Keep Your Eye on History, Legislation, and New Technology

By Jim Heilborn

NeoCon is once more on the horizon and it made me wonder about the new products and ideas that will be introduced. Will there be a new product that will change the face of the industry? Will someone launch a furniture product that will respond to the boom in new office technology? Had you been in the industry forty years ago, would you have recognized the next big opportunity? Do you see any today?

I read an article yesterday that made me think about the direction of technology in the workplace. While we may like to think we’re on the cutting edge, a great deal of what our industry develops and sells is often just a response to changes in other industries, technologies, legislation, and sometimes, even the economy. I do believe there have been great innovations in our industry, but few that weren’t the result of external forces.

It wasn’t that long ago, the early 1970’s, just before the boom in office systems that most offices consisted of basic casegoods like desks, credenzas, file cabinets, and bookcases. A “high-tech” office chair swiveled on a manually adjusted, single-wheeled, four-star base and was often just covered in vinyl or a solid color fabric. An executive chair was often an occasional chair that had been placed on a bigger four-star base with larger wheels. Look at some of the “executive judges’ chairs” from 1960 to 1978 (even beyond that) and you’ll see what I mean.

That isn’t to say that there wasn’t any innovation, but it was limited by today’s standards. Up until the 1970’s there were relatively fewer and slower technological changes affecting the workplace and certainly less stringent requirements and regulations in regard to the “healthy office.”

Going back in time, you can see some early responses to new office technology. A couple of the biggest technological breakthroughs that affected the industry were the typewriter and the adding machine. They both became basic tools of the office, but there often wasn’t enough room on the basic 30 x 60 “tank-style” metal desk to keep them there. In response, desk manufacturers came up with some solutions. One of my favorites was what I refer to as the “jack-in-the-box” or “pop-up” desk. Instead of a file drawer, the desk had a door. Behind this door was a spring-loaded platform upon which the typewriter sat. The user opened the door, pulled the platform forward and the unit would spring up to typing height. When the user was done, they simply pushed the platform back down and into the opening. Some care did have to be taken however, as some units were known to have a “hair trigger” and might shoot back up before you backed away far enough. These units were weight sensitive and a unit without the right ballast could cause a nice bruise.

For offices with more room, the secretarial desk, with its attached right-angled work surface called a “return” was a nice addition. The return served the same purpose as the “pop up” desk but it offered additional workspace and allowed the equipment to be conveniently kept out all the time. Instead of being the same height as the desk, the return was designed to be about three inches lower, around twenty-six to twenty-seven inches, to allow for the height of the typewriter keyboard. This was all in response to technology. The furniture industry was responding to the technology being created for office workers. The first desktop computers had keyboards that were about the same height as typewriter keyboards, allowing manufacturers to continue to make desk returns the same basic heights and dimensions as before…but that didn’t last very long.

The idea of office cubicles was not really new when they started taking over the workplace in the late 1970’s. Many businesses had used bankers’ walls and other types of partitions to divide up the office and provide a bit more separation and privacy for their employees. What was new was the fact that the cubicles had become modular and therefore semi-mobile. Modular systems quickly changed the landscape of the workplace from a sea of stagnant desks and hard wall offices to a flexible workspace that could be rearranged to fit the changing needs of the business. The dealers who understood this new opportunity jumped in and their businesses grew exponentially.

Modular systems furniture arrived shortly before computers hit the workplace, so they were designed to accommodate the equipment of the time…typewriters, adding machines, calculators, telephones, etc. The work surfaces were often thirty inches deep and pedestals were of a size and configuration similar to the freestanding desks they had replaced. Typewriters sat on a deep corner work surface.

The computer was perfectly suited to modular systems furniture. The corner work surface could easily handle a large computer monitor and initially the work surfaces could be set at standard desk height or typewriter height.

When flat screen monitors were introduced to the workplace it caused another big change. Large corner work surfaces would no longer be needed. One manufacturer even introduced a panel that had an opening that could house a flat screen monitor, reducing the need for a deeper work surface by increasing the amount of usable space on the work surface. Although this particular innovation didn’t take off, it was an attempt to respond to technology.

Office seating has undergone many changes in the last forty years, often due to stricter regulations in office health and safety. The change from a four-star to a five-star
chair base was primarily based on safety concerns. While repetitive motion injuries sparked a multitude of design changes in seating, so did the need for adjustability. The primary adjustments for most chairs were up and down, fixed or free-flow movement. There are now chairs that will self-adjust with the user as they move to use their office equipment. Are you offering seating that offers this new technology? Are the products you’re offering addressing the health needs of the market?

With the introduction of thinner keyboards work surfaces could all be set at one standard height and a keyboard tray installed below. It was not long before height adjustable articulating keyboards began showing up…a nice add-on sale.
Even though the computer mouse was invented in 1964, it wasn’t till 1982 that Logitech sold its first mouse for $299.00. In 1983 Apple and Microsoft started selling a mouse with their computer systems. This new technology elicited a response from the office furniture industry as they looked for a way to handle this additional piece of equipment. The keyboard trays had to change.

The basic configuration of a cubicle hasn’t changed, but the equipment inside it continues to evolve. Desktop computers continue to be replaced by laptop computers or smaller towers. One user with multiple screens is no longer unusual. More and more people are checking their e-mail on their cell phones and foregoing the computer. The aforementioned ubiquitous mouse is starting to be replaced more and more by touch screens. The keyboard and the mouse are becoming old technology and as more computers operate through direct touch and gesture, they will start to disappear. The much heralded release of Apple’s iPad and other similar tablets is just the tip of this new technology.

It is predicted that by 2015 less than 10 percent of workplace computers will have touch screens, so the mouse and keyboard will still be around for awhile longer… but consider this…one technology consulting company is predicting that by that same year, 2015, 50 percent of personal computers purchased for users under age 15 will have touch screens compared with just 2 percent in 2009. These are the office workers of the future. How will the products we offer address these new realities and the needs of the new decision makers who will use this new technology?

At a U.S. SBA Office of Advocacy meeting last January, OSHA chief David Michaels was quoted as saying, “Under this administration, OSHA is returning to the original intent of the OSH Act. We’re a regulatory and enforcement agency and we’re going to act like it. We’re moving from reaction to prevention, beefing up enforcement and moving the regulatory agenda forward.”

Companies will be under greater scrutiny to make sure they are purchasing or maintaining the correct equipment, including furniture, for their employees. This opens up not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility to help clients make sure they are in compliance and providing the best care for their most important resource…their employees.

As an industry, we need to go back and remember how technology changed business models and the products that were sold. It is also important to identify and avoid fads and focus on selling products and services that are sustainable into the future. History has taught us that it is critical to look beyond our own small industry and see what products and technologies may affect it.

New technology and legislation continues to offer many new sales opportunities. Learn from the past… but don’t get stuck there. Look backwards for reference with an eye to the future.