Steelcase Inc.

SOLID RELATIONSHIP
When Mary Reagan left Steelcase in 1991 to pursue her own business venture, she didn’t expect to work with her employer again. To her delight they called soon after asking her to help continue the launch of a new subsidiary, Details.

Her reputation for strategic thinking and ability to get things done snowballed. The agency picked up the Turnstone account, Revest, several new product launches and the introduction of Steelcase Design Partnership overseas, just to name a few.

The solid relationships developed have spawned more work through word-of mouth. For example, there’s a Steelcase link to our work for PSI and American Leather. Mary continues to get calls from her former employer from time to time, because with time RM+D’s seasoned staff only gets better.

LARGE NUMBERS, SHORT TIMEFRAME, BIG RESULTS
Here’s one example: Steelcase was spending $35 MM to participate in more than 70 conferences, tradeshows and special events annually. It was increasingly becoming hard to manage, evaluate and keep within budget. Steelcase called RM+D to develop a strategy and recommendation for global event participation.

In Just three months, RM_D researched all 70 events in depth. Based on our findings, we whittled the list to 23 shows and coordinated all aspects of participation over the next two years. IN the end, we developed a comprehensive manual to show the client how to more efficiently and effectively manage events, increase impact and track budgets so the function could be brought in-house.

Our process and presentation of recommendations was so successful, it became a model by which to evaluate other corporate initiatives.