#StoryofaStartup
Dr. Michael Kramer, Managing Director and one of the founders of APL, talks to Jo Harding about the story behind this new startup and his passion for lighting post-LED linear.
- Michael-Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
My name is Michael Kramer, I’m married with two children who are currently studying law and international business. My wife, Dagmar, works as a modern art embroidery artist. From my background, I’m a mechanical engineer with a PhD in management of innovation. I have spent my entire career working in large international corporations until I started to build my own small enterprise. This became a larger international corporation and I stayed for another few years. I became tired of big companies and was not ready to retire. As a somewhat restless innovator and entrepreneur, I started a new lighting company with friends. In love with lighting and the lighting industry I’m driven by the will to create. To start from a white piece of paper and to nurture, I developed the concept of apl and LTwo®. A concept and a product which brings sustainable, affordable architectural lighting to everyone’s home.
Beyond my work and passion for light, I draw my inspiration from photography and playing golf. Golf is an exciting game that reminds me to stay focused during the entire game, to do my best despite all the unforeseen circumstances. And to have a lot of fun but go home with the best score possible!
- What made you want to start another company having successfully sold LED LINEAR?
The lighting industry is a wonderful business to be busy in and being in my mid 50’s I figured out that I’m too young to retire.
At that point I had an option to explore new, unknown roads and leave the wonderful lighting industry behind me, or use existing know-how and network to hopefully create something exciting in the industry I’m familiar with. Ultimately, I wasn’t ready for a new venture in an unknown world and decided to staywithin the lighting industry. It had always provided me with great recognition for the passion and creativity I put into it.
- What is the ‘story’ behind the name apl?
With the old company LED Linear, we had been at the forefront of the LED revolution and as a holder of the company name LED Linear we were the pioneers in creating the new industry and application field of linear LED lighting. We had specialized on the high-end specification lighting and made architectural high quality and professional lighting available to people who could afford it. Our dream and vision creating apl was to invent, build and make available new lighting lego for all applications and people. That’s how the brand name apl was created. Its abbreviation stands for all purpose lighting but can be used in the sense of all people’s light or a professional light. In German, professional light would stand for high end architectural lighting.
- What challenges did you face when designing the apl ranges?
We knew that the LED revolution was over, and that the industry has adapted to the new technology. It would be quite a challenge to come up with something that is perceived as an innovation again. The apl motto/slogan is “The Ideal Light”, which follows Altschulers philosophy of idealization based on the design methodology TRIZ/TIPS (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving).
Our ambition was and is to create the ideal light used for all purposes. The challenge came with the need for miniaturization and going to the limits of lighting physics. Creating a luminaire that achieves the best results for its application. This led to plenty of iteration steps and thousands of engineering hours to finish with the best system and light quality. We finally achieved our design goals. I believe that our LTwo™ system and wallwasher optic prove that we have invented and designed the smallest, best-performing wallwasher in the industry. And this is only one example.
- Did you always agree as a team on the way forward?
Yes. We have a great team of investors, employees and business partners. They are disciplined listeners, with a lot of expertise in their field. They give us straight and constructive feedback. Of course, sometimes emotions get involved, but that’s just proof that we fight with passion for our beliefs. And that this is wanted and accepted by all stakeholders.
- For you guys, what are the biggest trends in lighting product design?
Miniaturization
Retrofit solutions
Commoditization
Greenwashing
- Who are your design heroes?
Who wouldn’t think about Dieter Rams, Jonathan Ive or Philippe Starck? Of course. They are outstanding design heroes in the design hall-off fame and it will be impossible to compete with their achievements. But my biggest design hero is Sören Bleul, our apl co-Investor and head designer, who holds a lot of design awards (red dot, if design, good design, iconic design, etc.). Sören is still a young and talented man with an enormous passion for industrial design. He has an unmatched talent to drive the design process from vision to the packaged product, across the entire value chain.
