That’s the question a lot of office furniture manufacturers are asking with the changes that are occurring in how and where people work. If the number of mobile workers continues to rise as expected, the industry as a whole will have to radically realign itself to keep up. This will include:

• Targeting home workers for sales of higher quality, ergonomic office furniture that you’d typically only see in an office building
• Redesigning office furniture for use in non-traditional settings such as cafes where mobile worker are likely to land (and marketing this furniture to the owners of these businesses)
• Creating furniture for use in the centralized office space that precisely supports the types of work employees still need to travel to “headquarters” to do
• Updating office furniture so it is multi-user friendly in an age when most employees don’t expect to have a dedicated workspace
• Redefining what constitutes “work” to include educational endeavors since many students spend their day at a desk

Herman Miller and other leading players are anticipating the ways their strategy must change in the future. Personally, we aren’t worried too much. We just listen to our customers and make sure we can provide whatever they want and need!