Recipe of the Week from Marigold Lodge: Steamed Halibut in Borscht with Chive-Horseradish Sauce

As the spring holidays approach, we thought we’d share some more recipes from Marigold Lodge, perhaps to inspire you in your own planning for Passover and Easter meals.

This is the first in a series of three recipes. Visit Discover on Fridays to find out what the next two will be.

Steamed Halibut in Borscht with Chive-Horseradish Sauce (Dairy and Pareve)
Serves 8

2 Tbsp. olive oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, julienned
1 cup fennel, julienned
2 Tbsp. sliced garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh flatleaf parsley
1 cup chopped savoy cabbage, plus 3 of the darker outer leaves, finely julienned
1 quart well-seasoned chicken or vegetable stock
4 cups peeled fresh beets, julienned (about 1 ½ bunches)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup crème fraiche or sour cream
¼ cup prepared white horseradish
½ tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. chopped chives
8 halibut steaks or fillets, each 4 to 6 ounces

Heat oil in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add onions and fennel; cook slowly about 5 minutes, until softened. Tie garlic, thyme, parsley, and chopped cabbage in a double thickness of cheesecloth and add it to saucepan along with stock and beets. Simmer 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove form heat. Discard cheesecloth and its contents. To serve the dish chilled, refrigerate beet mixture at least 4 hours or overnight.

Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add julienned cabbage leaves, cook just until bright green, then drain. Set leaves aside, covered, to keep warm; for a cold dish, refrigerate.

Mix crème fraiche or sour cream with horseradish, sugar, and chives. This sauce can be gently warmed in a small saucepan or chilled to serve cold.

To serve, steam halibut until fully cooked outside and just warm inside, 6 to 8 minutes. Keep warm. Reheat beet mixture, spoon into warmed shallow soup bowl, sprinkle with julienned cabbage and top with fish. Serve horseradish sauce, warm or chilled, on the side.

Get Noticed, Get Networked, Get Ahead!

On March 10, Herman Miller’s Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) hosted a conference for employees called “Get Noticed, Get Networked, Get Ahead!” which focused on increasing presence and widening networks.

WIN is one of seven Inclusiveness Resource Teams (IRTs) at Herman Miller that represent the diversity of our employees and our market. The IRTs’ mission is to work toward implementation of business recommendations, with many successes to date—including policy changes and education—to build awareness and celebrate the diversity of individuals. The teams are volunteer-based and each is supported by an executive sponsor. Besides the Women’s team, the other IRTs are Asian, Black, Employees with Disabilities, GLBT, Hispanic, and Male.

This year, the WIN team’s mission is “Growing Future Female Leaders.” To work towards this goal we have focused on initiatives around flexible work arrangements and mentoring programs for office and production workers. We have also sponsored webinars and discussion groups, and the “Get Noticed, Get Networked, Get Ahead!” conference.

The 2-hour conference was attended by approximately 75 people and featured Herman Miller leaders discussing these topics: Building Your Personal Brand, Creating Your Development Plan, and The Importance of Networking. At the end of the conference, attendees were invited to stay and participate in a networking exercise to put to practice the techniques they learned.

I was grateful to have had the opportunity to attend both the conference and the networking event. It was so beneficial to learn that a personal brand is one that consistently reflects my values, shows how others view me, and showcases my skill set. I also discovered that informal development opportunities, such as participating in special projects, are very likely the ones that will have the most impact on my growth and development. And, I learned that in all my interactions with people, truly listening to others is the best way to make a real connection with them. In fact, during the exercise, I made a connection with someone I plan to collaborate with in the future.

Why I Ride to Work

You may think it’s for the exercise. There is that, since otherwise I wouldn’t do much all winter, me not being a skier or a health clubber.

It could be the scenery, because Michigan is a place of pure beauty. And that certainly plays into my decision; few things are more lovely than a winter sky or sun (when we see it) glinting off snow.

But, why I really ride for is the money or, more accurately, the chance to win it. Herman Miller believes in conserving the world’s gas and burning employees’ calories, so it does a monthly drawing for a $50 gift card. You log your miles biked each month (in my case 5 miles each way) to enter. There’s a similar drawing for carpoolers.

I’ve yet to win, but I keep on biking in the hope I will, which is good because I’ve spent my yet-to-be-realized gift card several times over on goggles, balaclava, and other gear.

Architecture for Walking

One of the great design features at our Design Yard facility in Holland, Michigan, is a walkway that extends from one end of the building to the other. Lined with windows and without doors to negotiate, the walkway is a great space to meet people, exhibit art and creative projects, look outside, and exercise.

This last option fits in with our Health Management Program, which includes bicycle commuting, fitness programs, and flu shots. Why just the other day, as I was walking to lunch, I was nearly run over by the group in this picture. As I rounded a corner, they came barreling along, talking away, and intent on doing their noon-time walk. We all smiled, said hello, and I thought, “That’s one of the things I like about this place—work is part of life, and not the other way round.”

Fast Company’s Innovation All-Stars: Creativity at Work

Fast Company has once again put together its 2010 list of Most Innovative Companies—an assessment of innovative practices throughout the business world spanning creative models to real-world impact and far-sighted risk taking.

Of more than 250 companies, Herman Miller has been recognized not only as one of its Most Innovative Companies, but also as one of its “Innovation All-Stars”—a group of 59 global companies that “fought a dour economy with renewed creativity and bold initiatives.” We’re the only Michigan-based company to appear on the All-Star list and the only representative from the contract furniture industry.

Fast Company cited several of our award-winning products as examples of innovation: the Embody chair, the Setu chair, the Twist LED task light, and Teneo storage furniture system.

InnovationSpace: In the Trenches of Design

For the past four years, Herman Miller has been a sponsor of a program called InnovationSpace at Arizona State University. Begun in 2005, the program’s goal is to form transdisciplinary teams of students from industrial design, engineering, visual communication design, and business who systematically work through a matrix of four questions:

1. What is valuable to users?
2. What is possible through engineering?
3. What is desirable to business?
4. What is good for society and the environment?

They aim to create products that: satisfy user needs and desires; apply innovative but proven engineering standards; create measurable value for business; and benefit society while minimizing impacts on the environment.

“The InnovationSpace curriculum is built on the premise that a traditional discipline-specific education no longer provides enough expertise or variation in thinking to handle the complex challenges of new product development,” says Prasad Boradkar, Director of Innovation Space.

Herman Miller’s InnovationSpace teams are assigned to Doug Bazuin, senior healthcare researcher. Although they specifically focus on healthcare, the students can choose any area within the spectrum of care.

A two-semester program, it begins with a research phase. In the ideation phase, the teams develop three ideas, from which they choose one to pursue, following through with the development phase, engineering, marketing/branding, and business implications.

“The ideas and enthusiasm from the students really bring a lot of energy and are extremely refreshing,” says Doug Bazuin. “Besides providing real world experience and advice, this program helps prepare future employees and educate future end users.”

A Minimum of Architecture: The Eames Los Angeles Showroom

Last summer, Herman Miller opened a new Los Angeles showroom near Culver City—with dramatic bowstring wood trusses, curved walls, and extensive detail—marking our presence in the area for 60 years. This year, the building was awarded LEED CI Platinum certification—the first of its kind in Los Angeles.

Rewind six decades. Have you ever wondered what the first showroom looked like?

Thanks to the Eames Office, we’re able to share vintage photos of the “Herman Miller Furniture Company Showroom,” opened in 1949 at 8806 Beverly Boulevard.

Designed by Charles Eames, the showroom was inspired by Case Study House #8 (also known as the Eames House), which was part of the Case Study House Program. Eames built upon what he learned from the Case Study houses to minimize the building’s interior connections and create a backdrop for the furniture–much of which was designed by the Eames Office.

The showroom’s exterior was similar to the Eames House, with its industrial steel frame and patterned glass panels. Skylights and windows let in natural light.

The Eameses always used an eclectic mix of objects in their showroom–from toys, plants, and folk art to found items in dime stores and specialty shops. It was the perfect setting for product introduction parties, as well as movie nights featuring Eames films.

For more information about the first Herman Miller Los Angeles showroom, check out the book Eames Design by Ray Eames and Marilyn & John Neuhart.

Worth a FORTUNE

FORTUNE magazine recently published its 13th annual listing of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Several recognizable brands made the list, including SAS, Whole Foods Market, Google, FedEx, and Herman Miller. These brands represent a variety of industries, so what do they all have in common?

According to FORTUNE and the Great Place to Work® Institute, a global research and consulting firm, the listings are a result of a survey that solicits information from organizations and their employees about credibility of management, job satisfaction, camaraderie, recruiting, and employee services.

But this year’s list also considers the ways companies are helping their employees weather the recession. Although this past year wasn’t an easy one for Herman Miller, we reinforced our commitment to our employees by developing supportive programs and initiatives. These programs and initiatives are highlighted in three categories–Balancing, Including, and Celebrating–included on the Great Place to Work Institute Culture Audit©, which is used in part to establish the overall FORTUNE rankings.
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Celebrating the Spirit of MLK Through Community Service

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Herman Miller employees gathered this week to paint soup bowls for the annual West Michigan Soup’s On For All (SOFA) fundraiser, which helps nourish families and individuals in the area. Proceeds benefit local food pantries, including Catholic Charities of West Michigan, Christian Community Center, God’s Kitchen, and Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry. All the bowls painted by volunteers will be given to participants at the event.

Herman Miller’s Black Inclusiveness Resource Team—one of seven employee networks that work to implement business recommendations for a diverse workplace—sponsored the bowl painting opportunity in cooperation with our Inclusiveness and Diversity Team.

Our employees displayed great artistic ability in the 98 bowls painted in one day. This was our way of recognizing MLK Day as a “day of action”—doing an activity that benefits the community.

Coretta Scott King sums up the spirit of the event well: “The greatest birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others.”

Reflecting on Martin Luther King: One Face, Many Voices

Last week I was part of a group of Herman Miller employees from various Inclusiveness Resource Teams (IRTs) who attended a luncheon honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of the annual Civil Rights Celebration Week at Hope College. It’s the fifth year in a row that Herman Miller has sponsored the event.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Lawrence J. Pijeaux, Jr., President and CEO, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Dr. Pijeaux’s presentation, “MLK and Birmingham: Turning Point of the Civil Rights Movement,” brought to mind that impactful and powerful movements are often attributed to an individual or at most a few individuals, when in reality it is the words and actions of many that lead to the resulting change. This is also true in the business world. The CEO or president of a company may set the strategy for its success, but it is the many employees who execute the strategy that make it a reality.

At Herman Miller, I have seen the impact of the average employee as we focus on our strategy to work for a better world. Our IRTs and Inclusiveness and Diversity team have expanded our awareness of the uniqueness of each individual through education programs, policy changes, and access to more resources. We have made amazing progress toward our environmentally-focused 2020 goals through the work of more than 400 employees. And our safety incident rate has steadily declined because of the decisions made every day by every employee.