1939, he
imported ten Acousticon instruments.
Since the customs authorities classified
them as radio equipment, the price was
very high, and after five months, Demant
was forced to abandon trying to sell them.
In 1940, Demant introduced the first
Danish-produced hearing aid, the
Acusticus. It was a copy of an Acousticon
model, and Demant had deftly “conjugated”
the American name.
Business was booming for Demant:
Production of amplifier systems was going
well, which prompted him to take on
more staff and create a new department
called Acousticon Sound Techniques. In
1939, there were 15 employees in the
company’s new commercial and production
offices in Copenhagen.
Demant on the silver screen
In the 1930s – as cinema films gained an
enthusiastic audience – a new market
gradually emerged. In the silent movies,
which reached the height of their popular-
ity in the 1920s, filmmakers would add
small captions to explain the plot. By the
1930s, the “talkies” began to appear in
Denmark, slowly superseding their silent
predecessors. This made it very difficult
for hearing-impaired people to follow the
plot, which opened a new market for
assistive devices.
William Demant quickly identified this
new problem, and his solution became
hearing aids for cinemagoers. In September
1930, he received a newsletter from
Dictograph Products, describing a new
product the company was planning to
introduce called the Acousticon Seatphone.
It was tailor-made for cinemas.
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Innovative thinking was crucial since it
was not enough to just place a microphone
in front of the cinema loudspeakers
and then use the well-known church hearing
aids. The sound the loudspeakers collected
was artificial, which resulted in
much poorer sound quality than was
achievable in churches, where the words
of the minister were captured directly
from his lips. After lengthy negotiations
with The Radio Corporation of America,
permission was finally given to “tap” the
signal electronically, before it reached the
loudspeakers. Sound could then be delivered
directly to the armrests at the base
of the cinema seats for collection by the
user’s hearing aid.
In 1939, William Demant’s American Acousticon Company employed a staff of 15. Demant was a
demanding employer, but he understood the delicate art of creating a strong company culture.
Each day, when he arrived he did his “morning rounds” and talked with the employees.
21

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O t i c o n i s b o r n
Chapter 2
A state-of-the-age cinema
In 1937, sketches for a new cinema in
Copenhagen appeared, which audiences
would find to be the most modern of its
kind. Architecturally, the building was a
perfect example of contemporary thinking,
with a large foyer incorporating a
kiosk, a restaurant and child-minding
facilities. The cinema had a hearing aid
system, delivered in time for the 1938
opening by the American Acousticon
Company. The cinema was state-of-theage,
with good ventilation, comfortable
seats, well-balanced acoustics and even
an organ that appeared miraculously on a
special elevator. There were 28 seats for
hard-of-hearing customers, who could
connect either an earphone or a bone conduction
unit to the system – both of
which could be borrowed from the personnel.
HEARING AID INSTALLATIONS
are available in the 14 chairs
marked . Under the armrests,
double plugs provide connections
for 28 seats. For 10 of these, the
theatre can supply either a Bone
Conductor or an earpiece with a
volume control. The remaining 18
seats are reserved for hearing-
impaired visitors with own
instruments. More than 1,200
cinemas worldwide are equipped
with Acousticon Installations for
the hearing-impaired.
CALL FOR AN OFFER.

In the 1920s, “talkies” began to supersede silent movies, and audiences could listen to Charlie
Chaplin instead of having to follow the plot on caption boards. However, this caused problems for
people with hearing loss. In 1938, the Palladium cinema opened in Copenhagen, where – with the
aid of William Demant’s “Acousticon Seatphone” – hearing-impaired people could follow the
soundtrack from specially modified seats.
Radio systems for hospitals
William Demant’s inventiveness also
manifested itself in the form of stationary
amplifiers. In the beginning of 1938,
Demant negotiated with the public
authorities in Copenhagen to install a
complete radio system for residents at a
large nursing home. His idea was to place
the earphone on the patient’s pillow,
behind the ear, so that the sound would
only be heard by that person. This was
the perfect solution for hospital wards
where peace and quiet were essential.
Demant was bursting with ideas for new
applications for hearing aids. In the mid-
30s, he asked Dictograph Products
whether it would be possible to mount a
hearing aid on a barbershop stool, because
a hairdresser wanted to be able to play the
radio for customers during their haircut or
shave. Demant also talked to the President
of the Danish State Railways about the
possibility of installing earphones in
express diesel-trains so that passengers
could listen to the radio without disturbing
other travellers. Even though far from
all of William Demant’s ideas reached
maturity, they do convey an accurate
impression of how creative this gentleman
really was.
World War and occupation
During the 1930s, it became clear to the
European governments that the political
situation in Germany was taking a turn for
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
The American Acousticon Company and William
Demant came up with many imaginative ideas and
marketing campaigns. What could be more amazing
than being able to continue listening to the radio,
while the band of the Danish Life Guards marched
through the ward?
23

24
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Chapter 2
the worse. The Nazis were becoming more
aggressive, and it was only a matter of
time before the region erupted. On 1
September 1939, German troops invaded
Poland, which immediately provoked a
declaration of war by England and France.
World War II was a reality, and squadrons
of heavy German bombers droned over
Copenhagen on 9 April 1940. The Nazis
occupied Denmark, and Danes felt the
consequences immediately. The government
introduced rationing and prices skyrocketed.
Germany had taken complete
control of Denmark, which also meant
dominance over its commercial life.
Employers and employees had to accept
that hard times lie ahead.
“Send word via Siberia…”
When war struck Denmark, William
Demant was forced to find new creative
ways to produce and sell hearing aids.
The situation in Scandinavia was chaotic,
to put it mildly. All correspondence
between the USA and William Demant
went via a stock-cube factory in
Helsingborg in Sweden. On 22 May 1940,
Demant wrote to Dictograph Products in
the USA describing the conditions: “The
situation is not very encouraging. Most
trade is paralyzed, with the exception of
foodstuffs. People in the Oslo office
seemed hopeful, but I have heard nothing
from them in over a month. The Scandinavians
believe that this war will last for
about four years. Unfortunately, our stocks
of Acousticon instruments will only last
between 9 and 12 months. I have considered
becoming the agent for Siemens,
even though their products are inferior to
the Acousticon. I would only do this to
maintain sales and keep my people in
World War II and Denmark’s occupation had serious consequences for William Demant.

employment, until supplies of the Acousticon
instrument recommence. We can
only import instruments from Germany,
since all imports from England, France
and the USA have been blocked. Please
send word via Siberia and Italy, since we
may still be able to receive goods from
there.”
Own production in the shadow of war
By 18 September, Demant was no longer
able to import goods from the USA, and
he wrote to Dictograph Products again. To
avoid shutting down his offices in Copenhagen,
Oslo and Helsinki, he had begun to
produce parts for the latest Acousticon
instrument in Denmark. In his letter, he
writes: “To survive I must consider
becoming an agent for any product that
might be offered me. We expect to make at
least 1,000 instruments per year. Sales in
Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland
have exceeded 500. Add to this, whatever
we are allowed to sell in Holland, Belgium,
Italy and perhaps France, plus
whatever comes out of the new agencies
in Switzerland, Rumania and Bulgaria.
We are also looking at Germany as a
potential market.”
Continuing the relationship with Dictograph
Products was difficult, and in order
to reach a clear agreement William
Demant asked his brother Hans, who lived
in New York, to meet them and explain
the situation. Danish stocks had run dry,
and there were no products to sell, so
Demant decided to produce the instruments
himself. Previously, his business
had been built on imports from abroad,
which had been given a Danish touch in
the form of packaging and user instructions.
World War II indirectly paved the way for
Demant’s so-called “Model K”. As Demant
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Because of shortages caused by World War II, William Demant decided to produce his own hearing aids.
After the war, these became so popular that Demant began an export business. In 1950, the company
moved production to a new location, and the offices in central Copenhagen doubled in size.
writes: “It was marvellous to see the first
Danish instruments become a reality.
They became an immediate success, and
in addition to excellent sales on the
domestic market, we are beginning to sell
to Holland, France and Italy.”
Jew transports
Demant felt the effects of the war in more
ways than one: In 1943, a young Jewish
gentleman by the name of Heinz Hess
visited Demant’s offices. Demant’s lawyer,
Alfred Levinson, had arranged the meeting.
Hess had heard that Demant was well
connected and that he knew of a naval
officer in Copenhagen who was helping
refugees escape to Sweden. Heinz Hess
lived with three other young Jews in
Denmark, and he wanted to escape to
Sweden and travel onwards to England to
join the International Brigade. William
Demant set up the meeting, but the escape
25

26
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Chapter 2
failed. Hess writes: “Before I had a chance
to reach the disembarkation point the
Gestapo arrived. I managed to escape for a
while, but they caught me and sent me to
Theresienstadt.” Unfortunately, although
Hess survived his imprisonment at the
concentration camp, his colleagues did
not. Someone had betrayed them – but
later on, it turned out that it was not
Demant’s contact.
William Demant now fell under the scrutiny
of the enemy, and a few days later,
Charles Lehmann and
William Demant established
American Danish
Oticon (later Oticon) in
1946. Demant valued
Lehmann’s friendship
greatly, and he visited him
in the USA many times.
The photo of Lehmann was
a gift, which Demant kept
in his office until he died.
the Germans ransacked his home. Demant
was out at the time, and since they were
unable to find anything incriminating, the
Germans took one half of every pair of his
shoes and burned them in the street outside.
William despised the Nazis, and
when his sister married a Nazi sympathizer,
William washed his hands of her
completely.
Against all odds and thanks to new production
in Denmark, William Demant
managed not only to lead the company
safely through World War II but also to
earn a living. The company sold more
than 100 instruments per year and no one
lost their job. The rented offices in Copenhagen
were a hive of activity, with the
ground floor acting as a showroom with
display cases full of hearing aids. The
fourth floor housed the administrative and
production departments, where one engineer
supervised a small team of ladies
who welded and screwed the instruments
together. Four days after Liberation Day on
5 May 1945, Demant received a telegram
from Dictograph Products in the USA with
the words: “Our heartiest congratulations
on the peace in Europe.”
Copenhagen to New York – return
By the end of World War II, the world was
a different place. The western world had
experienced changes the likes of which no
one had ever seen before. The first few
post-war years continued to be hard, with
rationing and a general scarcity of goods.
William Demant applied for Marshall Aid
to kick-start production. Former accountant
and Chairman of the Board, Palle
Rasmussen, helped to formulate the application:
“Almost everyone back then
received Marshall Aid, but not William
Demant. He reinvested all the money he
earned and saved nothing at all. And
that’s why they refused him,” recalls Palle
Rasmussen.
In 1946, William Demant joined forces
with American hearing aid manufacturer,
Charles Lehmann, who also was fascinated
by the technological developments in
the field of audiology. Lehmann was
Demant’s close personal friend and the exmanager
of Dictograph Products. Together
they founded the American Danish Oticon
Company, with headquarters in Copenhagen.
The agreement made Lehmann
responsible for purchasing the hearing aid

components and shipping them to
Denmark.
When imports of American hearing aids
began again, Dictograph Products no
longer wanted Demant to be a licenced
manufacturer. Following a visit to New
York in 1946, Demant returned with
enough components for 500 instruments
in his luggage. These were transformed
into the very first Oticon instrument – the
Oticon TA.
A sales tour through Russia
During the period 1904 to 1939, Oticon
focused on importing rather than exporting
hearing aids. In 1947, tthe company
finally began its first exporting activity
– initially within Scandinavia only. But
Demant was ever on the lookout for new
opportunities. In 1947-48, he went to
Russia on a sales trip. He began in Finland,
where he hired a translator who
could accompany him on his journey.
Together the two men travelled from
St. Petersburg to Moscow and on to the
Black Sea, selling instruments as they
went. They lived the high life along the
way, as Demant enjoyed parties and
socializing. When the trip ended in
Helsinki, Demant expected the translator
to demand a sky-high fee for his help.
Instead, the man thanked him profusely
for the greatest experience of his life.
Both the journey and the parties had been
more than payment enough.
William Demant earned plenty of money
in Russia, and he became determined to
expand the international sales network
even further. In 1949, he employed two
managers, but he had no intention of becoming
less active himself. One manager
was the young Erik Westermann, who
became Export Manager, and the other
was Christian Tøpholm, who became
Factory Manager. “My brother, Per
Westermann, already worked as a
Commercial Artist for Mr. Demant, and
prior to my interview, he was kind enough
to send me some Oticon brochures, so I was
well prepared. This impressedWilliam
Demant,” Erik Westermann recalls. “He
also allowed me to write the company’s
sales letters, of which I remember one in
particular: It showed a picture of dozens
of hearing aids, all stacked up in a pyramid
with a caption that read: “This is how
many Siemens instruments we have seen
returned.” The copy was a bit risky, but
back then people would use any trick in
the book to make a sale,” says Erik
Westermann.
A well-timed expansion
Oticon’s transition from dealer to manufacturing
company had gone smoothly,
and the budding export business and sales
of the Oticon TA now tripled the company’s
turnover. In 1950, William Demant
moved production to a new site in
Copenhagen.
The timing could not have been better,
because on 1 April 1951 the government
decided that all hearing-impaired people
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Oticon’s first hearing aid.
The name Oticon was taken from the Greek
word “Oti”, meaning “Ear”, and the Latin word
“Con”, meaning “With”. Literally translated,
Oticon means “with ear”.
In 1950, Oticon’s
audiologists
toured the entire
country offering
consultations at
hotels and inns.
27

28
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Chapter 2
In 1951, production was running smoothly, and Oticon was able to release an export catalogue in English. The following
year, Oticon tried to conquer the American market. At the 1952 International Hearing Aid Association’s Convention
in Chicago, Oticon exhibited its products thanks to the invaluable support of Charles Lehmann.
in Denmark should be offered a hearing
aid through the health insurance system.
In the beginning of 1951, the government
set up an organization where users, manufacturers,
handicap insurance companies
and lip-reading schools were all represented.
The so-called Hard-of-Hearing
Law ensured that any Danish citizen
between the ages of 16 and 67 could get a
hearing aid free-of-charge. The idea had
been copied from England, where hearing
tests and state-manufactured hearing aids
had been free-of-charge since 1948.
Hearing-impaired Danes welcomed this
move, and enquiries about hearing aids
streamed in. Within a relatively short
time, 7,000 Danes had requested a free
consultation. The Danish hearing care
centres were unable to meet demand, and
the waiting time soon exceeded one year.
Oticon takes the lead
The creation of the Hearing Service
placed new demands on hearing aid
manufacturers. In Denmark, there were
two manufacturers: Danavox, which specialized
in electro-acoustic devices
(including hearing aids), and Oticon. But
products from Siemens, the German hearing
aid manufacturer, were also available
on the Danish market. Unlike England,
where hearing aids were produced by the
state, it was decided that Denmark would
benefit from competition between companies.
Denmark had become an international
leader not only in terms of technology
but also public service initiatives. The
future looked bright for Oticon, which
– thanks to many years of experience, a
broader production selection and an open
domestic market – had become the leader
in Denmark. Exports were also on the
increase: Oticon’s primary market was
Europe, while its secondary markets
included the USA and South America.
Exports rose from 582,752 kroner in 1949
to more than 1 million kroner in 1952,
despite exorbitant customs tariffs that,
price-wise, made it difficult to compete
on the American market.
Oticon also encountered some problems:
In the beginning of the 1950s, the Danish
Association for the Hard-of-Hearing had
promised the government that they could
handle the market for government-issued

hearing aids. The government therefore
took over the distribution of these instruments,
but because of this, the contribution
margin of 800 kroner on an ordinary
Oticon instrument completely disappeared.
The sales price dropped to 200 kroner.
William Demant was terrified at the prospect
of such losses, and not without
reason. At a public tender, Oticon’s main
competitor, Danavox, won an order for
1,500 hearing aids – the equivalent of one
year’s worth of sales at Oticon. To survive,
Oticon expanded the export market,
which helped the company to successfully
ride out this particular storm.
Instruments go behind the ear
By 1953, technology was developing rapidly.
The transistor was used for the first
time in hearing aids, making them a good
deal lighter. Instruments became cheaper,
more effective and smaller. They also used
far less battery power than their larger,
clumsier predecessors. The transistor also
provided more room for creativity: From
early body-worn models, hearing aids
worked their way up to a breast pocket,
and from there to various sites around the
head. Microphones could even be built
into the middle pearl of a pearl necklace.
The cable ran parallel to the string of the
necklace, ending near the ear where the
rest of the instrument was located. People
were very innovative, and hearing aids
were camouflaged in tie pins, hair slides
and hair bands right up until the 1960s.
Shortly after, the first Behind-the-Ear
(BTE) instrument was introduced. The
ear-worn part of the instrument, about the
size of a cigarette lighter, was not particularly
attractive. But the combination of
size, durability and the fact that they were
easier to manage when worn behind the
ear was unbeatable, and this type of
instrument is still in production today.
O t i c o n i s b o r n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
The Oticon T3 was introduced in 1953 and was one of Europe’s first transistorized instruments.
Former Oticon employee, 72-year-old Anders Quitzau, remembers this breakthrough as he
gazes at a small leather-covered box with a velvet trim: “The T3 was designed by Engineer
Jensen, so they christened it “Model Jensen” internally. At the Christmas party in 1953,
Mr. Demant gave us a Christmas bonus in a Model Jensen box. We all got a bonus, the
equivalent of a whole month’s pay.”
29

Chapter 3
The “Gang of Four”
Bengt Danielsen (Financial Controller), Henning Mønsted Sørensen
(Export Manager), Bent Simonsen (Sales Manager) and Torben E. Nielsen
(Chief Engineer).

The “Gang
of Four”
In 1954, Oticon celebrated its 50th Jubilee
in great style. On 8 June, all 150 employees
were invited to dine at a fashionable
restaurant in Copenhagen. They looked
back with pride on half a century of
achievement. The company had become
the preferred supplier of instruments to
the Danish hearing centres and had,
through scientific and technological innovations,
made life easier for many thousands
of hearing-impaired people.
To celebrate its 50th Jubilee, Oticon published
a small booklet. William Demant
wrote the preface, in which he described
how his father’s desire to alleviate his
mother’s hearing loss motivated him to
found the company.
Structural changes
The next few years would be decisive for
Oticon. The company would enter a fastergrowing
market, take on new employees,
change its organizational structure – even
its management. In 1956, Oticon’s turnover
had grown to almost 4 million kroner. The
company had always been family-owned,
but in 1957, it became a limited company
– Aktieselskabet William Demant. Demant
transferred the family shares to the
William Demants og Hustru Ida Emilies
Fond (the Oticon Foundation), which
became the new owner of the company.
According to the charter, the purpose of
the Foundation was “to ensure that all
future profits are invested, partly in
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Oticon’s employees enjoying their Jubilee dinner at the Nimb restaurant in Copenhagen in 1954.
research and development in areas that
seek to compensate for hearing loss, and
partly in past and present employees and
their families”.
Demant loses a fight
William Demant was approaching 70, and
from time to time, his strong personality
caused conflicts. In 1956, he had a serious
disagreement with his two managers,
Christian Tøpholm and Erik Westermann.
It culminated in both of them leaving
Oticon to start Denmark’s third hearing
company – Widex. The “divorce” went far
from smoothly. Christian Tøpholm had
been the technician who had optimized
production, and Erik Westermann had
been the salesman with all the contacts.
31

32
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Chapter 3
In 1958, when William Demant
turned 70, he began a slow
withdrawal from the company’s
everyday affairs. But it
was not until 1968 that he
officially relinquished his
post, and Bent Simonsen
took over as President.
Shop windows with hearing
aid displays were a commonplace
sight on the high
streets. This is how Oticon displayed
its products in 1960.
The “Gang of Four”
William Demant began searching for a
successor, to whom he could entrust the
future of the company. Oticon was now
managed by Bengt Danielsen (Financial
Controller), Henning Mønsted Sørensen
(Export Manager), Torben E. Nielsen
(Chief Engineer) and Bent Simonsen
(Sales Manager). As managers they were
all relatively young – between the ages of
29 and 33 – and they were quickly nicknamed
the “Gang of Four”.
Oticon’s international expansion, emerging
technologies and the broadening of
production and distribution had become
too much for Demant to manage alone. He
was getting older, and his business philosophy
and customer contacts no longer
matched a growing international company.
Demant transferred more and more
responsibility to his four directors, recognizing
the need to build a professional
organization and distribution network
with agents and subsidiary companies.
Henning Mønsted Sørensen joined the
Sales Department in 1954. “I remember
that I often had to help out in the shop,
selling batteries to customers,” says
Sørensen. Two years later, Torben E.
Nielsen was hired as Laboratory Engineer
in the Development Department – the
same year that Bent Simonsen became
Sales Manager at the age of 30.
Bent Simonsen became Demant’s chosen
successor, and in 1959, he was appointed
Executive Vice President. Simonsen had
served with the Foreign Service, and his
elegant demeanour and excellent language
skills had impressed Demant to such a
degree that he hired him virtually on
sight. Bent Simonsen swiftly became a
key player at Oticon. He prepared guidelines
and budgets for sales and production,
and he organized regular meetings
between Oticon’s many departments. He
was good at nurturing his contacts both in
Denmark and abroad and particularly
skilled at maintaining good relations with

the Danish Hearing System. Such qualities
were crucial to Oticon in the 1960s.
The “Gang of Four” managed Oticon for
three decades – from the Swinging Sixties
to the waning eighties.
New opportunities
The Swinging Sixties actually began in
1958 with a strong economic surge that
washed over the entire western world. A
wave of industrialization shifted the
dynamics from agriculture to industry,
and international trade blossomed. The
1960s turned Denmark and the rest of
western society upside down. For the
individual, it meant more prosperity,
more financial freedom and access to
material goods the like of which few
people had ever experienced before.
And the Danes purchased everything
from detached houses to cars, fridges
and freezers.
The economic boom of the 1960s and
growth in the domestic market propelled
by government purchases of hearing aids
was a development Oticon could feel. In
the late 1950s, the company had already
acknowledged the fact that the old factory
was run down and that more elbowroom
was needed. Oticon began looking for
larger premises. Relocation took place in
July 1961.
In 1962, a journalist from Codan Magazine
arrived to interview William Demant
about Oticon and its new building, the
Oticon House. It was one of the most
modern contemporary buildings, with
three floors, 3,000 m 2 of floor space and
room for 300 employees. As the journalist
writes: “We are sitting in Mr. Demant’s
private office in Oticon’s factory in the
leafy industrial estate of Lersøparken.
Apart from the low hum of machinery
emanating from somewhere in the building,
this place seems pleasantly quiet.
Now and then, sounds penetrate from outside
– a car passing by or a voice from the
neighbouring building site.”
Denmark, the Welfare State
During the 1960s, Denmark became not
only a more prosperous society but also a
welfare state. Public services increased
along with budgets, and new thinking in
the field of socio-political norms, principles
and ideologies helped to set a new
course for the future. The goal was to
create social security, and it involved
many changes in legislation. The social
security net was strengthened, a law was
passed on public care, health insurance
revisions were made, and social security
benefits were increased.
Denmark was a pioneer within hearing
healthcare, but the system came under
pressure not only from the general public
but also financially. In the 1950s, the
Ministry of Social Affairs had established
three state hearing centres, whose brief
was to perform examinations with a view
to providing free hearing instruments.
“When I began working at the State
Hearing Centre in the mid-60, the waiting
lists were horrendous. After the hearing
test, people were given the instruments
the Hearing Centre recommended – which
were not necessarily the ones they would
have preferred,” explains Kurt Danielsen,
a speech and hearing therapist at Oticon
in Denmark. The Ministry of Social
Affairs hoped that three hearing centres
would be sufficient to meet people’s
needs, but the waiting lists indicated
otherwise. Despite a well-structured
Hearing Service, people sought Oticon’s
help when it came to hearing aids. The
service the company offered was popular
– and free – and it still exists today.
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Oticon 1904 – 2004
With the economic boom and the
fast-growing market for hearing
aids, the decision to move to a
new factory was perfectly timed.
William Demant was proud. Well
before the building work commenced,
he displayed a model of
the new factory in his office. In
1961, he took Executive Vice
President Bent Simonsen to see
the building. The two men had no
idea that after just three years,
they would need to expand yet
again. In 1964 and 1967, parts of
production were relocated to new
offices in Copenhagen.
33

34
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Chapter 3
The history of the hearing
therapists dates back to
1959, when the Hearing
Service collaborated with the
Royal Danish School of
Educational Studies to create
a course that would qualify
teachers to offer hearing
therapy and speech lessons
to adults and children. These
teachers were to help hearing-impaired
children cope
with a normal school day.
In 1962, the Association for the Hard-of-
Hearing celebrated its 50th Jubilee and took
this opportunity to change its name to
something more contemporary: The
National Association for Better Hearing.
Technology evolves
At Oticon, production was in full swing
and new instruments were released every
year. The quality improved in step with
technology and instruments became smaller.
This pleased the customers, who had
always wanted more discreet instruments.
“The small, triple-transistor instrument
– the Oticon T3 – waves goodbye to the
last 50 years and heralds a new era in
hearing aids,” writes William Demant in
1954. It was the transistor that provided
new opportunities to shift the hearing aid
from the chest to behind the ear.
Cosmetics were not the only reason for
this development; from an audiological
perspective there was also much to gain,
since the closer the instrument was to the
ear, the closer the microphone would be
to the entrance of the ear canal. This was
the optimal position for a hearing aid
because it provided better sound quality.
The new instruments could also be adjusted
to provide a closer match to the hearing
loss. With the aid of a small screw on
the instrument, the audiologist could
adjust the frequency response so that
people with severe hearing loss in the
high frequencies would receive more
volume for treble tones and thereby a
more tailor-made sound picture.
Of the many new instruments introduced
by Oticon, one in particular was reasonably
priced and fulfilled all quality requirements.
It was based on a new technique
called Printed Circuitry, whereby layers of
copper allowed the electrical connections
between the individual components to be
placed neatly on a board, thereby avoiding
dozens of loose wires. This reduced the
price per unit considerably, and in order
to win a tender launched for 10,000 BTE’s,
Bent Simonsen dropped the price even
further. The strategy worked, and Oticon

won the tender. “Hearing glasses” crafted
from celluloid were also selling well.
These were some of the first spectacles in
the world to accommodate an entire hearing
aid on one side bar.
The next technological milestone was the
transition from Behind-the-Ear (BTE) instruments
to In-the-Ear (ITE) styles. The
first ITE’s arrived in the late 1960s, primarily
from the USA, but the problem
was that performance-wise, they were
technologically inferior. The quality of the
battery, microphone and sounding body
could not match that of their larger BTE
counterparts. The first Danish ITE models
were not even particularly discreet. One
ear doctor, who actually suffered from
hearing loss, said: “They look like some
kind of disease that’s on its way out of the
ear! I wouldn’t dream of wearing such an
instrument myself.” Not until the end of
the 1970s would technology support an
improvement in the standard of ITE
instruments.
Tough competition, locally and globally
The hearing aid industry found itself in
an international market characterized by
strong growth. With a solid domestic
“Hearing glasses”
gained popularity very
quickly. One of the
best-known Danish
actors of the period,
Poul Bundgaard,
would wear no other
type of instrument,
because for many
years they were the
most “invisible” of
their kind.
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Smaller instruments and more up-todate
marketing were just some of the
developments of the 1950s. In
Denmark, the State Hearing Centres
chose to purchase instruments
through public tender. This arrangement
placed great demands on the
quality of Oticon’s instruments, and
rigorous quality checks had to be performed.
market supported by public funds, plus a
technologically competent workforce,
Oticon gained a flying head start on its
international competitors. Denmark was
firmly on the world map when it came to
hearing aids. In the 1960s, between 20
and 25 percent of sales went to the three
Danish companies: Danavox, Widex and
Oticon. Oticon was the largest of the
three, generating 14 to 15 percent of the
world’s total production of instruments.
Competition in the industry increased,
and every year there was a race between
manufacturers to produce the smallest,
most effective instruments. The three
Danish manufacturers made improvements
and developed new technological
solutions, and did so in tight competition.
Collaboration pays off
In 1963, at the suggestion of the State
Hearing Centres, Oticon, Widex and
Danavox formed OTWIDAN – a joint
secretariat that facilitated cooperation
35

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T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Chapter 3
The ladies of Oticon, assembling hearing aids in 1960.
between the three companies and audiological
clinics. OTWIDAN would be
responsible for making joint offers on public
tenders in order to avoid all three companies
having to invest huge sums on
developing special products for Danish
Hearing System, which only one company
would end up delivering. Such products
were impossible to sell on the commercial
markets. In 1964, an offer was developed
for a jointly produced BTE, and OTWIDAN
won a tender for 25,000 instruments.
Production was divided between the three
companies, and in this manner, rivals
Oticon, Widex and Danavox managed to
work together.
Oticon conquers the world
The Danish market for hearing aids was
approaching saturation point. If Oticon
was to continue to grow, it could only be
through exports. In the beginning of the
1960s, Oticon had one subsidiary proper,
namely in Sweden. In Norway, a lady by
the name of Mrs. Bruse attended to sales.
Mrs. Bruse worked from home, but this in
no way dampened her enthusiasm. When,
after 50 years in the company, she was
summoned to the royal court to receive a
decoration for meritorious services from
the Norwegian King, she almost managed
to sell him a hearing aid – even though
his hearing was perfect!
Oticon was on a mission to develop
exports even further. Bent Simonsen had
a background in Foreign Trade and had
previously worked as an Export Manager.
Together with Henning Mønsted, he began
to travel extensively. The two men built a
network of agents with sales in 100 countries.
From 1961 onwards, they entered
agency agreements in West Germany,
France, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain,
Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Israel, Turkey,
India, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and the
USA.
In the summer of 1963, Export Manager
Henning Mønsted journeyed to the Far
East and Australia to follow up on new
markets. Australia looked particularly
promising and Japan was coming along
too. But Oticon’s expansion did not stop
here. On 1 September 1964, the first
European subsidiary, Oticon Nederland
B.V. in Holland, became a reality. General
Manager Gerard J.J. van der Wel climbed
on board almost from the start. “I was
employed in 1965. Three of us were sitting
in the Director’s private apartment in
Amsterdam with our entire stock in the
broom cupboard. We were selling about
75 instruments a month, and my salary
was 375 gilders per month. That was
almost the equivalent of the price of a
single instrument back then. We were pioneers
in Holland, but we got to grips with
the Dutch market very quickly, and within
just three years we had almost quadrupled
our sales,” recalls Gerard van der Wel.
The Dutch subsidiary was the first of
many Oticon subsidiaries. In 1965, Oticon
Inc. opened an office in New Jersey, USA,
and during the following decade, a new
subsidiary opened each year, beginning
with Switzerland, and Norway, Germany,
Scotland, Japan, Italy, New Zealand and
France soon followed.

The USA was one of Oticon’s most important
markets. “America was particularly
interesting because the rate of exchange
made us very competitive there. Our latest
target group – the American Universities
– were beginning to spawn audiologists,
who either went to work at hospitals or
became self-employed. From the Danish
army, we hired a number of young electronics
mechanics, who travelled the
length and breadth of America for us.
They were our spearheads, because at that
time, they could provide more detailed
product information than their American
colleagues in sales. Their Danish accents
actually turned out to be an advantage;
most audiologists were young females who
found these foreigners rather charming.
Bent Simonsen also helped by putting us
in touch with the Veterans’Administration,
who provided hearing aids to war veterans.
This Administration became one of
Oticon’s regular customers, as did Sears
& Roebuck, the large American retail
chain, which purchased large numbers of
instruments,” explains Henning Mønsted.
“Having achieved promising results in
America, Bent Simonsen felt that it was
time to conquer England. This campaign
began in 1960 and lasted 20 years, with
the result that both the Ministry of Health
and the General Post Office, who were
responsible for technology and purchasing
for the British hearing health service,
became customers,” says Henning Mønsted.
Together with Sweden, England soon
became one of the largest European customers.
But more distant and more exotic
countries were also to join the list of new
markets – China being just one of the
countries to place a huge order.
Countless man-hours were invested in setting
up the subsidiaries. “I used a lot of
time helping our subsidiaries along – I
was probably involved in setting up the
first 13 or 14 of them. Those years were
really exciting, and it was rare for a female
to be given such opportunities in the
1960s. When I flew out to a subsidiary, as
a rule I was the only businesswoman on
the plane,” recalls Lis Høien, who worked
as an accountant for Oticon for 34 years.
Oticon’s entrance into the international
arena was also reflected in the company’s
logo.
Modern marketing across the Atlantic
Oticon was recognized as a leading hearing
aid manufacturer. The company
invested many resources in training distributors
and providing services to people
in the trade, agents and sales staff in the
subsidiaries. 500 opinion leaders from the
east and west coasts of the USA were
flown in by jumbo jet to participate in the
enormous “Oticongresses”. “We began to
invite groups of opinion leaders to Denmark
– from ear specialists to audiologists,
distributors and journalists. Through our
close relations with the three hearing
centres, these groups visited Denmark on
professional study trips. We also made
films and slideshows that shed light on
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Oticon 1904 – 2004
the work of the hearing health service, and
these photos were used by Oticon’s consultants
to explain the latest technological
advances,” explains Henning Mønsted.
“Oticongresses” were held well into the
1970s.
Oticon was highly respected, and Bent
Simonsen was known and received all
over the world as “Mr. Hearing Aid”.
When Oticon presented research results at
international symposiums, they were met
with huge approval. Each year, at the
major exhibitions in London, Chicago and
Germany, the company’s dominant position
was confirmed. Oticon was now the
world’s largest manufacturer of hearing
aids and the undisputed market leader,
even in America.
Oticon defies the oil crisis
World-economic developments came to an
abrupt halt with the oil crises in the
1970s, which caused a drop in production
and a rise in prices and salaries. Consumerism
and full employment gave way to
unemployment and a gloomy climate in
the business community. Many western
companies were forced to tighten their
belts with rounds of job cuts. But at
Oticon, the positive trend that had begun
in the 1960s continued. Things were going
well – very well indeed – and Oticon was
a star in the Danish firmament.
Finding production workers to handle
Oticon’s steady workload was a major
problem in the 1970s. It was particularly
acute in the Copenhagen area, so Oticon
moved production to Thisted in the western
part of Denmark. At the prospect of
dozens of new jobs, the Thisted Borough
welcomed Oticon with open arms, and the
company finally found the production
environment it had been looking for. With
the help of regional development grants,
37

38
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Chapter 3
the Borough Council commissioned the
building of a factory, and while this building
was under construction, they turned
an old school into a temporary production
site. The new factory was inaugurated in
1973.
While the energy crisis raged in 1973, Oticon – much to the envy of
many recession-plagued companies – moved into newer and larger
production facilities in Thisted in the western part of Denmark.
The factory in Thisted was not the only
new development: One of the conditions
for securing a very large order of instruments
for the British Ministry of Health
was that the instruments would be produced
locally. For Oticon, the hunt was
on for suitable facilities, and the search
ended in Hamilton in Scotland, in a factory
building that had previously housed Rolls
Royce. The workforce was well qualified,
and the Scots attended a crash course in
Denmark to learn about production. In June
1974, Oticon celebrated the first deliveries
of hearing aids crafted in Scotland.
Unique research at Eriksholm
During the 1970s, hearing aids continued
their swift technological development.
Oticon was enjoying unparalleled popularity
with well-constructed BTE instruments
that were referred to as “The Rolls Royce
of hearing aids” because of their superior
quality. These instruments were incredibly
durable – some lasting up to 20 years.
Product development was still very important.
In order to maintain a healthy lead,
Oticon decided in 1975 to establish a
special department for psycho-acoustic
research. Here the focus would not be on
developing hearing aids, but on exploring
the relationship between sound and hearing
and how people experienced various
amplification principles in real life. This
type of research was uncharted territory
and required extensive contact with hearing
aid users.
“We knew everything there was to know
about telecoils, current consumption and
life spans etc., but very little about how
hearing aids actually helped the user,”
says Torben E. Nielsen who, together with
Henning Mønsted, took the initiative to set
up the research department. A site was
selected in 1977 – an old manor house by
the name of Eriksholm – and it was the
first and only centre of its kind to be established
by a hearing aid manufacturer.
Eriksholm Research Centre’s mission was
to generate new knowledge and ideas for
technological development.

In 1973, the British Ministry of
Health placed an order for 100,000
instruments, provided that the
instruments were produced in
Great Britain. A year later, the
Scottish subsidiary in Hamilton
was inaugurated, and representatives
from both the British government
and Oticon’s management
attended.
Exports to east and west
Financial and commercial developments
in Oticon continued to improve, and by
the end of the 1970s, Oticon’s share of the
world market for hearing aids was almost
15 percent, while the two other Danish
manufacturers, Danavox and Widex,
shared approximately 10 percent between
them. Almost 95 percent of Oticon’s production
was destined for distant shores,
and the management devoted much time
to international travel. Offices opened in
the USA, and sales representatives visited
the eastern bloc countries to generate
sales. “We actually held the monopoly in
East Germany, where we were able to fend
off Siemens altogether. This was partly
because the people there were very satisfied
with the quality of our instruments,
and partly because we had built strong
ties to the university doctors,” explains
Henning Mønsted, who also visited
Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
During the oil crisis, Oticon opened a subsidiary
in Japan. Henning Mønsted flew
there in 1973 to set up the company, followed
by Bengt Danielsen and Lis Høien,
whose task it was to ensure that everything
ran smoothly in terms of offices,
personnel, management and accounting.
Compared to other companies – not least
its competitors – Oticon in the 1970s was
very export-minded. The company had
divided the export markets organizationally
in quite a unique manner: Each export
group had one or more western European
countries, one Nordic country, one or
more eastern European countries, one
subsidiary and one continent. This fostered
dynamism and helped to increase
market knowledge. The individual export
groups could share their wisdom, and
since they all dealt with countries in the
same region, they had a great deal in common.
It also meant more varied destinations
and travel schedules, as trips alternated
between East Berlin, Africa and
Paris.
Export-wise, Oticon was at its peak and
the company was regarded as a pioneer.
A unique agent network encompassing
most western countries had been forged,
and this provided an opportunity to be
first in the market. It was a development
that gained momentum in the 1970s in
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Oticon 1904 – 2004
In the 1970s, 483 out of every
100,000 Danes wore hearing aids.
This was almost twice as many as in
any other country in the world. In
Sweden, the figure was 362, while in
the USA, 237 out of every 100,000
wore hearing aids. In England, the
figure was slightly higher: 250 out
of every 100,000.
39

40
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Chapter 3
In the 1980s, BTE hearing
aids lost ground in favour of
more discreet ITE models.
Marketing also changed character.
The focus was now on
the quality of life and human
dignity, and younger models
were used to target the new,
younger group of less severely
hearing-impaired users.
the Eastern block countries, thanks to better
products, better social conditions and
the education of audiometrists and audiologists.
The 1970s was Oticon’s “Decade of
Export”. It was a period characterized by
expansion and increases in both market
share and earnings. Bent Simonsen went
everywhere, commanding great respect in
the industry. It was his idea to establish
the European Hearing Instrument
Manufacturers’ Association (EHIMA), of
which he was Chairman for a number of
years. He also spearheaded the Oticon
Foundation, where he set up a Scholarship
Committee to ensure that funds were
invested in developments in Danish audiology,
acoustics and the Hearing Service.
On the personnel front, Oticon had
acquired a large number of talented and
loyal employees. Many had worked for
the company for 25 years and job security
was legendary. One of the reasons for
creating the Oticon Foundation was that it
would make Oticon a secure place to work.
A small difference
In the late 1970s, Oticon ran temporarily
into a headwind: A small American company
called Starkey had introduced a
hearing aid made to fit directly In-the-Ear
(ITE). Initially these smaller instruments
could not match the quality of the larger
BTE styles, but the users preferred them
anyway because they were small and cosmetically
discreet.
Oticon began to lose ground because the
company had invested in BTE’s, which
provided high sound quality and could be
mass-produced. Oticon’s engineers and
ear specialists measured quality in terms
of sound patterns and hearing curves
rather than cosmetics, but the company
had underestimated the importance of
size for appearance-conscious users. In
America, competitors could quickly customize
ITE instruments to fit people’s
needs. Oticon lagged behind, and even
though the company launched an ITE
development programme, the damage was
already done. The market for hearing aids
was experiencing a paradigm shift, in
which Integrated Circuit technology
would revolutionize the industry. Another
factor was that the customer profile was
changing. Previously, the majority of customers
had been seniors with more severe
forms of hearing loss, now customers
were far younger with milder losses.
The ITE model fulfilled the demand for
In February 1986, Oticon’s
management met in the
former Danish West Indies,
where they formulated the
“Partnership Philosophy”.
As the company had no
direct contact with the
hearing-impaired, close
cooperation between
distributors and clinics
was essential in order to
fulfil customer needs.

discretion so important to this group of
people. The BTE models that were
Oticon’s hallmark were losing the battle
in America.
The shift in market segmentation and the
preference for smaller instruments were
not the only obstacles in the industry.
With more international competition
from an increasing number of hearing aid
manufacturers, price suddenly became an
important competitive parameter. As an
alternative to the state hearing centres,
more private hearing clinics and distributors
had sprung up, eager to fit hearing
aids, and they were focusing on the services
that accompanied the instruments.
Each of these factors put extra pressure
on Oticon.
Stagnation and division
On the surface, things seemed to be going
well for Oticon financially. But things
were going less well in Product Development.
Based on a number of analyses,
management had concluded that without
new products, Oticon could only expect
to lose money in the future. From the
mid-1980s, Oticon launched a series of
initiatives to avoid falling further behind
in the technology race. This road was not
without pitfalls. When President Ronald
Reagan casually inserted a small American
hearing aid into his ear on prime time TV,
Oticon was dealt a hard blow. Earnings
fell, and the company lost even more
market share.
New blood
For 30 years, the “Gang of Four” had
enjoyed unlimited power both in relation
to the Board of Directors at Oticon
Holding and the other companies. They
had increased Oticon’s annual production
60-fold from 5,000 instruments per year
in 1957.
In 1987, a strategy meeting was held at
Eriksholm, but it was not until the “Gang
of Four” went on to a restaurant that a
solution was finally found. It was decided
that Bengt Danielsen would withdraw;
Bent Simonsen, who was approaching 62,
would retire but retain his post as
T h e “ G a n g o f F o u r ”
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Chairman of the Oticon Foundation, and
the two other members of the Board of
Directors, Torben E. Nielsen and Henning
Mønsted Sørensen would – pending
agreement with the new management
– act as intermediate links for a couple
of years.
Bengt Danielsen (Financial Controller), Bent Simonsen (Sales Manager), Torben E. Nielsen (Chief
Engineer) and Henning Mønsted Sørensen (Export Manager). The “Gang of Four” managed Oticon
through three decades of growth and international expansion. “We were aware that new blood was
needed from outside, and that we would have to find the courage to dismiss ourselves. The latter
was not an easy decision,” recalls Henning Mønsted.
41

Chapter 4
Oticon’s headquarters in Copenhagen
In August 1991, Oticon moved to its present headquarters in Copenhagen.
The building was previously used as Tuborg’s minerals water factory.

The modern Oticon
The arrival of Lars Kolind
Lars Kolind’s arrival at Oticon in 1988
marked the beginning of a completely new
chapter in the company’s history. Oticon
was in trouble, and on Saturday, 21 May
1988, Kolind – who at that time was
Executive Vice President at Radiometer
– read the headline of an article published
in the Børsen financial newspaper: “Oticon
seeks new Emperor. Ageing management
team stands down.” In the interview,
Oticon’s President, Bent Simonsen, described
the unusual generation shift and
the employees’ desire to see a single director
at the top of the ladder instead of a
four-man management team. When Kolind
read this he remarked to his wife: “I could
handle that job. If they do their homework
properly, they’ll call me on Monday.” And
that was exactly what happened. Kolind
received a call from Oticon’s Chairman of
the Board, Palle Rasmussen, who made
him an offer he could not refuse.
Having worked as a consultant and
Assistant Director for Risø, the Danish
national laboratory, and Executive Vice
President for Radiometer, Kolind was
familiar with the mechanisms of large
companies, and he was surprised at how
much waste was involved in large-scale
operations. Large companies might have
all the benefits of large-scale operations,
but they also had many disadvantages:
The larger the company was, the more
energy was required to run it and to keep
employees and departments on track – not
to mention to create value for the customers
who ultimately footed the bills.
Kolind believed that there had to be another
way to manage this task – one that
sidestepped all the common pitfalls. When
he arrived at Oticon, he already had a
clear idea that the employees needed to be
given greater responsibility. Oticon had to
abandon a structure where a few key
people did all the thinking for everyone
else. What was needed was a framework
that would encourage the employees to do
their own brainwork and believe in their
own capabilities.
The eye of the hurricane
The Oticon that Kolind waded into was
wallowing in the depths of the worst crisis
it had faced in its entire 83-year existence.
“All the negative signs that I’d seen in
other large companies, I saw repeated in
Oticon, but here the patterns were even
clearer. The company was hierarchical
and bogged down in tradition. It was a
very strong company with many positive
elements, but some major changes were
needed,” says Kolind.
Mustering the troops
The first major step in this companysaving
exercise involved gathering
Oticon’s two main departments in one
building, and Kolind took this as an
opportunity to take a giant leap forward:
Various personnel groups were interested
in finding a solution to the challenges that
faced the company. But when the groups
presented a plan in December 1989, suggesting
that the departments merge under
one roof but keep their functions separate,
Kolind put his foot down: “The party
stops here. It won’t work. We need something
totally different,” he said. During
the Christmas holiday, Kolind wrote the
memorandum that was to lay the bedrock
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
for the Oticon of the future. What he was
seeking was a new organization totally
devoid of professional or functional barriers
– an environment conducive to teamwork
and innovative thinking. The goal
was simple: To secure Oticon’s position
among the world’s top manufacturers.
Kolind’s vision
“Our goal is to become the world’s top
hearing aid manufacturer before the end
of the 1990s. […] Within the next five
years, only five out of ten medium-sized
manufacturers are expected to survive as
independent companies, and Oticon will
Lars Kolind implemented organizational
changes in Oticon that resounded in the
world outside.
43

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T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Chapter 4
Oticon's paper-free and mobile
office landscape was quite a revolution
in the early 1990s.
be one of them,” writes Kolind to the
employees.
In 1989, Oticon supplied about 10 percent
of the world’s hearing aids. 95 percent of
the company’s production went for
export, and 1,200 people were employed
in 13 countries. In 85 other countries,
independent distributors managed sales.
In Kolind’s universe, people were supposed
to shape the future instead of just
react to it. Less than 5 percent of the
approximately 400 million people in the
world who needed hearing aids actually
wore them. A doubling of the world market
was therefore not unrealistic, according
to Kolind. If the company could join
the ranks of the world’s elite, it would
reap the rewards of market growth.
Winning this elite position required formulating
three strategies: One to improve
distribution; one to differentiate Oticon’s
products; and one to outline how to beat
the global competition. The company also
had to find a way to reduce costs per
instrument in order to earn enough money
to fuel future growth. The first objective
was therefore to increase productivity by
30 percent within three years – an increase
that could not be achieved through
employee cutbacks, but by encouraging
the existing staff to produce 30 percent
more. This ambitious goal demanded a
fundamental restructuring of the company.
Spaghetti on the menu
The new method of working involved a
number of radical changes: First, all communication
was to take place electronically
rather than on paper. The company
would no longer file paper copies of
documents, and the computer’s e-mail
system would become the glue that bound
employees together. Such procedures
became standard practice in the beginning
THINK THINK THE UNTHINKABLE

of the 21st century, but they were almost
unheard of in 1990. Each employee was
given a portable filing cabinet, which they
could roll from one desk to another, whenever
they changed jobs or joined new project
teams. Managers and leaders were
expected to be as mobile as the rest of the
staff. And if people needed peace and
quiet or privacy, they could use specially
designed study rooms, where they could
temporarily withdraw from the open office
environment.
This new organizational concept commanded
huge attention from the world
outside, and business consultants from
near and far travelled to Denmark to study
Oticon. What they could not know was
that, behind the scenes, Lars Kolind was
really facing strong opposition.
Headquarters leads the way
During the first stage of the metamor
phosis, the 130 employees stationed at
head office in the Product Development,
Sales & Marketing and Finance & Administration
departments – including management
– were invited to test the new theories.
Three types of management jobs were
defined: Project Managers, Competence
Managers and Personnel Managers. The
Project Managers were to propel the work
forward, the Specialist Area Managers
were to monitor the professional quality,
and the Personnel Managers – who were
responsible for groups of 10 to 15 employees
– were to ensure that people were
given the opportunity to contribute their
utmost and develop their skills through
new challenges.
“It will become a whole new type of company
where a large team of 130 people
work with 500 or 1,000 different tasks in
varying stages of development. Each task
will have an owner, and the larger ones
will have a Project Manager. This will
result in more challenges and more teamwork
across the entire organization. Oticon
will become the company where the
majority of what we do will be enjoyable
and something we are good at. Oticon will
have very few barriers and will therefore
become far more effective,” wrote Kolind.
Kolind had not expected his memorandum
to be greeted with any resistance upon its
publication on 18 April 1990, but despite
the negative attitude of the employees, he
still had the full support of the Board.
Detour to Hellerup
In the summer of 1990, people began to
cooperate more, but only after a difficult
process which included disagreements
about the geographical location of the new
headquarters. Faced with extreme resistance
from both management and employees,
Kolind had to abandon his original
plan to merge all of the departments
– from production to development, administration
and sales – and move them to
Thisted in western Denmark. Kolind’s next
suggestion was Tølløse Castle, where he
could envisage developing an Oticon university
with research, development and
administrative departments in beautiful
Renaissance surroundings. But this plan
was met with the same lack of enthusiasm,
so Kolind had to find another solution. It
came in the form of the Tuborg Brewery’s
old factory in Hellerup, near central
Copenhagen.
The relocation debate taught Kolind that
nothing could be achieved without the
support of the staff, so he set up an alternative
taskforce with regular employees.
Then he launched a new project, which
like all others was allocated a number
– 330 – the purpose of which was very
simple: To make Oticon 30 percent more
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
45

46
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Chapter 4
If Lars Kolind was the “ace-in-the-hole” who
would transform Oticon into a hyper-modern
company, then Niels Jacobsen was the
“wizard with figures” who would keep the
company on a firm financial footing.
productive within three years, starting on
08.08.91 at 8 a.m. This goal was so simple
that everyone could understand it. Almost
50 people joined the project. The only
condition for participation was that they
were willing to perform the work needed
to accomplish the project’s goal – in addition
to their normal duties.
Oticon makes history
In the new organization, all the desks were
identical, so people could move around
very easily. The ability to change was
essential. For the company, it was not
about creating equality so much as removing
obstacles to change. For this reason, all
employees were given new business cards
with no titles at all. It was no longer the
titles that counted – it was the individual
who mattered.
The day of 8 August 1991 was very carefully
orchestrated and attended by a flock
of journalists who were eager to cover the
event. The Oticon employees sat at their
desks, and if any of them preferred a different
location they could just roll their filing
cabinets to a new spot. This approach
had an outstanding effect both externally
and internally: It signalled radical change.
“Oticon was making history back then,”
says one employee who saw it all happen.
“There was a powerful force at play which
everyone could sense. We were so proud
to be “Oticoners” – we felt as though we
could walk on water.”
The strategy behind Project 330 was successful,
not least because the timing was
perfect. There had been countless discussions
about the organizational changes
prior to their physical implementation,
and much media interest had been generated
beforehand. This was a deliberate
ploy on Kolind’s part to utilize external
opinion as a tool to put pressure on those
members of the inner circle who stubbornly
remained sceptical.
Two on top
Such radical organizational changes had
demanded significant resources, and the
many development activities were bleeding
the company dry. This was not financially
viable in the long run, and the
Board of Directors believed that Kolind
should work with a Co-Director – someone
who could provide equilibrium for
Kolind’s outgoing management style and
who could manage the operational side of
the company.
Niels Jacobsen came to the company with
a strong background in finance and operations
and with experience from companies
such as Thrige-Titan, Atlas and Orion. If
Lars Kolind had been the ace-in-the-hole
who could transform Oticon into a modern
company, then Niels Jacobsen was the
man to maintain a sound financial foundation.
There was no official division of
responsibility between the two, and the
goal was to create management unity so
that together they could drive Oticon
forward.
“Niels was my diametric opposite, but he
was the perfect choice for Oticon. He
asked me right away: “Are you on some
kind of 60s trip, or do you want to run a
business?” We wanted to run a business
of course, and that’s what we decided to
do. We had some pretty volatile discussions
from time to time, but we were
always able to resolve things. A lot of
people – particularly journalists –
believed that there must have been antagonism
between us, but they couldn’t have
been more mistaken. We complemented
each other perfectly and worked together
very well,” says Kolind.

“When I joined Oticon, my most important
mission was to establish good working
relations with Lars,” says Niels
Jacobsen. “We chose not to operate in separate
spheres, and this meant working
closely together to make everything function
properly. Both of us were involved in
all processes, and both of us made decisions.
It was an interesting exercise to
establish a set of shared values and a common
goal for the company. We wanted
people to see that no matter which of us
they consulted on a particular matter, the
answer would be the same. This required
intense cooperation, and during the first
few years, we spent many hours talking
things over.”
Healthy differences
If the idea had been to get Oticon’s management
to function as one entity, it succeeded
beyond all expectations. Thanks to
an unwavering determination to reach
agreement based on the strength of one’s
arguments, Lars Kolind and Niels
Jacobsen managed to navigate Oticon
through treacherous waters and into one
of the smoothest periods of growth in the
company’s history. The advantages of
partnering two such contrasting personalities
also became apparent internationally.
At each annual planning meeting with the
subsidiaries, the two directors would
never visit the same companies. Their
unique management styles made this
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
exercise highly successful, because different
issues came into focus, depending on
which of the two was visiting a particular
subsidiary.
Niels Jacobsen’s drastic remedy
Niels Jacobsen’s primary objective was to
get Oticon’s finances firmly back on track.
“I approached this task with the attitude
that we had to get down to some serious
business, which meant solving problems
as they arose. Initially, I was quite surprised
at the lack of financial control. So
my main concern for the first six months
was to stem the flow,” says Niels Jacobsen.
“This meant closing down a lot of projects
that were so long-term that they could not
For almost 30 years, the managers
of Oticon’s subsidiaries
have attended an annual conference
to discuss topics such as
cooperation between subsidiaries
and distributors. The late Bent
Simonsen introduced this idea in
the mid-70s when he was Sales
Manager. The conference alternates
biannually between
Denmark and one of the other
twenty countries in which the
company is represented.
47

48
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Chapter 4
From 1994, Oticon’s Annual Report included
profiles of famous Danes who used the company’s
products. The first was Erik Hoffmeyer,
Director of the National Bank of Denmark.
possibly help to straighten out our economy
within the first few years. We had to
take a short-term view of things to turn
the cash-flow situation around.”
Everyone felt the effects of Jacobsen’s dramatic
remedy, but the strategy nevertheless
bore fruit. The breach in the cash
dam was firmly plugged in 1992, and after
three months Oticon registered more
income than expenses.
On track
In 1993, the company continued to make
headway. The combination of more creative
product development and marketing
together with cost-saving manoeuvres culminated
in 1993 in two awards: The
Computerworld Smithsonian Award in
the USA and the IT prize in Denmark.
In August 1993, Lars Kolind and Chairman
of the Board, Sven Folmer Thomsen,
released a message for Oticon Holding
stating that performance in the first half
of 1993 had been very satisfying. Turnover
had risen to 312 million kroner, and
the company’s liquidity had improved by
31 million kroner. This growth was largely
due to two products: MultiFocus and
PerSonic.
During this period, Oticon created
“Oticon 4 Kids” – a special programme
for children with hearing loss. The programme
was developed in the USA,
where Oticon worked closely with audiologists
in children’s clinics. Within three
months, 1,000 children had signed up for
the programme, which was designed to
make it easier for them to accept hearing
aids and view them as a natural communication
accessory rather than a handicap
product.
In 1994, Oticon’s operating profit before
tax rose by 61 percent to 134 million
kroner, and the Annual Report mentioned
that more than 100,000 people were now
using MultiFocus. Oticon’s production
factory at Thisted was awarded the
Annual Prize for the Environment for its
contribution to the external environment
and the working environment. Oticon
planned to become the world’s best hearing
aid manufacturer through a combination
of organic growth and acquisitions.
The first step was to create a company
with a strong earning capacity, and Oticon
was already well on the way.
Ready for more
1995 was a turning point in Oticon’s history.
The introduction of more stringent
On 11 May 1995, Oticon was listed on the
Copenhagen Stock Exchange and members of
the general public were given an opportunity to
become co-owners. Since December 1999,
Oticon has been featured on the Danish Blue-
Chip index – the KFX-index – which comprises
the 20 most traded shares on the Copenhagen
Stock Exchange.

procedures had been completed with such
success that the company had gained the
confidence to do even more. On 30 January
1995, Oticon Holding acquired a Swiss
company called Ascom Audisys AG (now
known as Bernafon). Audisys was approximately
one third of the size of Oticon, with
370 employees and an annual turnover of
235 million kroner. The company had
achieved recognition for its introduction of
digital, programmable hearing aids. This
technology made it easier for hearing care
professionals to adjust the instrument to
respond to the user’s hearing loss. The purchase
of Audisys was the first major acquisition
in Oticon’s history, and it was a
resounding success.
With a single blow this acquisition put
Oticon right on the heels of the two global
leaders: German-born Siemens and
American-born Starkey. The purchase of
Bernafon was the first of 30 to 40 major
and minor acquisitions performed by the
company up to the present day, and it put
Oticon’s ambition to one day become registered
on the Danish Stock Exchange into a
perspective analysts could understand.
The intent to register Oticon on the
Copenhagen Stock Exchange emerged
during the crisis of 1989-90. The Oticon
Foundation, which had been sole owner of
the company, decided to give Lars Kolind
and employees the opportunity to become
co-shareholders – a move that brought in
considerable resources. It was decided by
shareholder agreement that the company
be registered on the Copenhagen Stock
Exchange by no later than 1995. On 11
May 1995, this became a reality.
The digital race
Rumours in the industry that Phonak was
about to launch a digital instrument motivated
Oticon to speed up the development
of its own digital hearing aid in an attempt
to outmanoeuvre the competition. Just a
few months after the Stock Exchange
registration, Oticon introduced its most
advanced product, DigiFocus. This revolutionary
instrument was unveiled in
September 1995 to a huge international
fanfare. Over the next few years, the competitors
raced against the clock to complete
the development of both BTE and
ITE digital instruments. DigiFocus was
commercially launched in 1996 as the
fully digital ear-worn instrument capable
of improving people’s ability to understand
speech in noisy listening situations.
It became the most prize-winning hearing
aid ever with three major awards: The
Danish Industrial Design Prize, the
European IT prize and the European
Design Prize. Oticon continued to grow,
and in 1996 the company’s net turnover
exceeded 1 billion kroner.
Elsewhere in the world, things were also
progressing well. In Hamburg, construction
of new offices for Oticon GmbH
began to accommodate important expansion
activities in Germany. 1997 was also
the year Oticon acquired Phonic Ear Inc.
in California – one of the world’s leading
suppliers of wireless communication
equipment for hearing-impaired users
in the education sector.
Oticon Holding rechristened
The similarity of names between the
group known as Oticon Holding and the
subsidiary Oticon A/S was becoming
more and more of a disadvantage. At the
May 1997 Annual General Meeting, a
decision was made to change the parent
company’s name from Oticon Holding
A/S to William Demant Holding A/S.
“When we acquired Bernafon in 1995 we
could already feel that both Bernafon and
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n 49
Oticon 1904 – 2004
The kite in William Demant Holding’s logo
symbolizes all the qualities a holding company
should possess: A clear overview,
vision and astute management.
the world outside interpreted it as though
Oticon had taken over the company, even
though it was the holding company that
was actually the new owner. So as we
approached the acquisition of Phonic Ear,
which operates in many corners of the
hearing aid industry, we decided to give
the holding company a neutral name that
would not cause people to think of one
brand rather than another,” explains Niels
Jacobsen.
The name-change served two purposes:
Internally, it meant that employees in the
acquired company did not feel that they
were being taken over by employees of
Oticon. And externally, it meant that the
newly acquired companies could continue
to operate as independent entities with
their own brands.
A new millennium dawns
In the autumn of 1997, Lars Kolind chose
to withdraw after nine years at the helm,
and in December 1997, Niels Jacobsen
was appointed President & CEO of
William Demant Holding A/S. “The Board
of Directors decided quite quickly that I
should carry on alone, so things settled
down immediately. Many issues took a
more commercial turn because the balance
changed when Lars Kolind left. But
I was very careful not to fall in the opposite
ditch. I learned a lot during the years
Lars and I worked together, and I was
determined not to lose sight of our softer
values,” explains Niels Jacobsen.

50
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Chapter 4
Niels Jacobsen was the natural choice for
President and CEO, when Lars Kolind left
the post in 1997.
By this time, Oticon had grown so large
that the company needed another makeover.
Previously, Niels Jacobsen and Lars
Kolind had been responsible for 10 to 15
Competence Managers, who in turn
looked after other employees at headquarters.
But now, with a staff of 180, it
was time to take a different tack.
The solution was a team structure comprising
three teams, each of which was
managed by two Team Leaders. Each team
would have its own business area: Highend
Instruments, Medium and Low-end
Instruments and Technological Development.
The team leaders would be supplemented
by a number of Competence
Managers. The business model describing
the way the team leaders would interact
was inspired by the way Lars Kolind and
Niels Jacobsen had shared the workload,
and the principles were the same: The
leaders should work closely together, and
whenever decisions affecting the direction
of a team had to be made, may the strongest
argument win. The physical framework
for the new structure was already in place,
in the form of flexible workstations and
open offices, and the organizational change
caused no problems for employees, who
by then, were used to change. The
“Spaghetti Organization” had become
three layers of lasagne. And in the years to
come, each layer would contribute to
Oticon’s growth.
A full-line supplier
As President & CEO, Niels Jacobsen now
had the opportunity to launch an initiative
he had long been considering: To make
Oticon a full-line supplier. Throughout the
1990s, Oticon had focused on the development
and sale of instruments in the high
end of the market, making the company a
niche supplier. Niels Jacobsen felt that it
was time to target the broader market with
instruments in the low- and mediumprice
sectors. Winning market share in
these sectors would definitely spur
growth. So a development project was
launched, and in 1999, two new instruments
were born: Ergo and Swift.
Thanks to the new medium-priced instruments,
Oticon experienced in 1999 a significant
growth in retail for the first time
since 1988, and over the next four years,
sales quadrupled. There had been a definite
shift from being a niche supplier in
the 1990s to becoming a full-line supplier
with a bigger market share.
Oticon was a great favourite with the
Danish press. One newspaper described
William Demant Holding as one of the
stars of the Danish business community.
On 5 November 1999, the financial newspaper
wrote: “William Demant joins the
major league”, meaning that the company
was now registered on the Copenhagen
Stock Exchange’s KFX Index. KFX is the
Copenhagen Stock Exchange’s leading
share index. The index comprises the 20
most actively traded shares of the preceding
six-month period.
Continued growth
William Demant Holding continued to
strengthen all Group activities. In January
2000, the company acquired the Danish
audiometer manufacturer, Interacoustics,
as an enhancement to and expansion of
the Group’s diagnostics business. This
acquisition strengthened the company’s
position in the market. The greatest challenge
at that time was to find the right
partners in the elimination race that
would shape the future global market for
hearing aids. In this arena, companies
could get their fingers well and truly
burned, so it was wise to proceed cautiously.

When audiometer-manufacturing
company Interacoustics became
available for purchase,William
Demant outbid a group of employees
who had teamed together to
buy their own company.When the
initial ill will at having been
acquired by outsiders – from
Copenhagen no less – abated,
Interacoustics came to appreciate
being owned by William Demant
Holding.
“Both the employees and the management
dreamed of being able to
purchase Interacoustics ourselves
and keep it going. But our size
made us an interesting titbit for
the larger companies in the industry,
and in the economic race we
just couldn't go the distance.
When it became clear that Oticon
would be the victor, we were quite
relieved in a way, because we had
past experience with the company,
and we knew that when it came
to attitudes towards employees
and company culture, we shared
the same values.We knew that we
wouldn't be shut down or relocated
or have to discharge large
numbers of people,” says John
Pedersen, Financial Controller for
Interacoustics.
In 2000, the American business magazine
Forbes placed William Demant Holding
among the top 20 companies in the world
in its selection of the world’s top 300 companies
with a turnover of less than 500
million US dollars. The reason was the
impressive development in William
Demant Holding’s share price, which had
increased by 200 percent. This demonstrated
an annual growth in turnover of 25
percent on average over a period of eight
years.
Ready to merge
In 2001, several share analysts predicted
that mergers were in store for the world’s
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
In 2001, earnings in Oticon’s subsidiary in Holland had increased so much
that their market share had reached 23 percent. That year, the company’s
General Manager of many years, Gerard J.J. van der Wel (second on the left),
received the Danish Trade Group’s Award and HRH Prince Henrik’s Commemorative Medal for the
impressive development that has made Oticon Nederland Holland’s largest hearing aid distributor.
six largest hearing aid manufacturers,
Siemens, Starkey, William Demant
Holding, GN ReSound, Phonak and Widex,
who jointly dominated 90 percent of the
world market. Just seven years earlier, 20
companies had dominated 80 percent of
the market, and the analysts now predicted
that within three to four years, only
three major players would remain. To arm
itself for such mergers The Oticon
Foundation sought the approval of the
authorities to alter a 44-year old charter.
This would enable the Foundation to
reduce its ownership share from 61.43 percent
to under 50 percent and perhaps as
little as 33 percent in connection with
51

52
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Chapter 4
In 1998, headset manufacturer Danacom was
incorporated into the William Demant Holding
Group. Danacom then became part of a joint
venture with German Sennheiser.
strategic acquisitions or mergers between
William Demant Holding and competitors.
2002 got off to a promising start with the
successful introduction in late 2001 of a
new product line called Adapto. In the
autumn, William Demant Holding launched
a new offensive by entering an equal
joint venture with German company, Sennheiser.
The partnership would strengthen
William Demant’s headset-manufacturing
company, Danacom, enabling the company
to put up more of a fight against the two
strongest global players, American company
Plantronics and GN Netcom. The
Danish/German joint venture was named
Sennheiser Communications and headquartered
in Solrød in Denmark. When
William Demant Holding published outstanding
annual accounts later that spring,
it was welcomed and rewarded with share
price increases of more than 18 percent.
“If you look at the way the industry has
developed over the past seven or eight
years, where the number of companies
dwindled from about 20 to roughly six
major players, it shows that partnerships
can still be beneficial. Ownership structures
in the industry can be an obstacle to
mergers, but I have no doubt that we will
witness more joint ventures between companies.
In future, the demands on research
and development will be so heavy that it
will become too expensive for companies
to manage certain development projects
alone. It may well be that companies will
work together to develop core technologies,
then go their separate ways to compete
for market share,” Niels Jacobsen
concludes.
Company of the Year
The positive developments of the 1990s in
all parameters from product development
to the organization, its employees and its
finances culminated in 2003, when
William Demant Holding was nominated
“European Company of the Year”. The
nomination was based on convincing
financial results and steady growth in an
otherwise subdued market. The organization
behind the award is the European
Business Press, which includes The
Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal,
The Economist and 45 other business
publications in Europe.
A proud Niels Jacobsen points at business
acumen, timing and continuity as being
the most important reasons for the company’s
success. Over the last six to eight
years, William Demant has enjoyed great
stability on the employee front, and out of
around 30 to 40 managers, only three
have been in the company under three
years, creating an enormous sense of
It was a proud Niels Jacobsen, who in 2003 accepted the European Company of the Year Award.
Commenting on the event, he said: “It’s very uplifting to see the huge effort invested by everyone in
William Demant being recognized in this way. In a highly competitive market you cannot achieve
profit margins of between 20 and 25 percent, unless your company is an efficient, well-oiled
machine, and I am happy to say that ours is.”

continuity and community. “This company
thrives on teamwork. We know the
importance of creating a common understanding
of where we are going and of
working together to achieve our goals,”
says Niels Jacobsen.
Continual change
In 2003, the number of employees had
increased, and there was a concern that
the organization was becoming too stiff.
The company wanted to maintain its mental
and physical agility as well as a sense
of close proximity. At the same time, the
market for hearing aids was becoming
more complex and new, tougher demands
needed to be met to stay ahead of the
escalating competition.
This led to a restructure in March 2003,
in which the organization acquired a new
dimension: Focus Areas. This new structure
could be viewed as a three-dimensional
model. The individual business
teams were retained, but each team now
had three dimensions: Projects, Competencies
and Focus Areas.
A human focus
The team structure and the strong focus on
the individual employee are reflected in
Oticon’s slogan “People First” and the company’s
fundamental human values. These
values are rooted in a desire expressed by
the employees to be viewed as independent,
responsible individuals – and the management’s
desire to encourage employees
to be self-motivated and open-minded.
Oticon’s human values are in no way
static – they are open to debate and constructive
criticism – because this is the
only way to maintain a nimble and dynamic
mode of operation. “We have recently
reformulated our human values, which
represent a set of attitudes and values that
form the basis for our decision making.
Mission and Human Values
We have chosen not to be governed by
rules and regulations, so we have very few
of these, and those we do have are anchored
in common sense,” says Niels Jacobsen.
Oticon’s human values are very clear
indeed: “We are stronger when we act
together than when we act alone. Oticon
can only excel if we collaborate across different
areas of responsibility, projects and
specialist areas. We are flexible. We make
an extra effort. We respect each other. We
lead instead of follow – and this applies to
our internal environment as well as our
relationships with customers and suppliers.
This is how we ensure that Oticon
continues to grow and develop.”
“We must believe in ourselves”
“The people of Oticon feel as though they
are at the centre of the universe. People
respect each other’s point of view,” says
Project Leader Peter Anker Nielsen, who
joined Oticon in 1998. Peter feels part of
one big family. “We praise each other a lot,
T h e m o d e r n O t i c o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
“The people of
Oticon feel as
though they are
at the centre of
the universe.
People respect
each other’s point
of view.”
and we are very creative. We get feedback
in our daily lives, and we have a great
deal of freedom and responsibility,” says
Peter Anker Nielsen.
Such positive statements are typical coming
from Oticon employees. The company
is described as an excellent place of work,
with good workmates and good products.
Oticon develops at a pace the employees
find comfortable, and the company has
solid fundamental values – all guided by
a philosophy that says: “Do your very
best”. The fact that people are working for
“a good cause” also means something for
Oticon and its employees. This is certainly
part of the job for the audiologists, who
spend all their time helping people with
hearing loss. But it also means a lot to the
other members of staff to be working for a
company whose products help to improve
people’s quality of life, and where a portion
of the earnings is put to good use via
a Foundation.
53

Chapter 5
Eriksholm
Every old building has a story – and Eriksholm is no exception. The house
was originally built in 1862 from materials reclaimed from the old Customs
and Excise building in Helsingør. The house changed owners numerous
times prior to being purchased by Oticon in 1976. After extensive
remodelling, the centre was inaugurated on 16 September 1977.

Research that matters
It was the desire to strengthen Oticon’s
ability to meet tougher future competition
that encouraged the company to create
Eriksholm Research Centre in 1977. The
company’s vision was to create a centre
for research not only into technology, but
also into hearing. The goal was to gather
knowledge about the need for, and use of,
hearing aids in order to generate ideas for
developing new instruments. Research
needed to be brought out of the laboratory,
and hearing aids needed to be tested in
the reality against which they would be
weighed and measured.
Eriksholm was chosen, because it is situated
well north of Copenhagen, a healthy
distance away from the development and
marketing departments. The centre needed
to maintain a neutral position, if it
were to become a hub of international
research and knowledge sharing. The fact
that research was performed on neutral
ground and that it was not directly product-oriented
paved the way for the many
excellent relationships Eriksholm enjoys
today with research institutes all over the
world. The independent research institution
is referred to as Eriksholm rather
than “Oticon’s Research Centre”. One of
the first results of this autonomy was the
development of methods for fitting hearing
aids. These new methods not only had
impact on Oticon’s products, but were
also used to fit hearing aids all over the
globe.
It’s all about people
Eriksholm’s research supports Oticon’s
vision to “Help people live the life they
want with the hearing they have”. Good
hearing is essential for social interplay
between people, and it has a profound
effect on their quality of life. The majority
R e s e a r c h t h a t m a t t e r s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
of Eriksholm’s research is performed in
the field and is based on experiments
involving hearing aid users. Tests are performed
in different acoustic environments
and listening situations – such as communication
on a one-to-one basis, in groups
or in noisy listening environments.
The work conducted with the aid of hearing-impaired
volunteers has meant a great
deal to Oticon and generated considerable
The light and open design of
Eriksholm’s auditorium, with
views onto the park, give visitors
a feeling of being close to nature.
55

56
R e s e a r c h t h a t m a t t e r s
Chapter 5
In 1986, Eriksholm opened its own museum. Well-known Danish actresses, Karen Berg and Karin
Nellemose, in character as two old ladies, inaugurated the museum on 6 June.
new knowledge and ideas for the development
of future products. “50 years ago,
technology was a limiting factor. We had
lots of ideas about what could be done,
but we lacked the wherewithal to implement
them. Then the technology improved,
propelling development forward. Now it’s
time to concentrate on the human aspects.
At Eriksholm, we put people’s needs,
preferences and capabilities first, as our
slogan says: People First. We make new
discoveries through working with hearing
aid users. The most important task of any
scientist is to listen and be inspired. We
must transform ideas into something that
can be used in the world outside – some-
thing that can become a product that is
both commercially attractive and clinically
effective,” says Dr. Graham Naylor, who
joined Oticon in 1993 and has been Co-
Director of Research at Eriksholm since
2001.
The people of Eriksholm believe that the
greatest scientific challenge today is to
meet the needs of the listener. Technology
should not be applied just for the sake of
it. This demands great respect for the individual,
because while some want an
instruments that provides good speech
understanding in noisy surroundings,
others might prefer an instrument that
prioritizes comfort. The needs of the user
always come first, and the mass-produced
instruments of the past have now been
replaced by advanced hearing aids that
can be customized to meet each person’s
unique listening needs and personal preferences.
Sound and lifestyle
One of Eriksholm’s primary focus areas in
the new millennium is “acoustic lifestyle”.
When assisting people with hearing loss, it
is important to focus not only on their
hearing but also on their lifestyle. Eriksholm
hopes to provide much needed
insight by gathering more knowledge in
this area, including the types of listening
and communication situations people
encounter, the kind of jobs they have, and
the roles they play in everyday life. Over
the next few years, it should become possible
to introduce a system in hearing aids
that makes it easier for the user to switch
between different types of settings, depending
on their daily needs. “For the past few
years, we have performed exciting tests,
where users are allowed to “shape” the
sound of their hearing aids according to
their individual preferences. We give them
the opportunity to directly influence what

Eriksholm has worked systematically
with test subjects for over 25 years, and
the centre’s database contains more than
1,100 people. Test subjects change all the
time, but there is always a core group of
approximately 200 people. Denmark has
strict ethical laws governing test subjects,
and naturally Eriksholm abides by all of
these rules. People participate voluntarily,
and they can withdraw from an
experiment at any time.
happens in their ears, by helping them to
help themselves,” explains Claus
Elberling, Co-Director of Research at
Eriksholm.
Research and development, hand in hand
Since Eriksholm’s inception, the centre
has performed valuable work for Oticon.
More than 250 research reports have
fuelled product development. But Eriksholm
is not the only one to determine the
direction research should take. To maintain
a balance between research and development,
the centre has regular discussions
with Oticon’s development groups to set
the right course for the future. In addition,
Eriksholm manages its own specialized
section of research and regularly holds
internal seminars to share its knowledge
with Oticon.
A major breakthrough came in 1991 with
the fully automatic hearing aid, MultiFocus.
This was followed in September 1995
with DigiFocus, which, along with the
instrument’s own fitting software, provided
a gradual acclimatization to more and
more sound – a significant advance that
ultimately improved the wearer’s ability
to understand speech.
Adapto – a research success
The Adapto digital hearing aid, with its
unique VoiceFinder system, has a unique
ability to recognize speech. In contrast to
noise, speech contains a number of very
characteristic harmonic patterns. The
VoiceFinder system immediately detects
and zeroes in on these sounds. When
speech is no longer present, Adapto then
reverts to a more comfortable setting to
protect the user from irrelevant, tiresome
noise. Adapto is also equipped with an
anti-whistling system that makes the
instrument feel and sound more natural
– a benefit further secured with the use of
R e s e a r c h t h a t m a t t e r s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
larger ventilation channels than normal
(OpenEar Acoustics). The instrument also
amplifies sound in several different ways
to match the individual user’s hearing loss
and lifestyle.
Not all projects end successfully. There
has to be room for trials that fail and
instruments that end up on the shelf.
Experience shows that projects like these
often provide a stepping-stone to new
discoveries, which then form the basis
for future breakthroughs and inventions.
Two factors are decisive in development:
Knowledge-based research and technological
developments. 20 years ago, technology
was often the limiting factor,
preventing the transformation of knowledge
into concrete products. Today, the relationship
between the two is more balanced.
Over the past two decades, development
has progressed at lightening speed, and
Research results from Eriksholm
were the foundation for the
development of Oticon’s Adapto
hearing aid, which was introduced
in 2001. Adapto’s design
is based on a system that recognizes
human speech. The instrument
captures and amplifies
sound when speech is present,
and turns the volume down when
speech recedes.
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R e s e a r c h t h a t m a t t e r s
Chapter 5
Every hearing aid has to be tailor-made because – like fingerprints – no two people’s ears are
identical. Hearing aids are made to measure, and quality control is very strict.
today’s technology is more than capable of
managing demands raised on the basis of
research. For Eriksholm, this development
has meant a greater interest in the technological
aspects, since technology is often a
prerequisite for trying out new ideas.
Connections to the outside world
Over the years, Erikshom has become an
integral part of the international research
environment. The centre receives visitors
from all over the world and hosts international
conferences and seminars. Great
weight is placed on building relationships
outside Oticon, and the scientists participate
regularly in conferences both in
Denmark and abroad. Eriksholm’s relations
with the outside world have helped
the centre to remain at the forefront of
discoveries in the field. In the last 25
years in particular, huge progress has
been made.
Research takes high priority. For
example, Oticon worked in close
cooperation with Widex and GN
ReSound in 2002 to establish the
Centre for Applied Hearing
Research at Denmark’s Technical
University.

In 2001, extensive remodelling at Eriksholm
culminated in a modern auditorium, conference
facilities, a library, the Eriksholm
Museum and a new research department.
The Oticon Foundation also supports
Eriksholm by financing research projects
in all corners of the globe.
A holistic view of the individual
Since 1977, research at Eriksholm has
focused on the needs of hearing-impaired
people. According to Claus Elbering, Co-
Director of Research, this work will continue:
“The most important resource in
our future activities will be our test subjects,
and the work we perform will to a
great degree focus on their everyday
needs.” New fields worthy of development
are constantly being discovered. “Our
dealings with test subjects at Eriksholm
have provided excellent audiological ballast
and inspired countless projects. They
have also proved the value of taking a
holistic view of the individual. Hearing
loss is not the only thing that dictates how
people live their lives. The picture becomes
complete, only when we have fully understood
the needs of the individual with
whom we are dealing,” concludes Claus
Elberling. These and many other questions
require answers, if companies are to take
the needs of hearing-impaired people
seriously. In the past, companies tried to
simulate real life in a laboratory. Today,
companies are exploring people’s acoustic
lifestyles in the real world.
Projects in the pipeline
Research into the ear canal and the anatomy
and geometry of the outer ear has the
potential to form the basis for a new approach
to the mechanical function and cosmetic
appearance of hearing aids. Studies
addressing more concrete issues, such as
the acclimatization problems experienced
by hearing-impaired people the first time
they use hearing aids, also command
attention at Eriksholm. Research into these
areas and others are destined to significantly
impact the future of hearing aids.
R e s e a r c h t h a t m a t t e r s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
In the future, rather than just designing
projects to confirm or dispel various
hypotheses, Eriksholm will focus on
designing research tools: Prototype hearing
aids, software, test equipment, questionnaires
and the diverse tests needed for
the completion of projects. New ideas for
signal processing in future hearing aids
can lead to new opportunities for the user
and will therefore take high priority.
Signal processing demands an in-depth
knowledge of the characteristics of hearing,
so yet other new projects will seek to
uncover new influencing factors.
59

Chapter 6
The design
In the 1950s, hearing aids began to change shape.
The design became smaller, the technology less
bulky, and the colour became lighter.

A century century of of hearing loss
What does it mean to be hearing-impaired?
What effect does it have, and how do the
people around you react? These are just
two of the questions people ask themselves
when they meet someone with
hearing loss. The answer is often no
further away than in the newspapers or
weekly magazines, where over the past
few years, it has become more commonplace
to see famous personalities telling
the world about their hearing loss. But in
1904, when Hans Demant decided to help
his hearing-impaired wife, there were
very few opportunities for the “hard-ofhearing”,
as they were referred to back
then. They were abandoned to an inade-
quate social system where few technical
remedies were available.
The welfare of the hard-of-hearing
“I write to you as someone who has
become very hard-of-hearing. What a
heavy destiny this bodes in life. I have
just completed a nine-month long course
in lip reading, and I must admit that the
benefits I have gained from this are
beyond what I ever could have hoped for.
It has given me, my friends and colleagues,
and especially my family, such joy that I
am now able to understand almost everything
that is being said, even though I
cannot hear a single word,” writes Anton
A c e n t u r y o f h e a r i n g l o s s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Christensen in the Magazine for the Hardof-Hearing
in 1915. There were thousands
of hearing-impaired Danes in 1904, and
they all had difficulty finding help. Society
knew very little about hearing loss and
hearing aids. But in 1912, a small group of
hearing-impaired people formed a group
called the Hard-of-Hearing Welfare Association,
and this marked the beginning of
an era, in which more professional help
became available.
Getting a hearing test
The Hard-of-Hearing Welfare Association
hired an ear specialist to perform hearing
tests and offer advice on various solutions.
The first electric hearing aids were not
exactly discreet.
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In a 1923 phonebook, “Høreapparater” (hearing aids) came just after “Hønsefoder” (chicken food),
and this was where William Demant advertised his Acousticon instruments.
In 1914, the Association started a collection
of hearing aids at its offices in Copenhagen.
This collection was open every
Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m., when hearing-impaired
people were welcome to try
the different instruments to see which one
they preferred. “This is the only way to
ensure that people get an instrument that
suits them and will satisfy them in the
long run,” wrote the Magazine for the
Hard-of-Hearing. People would then go
and buy the instrument of their choice at a
dealer. William Demant helped to sponsor
the collection. In addition to the new
instruments, there was a number of used
ones that members had donated. “The
owners of these instruments want to do a
good deed by donating them to the Association’s
collection. Here they will be disinfected
and renovated if necessary and
then given to the more needy members of
the Association.”This was the Association’s
way of helping people with limited funds.
In the early 1900s, hearing tests were
primitive: They were performed with the
aid of tuning forks and flutes of different
pitches. It was a long and tiring procedure,
which yielded inaccurate results that were
difficult to translate into any particular
type of hearing solution. Since this method
took a long time, other methods were often
employed instead – like whispering or
using a pocket watch to verify the distances
from which people could hear certain
sounds.
Die-hard hearing trumpets
In 1925, a hearing aid collection was started,
which comprised both hearing aids
and hearing trumpets. One of the reasons
the hearing trumpet survived as an option
was that the trumpet’s price in 1917 was
somewhere between 6 and 20 kroner,
whereas an electric hearing aid could cost
anywhere between 125 and 300 kroner.

The hearing trumpet was used well into the
20th century. It was relatively cheap and did
not require expensive batteries.
The hearing trumpet, lacking the need for
battery power, was also cheap to run,
which also helped to fuel its popularity.
Perhaps its greatest advantage was that
people automatically spoke up when presented
with a hearing trumpet, so the
hearing-impaired person automatically
heard much better. As late as the end of
the 1930s, it was still not uncommon to
see hearing aid collections recommending
the use of hearing trumpets, rather than
electric hearing aids.
After some years, the Hard-of-Hearing
Welfare Association chose to assume
responsibility for the sale of hearing aids
to those who contacted them. The Association
earned commission on the instruments
sold, and this was invested in
improving and managing the collection.
Sound of a honey bee
In the first decade, only 50 people visited
the Hard-of-Hearing Welfare Association
each year. The majority of hearing-impaired
people went directly to the private
dispensers to get a hearing test and purchase
an instrument. In the mid-1930s,
William Demant had gathered a long
series of customer recommendations,
which he used in marketing his hearing
aids. “One example of the instrument’s
qualities: It was an amazing experience
for me to hear the honey bee “sing”, when
it dived into an apple blossom,” says B.
Christensen in 1935. Or, as shoemaker
Søren Jensen put it: “Without my hearing
aid, I would be just as helpless as a weaksighted
person would be without glasses
– perhaps even more so. At least glasses
can be fixed at the first watchmaker’s shop
on the high street. Hearing aids can’t. I use
my hearing aids for 10 to 12 hours a day,
they are essential for me in my business,
when I am serving customers.”
Reverend Helge Hostrup is quoted as saying:
“Six months ago, I received an
Amplified Bone Conduction instrument
called the Acousticon Model 20. Since
then, I have used it daily. It has without
A c e n t u r y o f h e a r i n g l o s s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
doubt helped my hearing loss. My family
are more affected by my condition than I
am, it would appear. But even I cannot
deny that I have become much better at
following a conversation than before.
When I talk to people who are old or ill I
find it much easier to hear what they are
saying, despite their often weak voices. I
also believe that this instrument is helping
to revitalize my normal hearing.”
Electric hearing aids were black and often
made from Bakelite. They had several sections,
which were connected with wires.
Bent Skjøttgaard recalls another interesting
detail about his grandfather: “In all
the time I knew him, he always wore his
hearing aid with the earphones connected
to a headband over his bald head and
with the microphone connected to his
jacket. I would often see him tapping the
Bakelite to loosen the coal dust so that he
could hear better.” The microphones of
that era were constructed with the help of
coal dust or balls of coal dust. Both had a
tendency to get stuck or stick to each
other, when the user walked from a cold
C.G. Buus remembers how
his father’s electric hearing
aid looked in 1935: “He
wore the microphone of
the hearing aid in his buttonhole
instead of a flower.
The earphone was fitted
on a headband that could
be worn like a headphone.
He put the battery in the
pocket of his waistcoat.
When he wasn’t using the
earpiece, he kept it in his
waistcoat to protect it.”
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Bent Skjøttgaard’s grandfather, Anders Skjøttgaard, on his 70th birthday. The hearing aid
was very heavy and could not sit in the ear alone, so a headband was necessary.

oom into a warm room. This seriously
affected the sound quality, but it could be
remedied by tapping on the microphone.
Not for the faint-hearted
Not all hearing-impaired people were satisfied
with their instruments. In direct
contrast to the positive recommendations
William Demant received from customers,
author Peder Kjærgaard Jensen recalls his
own experiences in 1959: “When I see the
delicate hearing aids people wear today, I
cannot help but recall the piece of junk I
once had. The earpiece was the size of an
alarm clock and as black as pitch. As
headwear goes, it was hardly elegant. The
instruments of the day made a noise like
stork clacking, or a tin can being dragged
over cobblestones. In the 1920s, hearing
aids were a rare sight. In the Børglum district,
where I lived, I was probably the
only one to own such a monstrosity.
People knew me from miles around as the
boy with the black can on his head. And
if the earpiece and microphone came too
close to each other, the whole thing whistled
like a steam train.”
Tube instruments
– high-priced but heavenly
In the mid-1940s, tube-amplifier instruments
became more common. They had
been available in the USA for some time,
but could not be imported to Denmark
because of the restrictions imposed by the
Foreign Exchange Control Committee. It
was only when Oticon began producing
tube instruments that they became a more
common sight in Denmark. They represented
a huge step forward technologically
for the people with hearing loss. As
Aage Jensen explains in 1948: “With my
old hearing aid, I would ask myself every
day when the sun came up whether I
ought to wear it. When I talked to people,
it didn’t provide any tangible help, and if
I wore it, it just advertised the fact that I
was hard-of-hearing. It couldn’t amplify
music or song at all, and the sound quality
was noisy and distorted. Tones became
completely unrecognizable. The most
wonderful thing about my new tube
instrument is that I can hear music and
song, and the melodies sound far richer.”
William Demant once more took the
opportunity to use customer’s recommendations
in marketing tube instruments.
“There are not enough words to describe
my joy and satisfaction with the new
OTICON. Having used it for about one
year, I can find nothing whatsoever to
complain about. It has satisfied my highest
expectations, and I feel that I now hear
just as well as my fellow man. I actually
have the advantage at parties, because
– if the witticisms begin to sink too much
below the belt – I can just turn them off.
Be convinced therefore of my daily gratitude,”
writes author Anton Jørgensen in
1947. Another satisfied customer writes:
“A world of tones has once more become
accessible to me, and the most important
thing is that I have ceased to be a nuisance
“I remember when my
grandfather came in from
the countryside to visit us
in Copenhagen, and my
mother and I would ride
with him on the town
tram. He used to ask all
sorts of questions and pull
his hearing trumpet out
from his pocket. Mother
would shout so loud that
everyone in the tram could
hear the conversation. And
I just sat there wishing I
could disappear,” says
Ulla Busk Laursen.
A c e n t u r y o f h e a r i n g l o s s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
to my fellow man, which one cannot help
but noticing when one is hard-of-hearing.
OTICON is the right instrument for me
– high-priced but heavenly.”
Transistor-based instruments
In 1949, the Hard-of-Hearing Welfare
Association had 5,000 members, and the
organization changed its name to The
Danish Association for the Hard-of-
Hearing. 1,500 people had visited the
hearing aid collection, of which approximately
1,000 had received hearing aids.
Of these, the Disabled Persons’ Association
had paid for 75 percent. The number
of hearing-impaired people requiring
treatment was estimated at 80,000. The
advent of the Hearing Service in 1951 was
consequently most convenient; it meant
that anyone could visit their doctor for a
referral to an ear specialist and get a statesubsidized
hearing aid.
The first transistor-based instruments
were introduced in early 1953, but years
would go by, before they superseded the
tube-based instruments. In the Magazine
for the Hard-of-Hearing, engineer C.A.
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Before the advent of the Hearing Service in 1951, hearing-impaired people purchased their
instruments directly through dealers. Countless hearing aid advertisements appeared in
numerous newspapers and weekly magazines. Window displays featuring hearing aids
were also an integral part of street life. However, when the Hearing Service became a
reality, commercial Danish hearing aids disappeared.
Jahnsen, who suffered from hearing loss,
warned his fellow sufferers about the drawbacks
of changing to the new transistorbased
instruments: “Regarding the transistor
itself, it is no secret that American
scientists and manufacturers have experienced
great difficulty producing a uniform,
reliable product. There are also differing
opinions among European manufacturers
about the stability of the transistor.
Another problem is thermal noise, which
increases greatly with temperature and can
cause problems in an instrument, whose
tubes have been replaced by transistors.
This is because the noise from the first
transistor is increased in those that follow.
It cannot be advantageous at this stage to
paint transistors in rosy-red colours, and
anyone contemplating getting a transistorized
hearing aid would do well to wait.”
Despite these worries, the technical teething
problems were resolved, and the transistor-based
instrument became popular
all over the world.
Head-worn instruments
Head-worn instruments first appeared in
Denmark at the end of the 1950s. They
were either worn behind the ear or built
into spectacle frames. The design of these
instruments was not only inspired by a
desire to produce cosmetically attractive
solutions – it improved performance too.
When the microphones of body-worn
instruments were attached to clothing, the
clothes generated a great deal of interfering
noise. Because they were not susceptible
to this type of problem, the head-worn
instruments had a real advantage.
In the 1950s, very few hearing aids were
sold directly to users. If people needed an
instrument, they went through the
Hearing Service, and it took years before
head-worn instruments became part of the
selection at State Hearing Centres. In
1962, the State Hearing Centre in Odense
conducted a broad survey, comparing
body-worn instruments to BTE instruments.
The results were to be considered,
when making a decision on whether to
include BTE instruments in the Hearing
Service selection. Consultant Doctor
Christian Røjskjær emphasized different
conditions in his summarizing report: “It
has always struck me that the treatment
of many moderately hearing-impaired
students with body-worn hearing instru-
In the 1950s, hearing aid development took off.
Instruments became smaller and lighter, and
even the colours became lighter.

Oticon’s “Ear Jewel” from 1967.
Hearing glasses were very popular in
the 1970s.
ments was like shooting sparrows with
cannons. By this, I mean not only the
enormous amplification abilities of the
body-worn instrument, but also the way
it works in general: A bag on the chest,
wires, noise generated by the movement
of clothes during extreme activity and
much more. Patients approaching puberty
would quite understandably often have a
negative attitude towards body-worn
instruments. This survey did not include
our largest group of patients: The ageing
and the elderly. These present a polymorphous
group of patients, who would
undoubtedly have difficulty with BTE
instruments – not least because of handling
problems (dexterity in fingers, hands,
arms and shoulder joints). The only obvious
disadvantage with BTE instruments is
wind noise, which is reported by almost
everyone in outdoor situations.”
Doctor Røjskjær concluded that it was time
to propel development in the direction of
head-worn instruments. In November, the
Disabled Persons’ Insurance Service placed
an order for 3,000 BTE instruments with
the three Danish manufacturers. In 1967,
approximately 100,000 Danish hearing aid
users benefited from this more attractive
style of hearing aid.
Performance-conscious users
With time, both hearing aids and fitting
techniques became more advanced, making
it easier to match a person’s hearing
loss and find the right instrument for the
individual user. One comment from a
hearing aid user in 1981 shows the importance
of understanding how various
instruments actually worked. The instrument
in question was the Oticon E24V,
which had a manual switch to move
between ordinary microphone use and a
more directional microphone. This
enabled the user, a hearing therapist, to
A c e n t u r y o f h e a r i n g l o s s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Former American President, Ronald
Reagan, spurred a significant
increase in sales of hearing aids in
America at the end of the 1980s,
when he talked openly about his
hearing loss. Former President Bill
Clinton also wears hearing aids.
Both men became icons for the
hearing-impaired, helping to dispel
many of the myths associated with
hearing loss.
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Since the 1960s, teleloop systems have been established in public places such as cinemas,
theatres, auditoriums, libraries, nursing homes, public buildings, some banks etc. to help
hearing-impaired people. Today, people can buy train and theater tickets at special counters
equipped with teleloops. Home systems are also available, to make listening to the radio or
TV easier. The picture is from the Copenhagen Zoo.
determine which mode would be optimal
in different situations and thus to take full
advantage of the instrument’s potential:
“I can easily follow what is happening
around me. It is only in more demanding
situations that I am reminded that my
hearing isn’t what it should be. At lectures,
and when I listen to the radio and
TV and so forth, I use the Oticon E24V in
directional mode quite happily. This comfortably
dampens background noises such
as traffic, the rustle of paper and coughing
etc., so they become less irritating.”
One of the landmark events that spurred
the use of hearing aids occurred in 1983,
when President Ronald Reagan stepped
forward and acknowledged that he had
begun to use a hearing aid. He was 72
years old at the time and had had difficulty
hearing for 40 years. According to the
President, his hearing loss hailed back to
his career in Hollywood when, during
filming, one of his colleagues accidentally
fired a gun very close to his head. For years,
he swept the problem under the carpet, to
the infinite irritation of immediate friends
and family. The First Lady was delighted
to see her husband using a hearing aid:
“When I whisper sweet nothings in his
ear, at least I know that he can hear me
now,” said Nancy Reagan. The American
doctors hoped that the combination of
new, virtually invisible hearing aids that
sat deep in the ear canal and the President’s
candid approach would encourage more
people to wear them, and with time, their
wishes came true. The President’s openness
helped to increase the sale of hearing
aids.
Stigma – past, present and always?
In 1941, someone was quoted as saying:
“With women, it is often vanity that prevents
them wearing hearing aids, so it is
fortunate that the earpiece and cable can
be camouflaged in the hair and the microphone
tucked away in a blouse. Men will
unfortunately have to use stupidity as an
excuse.” The fear of being seen to stand
out from the crowd because of a hearing
aid has existed ever since their invention,
and this feeling continues today, according
to Assistant Audiologist Claus Nielsen,
who also manages Oticon’s hearing aid
museum at Eriksholm. “Hearing-impaired
people have always been discriminated
against. One shocking example hails from
Japan in the 1920s, where hearing-impaired
people were forced to wear a sign saying
“hard-of-hearing” whenever they went out.
Even though this was meant for other
road-users, it was a terribly disparaging
command,” says Claus Nielsen. Gitte
Engelund, who is studying for her PhD at
Eriksholm, corroborates Claus’s statement.
Gitte is currently analyzing the level of
intolerance the Danes exhibit towards
people who wear hearing aids and the
related loss of social status. “Hearing loss
affects people’s social identity because
they get downgraded. People in their surroundings
shun them, since their deafness

is often equated with dumbness. A hearing
aid turns the ageing process into something
negative, and people who have hearing
loss don’t enjoy talking about it. They
are shy, embarrassed and often lacking in
self-confidence. At work, their colleagues
joke about the problem, which makes
them do everything in their power to hide
their hearing loss,” she explains.
In her analysis, Gitte points out that the
only way to tackle the stigma is through
increasing people’s understanding of hearing
loss: “We have to put a stop to the
conscious or subconscious bullying of this
group of people, and this requires changing
people’s attitudes. Since more people
are living longer and getting hearing aids,
hearing loss will become more legitimate,
and people will find it easier to leave the
isolation behind. Time is on our side here,
but we mustn’t let it lull us into taking no
action at all.” Gitte’s analysis, which will
be used to help improve the conditions
for hearing-impaired people, shows that
despite significant advances in hearing
aid technology, many of the emotions and
experiences that prevailed a century ago
still remain today. “The social stigmatization
of hearing-impaired people is as bad
now as it has ever been. It may even be
worse, because society has become far more
competitive, and the demands on people’s
performance have escalated. But luckily
hearing aid technology and services have
much improved,” says Claus Nielsen.
“Today, no-one has to walk around with a
monstrosity of an instrument strapped to
their head for everyone to see. And today,
everyone is entitled to free aid. Hearing
loss is no longer synonymous with a life
of isolation,” says Claus Nielsen.
Discrimination is one thing; another is the
way an individual perceives his or her
own hearing loss. These negative percep-
tions can often result in feelings of inadequacy,
and personal relationships can be
negatively affected. One way to dispel the
taboo is to encourage people to talk openly
about the problem.
A tough thing to accept
“Why are you laughing?, I asked myself
some years ago, as I stood with a group of
colleagues in the police canteen. One of
them had been sharing an amusing experience
that had occurred in connection with
a case investigation. And everyone burst
out laughing. Even me. Later, I genuinely
regretted it. Why had I played along with
it? I knew the truth. I couldn’t hear properly,
so I hadn’t heard the whole story.
I’d missed the point. But I laughed along
with others just to feel part of the team.”
This story is told by Detective Inspector
Jens Ryhave, who, like thousands of others
all over the world, had difficulty
accepting his hearing loss. As a leader of
investigations in criminal cases, Jens
Ryhave’s inability to follow the conversations
was problematic and irritating for
the detective and his colleagues. Often in
stressful situations that required fast decisions
that could have quite far-reaching
consequences, he needed to be able to
hear what was being said. “I knew that I
was good at my job. It was my whole life.
And I was proud at having been promoted
to Detective Inspector with all the authority
and competence the position demands.
But I was on the verge of losing my job,
my self-respect and my reputation,” says
Jens Ryhave.
Hearing loss also inhibited Jens from participating
in social situations with his colleagues:
“I was aware that my hearing was
failing, so I avoided talking to people in
places like the canteen, where I found it
difficult to follow a conversation because
of the background noise. I planned my
A c e n t u r y o f h e a r i n g l o s s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
In Holland, people regularly take the
initiative to come to grips with hearing
loss. Each year, during the first week in
November, members of the hearing aid
industry, doctors, audiologists, hearing
care professionals, universities and the
Dutch Health Service put hearing in
the spotlight. During this week, any
Dutchman can call a special telephone
number and get a hearing test, and the
phone call costs only 35 cents per
minute. Hearing loss in children is
also in focus during this week, and the
National Hoor Stichting cooperates
with the Leids University to offer a
special hearing test for children.
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“When I talk about hearing aids, the reaction is
always positive. Most people think it’s fantastic
that I’ve been able to get an instrument that
helps me lead a fairly normal lifestyle, considering
the extent of my hearing loss,” says Jens
Ryhave.
work, so that I either ate before or after
all of my colleagues. It could be irritating,
and it was a shame not to be able to join
in the social side of life at work,” Jens
continues. The many difficult situations
at work and at home took a heavy psychological
toll on Jens Ryhave. “The hearing
loss was a spoke in the wheel, no matter
what I was doing. I became very tense in
situations where I sensed that what was
being said was important. It was extremely
tiring; I avoided teamwork, wherever
possible, and worked either alone or
together with only a few of my colleagues.”
At home, Jens was frustrated at not being
able to hear everything his family could
hear or to know what they were talking
about. “I couldn’t hear when my beloved
grandchildren whispered something to
me, and I often talked absolute rubbish
back at them.” Luckily, Jens’s wife was
very supportive, and the couple openly
discussed what was happening. “My wife
helped me in those situations where I
hadn’t caught everything that had been
said. She never complained, but I know
she must have found it irritating,” says
Jens Ryhave.
Fighting – and winning
The decision to wear a hearing aid was
not easy for Jens. By not wearing an
instrument, he felt that it was easier to
hide his hearing loss. He didn’t want to
signal weakness, inadequacy or be the
object of other people’s sympathy. “I was
worried that they would say: ‘He doesn’t
hear so well any more, so we probably
can’t count on him,’ or ‘He only has a few
years to go’.” Jens grew weary of the eternal
feelings of panic and inadequacy. “I’d
really had enough by then. It was time to
face my own demons and the world outside,
for better or for worse.” Jens Ryhave
went to an ENT doctor and was referred
to his local hearing care centre, where he
received his very first hearing aid. “My
experience with hearing aids was nothing
short of overwhelming. Without noticing
it, I had gradually forgotten many normal
sounds. I had forgotten what it was like to
hear birds cheeping, when they flew into
our garden to feed off the bird table. Now,
I could hear the gravel crunch under my
feet again; bicycle wheels whooshing by
on the tarmac; the wind playing in the
leaves; waves lapping on the shore and
my grandchildren talking and laughing.”
The most important thing for Jens – over
and above the more intricate details
– was the everyday conversation. It was a
huge relief for him to once again be able
to participate in discussions with family,
friends and colleagues.
Jens Ryhave realized many benefits from
his hearing aids, but he felt that they
might provide more. “I was almost possessed
by the thought of getting my hearing
back again, so I contacted Oticon’s
research centre, Eriksholm, and became
a test subject.” It did not take long to
achieve results. After having used BTE
instruments for a number of years, Jens
has now switched to virtually invisible
mini-instruments. “The way my hearing
loss was developing, I am certain that I
could not have continued in my job without
hearing aids – I would either have had
to take a less demanding job or retire completely.
But I am still working, and I
haven’t experienced any situations where
my hearing loss inhibits me,” says Jens.
“We won – Oticon and I,” he concludes.
A medal-winner’s goals
“I am 48 now, and it wasn’t until five
years ago that I plucked up the courage to
tell people about my hearing loss,” says
Danish Olympic medal winning cyclist,
Hans-Henrik Ørsted. “Until that point, I
had ignored it and tiptoed around it.”

Hans-Henrik Ørsted has had an impressive
cycling career and has won many medals.
As a young man, Hans-Henrik had
always suspected that he was slightly
dyslexic, but he did not notice any problems
with his hearing. “My teachers
often wrote “lack of concentration” in
my grade book,” he says. He enjoyed
sports, and cycling began to occupy more
of his time. “I came home from a training
session in Ireland in 1989 and felt strong
tinnitus in my ears. My GP gave me the
shocking diagnosis that I was losing my
hearing. So I went for a hearing test at
the hospital, and they prescribed an analogue
hearing aid,” says Hans-Henrik.
Hans-Henrik Ørsted has accepted his
hearing loss like a true fighter. “I’ve
crossed all sorts of boundaries as a
sportsman, and I do exactly the same
thing with my hearing loss. As far as I’m
concerned, you’re either developing or
stagnating,” he says, emphasizing that it
requires hard work to recoup lost ground.
“You have to believe in yourself, and you
have to keep up the fight! Success isn’t
in any one particular place, it’s like a
never-ending journey where you have to
train, train and train. It’s the only way to
improve.” Hans-Henrik feels that people
with hearing loss should always set goals
for themselves – from the technology to
the hearing aid – otherwise it is difficult
to make progress. “I am never entirely
satisfied with my instruments, and I
want them to be more and more advanced.
Just like cycle training, I train
myself to hear more and better – and
that includes mental training. I remember
that at one point, I had the world’s highest
fitness rating, because I worked hard
and constantly set new goals,” says
Hans-Henrik Ørsted.
Courage to be candid
It takes courage and self-awareness to
admit that one has a problem. It took a
A c e n t u r y o f h e a r i n g l o s s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
long time for the famous sportsman.
“Things were going very well for me,
despite the hearing loss,” says Hans-
Henrik. Hans-Henrik lives a totally normal
life in the world of the hearing. In
his professional life as Sales Manager in
a large cleaning company, he is very
open about his hearing loss. “At work,
you have to work together, and that’s
why I’m very open and honest with my
colleagues. If we are attending meetings
in town, I always try to get there early in
order to find a seat where I can hear
everyone and where I don’t have to
explain so much. You have to have the
courage to be open about your hearing
loss. People are afraid of how others will
react. They wonder whether they will be
labelled and put in a box, if they tell
people that they have hearing loss. They
wonder whether they will become isolated.
All I can say is that as individuals,
we can achieve a lot more than we think,”
he says.
Hans-Henrik Ørsted agrees that more
famous people ought to stand up and
talk openly about their hearing loss.
“The more that do dare to share their
stories, the easier it will become in
everyday life for the many others who
haven’t the courage to say anything. I
want to help others by being open. At
the moment, I use only one hearing aid,
and now I am learning that the best solution
is actually to wear two. That’s something
I need to accept. But remember
– you’re either developing or stagnating,”
says Hans-Henrik Ørsted.
As a well-known personality, Hans-
Henrik Ørsted has many opportunities to
dispel people’s misperceptions about
what it means to have a hearing loss, but
even the average person can help break
down the stigma of hearing loss.
71

Chapter 7
William Demant and Ida Emilie Demant
Founders of the Oticon Foundation.

William Demant – the man
and the foundation
From the day of his birth, on 22 July 1888,
William Demant watched 91 years of
world and Danish history pass by. He witnessed
the invention of the electric light
and the building of the Eiffel Tower. In his
teenage years, he gazed in awe as automobiles
and aeroplanes appeared. Then he
watched with horror as the world was
decimated not by one, but by two world
wars. In 1969, he witnessed, through the
window of the modern television,
American astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first
steps on the moon. When William Demant
died on 23 December 1979, he left one of
the world’s largest hearing aid companies
as his legacy. He was the Dane who always
put hearing loss on the agenda, and he left
his own indelible imprint on a changeable
world.
William Demant looks back
An unpublished interview with William
Demant conducted in 1971 was discovered
in Eriksholm’s archives. In it, William
explains how his father – although he was
an enterprising businessman – initially
had had no intention of selling large numbers
of instruments in Denmark or laying
the foundation for the Danish hearing aid
industry. “All he wanted to do was buy
one instrument for my mother, but that
one instrument started an avalanche,”
says Demant.
William Demant also recalls how pioneering
the country was, when it came to
working with hearing problems: “Our
hearing care system began to emerge as
early as 1807 with the very first schools
for the deaf. During that time, people had
a tendency to view hearing-impaired
people and deaf people as retarded, and
they would not acknowledge the necessity
of making an active effort to rehabilitate
them in the best possible way. They only
became motivated when hearing aids were
introduced.”
When asked about Oticon’s future plans,
William Demant repeated a quote once
made by famous Danish humorist, Storm
P.: “It is difficult to make predictions
– especially about the future!” This rather
cryptic answer stemmed from the fact that
William was no longer actively involved
in the company and therefore no longer
had a finger on its pulse, even though he
still visited the factory and offices from
time to time. “There is no doubt that the
new technological developments will
affect us though,” he continues. “The
fact that we are now living in the space
age – with everything that goes with it –
means that the technological advances
will be huge. When we talk about development
today, I think that two years
sounds like a long time. But we are gaining
greater insight into the psychological
problems associated with hearing loss,
and how we can alleviate these problems.
One thing is certain: We should look at
different aspects of hearing aid development,
so that hearing aids can be worn
daily and become an integral part of
people’s lives. From a manufacturing
viewpoint, this requires gathering more
knowledge about the challenges of hearing
loss and hearing aids. In my opinion, our
W i l l i a m D e m a n t – t h e m a n a n d t h e f o u n d a t i o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
task is not just to sell hearing aids, but
also to contribute to helping people win
back some of their hearing – just like my
father did for my mother.”
I have seen so much in this world
William Demant’s 80th birthday fell on the
same Monday as the industrial holidays
ended. Demant had told the management
that he wanted no festivities, but the
Board of Directors had already arranged
a party. And they gave him a solid silver
champagne cooler engraved with the
initials W.D.
By the end of the 1970s, William Demant
was approaching the grand old age of 90.
He was still very interested in Oticon and
would still phone Bent Simonsen to hear
how things were going. Each time there
was a reminder to “cut the stamps off the
envelopes”. Demant loved to add new
stamps to his stamp collection. One day,
William Demant called Lis Høien, who
was an accountant in Oticon. Lis Høien
asked him whether he was well and
Demant replied: “Considering my age and
how much I have seen of this world, I
have no reason to complain.” William
Demant died on 23 December 1979 – the
same year that Oticon celebrated its 75th
Jubilee with 800 employees in the
Falkoner Centre in Copenhagen. He was
buried in Copenhagen in the company of
other well-known Danes, including
authors Tove Ditlevsen and Herman Bang
and Prime Ministers Thorvald Stauning,
Hans Hedtoft, Viggo Kampmann and Jens
Otto Krag.
73

74
W i l l i a m D e m a n t – t h e m a n a n d t h e f o u n d a t i o n
Chapter 7
“William Demant Holding A/S’ growth in earnings
has enabled the Foundation to increase its
grant capacity over the past few years. This has
been particularly beneficial for young students
seeking supplementary education abroad,”
says Knud Sørensen, Chairman of the
Foundation.
The Oticon Foundation is born
William Demant will be remembered in
more ways than one – through a leading
worldwide organization and through the
William Demant Foundation. The
Foundation was created in 1957 under
the name “William Demants og Hustru
Ida Emilies Fond” (“William Demant’s
and Wife Ida Emilie’s Foundation” – often
referred to as the “Oticon Foundation”
with the purpose of securing both the
company and its ownership. Oticon was
converted into a limited company in 1956,
and when the Foundation was created a
year later, all of the shares were transferred
into it. The charter for the Foundation is
dated 31 December 1957 and signed by
William Demant, Christian Harhoff and
Iver Hoppe. It states: “The Foundation’s
capital is one million kroner, of which one
thousand kroner is in cash, and the remaining
999,000 kroner is in nominal value
shares in the newly founded company,
Aktieselskabet William Demant. This gift
is made under the condition that the
Foundation accepts responsibility to operate
in accordance with all related Articles
of Association, including the services that
uphold the objectives of the Foundation
stated in Article 3, and in pursuance of
decisions made by the Board of Directors
and approved by the founder.”
Article 3 states, among other things, that
the Foundation should, from its net income,
provide a life annuity to the founder’s
surviving relatives, and that benefits,
low-interest or interest-free loans, should
be offered to wage-earning and salaried
employees in Aktieselskabet William
Demant. It also states: “The Foundation
should also support commercial, cultural,
scientific, social and artistic initiatives
likely to benefit the country – particularly
the education of Denmark’s youth.” Up
to 10 percent of the Foundation’s annual
net income continues to be reserved for
these purposes.
Scholarships for better hearing
As a supplement to its grants, the Foundation
established the Oticon Scholarship in
November 1960. With support from the
Foundation, grants were awarded every
year in the period from 1961 to 1991 to
people involved in solving central issues
relating to hearing-impaired people. A
Scholarship Committee, with representatives
from the medical, educational and
technical audiology fields, allocated these
grants together with William Demant up
until his death. Over the years, the Oticon
Scholarship has been awarded to a broad
selection of institutions with many different
goals. In 1990, when changes in regulations
regarding the Scholarship grants
impacted the formal programme, Oticon
moved to a less formal programme of grant
awards. Today, the Oticon Foundation continues
to support projects, whose goal is to
remedy or alleviate hearing loss and hearing-related
problems.
In 1998, Knud Sørensen, former chairman
of the board of management of a major
Danish bank, replaced Bent Simonsen as
Chairman of the Oticon Foundation.
Donations to a landmark cause
In 1998, The Oticon Foundation donated
1.5 million kroner to President Nelson
Mandela’s efforts for South African children.
“More than a third of South Africa’s
population is under the age of 15, and
many of them are in great need. The money
in the Children’s Fund helps projects for
handicapped children in South Africa,
where hearing loss is considered the most
common handicap. The grant also capitalized
on the fact that President Nelson
Mandela has, in past years, formally
acknowledged his own hearing loss and

his use of hearing aids, which enables
him to actively fulfil his duties as the
country’s leader. When a well-known person
steps forward to encourage people to
do something about their hearing loss, it
helps to reduce the social stigma associated
with this condition, which some 300
million people experience every day,”
says Knud Sørensen, Chairman of the
Oticon Foundation.
In 1999, the Oticon Foundation made donations
to DanChurchAid’s humanitarian
work during the Kosovo conflict. Since
1999, the Foundation has annually awarded
two PhD scholarships valued at 1.5
million kroner per person to well-qualified,
specialist students at Danish universities.
The Foundation has also granted 20
scholarships valued at 2 million kroner
per year – an initiative that began in 2000.
One of the main recipients of grants from
the Oticon Foundation is Denmark’s
Technical University (DTU) situated in
Lundtofte, to the north of Copenhagen. In
2002, the Foundation donated 35 million
TODAY THE OTICON FOUNDATION SUPPORTS:
●
●
●
“Educational and other initiatives that
seek to prevent and remedy hearing
loss.
“Publications, conferences and campaigns
that seek to raise the level of
awareness of hearing and hearing loss
among researchers, professional audiologists
and the general public.
“Research projects within the fields of
audiology, psychoacoustics, psychology
and sociology.
●
●
●
“Research projects, conferences, publications
and other initiatives whose
purpose is to increase people’s knowledge
of audiology and hearing aids
specially designed for children.
“Scholarships for young scientists
who are interested in working at
Oticon’s research centre or who want
to perform own research projects that
are in keeping with the objective of
the Oticon Foundation.
“Projects that seek to improve the
quality of life for hearing-impaired
children and adults through education,
social activities and the use of
information technology.
W i l l i a m D e m a n t – t h e m a n a n d t h e f o u n d a t i o n
Oticon 1904 – 2004
kroner to build an assembly hall and a
student residence hall. “The William
Demant Hall of Residence will be built
on campus at DTU and will accommodate
100 students. Out of a donation
of 15 million kroner, 10 million kroner
will be used to ensure that the building’s
technical facilities are built to last, and
5 million kroner will be placed in a fund,
where the returns will contribute to
keeping the monthly rent at the college
down,” reported the Foundation in
June 2000.
●
●
“Initiatives that help to ensure a
secure future and a pleasant working
environment for Oticon’s employees,
i.e. educational scholarships, jubilee
scholarships and cultural activities.
“Commercial, cultural, scientific,
social, educational and artistic initiatives
– particularly those that contribute
to the education of young
students.
75

76
F a m i l y t r e e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Mette
Michaelsen
★ 1863
✝ ?
Maren
Jørgensdatter
★ 1763
✝ 1801
Johan Frederik
Demant
★ 11/12-1800
✝ ?
Jørgen Friderich
Demant
★ ca. 1757
✝ 8/12-1803
Jürgen Demant
★ 1692
✝ 6/1-1772
Jürgen Christopher
Demant
★ 1724
✝ 1803
Inger Kirstine
Hansdatter
★ 1760
✝ ?
Susanna ?
★ 1695
✝ 1729
Hans Jørgen
Demant
★ 1779
✝ 12/8-1845
Hans Jørgen
Frederik Demant
★ 25/8-1854
✝ 4/4-1910
Johan Andreas
Wilhelm Demant
★ 1720
✝ 1/2-1803
Jørgen Frederik
Demant
★ 1760
✝ 1840
William Demant
★ 22/7-1888
✝ 23/12-1979
Frederikke Sophie
Juliane Demant
★ 1815
✝ 12/1-1882
Camilla Louise
Berta Nielsen
★ 16/6-1858
✝ 30/1-1934
Anna Seville
Jørgensen
★ 1721
✝ 10/5-1786
Anna Seville
Demant
★ 26/6-1765
✝ ?
Marie Cathrine
Jørgensen
★ 18/4-1794
✝ 27/4-1865
Jørgen
Jørgensen
★ 1770
✝ 1845

Christina Gyllich
★ 3/8-1948
Louise Gyllich
★ 5/7-1980
Tove Sigrid Gyllich
★ 15/11-1911
✝ 31/10-2001
Per Flemming
Gyllich
★ 8/12-1938
Carsten Abildgård
Gyllich
★ 29/11-1965
Notes on on William Demant’s family tree
● The input for the Demant family tree
has been gathered from the Internet,
various archives and interviews with
descendants of the Demant family. Mr.
Per Schroder has kindly provided
invaluable information about the elder
members of the Demant family.
Jacinda Chaiton
Gyllich
★ 1/7-2003
● ●
William
Demant
★ 22/7-1888
✝ 23/12-1979
Niramon Chaiton
★ 13/8-1970
Ida Emilie Høst
★ 29/1-1888
✝ 11/4-1957
Fayella Margareta
Demant
★ 4/2-1949
✝ 4/5-1968
Theis Hansen
★ 3/5-1968
✝ 3/7-1984
● William Demant’s son, Børge Alexis
Godtbergsen, was born on 10 December
1912 and died on 9 October 1994. His
mother is unknown.
● In 27 January 1926, Ida Emilie and
William Demant adopted a little girl
– Kate Elinor Demant – who was born
on 19 January 1925. Since she did not
remain in Denmark, it is unknown
whether she is still alive.
Fay Ruth Ingeborg
Hermundstad
★ 24/4-1923
✝ 15/1-1974
Tom Hansen
★ 15/12-1944
Thomas William
Demant Hansen
★ 3/5-1968
Natacha Moral
Jimenez Demant
★ 29/9-1994
F a m i l y t r e e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Dolores Moral
Jimenez
★ 22/3-1966
Sandra Demant
Moral Jimenez
★ 22/3-1992
● William never married Tove Sigrid
Gyllich, who was the mother of his son
Per Flemming Gyllich.
● Thomas William Demant Hansen
shortened his name to William Demant.
● Jürgen Demant, who was born in
Germany, was a corporal and later
became a forester. He died in Denmark.
No traces of any other family members
have been discovered.
77

78
T i m e l i n e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Timeline 1800-2004
Year World history Denmark’s history Oticon’s history Year World history Denmark’s history Oticon’s history
1800
1806
1807
1820
1828
1843
1854
1858
1860
1861
1864
1866
F.C. Rein, manufacturer
of hearing trumpets and
other listening devices,
is founded in London.
The first international
peace meeting is held
in London.
Civil war breaks out in
the USA.
Doctor H.M.W.
Klingberg performs the
first eardrum puncture
in Denmark.
Denmark takes the first
steps towards educating
deaf children.
England bombs
Copenhagen.
H.C. Ørsted discovers
electromagnetism.
Tivoli opens.
The first telegraph line
is erected in Denmark.
Doctor O.M. Giersing
performs a new,
systematic otoscopy.
Denmark loses the
Battle of Dybbøl.
The Deaf-mute
Association of 1866
is established.
Hans Stefan Demant is
born.
Hans Jørgen Demant is
born.
Camilla L.B. Demant is
born.
Hans Stefan Demant
opens a sewing machine
factory.
1869
1876
1888
1889
1892
1897
1899
1901
1902
1903
Hawksley & Sons, manufacturer
of hearing
trumpets and other
listening devices, is
founded in London.
Alexander Graham Bell
invents the telephone.
Doctor J. Kessel
attempts to correct
otosclerosis surgically.
Fridtjof Nansen crosses
the inland icecap of
Greenland.
The Eiffel Tower in
Paris opens.
Alonzo E. Miltimore
files a patent on an
electric hearing aid.
Miller Reese
Hutchinson begins
marketing the
Akoulallion instrument.
King C. Gillette invents
the razor blade.
Crown Princess
Alexandra wears a
hearing aid for her
coronation as Queen
of England.
Henry Ford establishes
a car factory.
Aalborg Portland is
established.
Copenhagen gets
electricity.
The East Asiatic
Company opens in
Copenhagen”s free port.
The Great Lockout in
Denmark.
The Liberals form a
government with J.H.
Deuntzer and Viggo
Hørup.
Tax reform in Denmark,
where income tax is
introduced.
William Demant and Ida
Emilie Høst are born.
Hans Stefan Demant
dies.
Hans Jørgen Demant
travels to England to buy
his wife a hearing aid.

T i m e l i n e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Year World history Denmark’s history Oticon’s history Year World history Denmark’s history Oticon’s history
1904
1907
1908
1910
1911
1912
1914
1917
1918
1922
1923
Digging commences on
the Panama Canal.
The first Ford T rolls
off the assembly line in
the USA.
China abolishes
slavery.
The People’s Republic
of China is founded.
The Titanic sinks.
World War I breaks out.
World War I ends.
Mussolini becomes dictator
in Italy. The first
“talkies” appear.
The first neon signs
appear.
The first church for
deaf people opens in
Copenhagen.
Minister for Justice,
Peter Adler Alberti,
admits to fraud.
The Danish Association
for the Hard-of-Hearing
is established.
The USA purchases the
Danish West Indies
(now the Virgin Islands).
The Old-age Pension
Act is passed in
Denmark.
Hans Jørgen Demant
starts a hearing aid company
on 8 June. He wins
a contract with the
General Acoustic Co. and
sells his first hearing aid
and the first church hearing
aid system.
Hans Jørgen Demant
moves the company from
Odense to Copenhagen.
Hans Jørgen Demant
becomes the Acousticon
dealer for the whole of
Scandinavia.
Hans Jørgen Demant
dies. William Demant
takes over the management
of the hearing aid
company.
William Demant becomes
Acousticon dealer for the
entire Nordic region.
William Demant moves
the company to a new
location in Copenhagen.
William Demant marries
Ida Emilie Høst and
becomes Director of the
hearing aid company.
William and Ida Emilie
visit the USA on business.
Demant’s production
department now occupies
62 sqm.
The Acousticus instrument
is registered at the
Patent and Trademark
Office in Copenhagen.
1929
1932
1933
1934
1939
1940
1943
1944
1945
1946
1948
The Wall Street Stock
Exchange crashes.
H. Lieber invents “The
Bone Conductor”.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
becomes President of
the USA. Hitler comes
into power in Germany.
World War II breaks
out.
Germany invades
Denmark, Norway,
Holland, Belgium,
Luxembourg and
France.
World War II ends.
Jukeboxes are introduced,
and Tupperware
is mass-produced. The
first computer, ENIAC,
is invented.
Mahatma Gandhi is
assassinated in India.
The Marshall Plan is
approved.
Thorvald Stauning
becomes Prime
Minister.
The Foreign Exchange
Control Office is established.
Louis Armstrong visits
Denmark.
Fisker & Nielsen manufactures
the first Nimbus
motorcycle. The first
metropolitan trains run
in Copenhagen.
German troops occupy
Denmark on 9 April.
Denmark is liberated on
4 May.
The Russians withdraw
from the Danish island
of Bornholm after having
occupied the island
during World War II.
The Danish football
team win a bronze
medal at the London
Olympics.
Camilla Demant dies.
William Demant”s hearing
aid company produces
a mains-driven,
stationary loudspeaker
system.
William Demant develops
and produces the
Acousticus instrument
in Denmark.
The word “Oticon”
becomes part of the
company name.
Oticon AB is established
in Sweden.
Oticon produces
Denmark”s first hearing
aid – the Oticon TA.
Oticon”s factory and the
headquarters now occupy
a total of 580 sqm.
79

80
T i m e l i n e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Year World history Denmark’s history Oticon’s history Year World history
Denmark’s history Oticon’s history
1951
1952
1953
1954
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
Captain Carlsen loses
the “Flying Enterprise”
after a battle against the
sea.
Stalin dies. Edmund
Hilary and Tenzing
Norgay conquer Mount
Everest.
The first transistor
radio is introduced.
Rock and roll fever
rages in the west. Elvis
Presley releases
“Heartbreak Hotel”.
Sputnik transmits the
first signals from space.
The Treaty of Rome is
signed and the
European Federation
thereby formed.
Charles de Gaulle
becomes President of
France.
The European Free
Trade Area (EFTA) is
formed.
The Law for the Hardof-Hearing
is passed,
and the Danish
Audiological
Association is established.
Hospital ship,
Jutlandia, leaves for
Korea.
The Danish Hearing
Centres are established.
Denmark’s first transistorized
amplifiers
become available. Tax
on motor vehicles is
introduced.
Architect Jørn Utzon
wins first prize for the
Sydney Opera House.
LEGO bricks finally
take shape. Hearingimpairedschoolchildren
are given special
training. First Danish
hearing clinic opens.
Eight Danish football
players perish in plane
crash at Kastrup Airport.
Oticon sends out its first
export catalogue.
Oticon’s production
department expands to
720 sqm. Oticon participates
in a hearing aid
exhibition in Chicago.
Oticon’s 50th Jubilee.
The company’s total
production area now
exceeds 1,000 sqm.
Henning Mønsted is
employed.
Erik Westermann and
Christian Tøpholm establish
Widex. Oticon
employs Bent Simonsen
and Torben Nielsen.
Ida Emilie Demant dies.
William Demants og
Hustru Ida Emilies Fond
(the Oticon Foundation)
is established. William
Demant becomes a
limited company.
At the age of 70, William
Demant marries Fay
Hermundstad.
Bent Simonsen is
appointed Assistant
Director.
The Oticon Scholarship
is established. Bengt
Danielsen is employed.
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1968
1969
1971
1972
1973
1974
Prime Minister Patrice
Lumumba is assassinated
in the Congo.
The Cuba Crisis.
President John F.
Kennedy is assassinated.
Leonid Bresjnev
replaces Khrusjtjov as
Chairman of the
Communist Party in the
Soviet Union.
Robert Kennedy and
Martin Luther King are
assassinated in the
USA. Russian tanks
roll into Prague.
America puts the first
man on the moon.
Louis Armstrong dies.
Henry Kissinger
receives the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Four out of ten Danish
homes now have a TV.
The Danish Association
for the Hard-of-Hearing
changes its name to The
National Association
for Better Hearing.
The youth revolution in
Denmark.
Anker Jørgensen
becomes Prime
Minister.
Denmark enters the
European Federation.
Car-free Sundays are
in-troduced.
Oticon brings together
production and administration
at one location.
Oticon’s production area
now exceeds 3,000 sqm.
The OTWIDAN partnership
is established.
Oticon Nederland B.V. in
Holland opens.
Oticon Corp. opens in
the USA.
William Demant puts the
“Gang of Four” in charge.
Bent Simonsen is made
Director. Oticon A/S
opens in Norway, and
Oticon S.A. opens in
Switzerland.
Oticon GmbH opens in
West Germany.
Oticon’s production
department moves to
Skinnerup School in
Thisted.
Oticon Danmark A/S is
established in Denmark.
Oticon inaugurates its
new factory at Thisted
and moves into the former
Rolls Royce factory
in Scotland. Oticon Italia
S.r.l., Oticon K.K. in
Japan and Oticon Ltd. in
Scotland are established.
Oticon France S.A. and
Oticon New Zealand Ltd.
open.

Year World history Denmark’s history Oticon’s history
1975
1977
1979
1983
1985
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
Elvis Presley dies.
NATO makes a twotrack
decision to limit
medium-range missiles.
Gorbatjov becomes
Secretary of the
Communist Party in the
Soviet Union.
The Berlin Wall falls,
signifying the end of
the Cold War.
Berlin becomes the capital
of a united
Germany.
Marlene Dietrich dies.
Aage Bohr wins the
Nobel Prize for Physics.
Sepp Piontek becomes
trainer for the Danish
football team.
Denmark’s first foreign
policy election concerning
the NATO
footnotes.
Plans are approved for
a bridge that will connect
Denmark and
Sweden.
Denmark says “No” to
the Maastricht Treaty.
Denmark wins the
European Cup.
The Edinburgh Agreement,
containing the
four Danish conditions
concerning the
Maastricht Treaty, is
approved in a referendum.
Oticon is divided into
four companies: Management,
International,
Export and Electronics.
Oticon’s research centre,
Eriksholm, opens.
William Demant dies.
Oticon celebrates its 75th
Jubilee, and Oticon
Export A/S opens in
Denmark.
Oticon Holding is
established.
Palle Rasmussen becomes
Chairman of the Board at
Oticon. Oticon España
S.A. opens.
Lars Kolind becomes
President & CEO of
Oticon.
“We think like our customers,”
says an internal
folder.
Oticon receives The King
Frederik IX Order of Merit
Award for its contribution
to Danish export.
The Oticon Scholarship
is altered. D-Day for the
new company. Headquarters
are moved to
their present location in
Hellerup. MultiFocus is
launched.
Niels Jacobsen is hired as
Executive Vice President.
Oticon receives ISO 9001
Certification from the
Danish Standardization
Board.
T i m e l i n e
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Year World history
Denmark’s history Oticon’s history
1995
1996
1997
1998
2001
2002
2003
2004
Russian troops invade
Chechnya”s capital.
Hong Kong is handed
over to China.
Terrorists strike the
World Trade Centre and
the Pentagon on 11
September. The USA
launches an attack on
Afghanistan.
The Euro becomes the
new currency for the
European Union.
American and coalition
forces, including
Denmark, attack Iraq.
Prince Joachim and
Alexandra Manley
marry in Frederiksborg
Castle.
Piet Hein – poet and
philosopher, designer
and inventor – dies.
The Great Belt Tunnel
is inaugurated.
Denmark takes over the
Presidency of the
European Union. Ten
new countries join the
EU.
Oticon Holding A/S is
registered on the
Copenhagen Stock
Exchange.
DigiFocus is launched.
DigiFocus and OtiSet
win the Information
Technology European
Award (ITEA) in 1996.
Oticon Holding A/S is
renamed William
Demant Holding A/S.
Eriksholm hosts its first
Summer Camp for young
audiologists. DigiFocus
wins the European
Design Prize (EDP).
Niels Jacobsen becomes
President & CEO. Oticon
receives the Employee
Empowerment Pioneer
Award from the Council
for Economic Priorities
(CEP).
Adapto is introduced.
Eriksholm celebrates its
25th Jubilee. Adapto
wins the European
Information Society
Technology IST Grand
Prize. Ergo BTE wins the
International Forum
Design Award 2002.
William Demant Holding
wins the European
Company of the Year
Award.
Oticon celebrates its
100th Jubilee.
81

82
B i b l i o g r a p h y
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Bibliography
Chapter 1 – <strong>Founded</strong> on care
Acousticon brochure, 1928, Eriksholm.
The Silent Radio, Acousticon brochure, 1940, Eriksholm.
Hospital Radio Systems, Acousticon brochure, approx. 1940, Eriksholm.
Demant, William, cashbook showing sold church hearing aid systems,
1907-1936, Eriksholm.
Demant, William, letter, 1934, Eriksholm.
Demant, William, notebook, 1920-1922, Eriksholm.
Dictograph Products – letter to William Demant, 1928-1932, Eriksholm.
Kraks Road Guide, 1923, 1927, 1930, 1935, 1940, 1946 and 1951,
Copenhagen’s Municipal Archives.
Nielsen, Claus, “Roots of a worldwide company – Demant’s path from sewing
machines to hearing aids”. The Odense Book, Odense University Publications,
1999.
Chapter 2 – Oticon is born
Berlingske Tidende, 18/1-1938, 19/1-1938, 20/1-1938 and 17/3-1939.
Boserup, Niels, “Et modernistisk mesterværk – arkitekt Vilhelm Lauritzens
lufthavnsbygning fra 1939”.
Palladium brochure, Grafisk Institut, Eriksholm.
Politiken, 5/3-1939, 23/3-1939 and 30/3-1939.
Chapter 3 – The “Gang of Four”
Morsing, Jette and Eiberg, Kristian, “Managing the Unmanageable for a
Decade”, Oticon, 1998.
Poulsen, Per Thygesen, “Think the Unthinkable”, Schultz, 1993.
Chapter 4 – The modern Oticon
Berlingske Tidende, 27/04-2000,15/10-2000,01/11-2000,02/09-2001,
15/10-2001, 25/11-2002,03/01-2003,05/03-2003 and 04/08-2003.
Erhvervs Bladet, 12/11-1999, 8/01-2000, 10/03-2000, 26/04-2000,
28/11-2000, 31/3-2003.
Børsen, 03/12-1999, 05/11-1999, 25/11-1999, 16/12-1999, 04/01-2000,
10/01-2000, 18/01-2000, 21/01-2000, 26/01-2000, 20/03-2000, 28/02-2000,
14/07-2000, 24/08-2000, 03/11- 2000, 07/11-2000, 23/11-2000, 07/03-2001,
20/06-2001, 12/10-2002, 23/08-2001, 24/08-2001, 27/08-2001, 12/10-2001,
16/10-2001, 08/05-2002, 23/05-2002, 24/05-2002, 14/06-2002, 09/10-2002,
15/10-2002, 28/10-2002, 05/03-2003, 2/04-2003 and 10/06-2003.
Poulsen, Per Thygesen, “Think the Unthinkable”, Schultz, 1991.
Ugebrevet Mandag Morgen, no. 3, 17/01-2000 and no. 5, 26/06-2000.
American Danish Oticon Corp, 29/01/52.
American Danish Oticon Corp. 1904-1954 – Jubilee issue, Oticon, 1954.
Lawyer Preben Dons, letter to the Board of Directors, 04/09/63.
Berlingske Tidende article, “Life is more than just work”, 06/10/99.
Berlingske Tidende article, “Greater job satisfaction”, 25/10/02.
Berlingske Tidende article, “People first”, 01/12/02.
Berlingske Tidende’s Nyhedsmagasin, “Denmark’s best workplaces”, 2002
Erhvervsbladet article, “A symbol of the Thisted spirit”, 18/03/02.
Erhvervsbladet article, “Cranes race away at Oticon”, 19/06/02.
Hørelsen, National Hearing Foundation, Holland, 2003
Chapter 5 – Research that matters
Lønberg, Angela R., “Adapto – The Authorized Biography”, 2002
Berlingske Tidende article, 10/02/01.
Børsen articles, 01/02/01 and 01/11/02.
Stock Exchange memorandum, Oticon, 1995.
“Danish Audiology 1951-1976”, Nyt Nordisk Forlag, 1976.
“Eriksholm Research Centre”, Oticon, 1997.
Hørelsen, The National Association for Better Hearing, no. 7, 2002.
Medical Health, “Genetic causes of hearing loss”, no. 7, 2002.
Madsen, Lars Bjørn, “The Eriksholm country house”, Oticon Foundation, 1996.
“People First – the vision and values”, Oticon, 2002
William Demant Holding A/S Annual Report 1998
William Demant Holding A/S Annual Report 1997
Chapter 6 – A century of hearing loss
Lønberg, Angela R., “Adapto – The Authorized Biography”, 2002
Bentzen, O., Ewertsen, H.W. and Salomon, G., “Danish Audiology 1951-1976”
Danish Medical/Audiological Company, 1976.
Berlingske Tidende article, “Deep isolation”, 21/11/99.
Berlingske Tidende article, “Devil’s music in the ear”, 10/02/01.
Berlingske Tidende article, “Just listen”, 18/03/00.
Berlingske Tidende article, “Free hearing aids for seniors despite user fees”,
24/11/99.
Bryan, Lise, “The future of hearing care in Denmark”,
Dansk Audiologopædi magazine, vol. 25, no. 4, 1989.
Dalsgaard, Stig C., “Industry and hearing care”, Ingeniøren magazine, vol. 4,
no. 26, 1978.
Elberling, Claus and Engelund, Gitte, “Eriksholm – Interviews in 2003”.
Nielsen, Claus, “History of the Hearing Aid”, Eriksholm, 1998.
Hørelsen, the National Association for Better Hearing
no. 3, 2000, no. 1, 2001, no. 3, 2002 and no. 4, 2002.
Illum, Peter, “Public hearing care in today’s Denmark”, Doctor’s Weekly, vol.
160, no. 40, 1998.
Jyllandsposten article, “Hearing impaired people are isolated”, 03/05/01.
Nielsen, Claus, “Roots of a worldwide company – Demant’s path from sewing
machines to hearing aids”. The Odense Book, Odense University Publications,
1999.
Parving, Agnete, “Views of Danish hearing care”,
Dansk Audiologopædi magazine, vol. 23, no. 3, 1987.
Pedersen, Christian Brahe and Bonding, Per, “Otolaryngology in Denmark,
1899-1999”, 1999.
Rotary Nordic, no. 8, 2001, “Viewing hearing-impaired people as fellow
human beings”.
The American Danish Oticon Corp. 1904-1954, “Jubilee Publication”, Oticon
1954.
Thomsen, K.A. and Jepsen, Otto, “The history of Otolaryngology in Denmark”,
1999.
Walther, Bo and Thomsen, Søren Stanley, “Hearing care in the 1990s”, Dansk
Audiologopædi magazine, 1993.
Wass, Ingrid, “20 years after the expansion of our handicap services – how did
it go?” Danish Psychology Publishers, 2000.
Chapter 7 – William Demant – the man and the foundation
The charter of William Demants og Hustru Ida Emilies Fond (the Oticon
Foundation) of 31 December 1957.
Structure of the Foundation Committee, 1960-1991.
List of donations exceeding DKK 100,000 from the Oticon Foundation,
1998-2002.
Minutes from Heinz E. Hess.
Oticon Foundation of 16 December 1969.
Balance of the Oticon Foundation 31/12/60.
Oticon Foundation grants 1961-1991.
Oticon Foundation’s scholarship arrangement, letter of 29/01/01 to the
University of Copenhagen.
Press release, 20/11/90, “Oticon Foundation alters its grant scheme”.
Press release, 23/04/98, “New Chairman”.
Press release, 25/08/98, “DKK 1.5 million to Nelson Mandela”.
Press release, 29/06/00, “Oticon donates DKK 35 million to Denmark’s
Technical University”.
Press release, 14/08/01, “Alterations to the charter of the Oticon Foundation”.
“Survey of Foundations and Grants Committees”, Oticon 13/11/84.

Photo credits and illustration sources
Chapter 1 – <strong>Founded</strong> on care
Page 8: Hans Jørgen Frederik Demant
with his wife, Camilla Louise
Source: Per Gyllich
Page 9: Odense city in the 1850s
Source: Odense City Archives
First lithography of the company
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 10: The Demant family
Employees of the company in 1890
Source: Per Gyllich
Side 11: Queen Alexandra
Source: Scanpix
Pages 12-13: Hearing trumpet
The Massacon instrument
Advert
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 14: William Demant
Source: Per Gyllich
Jørgen Demant
Source: The Royal Library in
Copenhagen
Page 15: The Church of Jesus
Photographer: Martin Sølyst
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 16: User Guide for the
Acousticon hearing aid
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Lithography of the Church of Jesus
Source: Copenhagen City Museum
Page 17: The “Acousticon Coronation”
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Chapter 2 – Oticon is born
Page 18: Charles Lehmann
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 19: Hearing test
Advertising photo of a hearing aid
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 20: The exhibition stand
in Forum
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 21: William Demant and
his staff in 1939
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Pages 22-23: Seating directions in the
Palladium cinema
The Palladium cinema
Palladium brochure
Advert for hospital equipment
Page 24: The occupation of Denmark
Source: Copenhagen City Museum
Kastrup Airport
Source: Vilhelm Lauritzen’s
drawing office
Page 25: Ladies, welding and assembling
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Pages 26-27: Charles Lehmann
Newspaper ad, Oticon TA
Oticon advert
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 28: Export brochure
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 29: The Oticon T3
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Chapter 3 – The “Gang of Four”
Page 30: The “Gang of Four”
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 31: Jubilee Publication, 1954
Employees at the celebration dinner
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 32: William Demant
Window display
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 33: William Demant
and Bent Simonsen
in front of the new headquarters
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 34: Teacher Poul Gelskov
with schoolchildren
Source: The Deaf History Society
Front page of Hearing
Source: The National Association
for Better Hearing
Page 35: Oticon advert
Advert for hearing glasses
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 36: Production of
Oticon instruments
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 37: The Oticon logo
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 38: Thisted
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 39: The production
factory at Hamilton, Scotland
Users in the 1970s
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 40: Model showing an
In-the-Ear instrument
Oticon’s management team
in the Danish West Indies, 1986
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 41: The “Gang of Four”
Photographer: Rigmor Mydtskov
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Chapter 4 – The modern Oticon
Page 42: Oticon’s headquarters
Photographer: Martin Sølyst
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 43: Lars Kolind
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Pages 44-45: The “paperless office”
Pillar at Oticon’s
headquarters in Copenhagen
Project 330
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 46-47: Niels Jacobsen
Managers of the subsidiaries
and others in 2000
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 48: Erik Hoffmeyer
Stock Exchange memorandum
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 49: William Demant Holding logo
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 50: Niels Jacobsen
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 51: HRH Prince Henrik’s
Commemorative Medal
awarded to Oticon Holland
Source: Oticon Holland
Page 52: Headset advert
Source: Sennheiser
Communications A/S
Presentation of the “European
Company of the Year Award”
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 53: People First
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
“European Company of the
Year Award”
Chapter 5 – Research that matters
Pages 54-55: Eriksholm
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm.
Page 56: Actresses in role as
an old lady and daughter
Source: DR
Page 57: Hearing aid users
The Adapto BTE
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 58: Fitting a hearing aid
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 59: Customers visiting Eriksholm
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Chapter 6 – A century of hearing loss
Page 60: Advert for the 300S
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 61: Hearing aid
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 62: Kraks Road Guide,1923
Source: Kraks Publishers
Page 63: Three people conversing
with the aid of hearing trumpets
C.G. Buus
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Pages 64-65: Bent Skjøttgaard’s
grandfather
Ulla Busk Laursen’s grandfather
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 66: Hearing aid advert
Hearing aid
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
P h o t o c r e d i t s a n d i l l u s t r a t i o n s o u r c e s
Oticon 1904 – 2004
Page 67: Brochure – the “Ear Jewel”
Datasheet on hearing glasses
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Former US President, Ronald Reagan
Source: Polfoto
Page 68: Box-office window with
teleloop system
Source: Phonic Ear A/S
Page 69: Newspaper published in
connection with
Holland’s Hearing Week
Source: National Hoor Stichting,
Oticon Holland
Page 70: Detective Inspector Jens
Ryhave
Photographer: Martin Sølyst
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Page 71: Hans-Henrik Ørsted
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Chapter 7 – William Demant – the
man and the Foundation
Page 72: Portrait of William Demant
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
Pages 73-74: Knud Sørensen
Assembly hall at DTU campus
The William Demant hall
of residence at DTU campus
Photographer: Martin Sølyst
Source: Oticon, Eriksholm
83

Acknowledgement
This book Centenary is the result of numerous interviews, and the Oticon Foundation would like to thank
the people who contributed to the making of the book for their commitment and support during this project.
Demant family
A SPECIAL THANKS TO
Per Gyllich, William Demant’s son
Tom Hansen, William Demant’s son-in-law
Oticon, Copenhagen
Birgit Bastholm
Kenneth Sachse
Kurt Danielsen
Mads Kamp
Niels Jacobsen
Ole Munk Plum
Peter Anker Nielsen
Poul Erik Lyregaard
Søren Nielsen
Tove Rosenbom
Oticon, Eriksholm
Claus Elberling
Claus Nielsen
Gitte Engelund
Graham Naylor
Jens Rerup
Oticon,Thisted
Hanne Stephensen
Jette Lørup
Jørgen Kornum
Peter Finnerup
Svenning Thomsen
Oticon, worldwide
Anders Jeffert
Frank Rooze
Gerard van der Wel
Lars Kirk
Ton Heijman
Former employees
Anders Quitzau
Bent Simonsen
Henning Mønsted Sørensen
Lars Kolind
Lars Petersen
Leif Sørensen
Lis Høien
Palle Rasmussen
Torben E. Nielsen
Others
Birthe Hansen
Dorthe Wall-Prebensen
Erik Westermann & family
Hans-Henrik Ørsted
Jens Ryhave
Michael Bang
Morten Bjørner
Ole Vind Hansen
Tut Loft
Claus Arboe-Rasmussen and CGI Mannov have also contributed to this centenary publication.