Forest Farmer: Chrysler's component parts president

Ebony, March, 1989 by Charles Whitaker

Forest Farmer: Chrysler's Component Parts President

THOUGH he is nearly 30 years removed from his glory days as a team captain and All-American line-backer at Purdue University, Forest Farmer bears the markings of a former athlete. At 6 feet 2 inches tall and a trim 215 pounds, he still looks capable of squaring off against the likes of Bo Jackson or Eric Dickerson. But it is not just impressive proportions that identify Farmer as an ex-jock.

He exudes competitive spirit. Listen to him for any appreciable length of time and you will hear the motivational language of a man who is accustomed to inspiring his teammates to make the big plays. Only now, instead of leading a football squad, Farmer's charge is to inspire the 28,000 employes who look to him for direction.

Today, Farmer, 48, is a captain of industry. Last September, he was named president of Acustar, Inc., the wholly owned electronic parts subsidiary of automobile giant chrysler Corp. He is one of an elite group of Black executives who head a division of a major corporation.

From Acustar's Detroit headquarters, Farmer directs all operations related to the manufacture and engineering of the components the company produces. But the really big play currently before him is the task of helping to turn the already profitable firm (with annual sales in the neighborhood of $3.1 billion) into an independent profit center that will challenge leading electronics parts manufacturers like Rockwell International Corp. for a share of the components market.

It is an awesome assignment, but Farmer, in his 20-year rise through the ranks of Chrysler, has tackled plenty of tough jobs. His football background has helped. "I think the automobile industry lends itself to a background in competitive sports," he says. "It's a competitive industry, especially with the challenge we've been getting by offshore competitors. You need managers who can respond to that challenge, who are used to pulling people together to work as a team."

Pulling people together is one of Farmer's greatest talents. As a manager at three different Chrysler assembly plants, he developed a reputation as something of a miracle worker when it comes to gaining the cooperation of recalcitrant workers.

His admirers describe him as a "real hands-on" manager. "There are people who manage by momentum--sort of let events carry them through. And there are people who manage by getting in there and doing something," says Thomas Stallkamp, chairman of Acustar. "Forest has the reputation of being the latter kind of manager. He assesses a situation and then tries to do something about it."

Dennis Edwards, plant manager of Chrysler's Jefferson Assembly Plant in Detroit, recalls that when Farmer was plant manager he readily extended himself, even if it meant donning a pair of coveralls and sliding into a debris-and paint-covered crawl space to show maintenance personnel his empathy for the difficultly of their jobs. "He was never too big to get in there and mingle with the people working for him," Edwards says. "He developed a real rapport with everybody."

Born in the small, industrial town of Zanesville, Ohio, Farmer says that his management style is partly the result of hearing the tales of management indifference and abuse told by his father, who worked in a steel mill for 46 years. He vowed that if ever he became a manager, "I'd treat people the way I'd want to be treated."

Yet, as a child growing up in Zanesville, the notion that he would be anything other than a football player or coach seemed ridiculous to him. He set his sights on a career in athletics early. "I started out just wanting to get out of my home town," he says. "Like a lot of Black guys in small towns, I saw sports as a way out."

A standout at Purdue, he decided to turn pro in 1962, a few courses short of graduation. He signed on with the Denver Broncos, but a pre-season injury ended his footbal career. He returned to Purdue, earned a degree in physical education and biology and embarked on a teaching career in Indianapolis.

But teaching was unfulfilling in many ways. He needed more challenges. And, since he had married and started a family, he needed more money. In 1968, after four years with the school system, he began looking for other opportunities. Chrysler, at the same time, was looking for minorities with management potential to enroll in its foreman training program at the Indianapolis Electrical Plant. Farmer was hired.

From 1968 to 1971, he worked his way through a variety of training programs, then began a steady ascent through the ranks--climbing from industrial engineer to foreman to labor supervisor.

His only departure from Chrysler was in 1979 when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Seeking a safer billet, he went to work for Volkswagen of America. But nine months later, after passage of the Loan Guarantee Act--the federal bailout that rescued Chrysler from extinction -- he was wooed back to the Chrysler fold.