The Magic of Max De Pree and Herman Miller: A Story from the Inside

“To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.” Lawrence Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock

Larry Fink’s words are welcome but have a certain back-to-the-future quality: in this age of aggressive profit-maximization, it’s nostalgic to think of the beloved, respected company that pays and treats people fairly, that delivers quality goods and services at a fair price, that doesn’t harm the environment, and that strengthens communities where it operates.

Herman Miller, the iconic furniture company, has represented that ideal. The company is famous for designers like Gilbert Rhode, George Nelson, and Charles and Ray Eames, and for the Aeron chair. But the story inside is just as remarkable. Max De Pree, Herman Miller’s onetime chairman and CEO (he passed away in 2017), was an advocate for human potential and dignity and for building companies that thrive in the long run.

I read several of Mr. De Pree’s books years ago, as a new management consultant, and they were and remain influential and inspirational. Recently I had the chance to speak with Jody Vanderwel, Mr. De Pree’s oldest child. She shared some firsthand stories about her father and Herman Miller, and about how his beliefs and practices helped the company be so well-respected.

Max De Pree learned early on what human life was worth.

“My father was a medic at the Battle of the Bulge. As a very young man in his first military assignment, he found himself in a field hospital triaging badly wounded soldiers, allies and Germans alike. He began asking himself questions like ‘What does life really mean? What does the dignity of a person rise from?’

One fellow was brought into the tent who, my dad was pretty sure, wasn't going make it. There was no way they were going to use the few resources they had on this guy. They had to use them on somebody who had a chance. This fellow asked my dad if he was going to die. My dad said, ‘That’s for the doctor to decide.’ And the guy said, ‘I hope you'll remember me.’ The soldier died in the field hospital. Every Memorial Day until he died, my dad thought about him.”

He valued human dignity and human potential.

“You can't talk about my dad without using expressions like human dignity and human potential--authenticity, competence, vulnerability, civility, design--those words are his language. For him, an employee-suggestion system was a way to express human potential. It was amazing what ideas and suggestions people came up with that made a product or a process at Herman Miller better. Dad believed you can create a successful company only by using the resources that everybody brings to the table.

“And he believed everyone could contribute, no matter what their abilities.  This was part of what my dad called ‘God's mix.’ Herman Miller had an obligation to welcome God's mix and use everyone’s talents.”

He believed in sharing gains.

“It gave him a lot of joy that most of the Herman Miller retirees were financially secure. The programs the leadership had put in place did what they were supposed to do. My dad limited his own pay to 25 times the average hourly worker wage. Can you imagine what such a limit would do to CEO’s salaries today? He felt that people at different levels in the organization had to be compensated differently, but the person who worked on the factory floor was entitled to a fair wage and to the assurance of appropriate retirement.  This was my dad’s way of dealing 40 years ago with what we call today ‘income inequality.’”

He believed in high expectations and strong rewards.

“The employee-suggestion system, the profit-sharing and participative management system, which came from industrial psychologist Carl Frost, a key long-term adviser, and were called the Scanlon program, were critical from my dad's perspective to carrying out what he believed he was called to do as a Christian in the workplace. A good health program, a path to fulfilling personal expectations and goals--all those things were part of what he felt he owed the people who came to work for Herman Miller. And he had pretty high expectations of their level of competence and performance. Accountability was also part of the equation.”

He was available and valued contact with everyone.

“His door was – literally – always open. His offices had windows, and there was no way he could hide and there was no way his executive assistant could say, ‘I'm sorry, he's not in right now.’ He expected to be interrupted. People felt free to come in. And he liked to go out and walk in the factory.  He knew the names of an astonishing number of employees.”

Herman Miller embraced environmental stewardship before it had a name.

“Early on my grandpa encouraged the local chicken farmers in Zeeland to come and get all the sawdust they wanted, because Herman Miller had to dispose of it, and the farmers needed the sawdust for their chickens. They would drive under a great big funnel and fill up their trucks, and off they would go to their chicken farms.”

He valued the English language and expressing it with beauty.

“At three meals a day, my dad’s family sat down together to eat, and they prayed and read the Bible at every meal. The King James Version. My dad said he learned grammar by listening to the Bible. And he learned the beauty and the power of words. He grew up with a strong sense of the beauty of language that carried into so many other things in his life, including the obligation of leaders to communicate clearly.”

The company took early risks out of necessity.

“My grandpa, D.J. De Pree, who purchased the Star Furniture Company in 1923 and renamed it The Herman Miller Furniture Company, said during the depths of the Great Depression that he didn't know whether he was going to survive in business. He had a wife and seven kids to support and was just praying for something good to happen. When New York industrial designer Gilbert Rhode walked into his office one day to show him an entirely new way to think about furniture, D.J. listened.  Rohde told D.J. the furniture he was making, mostly reproductions of earlier designs, was dishonest.  D.J. listened and concluded, ‘This young man knew something I didn’t.’ It didn't take a whole lot to convince my grandpa to try something new, because he was going to go broke if he didn’t.  Fortunately, Rohde’s ‘modern furniture’ began to sell, and The Herman Miller Furniture Company survived.”

My dad relied on counsel to find the right thing.

“My mom was definitely my dad’s best friend, his confidante and sounding board. One Sunday night, he told her the next day was going to be really hard.  He was going to have to let several people go. And she said, ‘You're letting several families go.’ That led to more conversation and thinking. Ultimately, the company let the people in the plant vote on whether they would reduce headcount or reduce everyone’s hours. The employees voted to reduce their hours and keep everybody employed.

 “Carl Frost, whom I’ve mentioned before, was also a trusted advisor and mentor.  One day, without finding out all the facts first, my dad chewed out an employee for doing something wrong. Word got back to Carl Frost in a big hurry, and he marched into my dad's office and told him, ‘You may be able to treat people like that at home, where they love you and forgive you, but you can never, ever treat somebody like that at work.’  My dad never forgot that. He learned lessons along the way.”

He valued integrity.

“My dad cared deeply about ‘linking voice and touch,’ which was his way of defining integrity. Followers should always ask of leaders, ‘Is there any connection between what you say and what you do? Can I trust you? Can I depend on you?’ Whether you were at home or at the factory or at church or downtown, you knew who my dad was, and you knew there always a tight connection between what he said and what he did. There was complete consistency and integrity.”