Introduction
Amber Brown, Market President of Alfred Williams & Company in Charlotte, joins Jack Ossa on The Power of Design Podcast to talk about the commercial furniture industry, moving between industries and what it takes to build a strong team. Alfred Williams is a contract furniture and interiors company and the Herman Miller dealer in Charlotte.
Amber's background is in media sales, business development consulting and then furniture and interior construction. She and Jack compare how collaboration in design and construction works in practice, and how workplaces are changing.
About the Episode
Amber started her career in radio sales during a recession, advised by an aunt that if she could sell radio she could sell anything. She calls the result "cocktail knowledge": enough understanding of many industries to talk with an architect or a neurosurgeon. She grew up in Oklahoma, moved to Charlotte at 23 and spent about eleven years in business development consulting for television, newspaper and digital media before joining Alfred Williams about seven years before the recording.
She explains how media changed from a few large outlets to platforms anyone can use, and why that parallel helps her in furniture: both are about understanding what the customer wants. She and Jack discuss why projects still feel linear, with partners brought in one after another, and why she prefers integrated project delivery, where everyone sits at the table early and sets egos aside.
The conversation then covers high-performing teams, how to tell whether someone can grow into a role, what makes a 152-year-old company different, the pressure for faster delivery, and how work now happens in more places than a desk. Amber and Jack finish with their definitions of design, and Jack describes architecture as a human experience in space.
Key Takeaways
- Stay curious: general curiosity about business and people lets Amber move across industries and keep the customer at the center.
- Hire for thinking: she looks for people who bring outside perspective, since a team of people who think alike underperforms.
- Remove roadblocks: leaders give resources and a vision, and leadership should come from many people, not only the top.
- Look for willingness to change: comfort is risky; she wants people who say they are not sure but can figure it out.
- Authenticity differentiates: a company that is true to itself and invests in its people, and adapts to each market, lasts.
- Speed and agility: customers want faster delivery and flexible space, so partners need to join projects earlier.
- Work is more than a desk: people move, hold short conversations and need varied spaces, such as shared huddle rooms.
Highlights from the Conversation
My role is to give them the resources that they need and to take away the roadblocks that are there.
Amber Brown
We're incredibly authentic to who we are and we don't try to be anything else.
Amber Brown
You've got to always be growing and never have all the answers ever.
Amber Brown
Topics Discussed
- From radio sales to consulting to commercial furniture
- How the media industry changed and what it means for brands
- The role of furniture and interiors in bringing a company's brand into its space
- Linear project processes versus integrated project delivery
- Building and growing high-performing teams
- What a 152-year-old company does to stay different
- Client demand for speed, agility and flexible workplaces
- Simple but significant design and architecture as a human experience
Why This Conversation Matters
Amber's view that furniture, brand and space need to be planned together is central to workplace design. It matters for anyone planning an office, from owners to designers and brokers, because the earlier every partner joins, the better the result. It is the same collaborative approach behind our interior architecture work, for example the BWM Office and Collet Office, and behind our branding practice, which helps companies express who they are through their spaces.
About the Guest
Amber Brown is the Market President of Alfred Williams & Company in Charlotte, North Carolina, a leader in commercial furniture and interiors. A sales and marketing executive with experience in media, business development consulting and workplace solutions, she grew up in Oklahoma and has lived in Charlotte since she was 23. Connect with Amber on LinkedIn.
