Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett Retires

James P. Hackett, the CEO of Steelcase Inc. is retiring. During the company’s annual shareholder meeting, July 17, Hackett said he will remain in his current position until February 28, 2014, the end of the company’s fiscal year, and then take a new position as vice chair for an additional year. He will also continue as a member of the board of directors.


“Jim Hackett helped change the conversation at Steelcase from merely selling office environments to providing insights about how spaces can impact performance,” said Rob Pew, Board Chair, Steelcase Inc. “He adopted design, and design thinking, as core beliefs and spread them throughout the company. In his 19 years as the CEO, Jim has led the company through some difficult times as well as periods of growth. We appreciate his calm hand on the tiller.”

Pew added, “With Jim continuing in his role for more than seven months, we are not naming a new CEO at this time but we have a succession process in place.”

Steelcase Gesture Chair

Hackett became CEO in December of 1994 after holding a variety of sales and leadership positions in the company. He helped to transform the company’s business model, expanded its global perspective and presence and championed life-long learning. He introduced the company’s current critical thinking model and personally taught the key principles of that model to hundreds of Steelcase leaders.

“I couldn’t be happier about what Steelcase has become and where we’re headed,” said Hackett. “But it’s time to provide opportunity to others, and time for me to pursue some other interests. While continuing to run the company with as much energy and excitement as I did when I took the role in 1994, I’ll also ready myself for the next chapter in my life.”

Hackett led Steelcase through some very tough years. When the economy collapse, the office furniture industry went down with it. He also took Steelcase into a new era of innovation as the company looked for new markets in healthcare and education.

The Steelcase story is an important part of the fabric of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as are all of the furniture companies and their founders. They are part of the Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, available wherever books are sold online, including Abbott Press.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available at West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall. 

Autographed editions are also available by clicking the Add to Cart button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com.

The Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance ebook essay series tells the story of the entrepreneurs leading Michigan into the twenty-first century in such diverse manufacturing endeavors as automotive, furniture, beer and food processing. 

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance begins with The Great Collapse. For a free preview, please click here.

Stand Or Sit, You Don't Get To Decide

Given the importance of the office furniture industry in West Michigan, this seems important. Even if you don't care about Steelcase, Herman Miller or Haworth, haven't you been sitting long enough today?
                                             

New Survey: To Sit or Stand? Almost 70% of Full Time American Workers Hate Sitting, but They do it all Day Every Day

Simple Changes Can Make a Big Difference in Health and Productivity

ST. PAUL, Minn., July 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans have to sit all day at work and they despise it.  A new survey commissioned by Ergotron, a global manufacturer of digital display mounting, furniture, and mobility products including sit-stand desks, found that nearly 70 percent of full time American workers hate sitting, yet 86 percent do it all day, every day. When they do get up, more than half (56 percent) use getting food as an excuse.

On top of all of that sitting at work, and for meals and commuting, the respondents:

• Sit another 1-2 hours while watching TV (36 percent)
• Game another 1-2 hours (10 percent)
• Lounge for 1-2 hours for things such as reading (25 percent)
• Use their home computer for 1-2 hours (29 percent)

In total, Americans are sitting an average of 13 hours a day and sleeping an average of 8 hours resulting in a sedentary lifestyle of around 21 hours a day. While Americans know about the importance of exercise, only 31 percent go to the gym, and 56 percent devote less than $10 per month to staying active. However, 96 percent would be willing to stand more to improve their health or life expectancy, and 30 percent even responded that they would rather go without coffee for a week to stand.

The survey also found that the vast majority (93 percent) didn't know what "Sitting Disease" is, but 74 percent believe that sitting too much could lead to an early death. The term "Sitting Disease" has been coined by the scientific community and is commonly used when referring to metabolic syndrome and the ill-effects of an overly sedentary lifestyle. Just last month, the American Medical Association adopted a policy recognizing potential risks of prolonged sitting and encouraging employers, employees and others to make available alternatives to sitting.

"Research is showing links between sedentary lifestyles and diabetes, several types of cancer, obesity and cardiovascular disease," said Jane Payfer, an Ergotron spokesperson. "There is a significant opportunity for people to change their behavior in the workplace and for corporations to change their cultures. Standing increases energy, burns extra calories, tones muscles, improves posture, increases blood flow, reduces blood sugar levels and ramps up metabolism. Frequently overlooked, standing more is the simplest, easiest change someone can make."   

This is Ergotron's second survey in three years on the effects of sitting for office workers.  The 2010 survey can be found here.   

Resources:

• An Infographic illustrating the survey findings can be viewed at JustStand.org.
• 8 ways to stand more every day.
• Ergotron's  JustStand™ Index – Revisited annually, the Index will show the growth of awareness around the problems of sitting  and will quantify the following questions:

1. Do you know what sitting disease is?
2. Are you aware of sit/stand computing products?
3. Have you requested sit/stand products at work?

For more detail and analysis of the survey findings, the JustStand® Report by Ergotron is available athttp://www.juststand.org/portals/3/literature/SurveyIndexReport.pdf. The Survey and Index results are being presented at the 3^rd Annual JustStand Wellness Summit today, via live stream atJuststand.org/summit.

Did you know Steelcase was born out of the need to stop office fires? Too many men were flicking too many hot cigar ashes in the wooden waste baskets at their desks. Metal Office Furniture came to the rescue, and later would become Steelcase.

That is one of the stories told in Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, the story of how the people of Grand Rapids are changing the way the world sees their community.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press, and also on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center.

Autographed copies are available by clicking the Add To Cart button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com

Steelcase Wins Five Best Of NeoCon Awards At NeoCon 2013

Steelcase Gesture Chair

 The Steelcase family of brands won five Best of NeoCon Awards, which include four Gold awards and one Innovation award. Products recognized with a Best of NeoCon award include the Steelcase Gesture chair and V.I.A. architectural solution, Nurture's Regard™ modular seating, Coalesse's Lagunitas, a comprehensive seating and table collection, and Turnstone's Buoy stool. All products are currently on display at NeoCon 2013, North America's largest contract furnishings trade show.

The 24th annual Best of NeoCon awards, hosted by Contract Magazine, recognize the top new commercial interiors products introduced at NeoCon each year.

"Innovation is a critical issue for all organizations. Drawing on over 15 years of innovation research, Steelcase has created a portfolio of products that leverage technology to empower people," said Allan Smith, vice president of marketing at Steelcase. "We are pleased to be recognized by the Best of NeoCon competition for this achievement."

Was it politics or economics? How did Right-To-Work become the law of the land in Michigan? The answers are in Outrage in Michigan, available now for just 99 cents by clicking here.









Steelcase won a Gold award for V.I.A., vertical intelligent architecture, which was designed to create spaces that help fuel the innovation process. V.I.A. not only defines space, but redefines the role vertical real estate plays in an interconnected workplace. It hosts the latest large-scale video and display technologies, offers unprecedented acoustic privacy, and easily reconfigures to support rapid change.

The Gesture chair from Steelcase also won a Gold award. Gesture is the first chair designed to support our interactions with today's technologies. It was inspired by the movement of the human body and created for the way we work today, with today's most prevalent devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Nurture by Steelcase won a Gold award for Regard™, a new customizable system solution that can adapt to a variety of healthcare spaces. Designed with healthcare environments in mind, Regard™ solves for transition times in a patient's healthcare journey that are typically not productive and commonly referred to as "waiting". Regard™ directly addresses issues of comfort, privacy and the need to connect.

Coalesse won a Gold award for Lagunitas, a comprehensive seating and table collection. Lagunitas creates a "third place" anywhere while offering multi-modal support and varying degrees of privacy through high and low panels. With a unique articulating back cushion, Lagunitas adapts to changing work styles and shifting work postures and allows for toggling between both lean forward and lean back postures.

Finally, Buoy by Turnstone received an Innovation Award. This stool that wobbles and spins and encourages movement thanks to a curved based, just like a buoy. Buoy's innovative, customizable design encourages self-expression among young, active people and boosts performance by keeping the body in motion and the mind active. It's seating that bucks the trend of sedentary lifestyles and work styles.

The Best of NeoCon 2013 awards were selected from approximately 325 entries in 39 different product categories.

Herman Miller has a good NeoCon, too. That story will be posted tomorrow.

~~ LCP~~ 

Like many other cities in the United States, Grand Rapids, Michigan has struggled with redeveloping its economic identity after the devastation of the Great Recession of 2008. Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community demonstrates how Grand Rapids has been redefined as a hub for the greatest scientific minds in the world by developing what has come to be called the “Medical Mile.” 

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available in hardcover, softcover or ebook formats by clicking here.

The Rebirth of the Office Furniture Industry

When was the last time you sat down at an office cubicle. The days of office furniture systems, the product line that fed the Grand Rapids office furniture industry, are numbered. Do you really need a desk with an overhead storage system? How about a drawer for your pencils? Do you really need a credenza for files? Or do you even require a table for a printer? Many of us don't even need an office anymore. We carry our offices on our laptops or tablets and land in coffee shops or airport terminals instead of a home office.

However, industry consultant Michael Dunlap was just telling me yesterday that has not meant the end of the office furniture industry in Grand Rapids. He pointed out that Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Haworth, along with other players like Interface Inc. have either been born or have found new life, in the education, health care and hospitality sectors.

Here's an example of that:

GRAND RAPIDS, S.D., July 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Adoba Eco-Hotels and Suites has designated Interface Hospitality carpet tile its floor covering of choice for the brand's nascent chain of properties. Adoba Eco Hotel Brand is committed to environmentally responsible architecture and design, improving the environmental footprints of its holdings one guest room at a time.

"The flooring is the first big step toward sustainable interior design and Interface, known for the highest of sustainability standards, is the ideal partner to deliver great design that will delight the AdobaEco Hotel guests," said James Henderson CEO/Present of the Adoba brand. "We encourage our property owners to source many of the decorative accessories locally and we recommend the use of Interface carpet tile for its green construction as well as for the company's ability to recycle the carpet at the end of a product's life cycle."

The first Adoba Eco Hotel was converted in February in historic downtown Rapid City, SD. And the company is working on three other properties to open in Texas and Colorado in the near future.
Charley Knight, Interface Hospitality vice president, said, "It's a win-win – the guests are responding well to the look and feel of the carpet tiles in the suites and the property managers appreciate the easy maintenance and long term value that using Interface Hospitality products brings them."

Interface Hospitality is a division of Interface, Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of commercial carpet tile. For 39 years, the company has consistently led the industry through innovation and now leads the industry in environmental sustainability. Interface is well along the path to "Mission Zero®," the company's promise to eliminate any negative impact it has on the environment by the year 2020. For additional information: www.interface.com www.interfaceflorblog.com

More on the rebirth of the office furniture industry is coming up later this month in the ebook, Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of Manufacturing.