The Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University held its seventh Meijer Lecture Series speaker on Monday when Brian Walker, president and CEO of Herman Miller, offered words of wisdom to the student attendees.

“The lectureship was created for something crucial: to focus on the importance of a liberal education from the perspective of a businessman,” said Jeff Chamberlain, director of the honors college. “Leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation are all important parts of that.”

Walker said he came to be the CEO of Herman Miller by “a series of fortunate mistakes.”

“I volunteered a lot for things a lot of other people didn’t want to do; that’s what got me here,” Walker said. “I was willing to move around a lot. I always gave my opinion, even if I didn’t know much about it.”

Walker said he almost came to GVSU after receiving a scholarship, but after an argument with a teacher about taking the advanced placement test, the teacher failed him and he lost the scholarship. He then attended a community college to earn his degree.

“For me, that was a really big moment of growing up,” he said. “My dad did the right thing in making it confrontational. That made a defining moment in my work career, as well.”

Walker said he feels fortunate to lead a company like Herman Miller because of its values and beliefs. He said that while many people think he gets to make most of the company’s decisions, he really only makes a small percentage of them.

“My job is often to point out a direction and compel them to take that direction,” he said. “To go there, I try to pick areas of the business that I really have an interest to learn.”

Also as part of his job, Walker spends a lot of time with customers “not necessarily to find out what they want but to see what you’re good at and what you’re not and find unmet needs.”

While Herman Miller has changed over its history, Walker said the changes have been positive and are usually in response to social change.

“I think that our history will tell us that all great design generally comes in response to social change,” he said. “It’s a matter of finding a compelling story of where we need to shift to and how do we use that to improve what we’re doing or find new areas for growth.”

Walker said the company leaders receive new ideas by encouraging their employees to get involved outside of work and in the community and by helping employees go back to school to receive further education.

“We never saw folks as being stuck in the job they started in or based on their educational training,” he said. “My job is to make sure we have great people and the bandwidth to do it.”

Gaining new ideas for products also depends a lot on the company’s corporate culture and if employees feel they can pitch their ideas as well as remain open to hear others.

Based on his leadership experience, Walker advised students not to think of their future career only as climbing up the corporate ladder.

“Think of your career path like a Christmas tree and not like a ladder,” he said. “Real careers are built by going sideways. Don’t think about what the job is, think about what the experience is. It’s important to get experiences beside what you’re doing everyday. When looking at your class load, take things that stretch your thinking and get a lot of variety.”

He added that students who add this variety to their classes gain a broader view, which can help in a future career.

“I look back and wish I could do it again,” Walker said. “I think about things that I could’ve spent my time on outside of my major that would give me a broader view of the world.”

Because Walker was almost a Laker, Chamberlain announced that the Honors College is starting a scholarship in Walker’s name to aid students at GVSU.

For more information about the lecture series, visit www.gvsu.edu/honor/frederik-meijer-lecture-series-58.htm.

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