Sundy (above) at La-Z-Boy headquarters in Monroe, Michigan: “Having mentors was so critical to me early on in my career.”
(Photo by Doug Coombe)

Rob Sundy (MBA 2004) has an unabashed fondness for Americana. It’s an interest he traces back to an unexpected source: his time as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne. “It’s a historic unit,” says the West Point graduate, noting that many of the military’s heroes started their careers there; in World War II, members played a key role in the Normandy invasion. When Sundy left the army for the corporate world, he turned his attention to similarly storied names such as Cheerios, Betty Crocker, KitchenAid, and Maytag in his marketing roles at General Mills and Whirlpool.

“I love these brands because they play such a significant part in people’s lives,” says Sundy, now senior vice president and chief commercial officer for another American classic, La-Z-Boy. “Sometimes these brands get old or stale,” he admits, “but they still mean a lot to people. My challenge, then, is how do you contemporize them and make them resonate with people again?”

Sundy’s answer? “We have to fall in love with our customers.” Since joining La-Z-Boy in early 2021, he has been on a listening tour, meeting consumers, furniture dealers, and manufacturers to understand how the brand, which turns 100 years old in 2027, fits in the modern marketplace. “The furniture industry is old school,” he says of his travels. “It’s a relationship industry built on handshakes.”

That old-school environment has proven to be anything but stodgy. Like many durable-goods companies in the pandemic era, La-Z-Boy is focused on meeting unprecedented demand: The furniture industry, used to 2 percent to 4 percent annual growth, Sundy says, has seen that climb to between 30 percent and 40 percent. “The question now is, How do you manage a business through the volatility that we’re seeing from a consumer demand standpoint, with supply chain complexity and an inflationary environment?” For Sundy, it’s an exciting challenge he calls his “MBA 2.0.”

Heigh-ho: “My mom was a teacher in the Detroit public schools and my dad was a barber. My parents would be up at the crack of dawn: You always got to outwork everyone.”

Against type: “A lot of times, people have preconceived notions about how military leaders lead. They think it’s yelling, screaming, and staunch discipline. But one of the most critical leadership lessons I learned as a junior lieutenant was listening.”

How he ended up at HBS: With encouragement from his wife, who surprised him with a trip to Cambridge. Sundy still gets choked up thinking about it. “She said, ‘I just want you to walk around campus. You deserve to be here just as much as all these other people walking around.’”

Crash course: “As a child, I was a latchkey kid, and when my parents were home, the conversations were not about business. They were about what the Detroit Lions did that week or what was happening with a kid in my class. Coming into the corporate environment felt like a foreign language to me.”

Pass it on: “Having mentors to look up to and ask the dumb questions of was so critical to me early on in my career. Now, I try to seek out folks who might be uncomfortable in the corporate environment and take them under my wing, just as my mentors did for me.”

Pandemic discovery: Fly-fishing with friends. “None of us had ever done it before, but it was something we could do outside where there weren’t a lot of people. To be on the river all day, fishing and having great conversations with friends—I was hooked.”

Pandemic job change: “For me, it’s really hard, because connecting with people and building trust is part of my leadership DNA. It’s just hard to do that over a screen. There have been a lot of lunches at the local café.”

Road conditions: “When I’m traveling, I depend on my Whoop strap. It helps me be disciplined about my sleep and lets me know overall how my body is feeling—if I can exercise hard that morning or if I need a rest day.”

Midday indulgence: Crumbl Cookies. “If it is a long day of meetings and we’re both tired, my wife and I love to order cookies delivered to our house. I’m a traditionalist, so my favorite is the milk chocolate chip—and I want to try the salted caramel cheesecake.”

Course correction: Turn the Ship Around! by retired US Navy captain L. David Marquet. “We’re reading it as a leadership team. Things were very top-down, historically, within La-Z-Boy, but to achieve our aggressive growth agenda, we need leadership throughout the organization. This book is all about driving empowerment and accountability.”

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