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Special Report:New York, New Jersey Dealers Hit by Hurricane SandyBy the time it was over, Hurricane Sandy had carved a trail of destruc-tion from North Carolina to Maine that killed over a hundred people inthe U.S., left eight million without power and caused total damage es-timated at over $50 billion.

The good news for the office furniture community—and it was goodnews—was that there were no initial reports in the industry of fatalitiesor serious injuries caused by the storm.

But that was where the good news ended, as business owners strug-gled to get back to some kind of normalcy in the wake of an unprece-dented weather disaster.

Dealers in New York and New Jersey were among those most affectedby the hurricane. Here’s what three of them reported:

n Kevin Sturges, Vice President, Operations, Arbee Associates, Piscataway, NJArbee Associates made out well during the hurricane relative to many other businesses and homeowners in New Jersey and New York.

We lost power at our New Jersey location for the first week and wereback up and running by November 5. We worked with Steelcase andour other suppliers to hold inbound loads destined for job sites andour distribution centers until we were able to resume accepting de-liveries. Until recently there were fuel shortages and rationing in NewYork and New Jersey. Many gas stations could not pump due to lackof power and/or sold out of fuel between deliveries. Five-six hourlines were not uncommon.

We were asked to respond to several emergencies in New Jersey tosupport businesses that were devastated by water damage. Wehave received and installed several inbound loads of existing furni-ture from dealers around the country that were used to set up tem-porary office spaces being established by their local clients. Severalother temporary spaces have been set up using existing furnitureassets stored by Arbee.

At one customer location in NJ, a 15,000 gallon water tower col-lapsed on the roof, flooding the offices below. The Arbee installationand move teams worked to pack and remove computers and sen-

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 3

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 5

Hurricane Sandy Hits Close to Home

By Alicia Ellis, Managing EditorWhile OFDA is based in Alexandria, Virginia, I operate out of a homeoffice at the Jersey Shore. Indeed, for the past 17 years, I’ve beenproud to call the Jersey Shore and Brick Township my home.

Today, of course, that home has been changed forever as a resultof the nightmare visited on us by Hurricane Sandy.From a personal perspective, things could have been a whole lotworse. As the hurricane hit, a small creek more than 40 yards behind our house surged to flood stage and filled the crawlspace before stopping just six inches short of spilling over intoour first floor. We lost our air conditioner, six trees and a garden shed and wentnine days without power. And we were among the lucky ones!

Our friends and neighbors have lost much of their homes, theircars and their belongings. Just ten minutes from my own house,the beach roads are still full of sand and houses are barely visible behind all the trash that has piled up in front.

Seawater continues to corrode and mold continues to fester. Mostof the people here were evacuated for days, so by the time theywere able to return, everything that the seawater touched neededto be thrown away. And there are still literally thousands of area families who arebeing bussed in and out of their devastated towns daily and whowill not be able to return to their homes for many, many monthsto come.But while we all cried together in shock in the days immediatelyfollowing our losses, we have come together in the wake of thestorm, to help each other and we have been awed by the sup-port that our local communities and those north of us and intoNew York have received from all around the United States andthe world. Closer to home and as reported elsewhere in this issue, one Long Island furniture dealer has launched a grassroots fundraiserof his own (cfetta@ofw.com) and a similar effort is underway on the office supplies side of the industry, thanks to the vision and drive of two industry veterans from New Jersey .If you have already contributed to hurricane relief efforts, thankyou. If you’d like to add your support to either of the two campaignslisted above, thank you for that, too.

Rebuilding the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy will not be ashort-term project. It will take months and even years and anysupport that you can give is greatly appreciated.

On behalf of everyone who has been affected in some way by thehurricane...on behalf of my friends and neighbors, thank you foryour help.

news

sitive documents and transport them toa backup facility in Maryland where weunloaded and staged.

Generators, lanterns and a stair carrywere needed to accomplish the work asthe space was substantially demolishedand without power.

From a business perspective, things aregetting back to normal. Our leadershipteam is discussing incorporating backupgenerators at our facilities as a precau-tionary measure against another pro-longed power outage. We would like tobe able to power our servers, some util-ity lighting and the line drivers for ourorder pickers.

From a people perspective, many of theresidents of New York and New Jerseyclose to the coast are dealing with sub-stantial loss of life and property. Many ofthese areas are still without power andthere is a long road ahead to workthrough recovering from the storm.

n John Callahan, President, Long Island Office Furniture,Hicksville, NYIt hit the area hard and we were 11 dayswithout power. We came in a couple ofmornings just to get some desperate or-ders out to some of our in need clients.One of them needed a few hundredchairs and we had to get 50 more refur-bished. I brought in a generator andhooked up our compressor and got thatdone but it was way too cold and darkto do any other refurbishing so we allbasically worked from home.

We have over 30,000 square feet in ourHicksville location and we offered stor-age to our clients if they got hit hard andlost power or lost office space or haddamaged furniture.

We feel we are all in this together andeven though it is our business to sell fur-niture we don't charge anything morethan a few points over our cost in thesetimes of need.

n John Gallivan, Chairman ofthe Board and Chief OperatingOfficer, Waldner’s BusinessEnvironments, New York, NYMany of our employees were affectedbut to varying degrees due to lack ofpower, gas shortages and flooding. Wewere forced to close our city office forthe week after the storm due to nopower in our section of Manhattan. OurLong Island and Rye facilities were im-pacted as well but many of our peopleworked at home or alternate sites.

Thankfully, our inconvenience is nothingcompared to the devastation that hasoccurred in the shore areas throughoutthe Tri-State area. Despite these chal-lenges, our generous employees stillfound time to provide over 100 toys fora holiday campaign to provide gifts forchildren in need.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 5

Dealer News continued from page 3

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On Long Island, Chuck Fetta and his teamat Office Furniture Warehouse (OFW) wererelatively unaffected by the storm them-selves. Fetta lost power at his house for

three days and while the office never lost power, it took over a weekbefore normal conditions started to return to the business.

Meanwhile, the full extent of the damage wrought by the hurricanewas becoming clear and Fetta decided he personally needed todo something to help.

Reaching out to friends and business colleagues through e-mailblasts and social media, Fetta launched a one-man effort targetedto help people on Staten Island and the Rockaways, two of NewYork’s most severely affected.

Over $5,000 came in from the initial effort and in the weeks fol-lowing the hurricane, Fetta made multiple deliveries to severalshelters, dropping off over 30 bags of clothing, food items, clean-ing supplies and equipment and more to people desperately inneed of help.

In addition, Fetta has helped several homeowners clean outflooded houses and cleared dozens of trees, so hard hit residentscan begin the process of rebuilding.

“A lot of neighborhoods have given up on the government andare making it happen on their own,” he says. “At the end of theday, it's not about the few big fixes but rather all the small effortsthat will make the difference.”

As Fetta is the first to admit, the recovery from Hurricane Sandywill be a long and costly process. “More stuff and money is stillcoming in,” he reports. “This problem will not go away soon al-though needs will change and we will be looking to determinewhat is most needed and where it should go to get the most ef-ficient use out of all donations.”

If you’d like to make a contribution of your own to support thisoutstanding grassroots effort, please send your check to ChuckFetta at Office Furniture Warehouse, ATTN: Hurricane Sandy Re-lief, 3108 Expressway Drive South, Islandia, NY 11749 (E-mail:CFetta@ofw.com; PH: 631 582-5388).

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 7

Dealer News continued from page 5

Long Island Dealer Launches Grassroots Relief Effort

http://www.ais-inc.com

The stakes were high but the payoff washuge for attendees at OFDAs late October2012 Dealer Strategies Conference. The LasVegas venue provided the perfect setting fordealers to “Go All-In to Win” with a programdesigned to empower dealers of all sizes andalignments with targeted educationalsessions, inspirational speakers and opennetworking between dealers, manufacturersand service providers. All in all, more than92% of attendees gave this year’s conferencean above average rating.

“This year’s conference was the best attended in the past fiveyears,” said Sandi Jacobs, president of SideMark and OFDAchair. “Just like the office furniture industry itself, OFDA and itsconference have weathered economic turmoil, set their sights onthe important dealer issues of the day and proven themselves awinner and grown the conference by 24% per year on average.”

In her opening remarks to attendees, Jacobs highlighted someof the key issues facing dealers today and pointed out howOFDA is moving aggressively to help them meet those issuessuccessfully.

Those issues included industry consolidation, growing marginpressures, rising customer expectations, talent attraction chal-lenges and a weak recognition of the value of services thatdealers provide. “If all this sounds familiar to you, then you un-derstand why dealers need to build a larger, stronger and moreimpactful and influential OFDA,” she told attendees.

Working together, sharing insights and growing as an industrywere major themes throughout the conference and would notbe possible if not for the generous support of OFDA’s PlatinumSponsors – The HON Company and Global – The Total Office;Gold Sponsors – Kimball, ECi and National Office Furniturewho have faithfully supported the association and the con-ference through the years.

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 1

Dealer Strategies Conference

Wins Bigin Las Vegas

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 9

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“This year we were particu-larly fortunate to have a vari-ety of support from INDEAL;20-20 Technologies andSteelcase,” said ChrisBates, president of OFDA.“In addition, AIS, Haworth,the Haakenson Group,Kimball Office, National

and Teknion joinedtogether to helpsponsor generalsession speakersand Configura,ECi, the FacilitiesServices Network(FSN), and Hori-zon Keystone Fi-nancial alsocontributed in avariety of waysto the successof this event.”

No Bluffing on EducationIt’s the education that makes OFDA’s DealerStrategies Conference unique and once again,OFDA stepped up to the rail, rolled the dice andwon.

Beginning on Sunday with three pre-conferencehalf-day workshops, the educational offeringscontinued OFDA’s winning streak. Hosted by threeof the industry’s most knowledgeable veteranconsultants—David Solomon, Jim Heilborn andDebbie Junge—each well attended sessionsought to show dealers how to increase produc-tivity, company performance and profitability.

The workshops set the stage for another day-and-a-half of education, including two general sessionspeakers, one general session manufacturerpanel on the future of the industry and twelvebreakout sessions.

With their motivational messages and humorousspin to business, general session speakers RossShafer and Matthew Kelly delighted attendees

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 11

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 3

Conference Wins Big continued from page 9

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and left them with some great ideas to bringback to their businesses.

“Ross was entertaining and gave me a lot ofgood ideas,” said Devin Bynon, partner withAccurate Corporate Services in Portland, OR.“Now I need to sit down with the informationand do something with it!”

David Kiwior, general manager of AIREA Inc.in Detroit also gave Shafer’s presentationhigh marks. “I have already used a lot ofRoss’ provoking thoughts and insights inmy dealership,” he reported.

“Matthew Kelly was very funny, intelligent,and came across as he had his finger onthe pulse of our industry,” said Erich DeJoseph, director of project management atWaldner’s Business Environments in NewYork City.

“Ross Shafer was one of the best sessions Ihave ever attended in over 35 years of busi-ness! What a dynamic speaker! AndMatthew Kelly was a very invigorating. Hishigh-energy level and subject matter reallygets the mind thinking about what differences

your people can make,” said Dwight Zwiener, director of businessdevelopment at BA Designs, LLC in Topeka, KS.

Breakout sessions continued the conference’s winning streak.Particularly noteworthy were sessions on Best Practices in Lever-aging Operations Technology to Raise Productivity and Profits;Applying Sales/Marketing/CRM and Customer-FacingSoftware to Differentiate Business; Integrating A/V Tech-nology Products; Strategic Use of Social Media, and Im-plementing Digital Product Information.

“We are looking to move our operations forward with tech-nology, so I found the breakout session on leveragingtechnology to be particularly interesting,” said De Joseph.“Just listening to other dealers and service providers ex-plain what systems they use and what technology theyhave their people working with was quite helpful.”

“For my position in the dealership, the session on customer-facingsoftware was of value, but all the sessions were very informative andbeneficial for our business,” said Zwiener. “We brought three indi-viduals from our company and split them up to attend as many ses-sions as possible. I would say OFDA did an excellent job of bringingquality presenters and information pertinent to dealerships to thisconference. This was well worth the investment we made to attendand we can’t wait until the next one comes around.”

Education didn’t stop with the formal sessions, however. Eight-een displays situated in the center of the conference site fea-

tured a variety of products and services for the dealer community.Ample breaks gave attendees the chance to check out displays,talk with industry partners and network with manufacturers anddealers.

What happens in Vegas…Doesn’t always stay in Vegas. Especially if you were the winnerof the $1,000 cash give away by 20-20 Technologies during itsConference Treasure Hunt or held the lucky raffle ticket for oneof the flat screen TVs, home theater systems or iPads that IN-DEAL gave away at its Casino Night Party. During its party, IN-DEAL was surprised to receive the OFDA Service Award for theircontributions to and support of the association.

“As chair, I am allowed to present a service award to any individ-ual or organization that has gone above and beyond for OFDA,”

said Jacobs during a break in the party. “This year I’m

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 13

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 5

Conference Wins Big continued from page 11

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presenting the award to INDEAL,whose team has gone above and be-yond in sponsoring the conference re-ception, having their annual meeting inalignment with the OFDA conferenceand enthusiastically engaging withOFDA as much as possible. I ampleased to honor INDEAL with theOFDA Chair’s Service Award.”

In addition to the Chair’sService Award, OFDA gaveawards to the winners of itsDealer Choice Survey whichwere announced earlier thisfall.

Representatives from winningnon-aligned manufacturersAIS, Global – The Total Office,National Office Furniture, GreatOpenings and The HON Com-pany were on hand to accepttheir award and network with the dealercommunity.

Representatives from winning Dealer Choice Survey manufacturers received their awards during the conference.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 15

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That’s exactly what happened when webroached this topic with four dealersand a consultant. Each shared someof the best practices that have eithermade a difference in their business or

offer the potential to make a differ-ence if a dealership simply took theinitiative.

Bob Bacic, CFO with Furniture Mar-keting Group, a Haworth dealer with lo-cations in Plano, Austin and Houston,TX, puts best practices to use in his

dealership every day.

Bacic focuses on the basics, emphasizing what everydealer ought to know—that what sells furniture is therelationship.

Although offering that opinion may seem like theequivalent of pulling out a mallet and banging readerson the head, he has found that’s not always obviousas he recalls some of the missteps he’s witnessed inrelationship building over the course of his career.

Bacic has been with Furniture Marketing Group for 22years and remembers the time the previous ownerswanted to place a billboard on a major highway after

When you ask a furniture dealer about the best practices that make a difference in their dealership you never know whatyou’ll get. Some hone in on technology, others on front- and back-room operational procedures and others on communications.

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 7

Best Practices Make Perfect:A Look at Strategies and Initiatives that Position Furniture Dealers Above the PackBy Scott Cullen

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 16

the business had moved from its former highway location.“Spending $10,000 a month just to have people see your nameis not the best way to build relationships,” opines Bacic.

Today, Furniture Marketing Group spends its money more wisely,investing in educational and networking events and making surethat sales reps are making new relationships and keeping up withold ones. This strategy places them front and center with influencersas opposed to end users. They’re also participating in more IIDAevents, CoreNet and work with the Chamber of Commerce—all ofwhich are helping them build relationships with the right people.

Another element of applying best practices to its sales and marketing efforts is the new look of Furniture Marketing Group’swebsite.

Bacic understands that people first visit a website for general in-formation. However, that visit is also an opportunity to discovermore about who that company is.

“When you look at our web page, you see actual employees, notjust models and furniture,” says Bacic.

That harkens back to the dealership’s relationship-oriented phi-losophy. “It’s a realization of who we are and how we generatebusiness,” states Bacic. “It’s not just by reputation, but by seeing us.”

How are these strategies working?“New business development is up, our win rate is higher, and we’reseeing a 25% increase in sales over last year,” responds Bacic. “Ican’t attribute all of that to our new philosophy, but I think it’s goingto continue to help us do well and strengthen the relationshipswe’re building.”

Technology also plays a part in relationship building. Two yearsago the dealership began using Khameleon Software, an Oracle-based program that Bacic and his team deploy to help them buildand nurture those critical customer relationships.

Management uses the program to monitor sales rep activity, follow prospects and track potential business opportunities. “Ican log into this opportunity management program and rightaway know what activity is going on in any of our locations,” saysBacic.

Additionally, the software is used to track business activity takingplace in the markets they serve whether it’s companies movingto Dallas, those who are building new space or moving into newspace, and for nurturing new and old relationships at organiza-tions like the Chamber of Commerce.

The key is keeping up with what the dealership is doing with

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 17

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influencers and tracking sales activities on prospects all the wayup to when they get the win. “There are a lot of activities involvedprior to getting the order that are relationship oriented,” acknowl-edges Bacic.

Sticking with technology, Diana Gentry, principal with DG Consult-ing, offers some best practice observations about making the mostof one’s business system no matter who the vendor is.

She acknowledges that a business system is one of the biggestinvestments a dealer will make in their company. However, shelaments that all too often when they first go live, dealers tend tolearn just what they need in order to survive, but neglect to rein-vest in the additional training that will allow them to maximize thepotential of their system.

“Many times they [end up] thinking the system they have doesn’tfit them, when what it really comes down to is that they haven’ttaken the time or put the money into getting trained to find outthe full capabilities of the package they purchased,” emphasizesGentry.

On the operational side, she offers a best practice recommenda-tion for dealers who use outside installers. She recalls a conver-sation with a dealer who didn’t print their own delivery tickets orrecord when furniture had been delivered in their business sys-tem. That’s not a best practice, that’s a bad practice.

“If they have a customer that objects to paying their invoice theymight have to contact their installer and ask them for a copy ofthe delivery ticket as proof that a certain product was deliveredwhereas any of the business systems out there could be record-ing this kind of information,” she notes. “They should be keepingcopies of the delivery ticket onsite whether they’re scanning it orthey’re keeping a hard copy. I’m not seeing a lot of that beingdone.”

Why not? “A lot of times they have a hard time getting the paperwork fromthe installer,” responds Gentry.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

“That installer is working for them,” she says. “They wouldn’t letany other vendor get away with not supplying them with the rightpaperwork. If I had a dealership I would want to be in charge ofmy own documents. I wouldn’t want to be depending on some-one outside my company. They pretty much depend on that in-staller to have all that paperwork. What happens when theinstaller can’t put their hands on that paperwork when the dealerneeds it down the road? They really need to insist on better com-munications with their install company.”

Another area where Gentry says dealers can improve is acknowl-edgements.

“Most manufacturers in the industry, especially the larger ones,

send out acknowledgements which detail the price of the productand the actual product the dealer is ordering, with ship dates andoptions,” says Gentry.

“A lot of dealers are not cross-checking their acknowledgementsfrom their manufacturers; they’re just depending on the manufac-turer to process their purchase order and send them what theyask for.”

Once again, thanks to technology, this can be done electronically.“But the dealer needs to take the time to check and make surethe product they think they ordered is what they’re going to get,”Gentry recommends. “It also offers an opportunity to be proactiveby cross-checking shipping dates with lead times vs. delivery andinstallation promises. They could be more accommodating on thefront-end by advising their customer of delays early instead ofwaiting until the last minute.”

While most major manufacturers send acknowledgements elec-tronically, Gentry says if she were working with a manufacturerthat wasn’t sending this information electronically, she’d encour-age them to offer electronic ordering and communicate with thebusiness system the dealer is using today.

“I’m sure the business systems [vendors] would be very happy tohave more communication,” she points out.

Whether or not we’re going to see a dramatic change in the nearfuture when it comes to raising the bar on this best practice, Gen-try has a sense of optimism when asked what she expects theelectronic communications between dealers and manufacturersto look like five years from now.

“I hope to see more than 90% of the manufacturers interfacingelectronically with the dealer business systems and the dealerscommunicating better with their installers.”

Annette Gerrow, director of sales with Systems Furniture Galleryin Chantilly, VA, also focuses on technology when talking aboutbest practices.

At Systems Furniture Gallery the new program, at least for thepast two years, that’s been helpful in getting the dealership’sducks in a row is e-manage, a program designed for various ver-tical markets, including contract furniture.

“There’s so much technology out there and trying to encapsu-late it into a program that’s going to help you facilitate, andmove everything from one step to the next [isn’t easy],” opinesGerrow. “One of the reasons we took on e-manage is becauseit really does help you do that from the point of where you’reprospecting.”

For example, Gerrow can type a category like “pediatricians” intoa grid and the program will pull up all of the pediatricians in a spe-cific zip code. The dealership can then drill down based on spe-cific streets or buildings and target pediatricians in thoselocations.

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Systems Furniture Gallery reps will then send marketing materialsout to them and the program will then track return calls, who’sbeen turned into a customer, and what they ordered.

“The program helps you manage your time,” states Gerrow. “Ittracks it all from soup to nuts—no matter how much time youspend on them or how many revisions were made, it can trackyour time. You can send action items to your designer to do lay-outs and it will track that time as well, so if you bill for designtime it’s been tracked. It helps put it all together so you’re notgoing from screen to screen and asking, ‘What did I do todayand where’s my note on this?’ All of that can be tracked in oneprogram.”

For Mark St. Clair, vice president with Creative Office Pavilion inPortland, ME, best practices focus on branding and marketingand raising the dealership’s profile as a thought leader in the mar-ket. “We try to tie that into our messaging for everything we do,”he explains.

These days ‘that messaging’ involves all forms of social media,including the obligatory Facebook page, Twitter posts, andLinkedIn.

A perfect example of how COP positions itself as a thought leaderis their weekly “Design Inspiration of the Week,” which is postedevery Friday by one of the dealership’s 16 designers.

Additionally, Creative’s healthcare team writes blogs about health-care trends, which are posted on one of the social media outlets.“We’re trying to have a conversation with clients about thoughtleadership, trends in the workplace in the different markets we’rein, and push that out to our followers, networks and contacts insocial media,” explains St. Clair.

“We also try to do that in our proposals,” he adds. “We have aproposal process with someone in each location responsible forputting proposals together. They’re supposed to be consistent,and also differentiate us in the market as to who we are, whatwe’re doing, and set the tone for thought leadership as well.”

The dealership’s social media efforts supplement its quarterlynewsletters that target specific markets—corporate, healthcare,higher education, K-12, government and A&D. The purpose is toupdate clients on what the company is working on and often in-cludes discussions of workplace trends and case studies gearedto that specific vertical.

“We think it’s important to show how we’re able to solve problemsand help clients,” notes St. Clair.

Asked about any lessons learned regarding social media bestpractices, St. Clair says, “It needs to be relevant to what peopleare looking for and entertaining as well. You need to give them

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 19

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information on something of interest rather than something that’sself serving or that we think is important.”

Kris Vandierendonck, principal with KV Workspace with locationsin New Orleans and Mandeville, LA, zeroes in on operational andprocedural best practices.

“There are a lot of things in this industry that can go wrong andare completely beyond your control,” she acknowledges. “With-out set standards for procedures and operational back of thehouse [procedures] you leave yourself open for error and marginerosion.You can sell it all day long, but if you can’t execute, thenyou either lose money on the individual sales or lose your repu-tation.”

At KV Workspace procedures are broken down department bydepartment, focusing on specific segments of the business suchas design, project management, sales and accounting. “We’vecreated a strong handoff between all of those departments so in-formation doesn’t get lost or interpreted differently between thosedifferent handoffs,” explains Vandierendonck. “And we have aclear delineation of roles so when a project is handed off from onedepartment to another we don’t have situations where the righthand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”

KV Workspace begins indoctrinating employees on the com-pany’s processes from the moment they walk in the door. “When

a new person comes on board, whether it’s sales, design or op-erations, we immerse them in our processes,” reports Vandieren-donck. “It’s a little daunting for some.”

A KV Workspace best practice is to constantly revisit jobs thatwent well and jobs that did not go well, allowing them to replicateor avoid those issues on future jobs.

When things don’t go well or things don’t match up with what wasquoted, they’ll pull out the pink slips and begin drilling down untilthey identify the source of the problem.

An outside consultant was instrumental in helping KV Workspacefine tune their procedures.

“If you want to take that square block and turn it into a roundwheel, bring in a consultant versus trying to do it by yourself, es-pecially if you are not process minded,” says Vandierendonck. “Itweaked everything she did, but foundationally you want to hitevery department to help you see the tie in from design, to projectmanagement, to HR, to accounting, and how all those pieces in-terconnect.”

Scott Cullen has been writing about office technology and the office furni-ture industry since 1986.

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Office furniture dealers who think they are not in the workplacewellness business should think again. As wellness programs ex-pand to improve worker health, the sit/stand work style is be-coming a viable go-to option. When end users, facility managersand interior designers need ideas for these active workstationsthey will turn to their dealers. Responding to the call means un-derstanding the art and science of the sit/stand approach.

What is sit/stand? In a sit/stand workstation or office, theworker has the choice to work while seated or while standing.

Aside from raising the furniture on cinder blocks, this can beaccomplished two basic ways. One is to raise and lower themouse, keyboard and monitor using an articulating arm at-tached to a fixed height desk or work surface. The other ismoving the desktop or work surface up and down using anelectric motor, hand crank or pneumatic action. Treadmills andstationery bicycles are sometimes added.

Sit/stand might also be called the active workstation, active of-fice or active workplace.

How does sit/stand improve worker health? Work has be-come less physicallyengaging. Weightgain has beenassociated

with the decrease in jobs that require moderate/light physicalactivity.

The first link between more active workers having fewer healthissues was established in the 1950s in a study of drivers andconductors on London’s double-decker buses. The sedentarydrivers, forced to sit behind the wheel, had more heart dis-ease than the mobile conductors, moving con-

stantly and using the stairs.

This is No Time to TakeWorkplace Wellness Issues Sitting Downby Stephen Witte

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C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 2

Workers with lower back pain report that standingwhile working is more comfortable and productivethan sitting.Results show how switching workers to a sit/standwork style assists weight loss, thus reducing riskfactors for coronary, heart disease, type 2 diabetes,hypertension and premature death. Sitting too muchincreases risk factors, especially obesity. “When people think of obesity they always think offood first, and that’s one side of it, but it is time tolook at the amount of time we spend inactive atwork,” said Dr. Barbara Ainsworth, an exercise re-searcher at Arizona State University. “Even 30 to 60minutes of jogging a day won’t undo eight hours ofsitting,” said Dr. Elizabeth Joy at the University ofUtah’s Health Sciences Center.What is the payback for sit/stand workstations?Using an online calculator designed for finding pay-back periods on this sort of investment returnedpaybacks of under one year. The variables entered were four hours of daily com-puter use and average annual compensation of$81,500. That formula was then applied to three hy-pothetical purchases of sit/stand equipment. The calculator projected a payback period of 73 daysfor a $160,000 investment in 100 treadmill desks.Next, it projected an 18-day payback period on a$40,000 outlay for 100 desk-mounted arms. Finally,the payback period was 55 days for 100 adjustable-height desks for $120,000. Another way to measure savings comes from astudy of 6,200 American Express workers. Those infixed, non-adjustable workstations had work-relatedmusculoskeletal disorder rates 20 times higher thanworkers in adjustable workstations.How does selling sit/stand affect chair sales? As theterm implies, sitting remains part of the sit/stand for-mula. Chairs that adapt to seated work and to lean-ing against when standing become useful. Neutral Posture has developed a chair that includesa unique footrest system for sit/stand workstations.HÅG offers Capisco that complements sit/stand witha variety of sizes, models and accessories. Seating has a role, but the specification criteria willchange and it may entice manufacturers to developlower cost models with sit/stand versatility.

Offering the sit/stand choiceJane Payfer is fluent in the language of the work-place wellness culture. As chief marketing officer atErgotron, Payfer’s reasoning makes it seem a logicaland necessary choice. “A workstation or office with features for sit/standadjustability should be viewed as a preventive meas-

ure for reducing risks of work-related musculoskele-tal disorders,” she contends.Payfer adds, “At times these features have beenconsidered ‘prescriptive’ for a worker with a partic-ular condition or doing a certain kind of work, butthe benefits sit/stand provides should be availableto all workers.”Reporting from the government helps make thecase. “More activity in a person’s day may offset cer-tain factors linked with too much sitting that con-tribute to four of seven diseases the Centers forDisease Control lists as leading causes of death inthe United States, “ she said.Payfer and her team operate JustStand.org, an on-line information hub for all subjects connected withgetting workers on their feet during the workday. In July JustStand sponsored the second annualWorkplace Wellness Summit where expert panelsdiscussed implementation of active workplace con-cepts and leading researchers presented theirnewest findings.Among these researchers was Dr. James Levine ofthe Mayo Clinic’s Endocrinology department. Hisbreakthrough was linking a reduced risk of obesitywith non-exercise activity while working. Reducing this risk also reduces the risk of type 2 di-abetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and deepvein thrombosis. Being seated too much causes the body to consumefewer calories. The metabolism slows down and cel-lular processes shift from burning fat to storing it.Research has shown that the metabolism of a phys-ically-fit individual will change from burning fat tostoring fat after just two weeks of sitting eight hoursa day, even when that individual continues physicalactivity outside of work.Standing while working offers the simplest solution.Nobody stands perfectly still in a statue-like pose.There are constant minor movements while standing. Dr. Levine’s key finding was that these minor musclemovements keep the body’s metabolism active andconsequently standing consumes more caloriesthan sitting.The effects of too much sitting are preventable asPayfer suggests and as Dr. Levine’s research shows.“If those making the decisions about furniture arenot asking for active workplace solutions, then offerit to them,” advises Dr. Levine.Additionally, there is plenty of evidence that saysbeing more active through the workday just plainfeels better. Carrie Schmitz, Ergotron’s manager of human fac-tors and engineering publications, has been working

WorkplaceWellness

continued from page 21

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at a sit/stand desk since the onset of arthritis in her lower backmade sitting too painful. Her standing regimen has been successful enough to cause aone-half inch gain in height. She stays with it because it worksand gives her a better day at the office.

Building the sit/stand workstationHeight-adjustable work surfaces have been available for years.From drafting tables with more adjustments than a barber’s chairto those awkward, motorized contraptions and grindingly slowhand-cranked models of the 1980s, this has been a sleeper prod-uct category with a long history. Now a new chapter is writing itself that gives adjustability a newreason for being.Gone are nearly all of the bulky CRT monitors that forced the useof heavy machinery for motion. The change to flat panel displayshas made a huge difference in mechanisms available for ad-justable height desks. Coupled with the observation that younger workers often usepaper and hardcopies sparingly, the work surface area for someapplications can be much smaller.Finally, more intensive use of laptops, tablets, cellular phones andVoIP is clearing the work surface of the typical clutter of devicesand wires. For many workers, a few duplex receptacles and WiFi ac-cess are all they need to operate. This is especially trueas businesses reduce the number of on-site workersthrough work-at-home programs and other programs toshed real estate.None of this is the real driver for the surging inter-est in sit/stand workstations. The driver is well-ness in the workplace.Fred Poisson saw it coming. “When the firststories appeared in the media about standing beinga healthier way to work, I began concepting what I thoughtwe could do,” he said. As vice president of design for Halcon andthe designer of Halcon’s Millennia executive office series, Poissonset out to incorporate a sit/stand desk into the offering.“From the onset, this height adjustable desk had to meet designcommunity expectations for functionality and aesthetic compat-ibility,” said Poisson. “We are presenting this design to designersin the financial and legal niches. They tell us it is exactly what theyneed.”Product design in wood for financial, banking and legal niches isa specialized endeavor, one that gets more complex when at-tempting to create a complete series of height-adjustable furni-ture.Greg Saul, IDSA, took on the challenge of designing a woodseries around the sit/stand concept for his client, Harden Con-tract. His firm, Tolleson + Saul Design, commenced the projectknowing that sit/stand was not limited to a specific task or groupof workers. The wellness initiatives being applied inside corpora-tions apply equally to all workers.

A rectangular shape desk and a desk/return unit ended up beinggood directions for the series, backed with a wall unit for storage,filing and personal item. The target market is financial and bank-ing, but the furniture has application anywhere that executiveswant to join the sit/stand revolution.This might be the first workplace revolution without serious op-position. At least not from Fred Poisson or Greg Saul. That is be-cause both of these product designers work at adjustable heightdesks: thirty-five years for Poisson and ever since he learned thatstanding relieved his lower back pain for Saul.

A ready-made marketWhile few people would downplay the idea of healthier, more pro-ductive work environments, tasking office furniture and ergonom-ics with helping to reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetesbreaks new ground.As convincing as the science might be, it is not the only reasondoctors, lawyers, bankers, financiers and executives wantsit/stand furniture in their offices. They want more waysto personalize and individualize the place where they

spend so much of their time.Christine Woodard, na-tional sales manager forHarden Contract, hears re-quests for standing heightdesks or adjustable height

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Workplace Wellness continued from page 22

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 4

Jane PayferChief Marketing Officer

Ergotron

Fred PoissonVice President of Design

Halcon

Greg Saul, IDSAPresident

Tolleson Saul Design

Christine WoodardNational Sales Manager

Harden Contract

desks from the A&D community on aweekly basis.“There has been a void in adjustable furni-ture with the right look and feel for executivesand professionals,” Woodard said. “Officefurniture dealers have the background in er-gonomics to quickly pick up on the sit/standpotential. Hardly a week goes by without anewspaper, magazine or TV report aboutthe benefits.”

Moving forward from hereGreg Saul believes that sit/stand is the lastbig hurdle in office ergonomics as related tothe physical design of the office.

Fred Poisson works standing up every dayas he has done for 35 years, saying that hesits less than 20 minutes in a work week. Christine Woodard fields a growing numberof requests for sit/stand furniture from theA&D community, as Jane Payfer, CarrieSchmitz and others give part of their time toJustStand.org, the non-profit clearinghouseof sit/stand information, research and news.All this suggests that sit/stand is in themainstream now. It could well be the trendthat sells new furniture to help create ahealthier workforce through wellness man-agement programs.

As Jane Payfer observed, “Corporationshave been inadvertently contributing to thepoor heath of their employees…I honestlybelieve that most corporations don’t wantto do that. They want healthy, productiveemployees.”Stephen Witte has a following as a commenta-tor on design, technology and marketing in thecommercial interiors industry. He was a panelistat the JustStand summit where he presentedconceptual designs for the active workplace.Watch video from the event atJustStand.org/summit. You can reach him at812.457.1297 or switte@stephenwitte.com.

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Contemporary style without the traditional cost!

A new Visionfrom HPFI.

Pinterest. Maybe you have heard of it andmaybe you haven’t. It’s considered a formof social networking but to me it’s visualmarketing and in a visual world such as of-fice furniture, the more the client sees, thehappier the client is.

The office furniture industry is a visual in-dustry. We show our clients samples; wespecify our client’s spaces to show sam-ples of what their space will look like; weare constantly looking to see what the lat-est design concept is and how space isbeing utilized. Seeing is believing and Pin-terest gives you a place see and storeideas, products, samples and examplesfor you and your clients.

Here’s how it works. Imagine a corkboard.Now imagine a bunch of corkboards filledwith categorized images. Images thatcome from the Internet, from your com-pany website, from your manufacturersand your service providers. Images thatcan contain brief descriptions, links towebsites, twitter accounts and more.Imagine that all you had to do to putsomething on your corkboard is to click abutton.

Or if you like someone else’s boards, youcan click simply click the “follow” buttonand you’re done. Nothing more compli-cated than a quick download to get theball rolling.

Different corkboards allow you to organize,separate and stockpile images for any cat-egory you can dream up including:n Company Boards—Highlight yourcompany’s services with boards aboutdelivery, installation, refurbishing, etc. n Product Boards—General productboards can be divided into categoriesincluding casegoods, storage, seating,etc.n Market Boards—Divide boards intodifferent vertical markets and highlightproducts in each of those markets in-cluding healthcare, K-12 and highereducation.n Project Boards—Fill boards withsamples of your project work. Eachproject can have its own board of im-ages.n Inspirational Boards—Pinterest hastons of inspirational ideas for officesfrom all over the world.

Follow or LeadIdeally, a dealership would host a Pinterestaccount that is maintained by the on-staffdesigner who has the most to contributein terms of design preferences and ideas.There are two steps to getting started:making boards and following boards.

Creating a board is easy. Simply click the+Add button and choose the Create a

Board button. Once done you can fill theboard with your company’s own images byusing the Upload a Pin or Add a Pin options.

Upload a pin works on websites so youtype in your website or your manufac-turer’s website and Pinterest will go thereand show you any pinnable images lo-cated on that site.

Simply choose the image, type any infor-mation you want, including web addressand Pin It. The Add a Pin option allows youto locate images on your own computerand upload them to whatever board youwant.

Have you ever searched the web andcome across a great image or product thatyou wanted to remember? Well Pinterestusers have a feature that’s located in theInternet Favorites section. See an imageon a web page? Go to Favorites, select“Pin It” and you can pin the image directlyto your boards.

Stocking your boards with images canalso be done by re-pinning images thathave been pinned to other boards.

Typing in a search term such as office fur-niture, office design, interior office space,workspaces will provide the user withboards from manufacturers, other dealer-ships, designers and architectural firms.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 OFDEALER PAGE 25C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 6

Visual Networking for a Visual Industry: The Secret is OutBy Alicia Ellis, Managing Editor

I am so excited by this new tool and believe so whole-heartedlythat Pinterest will change the way dealers sell their business andtheir furnishings that I had to tell you about it.

Typing in a specific manufacturer’s name will show whether thereare boards from or about that particular company or typing in aparticular product like office lighting will produce boards for thesame. When you find a board of interest, follow it.

Following a board gives you access to all the images and eachimage gives you the option to simply “like” an imagecomment on an image or even better, re-pin an imageto your own boards.

Using PinterestSo now you know how to create boards and pin im-ages to them. What are the practical uses of theseboards and how are they going to help you grow yourbusiness?

In addition to the obvious—which is to provide inspi-ration and promote creativity in space planning—thebest reason to have Pinterest is for the potential sales.The simplicity of how Pinterest works makes it a greattool that your salesforce can use to showcase yourcompany’s projects, products, services and applica-tions.

Many of today’s brightest salespeople have iPads,tablets, laptops etc. that they use as a part of theirsales pitch.

Imagine if your sales team could have access to on-the-fly imagesof all of your projects, product images for every conceivable prod-uct your company offers and images of design spaces that yourcompany can emulate and replicate...

Seeing is believing when it comes to Pinterest.

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