2B ❚ TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 ❚ USA TODAY MONEY
gine are silent when idling or moving.
“Sound is a very, very important pil-
lar and totally underrated,” said Kapa-
dia. “But from our research, sound
evokes emotion and that’s why sound
becomes one of the most critical aspects
of a car purchase.”
Sound sensation
It’s fair to say that no car buff would
want to start a muscle car and not hear
the thunderous reverberation of the V
engine. That full-throttle roar is sex on
wheels, and sex sells.
For that reason, many carmakers
have played with vehicle sound for dec-
ades. About 20 years ago, Aston Martin
started to fine-tune the exhaust sounds,
said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of
Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, California.
Ford Motor Co. produced specific ex-
haust tones for the 2001 Bullitt Mus-
tang, Brauer said. Ford wanted the car to
sound like a bullet and remind the driver
of the movie that made it famous. So
Ford engineers gave it a high-pitched
exhaust tone, said Brauer.
But exhaust tone was the extent to
which engineers could manipulate vehi-
cle sound, until now, said Brauer. Car
engines are increasingly muffled with
hybrid and start/stop technology. Also,
more technology is in cars to alert driv-
ers to hazards. It means the sounds that
come out of cars have shifted from in-
ternal combustion to synthetically en-
hanced sounds engineered by humans,
he said.
“If I get in my car and I don’t think
about sound, that’s probably because a
bunch of sound engineers did think a lot
about sound and made sure it didn’t an-
noy me,” said Brauer. “And, if a driver is
hearing sound, it now has to be some-
thing that enhances the experience.”
Engineer known as prince
Kapadia’s journey to GM’s sound lab
started in Mumbai, India, where he was
born and raised. His parents came from
Indian royalty, part of the clan of Raj-
puts, originally from the town of Gujarat
just north of Mumbai on India’s west
coast, he said.
His great-grandfather was a king un-
til British occupation in the mid-1800s
stripped him of the title. Kapadia says
people in his hometown still consider
him a prince when he visits.
“It’s embarrassing,” Kapadia said.
“I’m just an engineer at General Motors.”
Fascinated by healing at a young age,
Kapadia spent each summer during his
teens in the Himalaya Mountains study-
ing yoga and Marma therapy, which is
similar to acupuncture. He also learned
how sound affects health.
“Any issues with your thyroid or is-
sues with your throat, there is a fre-
quency associated with it and if you
play those frequencies for a few days it
will help soothe the symptoms,” Kapa-
dia said.
At 18, Kapadia invented the applica-
tion for Ektara, an app that features a
one-string instrument at a particular
frequency used to relieve throat, heart
or gallbladder issues, Kapadia said. He
continues to do sound healing for peo-
ple suffering from insomnia, depression
and anxiety with his business Sparsh
Healing in Bingham Farms, Michigan.Rock star workIn search of self-sufficiency, Kapadia
left India for New York at age 22. He en-
rolled in New York University and
earned a master’s degree in music tech-
nology on top of his bachelor of science
degree in electronics and telecommuni-
cation engineering from Swami Viveka-
nanda Institute of Technology in Mum-
bai.
At NYU, Kapadia rubbed shoulders in
show business. One close classmate
was Stefani Germanotta, better known
now as Lady Gaga. He also set up the
sound equipment for then-mayor of
New York and now Democratic presi-
dential contender Mike Bloomberg.
“We would crack jokes,” said Kapa-
dia. “He’s an amazing guy.”
Kapadia learned the logistics of stu-
dio work at NYU. He also performed as a
singer and musician and was able to
merge his musical skills and sound stu-
dio acumen to work for such artists as
Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes, Beyoncé,
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira both in the
studio and in live performances.
But in 2014, he married a woman
from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and they
fled the Big Apple for Bloomfield Hills.
Soon, he was frequenting a Starbucks
across from GM’s Warren Technical
Center where he’d sit and contemplate
whether he could work for the car com-
pany.Right brain, left brainIn 2016, Kapadia got that chance.
GM hired him to work on vehicle
speakers and amplifiers. But his boss
saw potential for more out of Kapadia
and soon he was creating car sounds.
The vehicles featuring Kapadia’s 20
new sounds for Cadillac include the
2020 CT4 and CT5 SUVs and the 2021
Cadillac Escalade full-size SUV. All of
Cadillac’s new vehicle roll outs in the
months ahead will have the sounds
from the “library” Kapadia designed, he
said.
The process of creating and choosing
just one sound to signal something in a
car takes about a year, Kapadia said.
First, Kapadia has to understand the
design and engineering of the vehicle.
Here, Kapadia often works at GM’s Tech
Center in Warren with other engineers
to understand the in-vehicle hardware
abilities.
As GM’s luxury brand, Cadillac’s
speakers have a 100- to 10,000-hertz
bandwidth, he said, giving Kapadia a
wide frequency spectrum for sound cre-
ation. Mediocre quality speakers have a
500- to 5,000-hertz bandwidth, he said.
The advantage of having a lower fre-
quency available, he said, is it can deliv-
er more subtle and relaxing sounds.
“A hip-hop song is lower frequency
because it’s more bass,” Kapadia said.
“So a bigger speaker can play that kind
of sound and lower frequency gives you
a better feeling of luxury.”Divine timeNext, Kapadia draws on his musical
and healing background to select tones
that resonate with him to alert without
annoying the consumer. The job calls for
the early shift.
“I make sounds between 4 and 6 in
the morning. That’s my energy booster,
we call it the divine time of the day,” said
Kapadia. By “we,” he is referring to his93-year-old guru, A. Parthasarathy, who
teaches philosophy in India. “We all
wake up at 4 a.m. and pursue our spiri-
tual study. Between 4 and 6 the intellect
is available to work in a concentrated
fashion.”
And when he creates sound, he
thinks about what a customer would
like to hear.
“We want to differentiate Cadillac.
How can that sound help the wellness of
customers?” said Kapadia. “Sound is
nothing but information and we want to
make it pleasant and if it can contribute
to the customer’s wellness even better.”
Once Kapadia has several sounds he
likes, he presents them to “sound juries”
made up of 10 to 50 GM leaders. They
winnow it to a few sounds. Then, cus-
tomer clinics make the final selection.Sound chamberBut even then, it’s not done.
Kapadia heads out of his studio,
through more long corridors inside
Building 104 to a room about the size of a
football field. It’s called an anechoic
chamber – anechoic means non-echo-
ing.
The massive room is designed to ab-
sorb any reflections of sound. Lining the
walls are about 50 microphones to rec-
ord any sound, even a pin dropping. In
fact, the human ear pulsates with mild
pressure just entering the room.
GM has about 10 other anechoic
chambers across its campuses, but this
one is the biggest. Kapadia spends sev-
eral minutes pushing the heavy, hulk-
ing, padded doors shut on the chamber.
Then, he climbs into a 2021 Escalade
to test his sound creations, such as the
seat-belt indicator or turn signal. He’s
happy.
“You hear it? It’s subtle and elegant.
The sound needs to convey information,
but be subtle,” Kapadia said.
If it were a prototype and the sound
was not quite subtle or elegant enough,
Kapadia would record it in the chamber,
then walk back down the hall to GM’s
Sound Design Studio to edit it to perfec-
tion before final production.Philosophy of workOn this day, Kapadia’s work is com-
plete. He pushes the chamber’s doors
open and walks back to the studio.
As part of his amalgamated work
process, Kapadia keeps a book of inspi-
rational quotes, compiled by his guru in
India, on hand. He also keeps in mind
the words of his other gurus, GM CEO
Mary Barra and GM President Mark Re-
uss, which is that the customer is the fo-
cus. Then, he does what he always does,
he marries the two ideas.
“My philosophy teaches us how to act
in the world and it’s not for paychecks,
not for vacations, but how you can give
back in a good way to this beautiful
world,” said Kapadia. “I chose music,
engineering and wellness. That’s what I
do.”Sound
Continued from Page 1B
Musician, yogi and sound engineer Jigar Kapadia creates interior and exterior
sounds for Cadillac. KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/USA TODAY NETWORK“you see ripple through companies even
today,” Hubbard said. “I still refer stu-
dents to his book.”
The year before Welch became CEO,
GE posted about $27 billion in revenue.
In his last full year as CEO, the company
had nearly $130 billion in revenue, hav-
ing recently achieved the title as the
most valuable company in the world. Its
total market capitalization climbed
from $14 billion to $410 billion.
Welch joined GE as a chemical engi-
neer in 1960 after earning degrees from
the University of Massachusetts and
the University of Illinois.
He quickly rose through the ranks,
becoming the company’s youngest vice
president in 1972 and earning the title of
vice chairman in 1979. He soon succeed-
ed Reginald Jones, becoming the com-
pany’s eighth chairman and CEO.
Welch shook up the company, laying
off tens of thousands of employees in
his first five years. That earned him the
unwanted nickname “Neutron Jack,” af-
ter the nuclear weapon that kills people
but leaves buildings largely intact.
Welch bristled at the name, insisting
that successful companies needed to be
agile.
During his reign, GE also acquired
companies such as RCA, which then
owned NBC, and investment bank Kid-
der Peabody.
Welch’s results-driven management
approach and hands-on style were
credited with helping GE turn a financial
corner.
“He definitely had a strategy where
the lowest-performing employees were
filtered out of the company, and this is
one area that a lot of people didn’t like,”
Hubbard said. “A number of companies
adopted that type of strategy.”
He went by the motto “fix it, close it
or sell it,” which he said he got from
management consultant Peter Druck-
er.
While Welch is credited with build-
ing GE into a massive company, trans-
forming it from a maker of appliances
and light bulbs into an industrial and
financial services powerhouse, he also
made mistakes along the way.
For example, the company’s GE
Capital division grew too large under
his wing, Hubbard said, and the com-
pany is still trying to excise that part of
the business from its balance sheet.
Along with Welch’s fame came
greater scrutiny. Welch found himself
defending his retirement compensa-
tion from GE. Amid a wave of corpo-
rate scandals, details of Welch’s GE
perks emerged in court papers amid
his divorce from his wife of 13 years,
Jane Beasley, in 2002. He received mil-
lions of dollars in benefits, including
unlimited personal use of GE’s planes,
office space and financial services.
After the perks became public,
Welch reimbursed the company for
many of them and paid for the use of
aircraft and other services.
Despite his reputation for being
willing to let people go, Welch de-
scribed his management philosophy
as betting on the right people.
“I think strategy, execution and
people all go together, and if you don’t
get the people right, the strategy
doesn’t matter. And if you don’t get the
people right, you won’t get the execu-
tion. So you’re dead,” he said.
“Today is a sad day for the entire GE
family,” GE Chairman and CEO Larry
Culp said in a statement. “Jack was
larger than life and the heart of GE for
half a century. He reshaped the face of
our company and the business world.”
Contributing: The Associated PressWelch
Continued from Page 1B
rises.
Panic buying and consumer hoard-
ing have restricted some of these criti-
cal supplies because of “poor alloca-
tion,” with shoppers at low risk buying
up protective gear, leaving too few face
masks for medical professionals and
workers who have frequent interaction
with the public, such as taxi and bus
drivers or retail clerks, Girotra says.
Supply chain experts say to stop
worrying about hoarding basic neces-
sities beyond having on hand the rec-
ommended 14-day emergency supply
of food and necessities.
“Panic is the biggest enemy,” Girotra
says.
Perishable food such as fruits and
vegetables are unlikely to be limited in
the short term.
Supplies of imported frozen meat
and fish are more at risk but already
were limited by trade sanctions.
Packaged goods such as cereal and
toothpaste and dry goods won’t be af-
fected in the near term either.
For items that are now in shorter
supply, such as hand sanitizer, plenty
of substitutes exist such as soap. Some
people are even making their own.
Anna Sequoia, 74, of Glen Cove,
New York, made several stops in
search of paper masks last week – no
luck on those – and Purell hand san-
itizer – “extremely hard to find” or sold
out.
She was able to fill prescriptions
and pick up over-the-counter medi-
cine, vitamins, dog and cat food, cat
litter, dry beans, pasta, frozen fruit,
and paper goods.
She and her husband were floored
by the crush of humanity on a visit toCostco Sunday morning.
“I haven’t seen it like that, even be-
fore Thanksgiving or Christmas,” Se-
quoia said. “There was an air of aggres-
sive competition even before we got into
the store. People were pushing carts
into each other. Almost no courtesy. Vir-
tually every cart on the way out had Clo-
rox wipes in it. The carts were LOADED.”
The panic buying, Sequoia said, was
“pretty disconcerting.”
Even with images of all those empty
shelves flooding social media feeds,
supply chain experts urged people to
stop, well, freaking out.
“We don’t have a shortage of toilet
paper in this country. We have plenty of
toilet paper to go around,” said Per
Hong, a senior partner in the strategic
operations practice at Kearney, a global
management consultancy.
“Those supplies will be fully re-
stocked and my ability to go to the store
to get those supplies isn’t going to go
away anytime soon.”
Adam White, 39, of South St. Paul,
Minnesota, says he and his partner
stocked up on food, medication, bottled
water, paper products, and cleaning
supplies Saturday, the same day Presi-
dent Trump held a news conference
about the coronavirus. “We thought
there would be a panic from the news of
the virus spreading and wanted to en-
sure we could get the supplies that we
needed,” he said.
But anxiety levels were much lower
than he expected.
“The atmosphere when I was at the
store was pretty normal. It didn’t seem
frenzied or panicked,” he said. “My part-
ner and I are in the process of remod-
eling our house, and have actually no-
ticed masks being in short supply for
several weeks. We were able to find
some at a local ‘mom and pop’ hardware
store for the purposes we were needing
them for.”Supplies
Continued from Page 1B