Herman Miller is One of FORTUNE’s ‘Most Admired’ Companies
After making the list for 23 out of 25 years, Herman Miller again is one of FORTUNE magazine’s “Most Admired” companies for 2011. Herman Miller was ranked #2 in an expanded “Home Equipment, Furnishings” category and was the only office furniture manufacturer to make the list. The company was also ranked first in five of the nine attributes—innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, and quality of products and services.
Before you move on to read something else, consider that this has been a year of winnowing. Now, hard upon the recent economic turmoil, some companies are well-positioned to move forward; others remain on shaky ground; and yet others have disappeared completely. According to FORTUNE magazine, this year’s list contains more new names than ever before—and fewer of the old standards. FORTUNE calls it, “a new competitive order…that will probably last years.” Companies that made the list this year “through good times and bad…dared to differ from how most competitors were behaving.”
If “daring to differ” is a differentiator, it comes as no surprise that Herman Miller continues to rank high on the “Most Admired” companies list. Setting trends, creating markets, and not following the herd is in Herman Miller’s corporate DNA. This recognition reaffirms that if the vision is broad enough, the roots deep enough, and the moral ground solid enough, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world does. In this case, the rest of the world recognized a leader—yet again.
Their observation that companies following a “safe, middle of the road” approach turned out to have some of the worst outcomes isn’t really surprising. If your goal is simply surviving rather than thriving in adverse circumstances, you can only sink or swim – you’ll never soar. I think it’s a good thing that the list got shaken up and added so many new companies. It will give other startups the courage to step out and be different too.
Daisy McCarty
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