Haworth, Milan, and a Simple Idea That’s Hard to Scale: Being Nice|04/22/2026 | Stephen Says Column

Matthew Haworth​If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this business—especially running The Viscusi Group and spending decades around the best in the industry—it’s that the real moments never happen in meetings, they happen when you least expect them, usually walking down a street somewhere.

And there I was in Milan during Salone del Mobile—which, let’s be honest, is where the real action is. Manufacturers might go to Orgatec to look at each other, but designers and clients? They come to Salone for inspiration. And if there’s one company that understands that better than anyone, it’s Haworth. You walk the city that week and you feel it—dealers everywhere, brands everywhere, presence everywhere. It’s like they own the place.

So, I’m at the Janus et Cie showroom and who do I run into? Matthew Haworth. No big setup, no entourage—just Matt. A Midwestern guy who happens to be running one of the most important companies in our industry.

We start walking—just casually heading toward the Poltrona Frau showroom—and one of those conversations starts that reminds you why you love this business. We talked about everything: the state of the industry, the residential side exploding, contract evolving, and of course the big topic everyone has an opinion on—the HNI acquisition of Steelcase. He actually asked me what I thought, which tells you a lot right there. But the truth is, I walked away learning a lot more from him than he did from me.

What really hit me wasn’t just how much he knows—and he knows a lot, globally, residential, contract, all of it—it’s how grounded he is. I knew his dad, I knew his grandfather—“grandpa” as he still calls him—and you see that in him. We even got into stories about his first Yankees vs. Detroit game in New York with his dad and Frank Baudo. Fast forward to today and Milan is like a second home for him, but that Midwest mindset never left.

And here’s the thing that stuck with me the most, something we don’t talk about enough in this industry—he cares about people. Really cares. At Haworth they don’t even say employees, they say “members.” Their dealer’s matter. Their people matter. And there’s this expectation that sounds simple but is actually very hard to execute at scale: be nice. Stephen Viscusi and Matthew Haworth

And I kept thinking about that as we walked—because he’s not just saying it, he lives it. He’s genuinely nice. And he expects everyone around him, everyone at Haworth, every dealer, to operate that same way. You don’t see that consistency very often, especially at that level.  ​

If you asked me to sum up Haworth’s success after that walk, it wouldn’t be strategy or acquisitions or even design—although they do all of that well. It would be something much simpler, and honestly much harder to replicate nice.

And walking through Milan with Matt, you realize—it’s not an act. It’s real. And it shows. 

Matt, thanks for the walk, the conversation, and the reminder that sometimes the most powerful thing you can build in a global company… is a culture of being nice.
 

Stephen Viscusi is the founder of www.viscusigroup.com, an executive search firm that specializes in the interior furnishings industry. Hires made through The Viscusi Group are guaranteed a one-year free replacement. Please share your story or comment on this article and send your workplace questions to stephen@viscusigroup.com. Or give us a call at (212) 979-5700 ext. 101.
 

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