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The Mini Cooper of Office FurnitureSay "innovation" and "office furniture," and Herman Miller's Aeron chair comes immediately to mind.
You might also think of the Steelcase Leap or Humanscale's Freedom Chair -- other high-end, super-engineered task chairs on the market.
But chances are you wouldn't think about Turnstone, the Grand Rapids (Mich.)-based company that makes furniture for the small-biz market.
Turnstone has won dozens of design honors, including five Gold and Silver awards at Neocon, the office-furniture event of the year.
And while the company's innovations might not have cracked the Museum of Modern Art's design collection, they're making a big impact on the bottom line.
A subsidiary of Steelcase, Turnstone was created to pursue younger businesses with budgets too small to have a dedicated facilities manager.
This represented a market Steelcase -- a full-service shop that aims to solve the furniture or work-space needs of large companies -- wasn't hitting.
John Malnor, Turnstone's general manager, says his company is to Steelcase what the Mini Cooper is to BMW -- a sub-brand that offers the same quality at lower price points by streamlining product lines without sacrificing design.
Turnstone is something of a case study in process innovation.
The 30-person company has managed to leverage its connection to a large,
more: www.businessweek.com/innovate/con... (325)
January 3, 2006 | Viewed 32,430 time(s)
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