Chairman of the Board, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hni
Search every verified Jeffrey Lorenger interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a March 2025 appearance on the Iowa Biz Cast, Jeffrey Lorenger discussed HNI Corporation's business strategy and culture. He stated that the company prioritizes profit sharing for employees over dividends to shareholders, a practice he said has been in place since the company's early days. Lorenger described HNI's manufacturing as "made to order," requiring flexibility due to highly specified fabrics and finishes. He noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when office market demand declined, the company focused on improving its operations, and he said the market has since begun to recover as people return to offices. Lorenger also expressed a bullish long-term outlook on housing, citing stabilizing mortgage rates and increasing family formation. Lorenger emphasized the company's culture of "rapid continuous improvements," which he described as a team-based approach to problem-solving. He discussed HNI's workforce development efforts, including an internship program that hires roughly 100 interns each summer, as well as apprenticeships and externships. On artificial intelligence, Lorenger said the company's philosophy is one of experimentation and that AI is not a substitute for human creativity and critical thinking. He highlighted the importance of private-public partnerships and community support, noting that HNI contributes millions to local organizations and provides volunteer time off to employees. Lorenger advised leaders to "stay calm" and focus on what they can control, describing chaos as "the new normal" in business.
“The company paid profit sharing before they ever paid dividends and so when they made their first buck they paid the profit sharing to the members before they started paying dividends to the shareholders and to this day we still pay profit sharing and dividends.”
“Our manufacturing is made to order manufacturing and so particularly in the office side so we aren't we we don't set up and run big runs of similar stuff it's made to order because it's highly specified Fabrics finishes paint colors and so if you think about that you have to be pretty flexible pretty versatile.”
“When the office market demand was down due to COVID, we took that time to improve our business. We always said don't waste the crisis, let's improve the business and that's what we've been doing. Now the market has started to come back to life as people return to offices.”
“Our investors understand we take the Long View; we invest for the long term and we're starting to see positive signs with mortgage rates stabilizing and family formation increasing. The long-term prospects of housing we're bullish on.”
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