The commercial furniture industry is experiencing significant transformation, with companies like Hightower leading the charge in sustainable practices, social responsibility, and innovative product development. In a recent conversation with Natalie Hartkopf, CEO of Hightower, we gained valuable insights into how this family-founded furniture manufacturer has evolved over its 22-year journey.

The Trend Report: Episode 159

Hightower began as a European furniture importer, primarily focusing on Scandinavian designs. However, after recognizing the manufacturing capabilities in North Carolina, they strategically shifted to producing upholstered pieces domestically while continuing to import specialized components from their European partners. This evolution led to the development of Hightower Studio, their in-house design brand that has garnered industry recognition, including a Best of NeoCon award for their innovative Float chair—described by users as "sitting on a cloud" due to its me...

The healthcare and senior living sectors represent significant growth opportunities for contract furniture brands and dealers. While many companies focus primarily on corporate environments, these specialized verticals offer substantial untapped potential for those willing to understand their unique needs and challenges.

Healthcare facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and professional office buildings, contain numerous spaces beyond just patient care areas. As Sarah Marbury, healthcare and senior living design knowledge expert, explains, there are extensive administrative spaces that require traditional office furniture solutions. Many healthcare systems have entire buildings dedicated to housing their administrative staff. In the post-COVID era, these organizations face the same workplace design challenges as corporate America—creating hybrid workplaces that entice employees back to the office.

The Trend Report: Episode 158

The telehealth revolution is creating entirely new fu...

The 3-C’s of Business Research

Understanding your customers, competitors, and colleagues is critical to your success.

I remember it like it was yesterday, but it was over 20 years ago.  I was sitting at the conference table with the company’s leadership and several representatives from the customer.  We met so they could share why we had been awarded their project.  This was a first for me, and I was excited to learn why we had won.  I was anticipating they would say things like, you were the low price, you have the better products, your overall package fits our needs the best. 

However, what they shared stopped me in my tracks. Could this really be a driver in why we were successful?  You see, this project started when a bid landed on my desk, and as I looked through it, my initial thought was “this is impossible, we’ll never win.”  But that was my job, to take the impossible and make it a reality.  So I started my 6-month quest, with a fantastic team working alongside me, to win ...

Introducing The Collaborative Network: A Movement to Uplift Small Business Manufacturers

Episode 157 of The Trend Report podcast was unlike any other. Host Sid Meadows passed the mic to industry veteran and futurist Rex Miller, who stepped in to lead a powerful conversation with the four founding members of The Collaborative Network: Sid himself, Michelle Warren, Julie Dillon, and Erin Torres.

Together, they shared the story behind this new initiative, the challenges it seeks to solve, and how they plan to create meaningful change for small business manufacturers in the office furniture and contract interiors industry.

A Shared Vision Rooted in Real-World Experience

Each founder brings decades of experience in the industry, across various sectors—dealerships, manufacturing, consulting, marketing, public sector, and sales strategy. What unites them is a shared mission: to support small business manufacturers who are often overlooked, under-resourced, and undervalued.

Michelle Warre...

Have you ever stopped to consider how many decisions you make in a single day? According to fascinating research from Cornell University, adults make approximately 35,000 remotely conscious decisions daily. That translates to a choice roughly every 1.6 seconds during our waking hours. This staggering statistic highlights just how frequently our brains process options and select paths, often without our full awareness.

The Trend Report: Episode 156

These thousands of daily decisions come in many forms. Some are impulsive, like purchasing something that catches your eye but isn't necessarily needed. Others are intuitive—that gut feeling telling you which option is right. Many decisions happen instinctively, like swerving to avoid a pothole while driving. Perhaps the most challenging are our emotionally driven choices in moments of heightened feelings. Each decision, regardless of how it's made, carries the potential to impact our lives and those around us in significant ways. The cumul...

I firmly believe that continuous learning is one of the best ways to grow, as a leader, a professional, and a person. So far this year, I’ve delved into powerful books that challenged my thinking, gave me new tools, and sparked many ideas. I wanted to share a quick review of four of them and my top takeaways from each.

I’m one of those people who need (or just want) a hard copy of the book, so I buy them all.  However, I listen to many of them on my morning walks, which is a great way to consume books, especially if the author is reading them. 

1️⃣ The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath
What it’s about:  This book explores why specific brief experiences can jolt, elevate, and change us, and how we can create more of those moments in business and life. Whether you're leading a team or building customer experiences, the idea is simple: be intentional about crafting standout moments.

Key takeaways:

• Moments of elevation, insight, pride, and connection have the biggest impact—loo...

The conversation around neurodivergence in workplace design has gained significant momentum in recent years. However, as Kelly Colon, executive function coach and neurodiversity advocate, explains, this isn't a trend—it's an essential recalibration of how we think about designing our built environments. For decades, we have been creating spaces primarily based on mathematical formulas, including square footage requirements, budget constraints, and aesthetic preferences. What's been notably absent from this equation? The actual human beings who inhabit these spaces.

The Trend Report, Episode 155

The foundational problem is that traditional design practices have prioritized program, product, and price over people. We have constructed environments without considering their impact on human nervous systems, cognitive processing, and sensory experiences. As Colon points out, this oversight has had measurable consequences: increased rates of depression, burnout, and even suicide among worke...

Every day, I talk to leaders in various organizations, and they all share similar comments when we discuss how business is going: They all desire more opportunities and more sales, as they should, as that’s a key component to any business's success story.  Sales, Revenue, and Profits matter to all organizations.    

You can generate sales in your business in many ways, but we focus a lot on our industry's Architecture & Design (A&D) Community.  According to research provided by ThinkLab in their U.S. Design Industry Benchmark Report for 2025, for office furniture only, the market size is $29.1 billion. Yes, you read that right.  No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of desks, chairs, accessories, and other products. This equates to a lot of opportunities for the manufacturers and dealers alike.  

The same report indicates that the average designer has “40 times as much specification power as the average consumer has buying power.” ThinkLab has shared this statistic with our comm...

The office furniture industry stands at a critical juncture as we navigate through the challenges of 2025. In a recent conversation with Shelley Rosetta, Principal at Solomon Coyle, we explored the evolving landscape of dealerships, leadership approaches, and innovative strategies for sustained growth in an uncertain market.

The Trend Report, Episode 154

Shelley's journey into the industry began with a childhood passion for space planning her bedroom, which eventually led to formal training in interior design. Her career path took her from design to sales leadership, dealership ownership, and eventually to consulting with Solomon Coyle. This trajectory highlights an important reality of our industry – there are numerous career paths available beyond what students are typically exposed to in design or business programs. As Shelley noted, "They don't really mention that you can be a rep, you can go work at a dealership, you can be at SolomonCoyle. There are just so many different avenu...

🎨 Color Outside the Lines

As kids, we were all taught to color inside the lines. That was the goal, right? Stay within the boundaries, follow the rules, and make something neat and tidy. That training served a purpose—developing fine motor skills and focus—but it also started planting something deeper: the need to conform.

And if you didn’t color inside the lines? You probably got a few funny looks or side comments from parents, teachers, and even friends. Eventually, most of us figured out how to stay inside those lines.

Fast-forward to adulthood, and guess what? We’re still doing it. Adult coloring books are everywhere—detailed, intricate, and yes, relaxing. I’ll admit, I’ve tried a few myself (no shame here 😊).

But when we step back, coloring inside the lines is more than just an art activity—it’s symbolic of how we operate in life and work.

Why Do We Conform? 🤔

Conforming is safe. It’s easy. It keeps the peace.

But here’s the thing—it doesn’t challenge anything. It doesn’t c...