Introduction:

Spec Furniture, a stalwart in contract furniture manufacturing, has navigated the complexities of rapid growth, cultural integration, and the global pandemic. With roots dating back to 1991 and starting with just a four-person team, the company had established a strong presence in multiple sectors: corporate, healthcare and education.

Challenge:

The acquisition of Spec Furniture by Sauter Manufacturing in 2017 marked the beginning of a challenging cultural integration merger process. The company faced the dual challenges of honoring its family-business roots while adapting to the culture of a larger corporate entity.

This period of transition led to unease among longstanding employees. The situation was further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced rapid shifts to remote work, causing significant disruptions in communication and collaboration.

Objectives:

Spec Furniture recognized the need for a strategic intervention to bridge the cultural divide and provide support for its employees during these periods of change.

Spec Furniture’s Chief Operations Officer Reg Bernard said:

“One of the things that we were trying to achieve was we recognized that we needed to develop some level of common language. We had people in front of us that were experiencing lots of changes. They didn’t know how to deal with it. We didn’t know how to deal with it.”

The objective was clear: to create a cohesive, inclusive culture that embraced both the legacy of Spec and the new direction under Sauter Manufacturing. The company aimed to establish a common language and set of tools that would facilitate better communication, collaboration, and support for the diverse needs of their teams.