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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