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Issue 2 - May 4, 2021
Talking Lamps Plus With New President Clark Linstone
A 30-year veteran of the company, Clark Linstone has just been promoted to president of Lamps Plus at a time of great opportunities but also some challenges. In an exclusive interview, he talks about both.
READ MORE: His business card now reads “President” but for Clark Linstone it’s only the latest step in a 30-year career with Lamps Plus that has seen him playing a key role in the company’s rapid growth and expansion. With his new title, and soon to be the most recent inductee of the American Lighting Association's Lighting Hall of Fame, he continues as the chief operating officer, overseeing Lamps Plus Hospitality, the hotels and resorts trade business, and remaining as president of the company’s Pacific Coast Lighting wholesale portable lighting unit.
LightSource sat down with Linstone, to learn more about the change and what was next for both him and the company.
LightSource: What's the thinking for this move now and how will your responsibilities fit into the bigger corporate picture?
Clark Linstone: “This is an expansion of my prior role in which I will continue my leadership in the company with oversight of all business operations, stores, and distribution center operations. I maintain my responsibilities as COO as well and continue to report to founder and CEO Dennis Swanson.”
LS: How about an update on Lamps Plus business, retail and wholesale.
CL: “Lamps Plus’s business is strong. The pandemic resulted in most people in quarantine and working from home resulting in consumers’ increased focus on home furnishings. Our retail and wholesale business has seen a robust increase in demand. I believe the value consumers place in their homes to create a comfortable and pleasing environment has increased and will remain at a higher level. In the future, more jobs will be remote or hybrid. A portion of the shift to online will be permanent as consumers have become comfortable with the online process and their experience.”
LS: We all know about the supply chain problems right now, do you see any relief coming and when might that be?
CL: “The supply chain has been overwhelmed. All aspects have been affected -- from the factories to ocean shipping space and equipment, port congestion, trucking, rail, and third-party shipping services. Capacity can only increase slowly over time in most areas, for example, ports. Without expansion or increased productivity at the ports, shipping lines can’t add to their current sailings. Third-party shipping services can add vehicles, hubs, and personnel over time to boost capacity. I do not see relief from these issues in 2021 but I expect an increase in capacity in parts of the supply chain will come online by 2022.”
LS: The entire home furnishings business has been doing so well over the past year, the big question is how long does it last, and has the American consumer gained a new appreciation for their homes that will outlive the pandemic stay-at-home conditions?
CL: “The appreciation in maintaining and improving the home will be permanent, to an extent, as behaviors and attitudes shifted during the pandemic to place more emphasis on having a stylish and comfortable home. I expect this to continue into the distant future.”
LS: What's next for Lamps Plus?
CL: “Lamps Plus will continue to focus on its strengths: innovation both online and in our brick-and-mortar stores, product selection, and enhancing the customer experience. We added a luxury lighting section, LP Luxury Lighting, to our website to focus on higher-end designer products. As part of that, we also began exclusively selling Stiffel lighting fixtures. We know that it is a strong American brand with a great legacy and we expect to continue it.”
Swanson, in announcing the promotion, had high praise for Linstone. “Clark is one of the most successful and highly regarded leaders in the lighting industry. The list of what he has accomplished during his career and what he manages on a daily basis is long and varied. His contributions to the company have helped make Lamps Plus the retail and manufacturing success story that it is today.”
First-Ever Museum Show On Lighting Opens
It’s taken a century but the first-of-its-kind exhibition on lighting has opened at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts and is then scheduled to travel to Atlanta’s High Museum in the summer. It’s well worth a side trip for anybody interested in the history of lighting.
READ MORE: It’s hard to believe that something as ubiquitous as lighting has never been the subject of a museum-quality exhibition but in fact, that’s the case -- up until now. Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts is currently hosting the first-of-its-kind “Electrifying Design: A Century of Lighting” that looks at both the art and science of the product over the past 100 years.
It features some 85 different objects from both the 20th and 21st centuries, dividing the subject into three categories: Typologies, looking at form and design; Lightbulb focused on both the functionality and creativity aspects; and Quality of Light, which offers insights into the power of illumination.
“I hope that designers are inspired and look at the works from the different points of view that the exhibition posits,” Cindi Strauss, exhibition cocurator and the MFAH’s Sara and Bill Morgan curator of decorative arts, craft, and design, told Architectural Digest’s AD PRO newsletter. “Lighting does not have to be one-dimensional or solely functional. There are so many creative possibilities to be explored and people are genuinely excited by it.”
The show runs in Houston through May 16 and those interested in further details can use this link to find out more: https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/electrifying-design-century-of-lighting. If you want to see it in Atlanta starting on July 2 and running through September more information is available at: https://high.org/exhibition/electrifying-design-a-century-of-lighting/
The 6 New Forces of the Covid Retail Economy
Throughout the pandemic and now as we start to emerge from it -- can you say Pandexit? -- author, consultant, and former retail executive Steve Dennis has been providing some of the most astute commentaries on how the retail business has been impacted. This new piece, this month’s LightSource Read, looks at six very specific factors every retailer needs to understand.
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