The time had come to breathe new life into the corporate headquarters of Parker Hannifin Corp. and give people something to talk about, says Richard S. Kanzleiter, vice president of operations support.

“We wanted to wow not only our customers but our employees, their families, our vendors, anybody who comes through those doors,” Kanzleiter says. “They are coming from all over the globe, and this may be the only time they will get to come to the global headquarters.”

Upon entering the lobby, you’ll see flat-screen video displays and a surround-sound theater, both offering presentations on the latest technologies being developed by the 62,000-employee company. Those are just a few of the bells and whistles used to deliver a targeted message about the type of work that Parker is doing.

“This is the stuff we’re all about,” Kanzleiter says. “We want to wow people, but we also want to get the message across that there is a purpose behind it.”

Every company has something to show people. The trick is to do it in such a way that they respond and find themselves wanting to learn more.

Parker has been doubling in size about every five years, Kanzleiter says, hitting $12.1 billion in fiscal 2008 revenue. Leadership knew it had a lot to show the estimated 170 visitors who pass through the lobby of its headquarters each day.

The challenge became finding a way to boil it down into something that would strike the right tone in the entryway of the company’s headquarters. In doing so, Kanzleiter says it’s best to begin at the top.

“The company has to have an idea of where they want to go,” Kanzleiter says. “They have to have a vision. Parker wanted to make a paradigm shift from its old conservative, industrial self to a modern, high-tech global technical firm.”

Parker hired Karen Skunta & Co. to head up the effort to gather ideas and develop a theme for the company’s new entryway.

“We took our engineering know-how and Karen’s artistic talent and her talent for getting to the meat of things,”

Kanzleiter says. “She met with a lot of our senior executives and asked, ‘What do you want to show? What’s your idea?’ She was trying to get an idea of what our expectation was.”

Skunta, the firm’s founder, president and creative director, says the key is to find ways to reinforce the things that your company does in a way that resonates with people and piques their curiosity.

“You listen carefully and you try to figure out, what will that idea really do for the company?” Skunta says. “You work together and you start to figure out what are those information channels that you want the visitor to experience. What will make sense? We’re all human beings. What gets you excited, or what (are you) going to walk out of here remembering? That’s what we hope.”

Bringing in a third party to lead the discussion about finding ways to showcase your company is often a critical move.

“You can get numb to your own experience because you don’t see it as interestingly as someone else would see it,” Skunta says. “Sometimes, bringing in fresh eyes and really good listening skills, it’s totally worth it.”

Kanzleiter says the most effective way to come up with a plan, once you have a person who can lead the process, is to just start talking.

“She talked to all the senior executives and the group vice presidents and kind of boiled it down and deciphered all their thoughts into a central theme or DNA of what everything should be,” Kanzleiter says.

HOW TO REACH: Parker Hannifin Corp., (800) 272-7537 or www.parker.com

Getting the word out

It’s understandable for a company in the midst of a project to want to keep some things from becoming publicly known, even to your employees. After all, the project can evolve as you’re working on it.

But a little buzz can also be very helpful to get people excited about the project you’re undertaking, says Karen Skunta, founder, president and creative director of Karen Skunta & Co.

Skunta led the design of a refurbished entryway at Parker Hannifin Corp., working with Parker’s vice president of operations support, Richard S. Kanzleiter.

The goal for Parker was to better display the company’s position as a leader in motion control technologies for visitors to its headquarters.

“We were working right next to people walking by,” Skunta says. “We put some easels out with the drawings of the theater. They are just sketches to get the job done. But a lot of people started to form opinions.”

Those opinions can be helpful in tweaking a project, she says.

“Sometimes what will happen is it will allow me as the creative director to step back and say, ‘OK, if this person is not getting it, it may be clear as a bell to me and my team and to Rick and his team, but we may have to make a little adjustment,’” Skunta says.

HOW TO REACH: Karen Skunta & Co., (216) 687-0200 or www.skunta.com