Fori Says Farewell to Longtime Leader Mike Beck as He Enters Retirement
It’s not often you find someone like Mike Beck. A 25-year veteran of a manufacturing business, many of those years spent steering the ship as the GM, Vice President, and President of Fori Automation.
To quote Fori’s current President Paul Meloche,“Mike is a true leader. His integrity, open-minded demeanor, humble attitude, and commitment to well-being of Fori’s employees and customers was unparalleled. He’s also an incredible problem solver; I still believe he has a “sixth-sense” that allows him to predict issues before they happen. I was blessed to have him as my mentor for the past 20 years.”
Mike was born on the South Side of Chicago, after a few moves throughout the Midwest Mike’s family settled on Michigan’s west side, the best side one could argue. He received a Mechanical Engineering degree and shortly after that an MBA. A job with Detroit Diesel brought him to Metro-Detroit where he moved from engineering into manufacturing and saw projects come to life on the floor.
After nearly seven years with Detroit Diesel Mike was recruited into Chrysler for a joint venture power train program between Chrysler and BMW. With this new opportunity came new connections, one of those connections was Heinz Becker. Heinz an experienced manager working at Chrysler knew that Mike was potentially moving to Brazil as part of this joint venture, to start up a new engine factory. Before Mike headed south of the equator Heinz stepped in and introduced him to a gentleman named Arthur Koerner. Art as Mike would come to know him was the candid owner of Fori Automation, along with his son Bernd Koerner.
At the time, Arthur and Bernd were contemplating next steps and looking for someone to help run their growing business. When he met with Arthur and Bernd there were a lot of direct questions, which was Arthur’s style, followed by a couple of Warsteiner beers and a “When can you start?” Also, Arthur’s style. Mike told the Koerners he would think about it, as it was a career-altering decision.
“After two days, I accepted the offer.” And so, he was off to Fori Automation. Mike was hired at Fori as the Manufacturing Manager for the first year before he transitioned into the GM position. “I thought that was pretty exciting I didn’t have to move around the world to be in a General Manager leadership role.”
Big company politics didn’t interest Mike and the advantages of a smaller company where you can sit down with the owner and/or a few key people and agree if something makes sense appealed to him. “You have to live with your decisions, and you can’t blame anyone else, but you also have the ability to make a difference. You’re not part of a committee, there are not 20 people in the room. We didn’t always make the right decisions, but we learned from it.”
Mike’s first day at Fori he walked into the front office, no one at Fori knew or was expecting him except for Arthur. Arthur asked if he was ready to get started. “I am,” said Mike. So, Arthur asked the office admin to page all employees to the center of the building. “I walked with Arthur, and we get to the center of the manufacturing floor and he says, “I’d like to introduce you all to Mike Beck, he’s going to be the new Manufacturing Manager, Mike tell them what you’re going to do.”
“As a young guy, I was taken aback. I said some general words and realized quickly that was Arthur’s philosophy: sink or swim.” After that first day, Mike started to learn all about Fori and this business of customization in automation. "Arthur was a no-nonsense mentor and I respected him as he was the true entrepreneur that started the company," says Mike. There were roughly 110 employees at that time in 1998 and Fori was starting to go global.
Over several years Fori expanded into more regions. For Mike, it was gratifying to have been a part of hiring the general managers and teams in each new region. Supporting these regions and being a part of the international development and expansion was very exciting.
Along with the company's growth came a mission and vision to diversify. Diversify Fori’s global footprint, and its product portfolio with the introduction of new technology and its base of customers. Mike cites the ownership’s commitment and the strong engineering team that supported the diversification plan as the main reasons Fori thrived over the years and minimized some of the downturn cycles in the manufacturing industry; such as the recession in 2008 and the bankruptcy of some of the large automotive customers.
About six years after Mike started with Fori Arthur Koerner stepped back from the business and Bernd Koerner took over as the CEO. Mike describes these years as exhilarating but challenging. “I had a strong working relationship with Bernd and together we traveled often in the early years to support the international growth.” The business grew to more than 680 employees and advanced its global footprint to a total of seven international locations beyond its headquarters in Shelby Township, Michigan.
Speaking of his two-plus decades with Fori, Mike fondly remembers the challenges and the Fori team coming together to overcome them. “When we had some jobs that didn’t go as planned and had to jump on a plane or in a car whether it was to Auburn, Indiana, Kitchener, Ontario, or overseas, we would go into the field and spend days or weeks getting something back on track…I don’t miss the pressure or stress but the excitement of the team pulling it off and walking out of there knowing we were able to get it right is memorable.”
“Good companies have good people. I’m grateful people trusted that the ownership and the leadership team always had the employee’s and customers’ best interests in mind. As a machine tool company, you often get peaks and valleys, but Fori was always secure. We consistently experienced growth which was exciting. The global growth was quite an accomplishment for an organization of our size to create a global footprint and build stand-alone organizations in seven different regions was something. It was clearly a testament to the ownership’s commitment and the dedication of the international leadership and employees.” Says Mike.
Mike is confident Fori will continue to grow and succeed under the new ownership of Lincoln Electric and the leadership of Fori’s former Vice President and now President Paul Meloche. Paul has worked with Mike for nearly two decades as part of the Fori management team.
Speaking about his future, Mike said, “I’m ready to slow down for now. We have the right people in place, and I feel good about the hands that are taking over. I plan to spend time with family, maybe learn the guitar, spend time traveling; wake up in the morning look outside and have a cup of coffee without having to read a hundred emails or troubleshoot any issues. I feel that the timing and the way things landed this is the right time.”
Thank you, Mike, for helping take Fori to a level of distinction and credibility that can only be achieved through exceptional leadership. Thank you for fostering the right people and right customer relationships along the way. You truly helped shape Fori’s present and future. Enjoy your much-deserved retirement and as the saying goes, this isn’t farewell, it’s simply see you later.
