Herman Miller Inc in 2012 Case Study

Herman Miller Furniture Company was one of the top leaders in the office furniture industry. Rooting back to 1905, the manufactured traditional styled bedroom suits and was originally called Star Furniture Company. Herman Miller designed bedroom sets until 1942 and then moved on to taking over the office furniture market. Not only are they innovative with selling and designing furniture, Herman Miller has always had the initiative to be more efficient and eco-friendly. Herman Miller’s mission is “inspiring designs to help people do great things.” They have always been known as a compassionate and conscientious company, and always looking to improve.

When using the 7 S– framework to analyze Herman Miller’s capabilities, it focuses on structure, staff, skills, style, systems, strategy and finally superordinate goals. First, Herman Miller’s structure is influenced by democracy. Already in 1950, the company introduced the Scanlon plan, which both created committees for sharing ideas to better utilize the skills of every employee, and a structure for sharing increased profitability. Making employees participate in company decisions imply a low level of power distance and even though final decisions were made by senior executives, regular employees were able to have an impact on those decisions. In terms of staff, treating its employees with respect is a quality that the company shows in several ways. Just like the company showed appreciation for their employees’ opinions through the establishment of committees, the company showed appreciation of their employees’ every day efforts through giving of stock. President of Herman Miller in 1919, Dirk Jan De Pree’s philosophy of treating “all workers as individuals with special talents and potential” reflect the company's view on skill. The company realized early on that there are many hidden talents among a company’s staff and the establishment of the Scanlon Plan committees and later Ad hoc committee proves that the...