Knoll Chairman and CEO Andrew Cogan Interviewed by Fortune

Fortune, the magazine dedicated to business innovation and trends, interviewed Andrew Cogan, Knoll Chairman and CEO, on the demand for direct-to-consumer work from home solutions, the Knoll perspective on returning to the workplace and thinking around the future of work. “I expect design-driven businesses like ours that continue to invest in innovation, design and technology will thrive. With respect to the spaces we occupy—the workplace and the home—we see a lot of opportunity coming out of this pandemic,” Cogan tells Rachel King, Editor at Fortune for her July 28 article.

Cogan discussed the need for work from home furniture solutions, as well as how Knoll is poised to meet demand. “Unsurprisingly, demand for work-from-home solutions has skyrocketed in the past few months. Fortunately, we were moving aggressively in this direction before the pandemic,” Cogan states, adding, “Looking back over the past five or so years, much of our business has been about designs that support a “resimercial” experience; everyone wants to make their office feel more like their home. Flash-forward to today: In many ways, what we’re doing is bringing the office to the home.”

In addition, he addressed research and strategy for organizations to return to the workplace, when the time is right. “It’s all about reorienting circulation and reorganizing space—and providing screens for space delineation. I expect that this phase will be followed by a shift in overall facility design, exploring meeting and gathering areas, for example, where you are not in an enclosed room, but working in open freestanding architectural structures surrounded by lounge and individual work areas, all designed to facilitate distancing and enhanced airflow—a much healthier environment overall,” Cogan says.

Fortune also quoted Cogan’s interview for its August 11 article,A blueprint for redesigning the workplace in the pandemic era.