Dear Stephen,
There has been a lot of press in industry newsletters, and LinkedIn chatter, around the Herman Miller acquisition of Knoll and, more recently, HNI Corporation’s acquisition of Steelcase.
At the time, I remember hearing a lot about valuation, culture clashes, and people leaving Knoll after the deal closed. Now, all I read about is MillerKnoll’s stock price and recycled commentary on LinkedIn, while the company is still out there winning projects three years later.
With Steelcase, it feels like the opposite: very little noise and very few personnel changes, yet it is today’s news.
What is really going on here? Why did one feel like more of a struggle than the other? Am I missing something?
Signed, Still Listening for the Boom ----------------Dear Still Listening,
You are not missing anything, but I do think the comparison needs to be handled more carefully.
Everyone keeps trying to replay the Herman Miller and Knoll moment because it was easy to see and easy to talk about. That deal played out in the open. It sat right inside the design community, where people know each other, where brands carry personality, and where movement gets noticed quickly. So, when Herman Miller completed the Knoll acquisition back in 2021, it naturally became a story. People followed it, talked about it, and yes, some of that noise came from real movement while some came from perception.
The HNI and Steelcase situation is different, but different does not mean nothing is happening.
HNI is a very disciplined organization. Anyone who has spent time studying them knows that. They are not in the business of creating noise. They are in the business of running a tight operation, integrating thoughtfully, and focusing on performance. Steelcase, on the other side, has always been one of the most established and structured companies in this industry, with a very strong field presence and a long history of doing things consistently.
When you put those two cultures together, you are not going to get a loud, theatrical transition. You are going to get something more measured.
From where we sit at The Viscusi Group, I would be careful not to let the lack of noise become the wrong narrative. Steelcase has real sales talent in the field. In many markets, including here in New York, they are serious competitors and very capable professionals. That has been true for a long time, and it has not changed because of a transaction.
What is different is how that talent fits inside the model.
Steelcase has always operated within a very strong dealer-driven ecosystem. That structure tends to stabilize things because relationships are deeper and more local. They are often tied to the dealer channel as much as the manufacturer itself. So, when there is change at the corporate level, it does not always translate into immediate, visible movement the way people expect. That is not a negative. It is just a different architecture. If you really want to understand where the leverage sits, you have to look at the dealer layer.
On the HNI side, I would not rush to judge anything this early. Large acquisitions are not measured by how loud they are in the first six months. They are measured by execution: whether they integrate properly, whether they keep the right people, whether they maintain customer confidence, and ultimately whether the business performs over time in a way that justifies the strategy behind the deal.
So, when you step back and look at why one felt louder than the other, it comes down to this. One was a design-community story that played out in public, where people knew the players and followed the movement. The other is a business-integration story that is playing out more quietly inside companies, inside leadership teams, and in conversations that happen every day but do not necessarily show up in headlines.
And as for what is really going on, it is what always goes on after a deal of this size. People are paying attention. Some are evaluating their options. Competitors are making calls. Leadership is making decisions. But most of it is happening in real conversations, not announcements, and certainly not in a way that was ever going to feel like a boom from the outside.
So no, you are not missing anything. This is just a different story with different players. If you are waiting for a headline moment, you may be waiting a while. The real signal here is not going to come from noise. It is going to come from movement. When you start to see meaningful shifts across the dealer channel, or real talent changing seats across Steelcase, Allsteel, HNI, or Kimball, that is when the story begins.
Until then, what you are seeing is not a lack of activity. It is a lack of visibility. And in this industry, those are two very different things.
Best, Stephen