Bean Counter or Guru: How will Walker be Remembered at Herman Miller?

Bean counter numbers guy or guru who took Herman Miller’s storied past and pointed it toward a bright future? Or maybe something completely different? It’s hard to tell how history will look at Herman Miller under the leadership of Brian Walker. 

by Rob Kirkbride

The company announced a few weeks ago that Walker would retire by the end of the summer. It is a move that leaves many in the industry scratching their heads — me included. Though it is being billed as a retirement, Walker is not the kind of guy to quit, which makes the announcement surprising. The fact that he’s being kept around to help find his replacement makes one assume he wasn’t fired. Your guess as to what happened behind board room doors is as good as mine and since this isn’t Fox News or CNN, we’ll leave the speculation behind.

It is hard to imagine in the history of the office furniture industry a period — the 14 years of Walker’s tenure — that was so turbulent and disruptive. Leaders like Walker literally took this industry through uncharted territory.

As a reporter and editor for various publications, I have covered Walker’s entire tenure as a leader at Herman Miller. So here are a few observations I’ve made about Walker and his leadership.

He is a seriously intense dude. There were times early in his career when I questioned him as he was navigating through layoffs and some tough decisions that I seriously thought he might explode. He was a hothead. That is not an unusual characteristic among CEO’s, but with Walker, it was intense. People who have worked for him describe him as blustery, emotive (and some even called him an intimidator), the kind of leader that if you disagreed with him, he would listen, but who also felt it important to be right. Is this a good or bad trait? If you work for Walker, probably not. If you invest in Herman Miller, it probably is.

He is financially prudent. Yes, his background is in accounting and finance, which I would argue is exactly what Herman Miller needed early in his leadership. The industry was going through tremendous consolidation and change. He was, on occasion, too fiscally conservative. I wish (and I think investors would agree with me) that Walker would have given Herman Miller Red more time to mature. The same is true for Herman Miller’s Convia, its first foray into the Internet of Things — before the phrase existed. Both were ahead of their time, to be sure, but imagine what could be if they were given time to develop. He was rightfully knocked for surrounding himself, nearly his entire leadership team, with accountants and financial folks. That creates a one-dimensional leadership style that stifled the creativity of the company. Still, the company returned solid profits to investors and had strong financials through his leadership career. Walker’s steady hand on the tiller was definitely needed.

He is unwavering. As a leader, Walker made decisions and followed through with them. You can question those decisions and he would be first to tell you that not all of them were correct, but you can’t question the way he followed through on the direction he set. One need only look at the company’s Shift and Overdrive strategies as proof. Shift began with the Living Office (Herman Miller’s move to provide a blend of products to work in a variety of setting — from work to home) and the infrastructure to put it into place, from products to solutions. Overdrive was the plan to capitalize on the progress the company made through Shift and accelerate Herman Miller’s transformation into a modern lifestyle brand.

He is a (sometimes slow learning) student of design. Herman Miller’s design heritage is its most important asset. Early on, people questioned his ability to foster that legacy. Again, early in his career, I don’t think it was his strong suit. That changed later in his leadership career. He let Herman Miller do what Herman Miller does — create products with a design pedigree that matter. He also surrounded himself with people who augmented his understanding of design. Again, later in his career, he invested heavily in revamping Herman Miller’s sales force and bolstering its showrooms, which was definitely needed. Let’s go back in time for a moment. If Aeron would have come to Herman Miller during Walker’s tenure, would he have given it the green light? In this fictional scenario, earlier in his tenure, probably not. Later in his leadership career, he probably would have.

He does have a sense of humor and has learned to lighten up. A few years ago, I called Herman Miller’s NeoCon launches a “dud” in a headline attached to a story that was less-than-flattering about what the company was about to show in Chicago. I had an interview arranged with Walker at the Mart during the event. When I arrived, he handed me a wrapped gift — a giant box of Milk Duds. It lightened the mood a lot and he was able to explain why he disagreed with my assessment of its new products that year. Contrast that with the time I said I didn’t like the Knoll Generation chair when it came out. When I arrived at Knoll’s showroom at NeoCon, CEO Andrew Coogan shouted at me across the floor: “Why do you have to be such an a**hole?” A few years earlier and that might have been Walker’s response to my perceived slight. Walker is a down-to-earth guy who is able to laugh and joke around. Maybe that comes from his working class upbringing that taught him humility and the value of hard work. Or maybe because he is a Michigan State University Spartan — a school with with a chip on its shoulder from undeservedly being known as the “little brother” to the school in Ann Arbor, which teaches you to hustle harder while keeping a sense of humor.

He was an industry leader. Walker led Herman Miller, but he also helped give voice to the office furniture industry through his work with BIFMA and his public speaking. Despite his position as one the leader of one of the largest and most respected companies, he didn’t shirk his responsibilities to boost the overall industry. He was a great industry spokesman who clearly pushed forward the idea that the environment in which people work matters. He also joined with fellow leaders like Steelcase’s Jim Keane, Haworth’s Franco Bianchi and HNI’s Stan Askren to create a more collegial industry. That is a legacy that should be celebrated.

More importantly now is the search for the company’s new leader. Herman Miller’s board has a monumental decision at a time when the idea of work, the office and space is changing at lightning speed. Walker set a clear direction for the company. The board needs to make sure to find a woman or a man who understands the forces at play that are shaping this industry on a daily basis.

Herman Miller has a history of hiring from within, so it will be interesting to see who might emerge as the company’s next leader. The heir apparent a few years ago would have been Curt Pullen, who served as chief financial officer and then president of Herman Miller North America, but he left the company in 2015 for personal family reasons. Maybe Greg Bylsma, chief operating officer, will get a good look for the position. Or maybe the company will look for someone outside the industry, a wildcard candidate that can bring new ideas and perspectives to the position. Regardless, it will be a monumental choice for the board. After 29 years at Herman Miller, Walker certainly deserves a break. But if I know anything about him, I sure he will be on his road bike, pushing himself as hard as ever.