March 2016 News Bulletin – TMA – Jim Carr of Carr Machine & Tooling
Meet TMA’s 2016 Chairman of the Board, Jim Carr –
“If you want something done, ask a busy person,” Founding Father Ben Franklin once said.
Whether intentional or not, the TMA Board of Directors followed Franklin’s sage advice when they tapped Jim Carr to be their 2016 board chairman.
Carr, 56, is the second generation CEO and President of Carr Machine & Tool, and he’s the co-host of “Making Chips,” the popular weekly podcast about manufacturing. He serves on Harper College and High School District 211 advisory board promoting the industry, in addition to Elk Grove Village’s Business Leaders Forum.
Old Ben was right. Despite his array of activities, Jim Carr fully intends on getting things done while he’s chairman of TMA’s Board of Directors.
Not only does he plan to make the American public more aware of manufacturing and its inestimable impact on their lives, he wants to attract more young people to manufacturing careers.
In other words, Carr is focused on “marketing manufacturing” during his year leading the TMA Board.
“My mantra for the year is that I’m going to reach out and engage with manufacturing members, especially under age 25,” Carr said in a recent interview for the News Bulletin.
“I’ve already scheduled nine regional meetings – breakfasts, lunches and happy hours -throughout the Chicagoland region. They will be round table discussions with regular member leaders to talk about what’s on their plates.”
Carr said he hopes to encourage discussion and ideas on how TMA can help.
“I’d really like to focus on smaller companies, which make up a considerable part of the association,” he said.
Carr’s family business joined TMA over four decades ago. The precision machine company now has seven employees, and specializes in CNC machining for aviation, medical, oil and energy, as well as automated equipment industries.
Carr’s father started Carr Machine & Tool, Inc. in the family garage and in late 1972, he quit his fulltime job at Kraft Industries to devote his time and energy to building the family business.
Carr remembers helping his dad early on. His father would set up fixtures on gray cast iron parts, and as a 12 year old, Jim says he would help out by using a press to drill holes.
“I remember like it was yesterday,” Carr chuckled.
When 16, Carr took advantage of his high school’s work co-op program, so he left class at noon and worked the rest of the day at Carr Machine. It was a dream job for a teenager, driving around parts for the family business.
When Carr graduated high school in June of 1978, his parents said they would send him college or he could go into the family business.
“There I was at 18,” he said. “I remember thinking long and hard. If I fast forward my life 20 years, what path would I take? Where would I achieve my most success?”
Most successful people own businesses, he thought, so he joined his family business. However, being involved in the family business didn’t guarantee a happy ending.
“I knew if I worked hard, I could have success in this industry,” he said.
Carr Machine, like other manufacturers, has had its share of good years and not as good years – most often reflecting the nation’s economy. Last year sales were up 20 percent, and like any successful business, Carr Machine has adjusted services and work to reflect changing demands.
“In order to survive the recessions we’ve been through over the past several years, we survived by minimizing debt, developing a diverse customer base and being careful not to grow too fast,” he said.
Small business owners seldom think about all they have to do to build successful businesses today.
“I think that in my father’s era in the 60s, 70s and 80s, they had great mechanical ability, a lot of drive and a little luck along the way,” Carr said. “Those three things were good and enough to be successful two or three decades ago. But now the Internet and technology has completely changed the way we go to market and buy things.
“Now you not only have to have mechanical aptitude, drive and a little luck, you have to be a great marketing person, you’ve got to have charisma and leadership skills,” he said. “You’ve got to have all those things in order to build a successful manufacturing company now.”
Having been a manufacturer with all those pressures and expectations, Carr says he hopes to share his experience with others going through the same thing.
“Getting the new customer, quoting the job, once awarded the job, making it profitable – that is the key thing – then getting the product through the quality control department, and then retention – how do you retain those customers?” are just a part of what manufacturers must handle, he said.
Those are the challenges in a nutshell, he said. It’s all about “risk versus reward.”
“I think the next generation can take their work where they want, if they push themselves and work hard, play hard,” Carr said.
That’s the message TMA members will be hearing over the next 12 months – a mantra from a true believer in American manufacturing and an optimist about the future.
“We got a lot of great plans for 2016. We have a beautiful new marketing plan, we’ve got a world class training facility, we’ve got outreach, we’ve got government relations, we’ve got all kinds of great opportunities for our members and prospective members as well,” Carr said.
Listening to Carr brings to mind another Ben Franklin quote: “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”
It’s pretty evident which one of those TMA’s new chairman is.
Published in TMA’s March 2016 News Bulletin By Fran Eaton, TMA News Bulletin editor
