How an 87-Year-Old Midwest Company Keeps Reinventing Itself | Jack Walker, Walker

On today's show I sat down with Jack Walker, fourth-generation leader and president of Walker, an Indianapolis-based experience management consulting firm. It was founded as Walker Research in 1939 by Dorothy "Tommy" Walker and is now 87 years old.

Jack shares the company's origins of door-to-door interviews about radio ads and grocery stocking, its expansion after his great-grandfather's sudden death, and innovations like the nation's first consumer test kitchen, later evolving through phone surveys, web surveys, and today's AI-driven customer intelligence.

Walker, a platinum Qualtrics consulting partner named Qualtrics' 2026 North American Partner of the Year, helps organizations connect customer, employee, and patient feedback to decisions by unifying experience, operational, and behavioral data and shifting from dashboards to natural insights.

Jack discusses closing the loop with customers, examples linking NPS and support contact to churn risk, and concerns about agentic AI harming experience.

If you like this episode and want to hear more Get IN. episodes where I interview Hoosiers making a difference, visit getindiana.com/podcast.

You are going to learn about: - The Founding of Walker Research and Evolution to Walker - AI Risks and Rewards With Customer Research

Check out these great clips from the show: 00:43 Guest Introduction: Jack Walker, Walker 01:52 Walker Research Origins 02:12 Dorothy Walker Story 04:06 Going All In 04:31 Test Kitchen Breakthrough 08:34 From Phone to Web 10:29 Shift to Experience 11:48 Modern Data Sources 13:58 B2B Churn Insight 17:56 Qualtrics Explained 20:06 Smarter Feedback Moments 21:55 Small Business Feedback 24:12 Close the Loop 28:16 Beyond Surveys Data 29:43 Unifying Data Systems 31:58 Dashboards to Chatbots 33:12 AI Risks and Opportunity 34:10 Walker Brand Refresh 35:06 Agentic CX Risks 36:32 Winning After Mistakes 38:04 Fourth Gen Stewardship 40:10 Earning It Elsewhere 42:25 Listener Survey Hack 43:37 Big Brothers Big Sisters 48:11 Why Indiana Home 50:11 Wild Data Stories 52:46 Future of Surveys 54:14 Family Leadership Traits 57:50 Indy 500 Month of May 59:48 Hidden Gem Syracuse 01:01:03 Hoosier to Watch

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