News
"Plymouth Man Tracks Down Business Success" By Courtney Brassuer
Plymouth Observer & Eccentric
Some people have dreams of starting their own business. Others, like Mark Taylor, just go out and do it.
"Eighty-four percent of all small businesses will fail within 10 years," Taylor said. "The reason is, they go into something they don't know."
That hasn't been a problem for Taylor. Since opening TAYLOR Systems Engineering, a consulting and design company that specializes in computerized shipping systems, warehouses and mailrooms in 1989, Taylor has tracked its successes to include such big-name clients as Standard Register Corporation, GM, and Michelin Tire.
Taylor is working hard to earn recognition as one of the experts in his field. He travels several days a month to speak at conventions, and writes articles for trade publications like "Operations and Fulfillment." He has also written "Computerized Shipping Systems," which was published in 1995, and the updated Millennium Edition.
But he still makes time to read and relax. "My hobby is philosophy," he said.
His office, based on Five Mile Road in Plymouth since 1994, is cluttered with awards, a lucky bamboo plant, and photographs of his wife and three children. A colorful fish mobile hangs from the ceiling, and a large bookcase holds miniature metal delivery trucks and sales, business and philosophy books. "The Universe is a Green Dragon", by cosmologist Brian Swimme, is one of his favorites.
"It merges philosophy, science and religion," Taylor said. "Brian Swimme says that physical and spiritual evolution is most important because it shows that all creatures are related. We are all the same."
Taylor incorporates his philosophical readings into his company meetings. "I hated the corporate world," he said. His disapproval of company hierarchy was one of the reasons he started TSE. Here, he has "eliminated the management structure. I want people to work together to make a contribution."
It was easy for the employees to work together when TSE opened Ñ it was just Taylor and his wife, Vera Angelico. TSE was then located in a small suite in Livonia.
"We were right by the train tracks," he said.
"Whenever a train went by, you really had to hang on." But Taylor is used to such bumpy beginnings. He was born 47 years ago on a couch in St. Clair Shores. "I was a bartered baby," he said. "My father was a starving artist, literally. He couldn't afford to pay hospital bills, so they had a midwife. I was traded for a painting."
This resourcefulness was passed down. As a young man, he helped lead the debate team at JFK High in Taylor to become state champions. Taylor also participated in the Boy Scouts, where he made it to the Life rank.
Taylor's public speaking experience and the skills he learned while earning his Firemanship merit badge evolved into a position selling fire alarms. He was awarded the Vulcan Lifesaver Medal of Honor when a mobile home in Ypsilanti caught fire. He had sold the family a fire alarm three months earlier.
In 1976, when he was just 20 years old, Taylor opened his first business, the Taylor Fire Protection Company. One day, when he was driving home in Holland, he heard the wails of a fire engine. "My first thought was, this will be great for business." Then he realized that they were coming from his own street.
Ironically enough, the home he and his new bride lived in and which housed the Taylor Fire Protection Company had burned to the ground.
Yes, his fire alarm had gone off. "But I was left with just the clothes on my back," Taylor said. He went to work at Pitney Bowes, where he learned about shipping systems.
Taylor took night classes and earned a degree in computers and management from William James College in 1980.
Taylor was busily climbing the corporate ladder when his big break came a few years later. "My brother was working for the Digital Equipment Company at the time," he said. "They came out with the first PC, called the Digital Rainbow." Using the employee discount, Taylor bought the PC for $7,500.
"I used it to make graphs," Taylor said. "My bosses were impressed, and I launched the first computerized shipping system." Before long, however, the competition had outdistanced Pitney Bowes. "They had a hard drive, and we were still using floppy disks."
Backed by frustration, Taylor founded TSE. In 1994, he relocated down the street to Plymouth, in a building that was once a Catholic church.
Taylor shares the space with his nine employees and the Angelico Design Group, an architectural firm started by his wife. She and two other architects have recently submitted a design for the Pentagon Memorial.
"I never could have done it without her," Taylor said. He believes that competence and support are the only things needed to start a business.
Of course, to succeed in business, it also helps to stay ahead of the games. TSE's answer to technological evolvement is the promotion of a voice-activated computer called the Talkman, made by Vocollect.
It attaches to a belt and location instructions are issued by radio frequency through a headset, enabling workers to keep their eyes and hands free while looking for things in the warehouse.
Senior Voice Technology Consultant John Neahr, who started working for TSE in July, summed up the benefits of the Talkman. "It helps to simplify work and bring enjoyment to people's jobs," he said. "People want to be productive."
Such a philosophical rendering should make Taylor proud. It sounds like a race of survival of the fittest in the age of technology.