Steelcase Inc.

Fran?

Uh, Ryan, uh, in preparing for this, uh, discussion today, I came across a Steelco- Steelcase report that said that 78% of real estate leaders, uh, say they're planning to redesign their offices, which I thought was great news for you and for MillerKnoll.

Um, uh, and they said the number one driver, uh, the furniture spend was floor place reconfiguration rather than head count expansion, which historically had driven that, you know.

So that, that's been a, kind of a major change.

Um, and when we start to see some of the folks, I used accounting as an example, but you could take anything really, the marketing team, the accounts payable team, whatever, and you start to say, "Well, okay, well, what types of, of needs do they have?" You can begin to assess what's the layout of the space need to do.

That, to me, is the magic moment where we can take a look at our portfolio and say, "Any unmet needs there in terms of products that we wish existed to be able to solve for this better?" Um, but no, it's, we don't categorize our product based on the size of the organization or the specific user group.

It's more, um, what types of experiences are we trying to support in a given organ- you know, a given organization using these different types of spaces? To reference Steelcase's research, I appreciate where they were coming from in terms of that citation that people are looking to reconfigure space, because it is very common for organizations to come to those of us in the industry, them, us, and others, and say, "Hey, we're getting more people back into the office, and now we're not sure we have enough space, or we've made some portfolio changes.

Help me reconfigure." But I actually think there's a bigger shift underway, which is the nucleus for these worksta- the workspace change has really become teams.

I think really passed about middle school.

My dad wound up working on the line at Steelcase.

He worked nights in a factory when I was a kid, so I didn't see him a whole lot.

My mom was a preschool teacher.

would say.

Your parents, obviously, were pretty resilient.

And from your dad to work on the line and then being in management at Steelcase, which is a huge, you know, Steelcase is a huge influencer on the west side of the state for those that that don't know that.

And and that's that's pretty neat.

Yeah.

So our first customer that paid us money was actually Steelcase, the US office furniture company.

We'd built some knowledge management software that transcribed audio, and they wanted to potentially embed it in meeting rooms and turn static furniture into a SaaS-based solution where they could charge recurring revenue or generate recurring revenue on a conference room table, which if you're an office furniture manufacturer, I think sounds pretty compelling from a business perspective.

Ultimately, that went nowhere.

And I think that focus, you asked what, what are some of the differentiators, I think that's frankly another one, is we don't have to solve every problem.

We get to solve the problems that we know we're excellent and unique subject matter experts at solving, and I think it's been a, a real advantage.

We don't have to divert our focus to fixing this for Wendy's or fixing this for Steelcase.

We've been able to let all of that slough off and be really narrowly focused at solving the problems that we are truly passionate about solving.

People like that, but not in my neighborhood.

Steelcase has named Irene Tassi as its next president, coming from PPG Industries, where she held senior executive roles and, of course, were heard on WTKG in Grand Rapids.

She says Steelcase has an extraordinary portfolio of solutions that help people and organizations work better.

Welcome to West Michigan.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer is urging Enbridge to shut down Line 5 and get an alternative.

And I really didn't use that experience until I got to where I am today.

So at that time, I was running research and development for Steelcase, for a division of Steelcase, which is a Fortune 500 company.

And, you know, still playing music on the side, still scheduling the gigs around the travel around the world.

And then, but I started this business, this music stand light business on the side.

And certainly we felt that in all aspects.

I remember Steelcase closing showrooms all over the country, but having a private jet to take my clients to Michigan to see the materials, et cetera, drink a little wine perhaps.

and get business done.

So everything was changing.