Pat Biedar never expected to be in the sheet metal business.
In fact, this Mt. Prospect homemaker, former travel agent and mother of three never expected to run any kind of company, let alone one that made phone booth casings, parts for tanks, trains and airplanes, enclosures for computers and other metal fabrications.
Today, though, Biedar, 51, is president and CEO of Priority Manufacturing Company in Wood Dale, a company that grossed $3 million in sales in 1992 and expects to increase that by next year. It is a business with a client list that includes General Dynamics, Texas Instruments and Eastman Kodak.
However in 1986, when her husband of 27 years died of a heart attack, she found herself, at 43, faced with some unexpected choices. The company was not in great financial shape and was scheduled to move to a new location in a few days. Biedar had to decide whether to fold or sell the enterprise-or whether she should try to make a go of it?
“When my husband died,” said Biedar, “I didn’t really know what he did.”
She called her children together for a family meeting. Her husband had told them that if anything ever happened to him, he wanted the family to sell the business, rather than to work as hard as he did. He never wanted his children to go into the business but encouraged them to pursue their own interests.
Still, Biedar wanted to keep her husband’s enterprise going. “He was the backbone of our very tight, close family. Mom had had very little to do with the business except take orders and do clerical work,” said her son, Bruce Biedar, Jr., who was a senior in high school at the time of his father’s death.
“It was remarkable how she handled it. Besides being devastated, she was very strong. I never really once saw her lose it,” recalled Bruce, now a 23-year old investment broker. “She said that she had 24 employees wondering if they are going to have a job. `We put our life savings into this and I’ve lost a husband.’ She said she wanted our opinion about what to do, but she really wanted our approval. She wanted to make a go of it.”
“We told her to go on with the business,” said her oldest child, Sherry, now a 30-year-old attorney. “We believed that all of us together could help. It was rough for us all. There were bankers to deal with, customers to talk to, to convince to go forward. We had to earn their respect and confidence as well.”
Daughter Patte, now 28, who had worked with her dad while looking for a job in food service and nutrition, said, “Dad had a self-run company. He shared a lot, but not on a business perspective. Pat worked with him, but she didn’t have the manufacturing know-how, capabilities or technical abilities to run it as he ran it.”
Biedar acknowledged, “I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing at first, keeping the company. But the day after the funeral it was sunny and I knew everything would work out.”
She and her three children went to see Dan Long, a commercial loan officer at NBD Bank of Mt. Prospect, whom Bruce Sr. had worked with. They explained their decision to keep the business going and requested the bank’s support for their endeavors.
“Pat just seemed so determined to make the business go,” said Long, “we jumped on the bandwagon. Even though the first three years were really miserable for her, she never did let down. She had the tenacity to stick with it.”
And the children, according to daughter Sherry, “had decided to have alternative careers in case anything else happened so we would have a backup” to care for Pat and themselves.
Back then, though, some seven years ago, they didn’t fully realize the loyalty of Priority’s friends, vendors and customers. So as Biedar and her family threw their energies into the business, friends began lending a hand.
There was Tim Epach of Electro Sprayer Systems, Inc. in Elk Grove Village: “When (Pat) moved into the new plant, I got involved moving machinery and setting it up, doing electrical work, whatever moral and physical support my wife and I could offer.”
“Tim is a customer, a buyer,” said Biedar. “He rolled up his sleeves and helped me move in during the rains of 1986, the day after my husband’s funeral.
“Wayne Gonia gave me his truck and brought people in to help move us. Siemens Gammasonics backed me and showed a lot of support, as did General Dynamics. Their quality department helped every way they could.”
Gonia, a supplier from Rockwell Scrap in Chicago who had been dealing with Priority for about 10 years, appreciated the business the company had given him and the friendships that had developed. “This business is very competitive,” said Gonia. “Today, you’re lucky to keep your doors open. I wanted to do anything I could do to help out since she always extends herself and makes time for you, is real considerate.”
Born in Chicago, Pat was 16 years old when she met Bruce Biedar, then married him right out of Steinmetz High School, which they both attended. He went into the steel fabricating business, then founded Priority Manufacturing in 1980. Pat had been a travel agent and homemaker.
And while Pat had helped out in the office, she had no formal business training and no specific understanding of technology, engineering or management. She had to go back to get an education as well as learn the business from the ground up.
“Before Bruce died, Pat had worked in the office and knew a little about the business,” said family friend Sam Olsen of Barrington Hills. “She really didn’t know manufacturing or the business operation side, just the bookkeeping and secretarial (elements).
“She was determined to keep the company, much to the surprise of others who suggested she do otherwise. Pat went to work and decided to be a player in the market in Chicago, to keep it running.”
With Pat taking on Priority, daughter Patte became an integral part of the business.
“The first five years I was drowned in the know-how of business, problems and internal management,” said Patte. “I had to learn the equipment and how to handle people problems, needing to become more of a listener, an eyes and ears person. After about four years, thought I’d be more effective on an operational level. Our biggest weakness was on the internal staff level. Pat’s niche was sales. If that wasn’t my strength, I figured I’d better make operations and management my strength. I became a hands-on person, a general manager of the whole operation. We needed someone to run the show and I was it.”
“Patte is the anchor for me,” said her proud mother.
For ten months, this CEO worked on the floor alongside her employees, learning about metals, production and the products Priority made. That time on the floor was invaluable because it enabled her to talk with customers in their own language about what they needed and what their problems were.
Biedar found another bonus working with the employees: It helped establish a team spirit and an employee sense of pride in accomplishment that had not existed before. Biedar established a monthly pizza lunch with shop employees to discuss what was happening in the business.
“It was a tough first couple of years, but they’re going strong,” said Rick Skaalen of Schaumburg, an engineer for Priority since 1981. “Pat and Patte didn’t know sheet metal. It’s been a learning process. We’re getting bigger and doing quite well. We have good customers who stayed with us, even when they weren’t sure if we’d go out of business. (Pat and Patte) have worked hard, put in a lot of hours and show confidence in the employees.
“Bruce (Sr.) was in the field of sheet metal and was a smart person, tied to his own ways. Now people listen. People in the shop and in the office have more of a say. There’s a better relationship with the employees and the office. I loved the husband, but it’s nice to have someone listen to suggestions and, if they don’t use them, tell you why.”
After more than a year of costly mistakes in management and lack of production control, Biedar established an advisory team as a way to receive mentoring. The team consisted of four hand-picked advisers, all business owners, each representing different but related industries. With their assistance and one-on-one guidance, Pat and Patte were able to create business plans and budgets, write job descriptions and make appropriate staff changes, all important in helping them turn the business around.
Indeed, despite the challenges inherent in turning such an operation around, Pat and Patte have overcome those problems and made Priority what one member of the advisory team calls a world-class company.
“She went from being a helping hand in the business to a fully take-charge person,” said Lois Flannagan, a friend, neighbor and former fellow travel agent. “She’s worked extremely hard at it, working extremely long hours and taking courses to make herself handle the situation. She’s taken what was a debt-ridden company and has turned it around.”
“I give her a tremendous amount of credit for learning what she had to learn,” said Olsen, “for sticking to her agenda for making her company succeed without ever short-changing her family or friends.”
With few women in the field of sheet metal, Biedar believes women need to work harder and smarter.
“Some people thought her compassion might cause her to make more emotional decisions than financial ones,” Epach said. “She knew office systems and procedures; she didn’t know sheet metal, blueprints and, especially, running a shop of men.”
And working with men, gaining their respect, may have been the highest hurdle Biedar had to overcome in the manufacturing environment.
“Everyone knows everybody, especially in Chicago,” said Epach. “She had to (pay) her dues. It took some time, but she made her mark. I doubt a lot of those (in the network) thought she’d be around a year later.”
Olsen added: “Frankly, it took her about four years to be recognized as a legitimate minority vendor because of the `old boys club’… I give her a lot of credit for that. She put everything at risk and really took the bull by the horns.”
Her son commented: “She’s a CEO who is not hung up with the title. She just wants to make the business go and succeed, keeping the people who work with her employed and making a quality product. She has really influenced a lot of people. She went against the odds and went for it rather than waiting for an opportunity.”
“Pat is a real business person,” said banker Long. “She really knows her company and her industry. She’s an excellent salesperson. Ask her about any phase of her business and she has the answer. She has truly grown with the business.”
Indeed. Four years ago, Biedar was elected to the board of directors for the Greater O’Hare Chamber of Commerce of which she is still involved. She recently was named to the board of directors of the Tooling and Manufacturing Association, which represents more than 1,400 companies in the Chicago area, and she is also a member of the Illinois chapter of Women Construction Owners and Executives in Construction, a nationwide organization.
Said the Greater O’Hare Chamber’s executive director Laurie Stone: “Pat is hard working and quick to ask questions as well as to share what she knows. She helps shape the policies of the association and has brought a different point of view to the board, having women in manufacturing.”
A strong believer in networking, asking for help rather than demanding it and in growing through taking risks, Biedar speaks to entrepreneurs across the country. Her advice to entrepreneurial women is a slogan hanging on her wall: “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a dog.”
