Patience — It’s going to be a long journey to convert a company with thousands of people. As a young leader, I wanted to change everyone’s thinking immediately. That was foolish. It wasn’t about 5 years into our journey I really started to fully understand this.
As a part of our series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” we had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Koenig.
Andrew Koenig, CEO of CITY Furniture, boasts an impressive history of fostering a robust corporate culture. Equipped with degrees in Finance and Accounting, as well as an MBA in Entrepreneurship, Andrew’s journey with CITY Furniture began humbly as a Receiving Associate, responsible for unloading trucks. During this early phase, he introduced Lean Thinking principles to the organization. This initiative led to transformative changes across various facets of the business, including safety enhancements, reduced turnover, operational efficiencies, improved customer experiences, and heightened financial performance.
A steadfast advocate for Lean methodologies — commonly referred to as the CITY Furniture Operating System — Andrew is committed to cultivating a culture centered on continuous improvement. As the company has scaled, it has remained true to one of its core values: Giving Back. Andrew and his team take pride in their 5% Giving Pledge, which allocates a minimum of 5% of profits to community initiatives. Additionally, they’ve made a long-term commitment to sustainability through their 2040 Green Promise, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by that year.
Beyond his role at CITY Furniture, Andrew is an active member of CEOs Against Cancer, a coalition of leading national executives focused on altering the trajectory of cancer care. This alliance leverages the collective expertise, influence, and resources of its members, in partnership with the American Cancer Society, to save lives while enhancing corporate bottom lines.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’m delighted to be here and happy to share a bit about my journey. The path that led me to CITY Furniture and ultimately to the role of CEO is one marked by hands-on experience, educational pursuit, and a family legacy.
I graduated with degrees in Finance and Accounting from Elon University in 2005 and later completed my MBA in Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University. But my education didn’t stop there; I was fortunate enough to study Lean Philosophy at Toyota’s HQ in Toyota City, Japan shortly before joining CITY Furniture full-time in January 2006.
I started from the ground up, working in the Receiving Department, unloading furniture from containers and really working every job in the warehouse. That was a crucial phase for me, learning the ropes and understanding the company’s operations from the foundational level side by side with all of our amazing associates. Over the next eight years, I had the opportunity to work in almost every division of the company, focusing significantly on streamlining the business.
As the son of Keith Koenig and the nephew of Kevin Koenig, founders of what was originally Waterbed City in 1971, I grew up around this business. Watching it evolve into CITY Furniture in 1994 was not just a business transformation; it was a part of my family’s legacy.
In 2007, I introduced Lean Thinking to the company, which we’ve now incorporated into what we call “The City Furniture Operating System (CFOS).” The impact has been nothing short of transformative. We’ve achieved significant breakthroughs in areas like sales growth (ranked 4th fastest growing furniture retailer in the US for the past 14 years), turnover reduction, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction (95%), quality, and much more. It’s a continuous journey, and along with my senior team, we’re committed to embedding CFOS “aka Lean Thinking” throughout the company.
So that’s a little about me, my background, and how I ended up where I am today. I’m thrilled for what the future holds, both for CITY and for the broader applications of Lean Philosophy.
Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I’d say the most interesting thing that has happened to me throughout my career has to be getting Lean Thinking implemented in every aspect of our business. I’ve dreamt of this day and to see it happening before my eyes is just amazing. Makes me want to cry. Ha. You typically learn about Lean and think manufacturing, supply chain or operations but we have our Lean Thinking implemented in our Admin Department, our Sales Teams, Marketing Teams, Technology Teams, HR Department and so much more. It’s “who we are” as a business trying to get everyone involved in our company to give ideas, participate in CITY Circles (aka problem solving events) or Kaizens, involved in our strategic planning or just working together in teams to hit our goals. It’s been fascinating to watch the shift from no guided philosophy for our business and top down thinking telling everyone what to do to a fully complete adoption of Lean Thinking that is focused on continuously improving from inside out of the organization and all of us striving for perfection to achieve our goals of zero Safety incidents, zero Quality defects, 100% Customer Satisfaction, the highest sales at the lowest costs to achieve the highest profitability and 100% associate satisfaction.
It’s been very challenging all along the way to build this culture but proud we’re really on our way. It’s been tough. We’ve lost several Sr. level leaders along the way that chose not to adopt this new ground up and team approach to problem solving and had to part ways because this was the way we were going to lead here at CITY. We’re not looking back. We’re only going forward and we’re doing it together as a CITY Family.
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
It’s really our corporate values of our business that have guided me ever since I joined. Now, they weren’t always our corporate values though. When I turned CEO, I worked with our Sr. Team to update our values to who I believed how we really want to run this company. So here they are — 1. Entrepernerual Spirit — Our company and myself, we are entrepreneurs at heart. We are always pushing our business to evolve and be “the home furnishings destination” for our customers. In order to stay relevant we got to reinvent ourselves continuously. 2. Family Spirit — We are a family. I love my CITY Family. I think of them as Family and treat them as such. We are constantly talking about our CITY Family and I believe you can run a business, department, and team that makes everyone feel special just like a family. 3. Mutual Trust & Respect — We can’t build strong culture if we don’t have high integrity individuals on our team. If I wasn’t trustworthy or respectful to everyone in our company, they wouldn’t want to be here. This is a bare minimum to creating a great team. 4. Teamwork — Everything we do requires all of us to work together as a team. We might not always agree with each other but we got to work with each other to strive to hit our goals. Having a great team atmosphere is essential for productivity, great quality work and for associates enjoying what they do. 5. Customer Focus — I’m always focused on the customer and that might be the actual customer or how we work together internally as a team (aka internal customers). The better we are doing serving each other, the better we will do serving our real customer. 6. Continous Improvement — I’m extremely passionate about continuous improvement. My team knows I love problems, I love talking about why we are behind goal. I’m proud to say that every department and associate in our business is trying to get better and this is what makes us so special. We implement thousands of suggestions a year, tons of Kaizens and CITY Circles. Our culture is full of improvement. 7. My favorite is Giving Back — After we succeed and grow and make some money, we give back to our community in many different ways. It could be financially like helping fundraise $750K for American Cancer Society, it could be time mentoring and volunteering to build houses for Habitat for Humanity or it could be putting on our 2040 Green Promise Events sharing to community businesses how we are helping reduce our emissions and become carbon neutural and helping them on their journies going green. I love the giving back element of our business and my leadership role. It fulfills the heart.
Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?
Certainly, I’d be delighted to share my “Big Idea That Might Change The World,” and it’s deeply rooted in Lean Philosophy. I was first introduced to this Toyota-inspired system in 2007, and ever since then, it has transformed the way we operate at CITY Furniture. I was even fortunate enough to visit Toyota’s headquarters in Japan to learn the philosophy directly from the masters, further solidifying my belief in its transformative power.
My overarching goal has always been to inspire more businesses and really all business to adopt Lean Thinking. I want to see organizations all around the wolrd create a culture of mutual trust and respect among thier team members. When people feel valued and part of a collective mission, given the opportunity to give suggestions and participate in Kaizens and Strategic Planning teamwork flourishes, and there’s a deep sense of urgency to continually better themselves and their businesses. Lean has been the catalyst for achieving this culture, and the results speak for themselves. We are one of the fastest growing furniture retailers in the country in one of the most competitive markets in the usa and I’m happy to say our Safety, Quality, Customer Sat and Associate Sat KPI’s speak for themselves for when it comes to our industry.
How do you think this will change the world?
I firmly believe that the principles of Lean Philosophy have the potential to be a game-changer not just for individual organizations, but for entire industries and even societies. At its core, Lean is about creating value by streamlining processes, eliminating waste, and empowering people. If universally adopted, this philosophy could drive unprecedented levels of efficiency, sustainability, happy customers or citizens and well-being across the globe. The financial savings from adopting Lean would then be reinvested back into the businesses, organizations or society to keep it going. For example, consider the environmental implications. Lean practices encourage resource optimization, which directly correlates with reduced waste and lower carbon footprints. If more companies adopted Lean, we could see a significant global reduction in waste and resource depletion. I’m proud to share that at CITY, 1/3rd of our energy usage is powered by renewable energy and we believe that will continue. I’m also proud to say that our Fleet is 100% CNG which is 67% less emissions of any other furniture delivery truck on the road. And I’m not trying to brag, I’m trying to get more people to adopt our Lean Thinking that can be applied to the environmental side of everyone’s organization.
From a social perspective, Lean fosters a culture of mutual respect, teamwork, transparency, communication, problem identification and continuous improvement. Imagine a world where every workplace is designed to support the growth and well-being of its people. We’d have happier, more engaged workers, leading to a more harmonious society overall.
Economically speaking, Lean can help organizations become more competitive, adaptive, and resilient. This kind of robustness is what we need to face the unpredictable challenges of today’s world, be they economic downturns, pandemics, or geopolitical changes. Businesses that are leaner and more agile can react more swiftly and effectively, which in turn can stabilize economies and even nations.
Finally, in a fast-paced, ever-changing world, the Lean Philosophy’s emphasis on continuous learning and adaptation is more relevant than ever. It can be the cornerstone of a culture that not just embraces but thrives on change, setting us up for a more agile, resilient, and sustainable future.
So yes, I genuinely believe that widespread adoption of Lean Philosophy can change the world in meaningful ways, across a multitude of dimensions. I’m seeing it here at CITY. It’s not just talk — We are operating safer, better for our customers, more financially stronger than ever, greener than ever and we have one of the best cultures for a company our size on this planet. It’s not just a business model; it’s a roadmap for creating value and making the world a better place.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?
It’s not easy. If it was, everyone would do it. However, for those that take the leap and learn and test their way to implementing a Lean Culture, they will see the results. I have friends that have trusted me on this and have now seen the light that Lean Thinking is a game changer for any business. They couldn’t operate any other way now seeing with their new Lean Eyes, nor could eye. The opportunity though is if you do decide to take the leap of fait and become Lean, most in your industry have not. You will quickly see that you have a major competitive advantage on your competitors.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
The tipping point was reading a book called The Machine That Changed The World by Jim Womack. He highlighted the amazing results of Toyota for over 50 years taking market share from the Big Auto 3 in the USA (GM, Ford, Chrysler), their superior quality results, their low associate turnover, their customer satisfaction ratings and so much more. How could a company from an island of Japan build the worlds #1 Automobile Manufacture with little to no resources on the island in a relatively low population country and become the best in the world. If you read the book, they explain it’s Lean Thinking that Toyota has adopted. They figured out the secret sauce to building an amazing company — a culture of people passionate about continuous improvement. As I read this book, I had to go see this culture. I decided in 2003 to use one of my Spring Breaks to go to Japan and visit Toyota. Everything I read I saw in person. It came to life to me. I saw happy people engaged working together striving for perfection at whatever they did, whether that be the assembly line worker, the administration associate at the front desk, the janitor, etc. the culture of continuous improvement was everywhere and in everyone. That’s when I decided there was no turning back for me, this would be my mission coming back to CITY. I knew in my heart that together we are smarter than any one of us.
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
I needed to convince my father who was CEO at the time. I had to convince the guy that had been leading our company growing 800%+ for 12 years that the way he was running his company was the wrong way. Not easy right? It took me about 4 years to convince him. It wasn’t until the Great Recession in 2007 started to poke it’s head out that he decided to agree with me and make a full commitment to go Lean. Since that announcement, he’s been my biggest fan and biggest cheerleader supporting our Lean Conversion throughout the company.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
1. Patience — It’s going to be a long journey to convert a company with thousands of people. As a young leader, I wanted to change everyone’s thinking immediately. That was foolish. It wasn’t about 5 years into our journey I really started to fully understand this.
2. Focus On One Problem At A Time — Be very careful that you are not trying to solve too many problems at a time. You can get distracted. You can upset the culture to much with to much change. Focus on one problem at a time is a key mindset.
3. Celebrate Your Wins Every Step of the Way — You have to celebrate and communicate your wins. Going all in on a Lean Journey takes a lot of effort. Unfortunately, there will be some that won’t want you to suceeed and will call you out when there are problems along the way. Be sure to celebrate the wins. This will get more people to believe in the cause.
4. Training is Key but the Why Is Everything — Anyone can lock a group of cross-functional associates in the room and ask them to improve their processes but to get full adoption of your great ideas through Kaizens, Suggestions, etc. you need great training. And one of the most important aspects of training is explaining the why. Why should I do it this way? Associates will need to know this as you improve your processes so that they believe in these new standards you are creating. Don’t forget this very important point — train the why.
5. Use Lean to Solve Real Business Problems — Don’t solve problems with Lean Thinking that don’t matter. Try to find the problems that matter to the business and apply this way of thinking. You don’t want your Lean Journey to be extra work. You want it to be apart of their everyday work. Find the right problems and use Lean to tackle them. This will get more buy in for the cause.
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
Sure. My big success habits that I think have helped me get our culture to where it is are the following: 1. Believe in yourself — If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will. Smack yourself in the mirror every once in awhile when you are feeling down, build up your confidence and tell yourself “go knock it out of the park, you got this”. You are your biggest cheerleader. You will. Need to motivate yourself. 2. Hard work beats talent — The harder I work the luckier I get and the more accurate I get with my decision making. Hard work is crucial. 3. Time Management — Don’t waste a second of your day. Be mindful with your time. Ruthlessly prioritize your time. Work on the right problems. Go crush them and then do it over again. I’m huge at time management and I feel I gain seconds on my competition everyday because I’m manging to the second. 4. Have Fun — Make work fun. Celebrate your wins. Joke around. Don’t be stuffy. Create a vibe where people want to be around you and enjoy being around you. Enjoy the ride because it’s an awesome one.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkoenigcf/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrewkoenigcf/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealakcity55/?hl=en
Tiktok?
X?
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
CITY Furniture: Andrew Koenig’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.