His name in every bathroom

Kohler is in the business of keeping things clean – with style

A COLLEGE professor once told us that all of civilization started with the toilet. By no longer leaving their human waste in the ground, humans moved up a class above animals. By doing so, they liberated themselves from certain diseases: the decreasing mortality rate and the release from the burden of mere survival enabled humans to begin the very important business of building the rest of the world.

David Kohler, chair and CEO of Kohler Co., then runs a company that does not just make toilets — through a line stretching back to the 1800s, it could be argued that the Kohlers are helping to maintain civilization, one flush at a time.

The company is still owned and operated by the family — a release says that Mr. Kohler’s father Herbert Kohler and his aunt Ruth, both deceased, bought out 300 shareholders to consolidate ownership in their branch of the family. The company is headquartered in a town named after the company in Wisconsin, and aside from toilets, they make other bathroom fixtures too — also furniture and tiles. And the family has interests in energy through engines and generators.

On the note about toilets helping build civilization, Mr. Kohler told BusinessWorld, “I think it’s a really good point. The mission of our company is to help people live gracious, healthy, and sustainable lives.”

The company was co-founded in 1873 by Mr. Kohler’s Austrian ancestor John Michael Kohler (Mr. Kohler says that it originally meant “coal hauler” in German) to make farming implements out of metal. In 1883, however, the senior Kohler applied enamel to a water trough for pigs, transforming it into a bathtub and thus creating the company’s first plumbing product. 

Mr. Kohler is in the fourth generation of the family in the business.

“A big part of our business is health and hygiene. But I think where Kohler brings a twist to that is we bring fashion and inspiration and design to what could be a very (commodified) or mundane product line,” he said in an interview with BusinessWorld at the Admiral Hotel on Oct. 1. “We create something out of something that is incredibly important for everyday life.”

Every room in a house tells something about a person: for example, a living room would show off aspirations; a bedroom would show someone’s perception of themselves, and the things that make them comfortable. How then, can a person tell their story through their bathrooms, when their purpose is purely functional?

“Oh no, it’s not!” Mr. Kohler disagrees. “It’s your most intimate space. You spend your mornings there, your evenings there — it’s a very special place.

“Every room tells a story. Our customers really buy our products because of how it makes them feel. They love their home, they want to design an environment that’s right for them. Design is very personal. What creates emotion in you may be not what creates emotion in me. But great design should create emotion. It should make you feel good and pleasant about being in that space,” he said.

“These everyday moments — we live stressful lives, right? And hectic lives. These everyday moments — if we can make these everyday moments special, enjoyable, make you smile — we’ve done our job. We think, in life, finding these everyday special moments is really important.”

Kohler, while offering a range of products at all price points, is known (at least in the Philippines) for appearing in very important bathrooms, such as in hotels and grand houses.

The company also does custom work for very special clients: “We’ve done different gold products for famous people that I can’t name. We’ve had kings of countries that will send our products in advance to the hotel (where) they’re going to be staying, because they want to be surrounded by our products.”

Mr. Kohler discussed another important bathroom: his own. “I really like smart products. I have smart toilets, digital showering — I really like integrated news and music, so in my mirror that I use — I use a Kohler lighted mirror — I have an integrated TV screen in the mirror, because I like to catch up on news in the morning while I’m getting ready… that’s important to me.”

As the title of the story says, Mr. Kohler can find his name in almost every important bathroom in the world. “It’s a great honor. It’s a great responsibility. I really look at what I do as kind of my destiny, my service to our family, our company, and to the world, and trying to make a positive impact on the world in terms of what we do, and leading by example.”

Other companies founded by families in their time have lost both the companies and their names, but step into a bathroom and the Kohler name is still there, and will still be tomorrow. The Kohler story is the dream of every person in business — imagine: the family’s name creating recall, even in a person’s most private moments.

“I just want to leave the company in a much better place than I found it,” said Mr. Kohler.

“What’s helped us survive and thrive over 150 years is this combination of left-brain, right-brain,” he said. Perhaps that’s reflected in the family tree: politicians and businessmen, but quite a number involved in the arts (and even athletics: Mr. Kohler himself served as the General Chairman for the 2015 PGA Championship and the 43^rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, held in 2021). “Discipline on one side — disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action — sticking to our principles of how we do business. But then, on the other side, being very creative, and entrepreneurial, and innovative. You can only survive 150 years if you adapt and change, and you innovate for the times, to stay relevant.” — Joseph L. Garcia