Back in December of 2025, which for some reason seems like a lifetime ago, my column in this publication, titled Instigating Innovation, suggested that our industry — work furniture and the workplace segment — was in dire need of innovation, the sort of new insights and the translation into new-to-the-world products that have been its hallmark, the times we were at our best as professionals. I’m not alone in advancing that idea, evidenced in recent postings by manufacturer leaders and even postures from other officeinsight columnists. I closed that Winter column by saying that Rob Kirkbride and I would be willing to convene a sort of “innovation think tank” of interested industry leaders willing to assume a relatively non-partisan role in exploring innovation for the sake of the entire industry. We asked for volunteers.
There are some encouraging results to report. Rob and I were contacted by a dozen or so industry leaders, willing participants in some initial discussions. Interestingly, we heard from no one who said, “No, this is not at all needed and you should not waste your time.” Perhaps they had that thought but kept it to themselves. We also had a few sidebar conversations with senior leaders at some large manufacturers who expressed solid agreement with what we were proposing but didn’t have the corporate support or endorsement they would need to participate. Perhaps telling.
Rob and I were encouraged and began plotting next steps. We concluded that the moniker of “Innovation Think Tank” perhaps brought along more negative baggage than we wanted to shoulder, so we began calling it an “Innovation Thinkers” group. Because the interested parties were scattered across the country, we decided an initial online meeting might be the appropriate way to convene the group and make some introductions, so we sent an invitation. In the face of cluttered calendars for industry leaders, especially in these busy months ahead of Chicago Design Week, NeoCon and Design Days, we had modest expectations; however, a full 100% of those who had expressed an initial interest committed to participate in at least most of that first online meeting. We sensed building momentum.
The online meeting revealed both the robust knowledge and expertise of the group that convened as well as an easy sense of camaraderie. The introductions and the exposure of the range of experience among the group naturally led to some shared general observations about the need for innovation within our industry. Again, there was a rapid and strong consensus that some action toward innovation was desperately needed. Rob and I proposed to the group that we take advantage of the likelihood that most of the people in this group of Innovation Thinkers would be in Chicago for the major industry events in early June and convene a working session. We published a scheduling poll, and we now have a large majority of the group committed to participate. The agenda for this first session will focus on identifying some target outcomes from this work around innovation, discussing an optimal process for launching the work, identifying any additional people and/or resources that could provoke or nourish the process and charting a potential timeline for both starting and concluding. An ambitious list.
If you considered joining this effort earlier and feel more inclined to participate now, we are not a closed group. Email Rob Kirkbride (rob@officeinsight.com) or me (bill@voxstrategic.com) about your interest.
One last thought from me…over lunch recently with a couple of very committed industry leaders, we dove rather deeply into this topic of the need for innovation, and one of them said something (they likely regret it now) that triggered an involved story from my past, the story of a failed product introduction replete with my recounting of an array of lessons about work, work patterns, work tools, workplace configurations and ultimately new-to-the-world ideas that took shape in a wonderful furniture product. Must not have been so wonderful, you say, since it largely launched and quickly vanished (ironically, you can find it for sale today on Ebay). Those industry veterans with whom I was having lunch and upon whom I foisted that protracted yarn had never even heard of this product (and it came from one of the giants of the industry). In hindsight, that furniture was ahead of its time, poorly positioned to the market. It was likely not alone over the years, as veterans like me could perhaps compile a list of similar failures by an assortment of manufacturers. Think about the Apple Newton. You get the picture.
The lesson from this sidebar is that even products that fail in the market can teach us about the power and impact of the thinking that is at their genesis, the ideas that might have made them innovative. When I recounted this story to these veterans, stipulating all the startlingly new ideas the product team had germinated, hatched, and then manifested in the product, they were incredulous that it had not been successful. They immediately recognized the power of the innovative ideas behind it. The product ideas, however, were not the failure; the launch strategy, messaging support and market management doomed the effort. The innovative thinking was exceptional.
That exceptional thinking is what we need so desperately today, and for our future. That’s the outcome potential we are trying to instigate, to which we are pinning our hopes. Stay tuned.