by HNN contributor and industry veteran Joe Carroll puts a distinct industry spin on the capital vices.
I read Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, “Inferno” in 2013. As in his previous works, like the “The Da Vinci Code,” Brown loves to use symbolism from classical literature and mythology to weave a moral into his story. “Inferno” draws inspiration from Dante’s “The Divine Comedy,” an epic poem which describes his own descent into hell, passage through purgatory and eventual ascent into paradise. At some point in the novel my mind connected these classical references to a speech I heard several decades ago by Mike Dugan, who was president of Henredon Furniture at that time.
Dugan offered some valuable advice to those who were finding it more and more difficult to succeed in an industry that was becoming increasingly competitive and more difficult to make a profit. Sound familiar? He told them to avoid “The Seven Deadly Sins of Furniture.”
With apologies to Mike Dugan, Dan Brown and Pope Gregory the Great, who created the list of the seven sins in the late 6th century, I would like to add some observations and advice of my own.
Lust. The furniture industry is seductive. To a newcomer it may look like easy money. Industry insiders will tell you they have sawdust in their veins and can’t think of anything else they would rather do — and they appear to have fun doing it. The product we make and sell is for the most part easy to understand. Consumers generally seem to be interested in furniture — witness the proliferation of home decorating TV shows. The problem is that when we become consumed only with creating the next best seller we become irrational and lose our perspective. Coming up with a new design just to be different isn’t always the best decision. This almost always leads to costly mistakes. The moral is to keep a cool head and be willing to constantly change and improve your product — again, again and again.
Laziness. We can’t afford to be lazy when it comes to understanding the complexity of today’s manufacturing and distribution process. It’s easy to convince yourself to maintain the status quo by using either of two great excuses: “We’ve always done it this way,” or “We’ve never done this before.” Even efforts to improve your business will invariably fail unless they are carefully managed. Bad things happen when outsiders take shortcuts in the name of “cost effectiveness” and try to force “new, improved” theories into their furniture factories or on their customers. We witnessed this phenomenon in the 1980’s when a number of companies brought in MBAs to lead them who had no prior knowledge of the furniture industry. John Bassett, chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, one of the few remaining major US domestic furniture manufacturers, said to me, “We need more leadership from top management. It doesn’t take any great skills to acquiesce and concede defeat.” Bassett believes that if in the 1980s we had had fewer business types running our furniture factories and more hands-on managers who understood the manufacturing process, we would have updated our machinery and technology sooner and not have allowed our factories to become obsolete.
Avarice. We can’t afford to be avaricious when it comes to setting profit objectives. As we well know, furniture is not a high-margin business. Competitive pressures today are brutal. The probability is high that something will go wrong unexpectedly. Getting greedy with unrealistic margins will only draw fire from the competition. Never ask your suppliers to do more for you than you need. Let them know you always want them to make a fair profit from your business. Most importantly, pay them promptly. You’ll find that you will go to the head of the line service-wise.
Anger. Don’t allow yourself to get angry with your employees over trainable mistakes. Avoid the impulse to replace them with new ones who may talk a good game but lack passion for their job. No matter how frustrated you become, you cannot run a furniture company without experienced furniture people any more than you can coach a professional sports team without experienced players. Even when Michael Jordan was in his prime he could not have played professional baseball. It’s better to upgrade those employees who have a true passion for furniture than replace them with neophytes. Take advantage of their strengths. Don’t play upon their weaknesses. I have always believed that a manager should set his employees up for success — not failure.
Pride. No matter how well run your factory is, your product is still the “face” of your company. It is the most important determinant of success or failure. The function of product development is sometimes underestimated. It can be scary to think that a designer’s hunch may lead to huge expenditures on a collection that is completely unproven and untested. But that’s the nature of the furniture business. Rather than trying to guess what will sell, or borrow inspiration from a competitor’s design, hire the best designers you can get, tell them how much you respect their ability, pay them well and pray that their record of past successes, or even their next hunch, will be a great one.
Gluttony. Your business may not always grow as quickly as you would like. Fortunately the furniture industry thrives on change and will welcome it. But don’t rush into change for change’s sake. How many successful designs are discontinued or modified just because it is believed the dealer needs to see something new? Coming up with a new idea is easy; implementing it effectively is very difficult. Market share is important but it is better to have a profitable slice of the pie than no pie at all. This is where restraint should overrule gluttony.
Envy. Ever so often you may tend to envy your salespeople. After all, you have invested your time and money in the business, borne the expenses associated with design, manufacturing or assembly as well as considerable investments in marketing and overhead. Great sales managers, representatives and designers can indeed seem overpaid but they are the warriors you need in battle. Their jobs are not easy. Without real talent in the field or in the design studio your survival would be in real jeopardy.
Those companies who do not succumb to The Seven Deadly Sins will do so because they have recognized the importance of first-class management, access to capital for growth and the passion, willingness and know-how to respond to their customers’ needs for low prices, consistent quality and quick delivery.
Joe Carroll, is former Publisher of Furniture/Today. He was inducted into the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame in 2009.
