The Thinking Works story begins in 1984, when robotics engineer John Edwin Grout founded the business as Ergonomic Equipment. He designed and patented Australia's first height-adjustable desk and initially supplied it to government departments under federal and state contracts. In 1989 the design evolved into the Ergoflex, and in 2025 a 35-year-old Ergoflex, found by recovery specialists FF&3 during a circular economy audit, still in perfect working order, was recovered from an industrial site and returned to the company's heritage collection.

From that engineering beginning grew a company that describes its work as a mix of beauty and brains: eye-catching aesthetics paired with intelligent design. Today Thinking Works, the trading name of Thinking Ergonomix Pty Ltd, makes height-adjustable workstations, table programs, acoustic furniture, playful seating, screens and monitor arms. Its head office and main manufacturing site are in Moorebank in Sydney's south-west, with a Sydney showroom, a Melbourne sales team and a London showroom serving the UK and Europe. The business is owned and led by Managing Director Dean Kuch, and in November 2024 the team gathered customers and partners at the Sydney showroom to mark 40 years in business with an exhibition of some of its most iconic pieces.

Curiosity is the thread that runs through everything. The company says curiosity finds new ways and seeks out better solutions, and its tagline, Furniture for the Curious, reflects a studio that likes to question how people work. That thinking has earned wide recognition: the Rosie Table and the patented Lovoc Screen were both named Australian Good Design Award winners in 2023.

Sustainability has been part of the business for almost two decades, and not as a response to trends. An environmental management system was put in place in 2006, the company has offset its operational emissions through verified carbon credits since 2010, and it joined the UN Global Compact in 2016. In 2021 it went further, committing to remove two kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilogram its operations release. A take-back program now returns end-of-life products for reuse, refurbishment or recycling, so a desk made in Moorebank can be designed with its next life in mind.