Steelcase is a publicly traded company on the NYSE, established in 1912. They are a global design and research firm with an aim to help people do their best work by creating places that work better by enhancing productivity, collaboration and well-being. They achieve their goals through human-centered research and design-thinking.
With a presence in over 80 countries, the brand has had to walk the tight-rope of providing their markets with relevant propositions for their unique needs and achieving economies of scale. Tirthankar Basu, Managing Director in India, SAARC and Asia Pacific, tells us about how Steelcase goes about achieving their goals and adding value to communities.
Edited excerpts…
How have the offerings of Steelcase evolved over the years?
Though we’re among the largest in the industry today, we started with very humble beginnings. Back in the day, people used to smoke within offices and dispose ashes in wicker wastebaskets, resulting in devastating fires. As a solution to the problem, Steelcase innovated a fireproof steel waste basket called the Victor. Then, around the 2000s, the brand came under the leadership of Jim Heckett. Heckett later went on to become the CEO of Ford Motors but he gave us the invaluable concept of design thinking.
Design thinking is about identifying pain areas of the user and designing for them. It teaches you that you cannot have your own inertia. You need to always be conscious of what the customer is thinking, what they demand. Today, our product range includes office chairs, desks, workstations, storage solutions and modular architecture.
What were some challenges the brand faced when expanding to India?
I would say the biggest challenge that we had growing in the country was finding the right staff to hire. We are not a consumer product. It's not top of hierarchy for any consumer to buy a great chair. People would rather spend on a pizza, a great shirt or a TV, but not a chair. And with our premium price point and positioning, we needed staff that can understand and communicate the value proposition to customers. Further, our customers aren’t necessarily the end-user since we’re a B2B business. Our buyers really need to care about their staff to invest in the product.
What are some marketing strategies that have worked best for the brand?
Our priority is reaching out to the business leaders – people that respect their team and believe that the workplace is an important tool to attract and retain talent. We associate with TED, CEO Conference and the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON). We also find designers and architects to be a very important part of our value proposition. We have a podcast on Spotify called ‘Work Better’ where we get people who talk about mental and physical well-being. We really look at marketing what the brand stands for rather than our products.
How has Steelcase managed the change in demand for workplace furniture?
Our core belief is – we have to be wherever the business wants us to be. Within 45 days of the pandemic, we came up with a Shopify portal and put a portfolio together for customers that were now scattered all over India. Within no time, we were catering to close to 15,000 pin codes. The scale and agility that the team managed to pull off was amazing. Another thing that the pandemic did for us was bringing people’s awareness to the category. Earlier, people didn’t really care about the furniture in their office spaces. But through the pandemic, we saw that people became more knowledgeable.
What do Steelcase’s plans of expanding in India look like?
Currently we are at around 10 full-fledged partner stores across India. In our WorkLife or experience centers, customers can walk in and envision their own office in that space. Our focus is not just MNCs or individuals, but also small and medium businesses. Our aspiration would be to reach out to aspiring customers in India’s growing cities and towns. This has been more difficult to pull off because the addressable market segment there is still very small. We are focusing on India’s leading organisations and public sector units.
What are some of the brand’s ESG goals?
Steelcase started practicing sustainability back in the 90s. Sustainability for us starts on the design board. We look at making products with lesser components, that last longer. The materials we use and the entire life cycle of the product matter to us.
We have a large manufacturing plant in Chakan, in the Pune industrial area where about 65% of our energy needs are met by solar panels. Depending on availability, we also supply the power back to the grid. Another initiative I’m proud of is the ‘Women of Steel’ movement.
When we first started our manufacturing plant in Chakan, the industry area had less than 3% of women employees. Our HR team reached out to women in the neighbouring villages and fast forward to six years, we have 65 to 70% of the workforce of around 120 plus people made up of women. These women actually manufacture the entire seating line for Steelcase. It's not cursory work like packaging or cleaning. They manage the line and are zone leaders. We plan to bring the numbers up to at least 80%.
