Martin Beck

Martin Beck is ceo of CloverLeaf Group (Columbus, Ohio), an amalgam of companies that includes his own two-year-old brainchild, Big Red Rooster.

He's a native of the New York area and a 1965 graduate of New York's Pratt Institute. (“I wanted to be a fine artist,” he says, “I wasn't really good at anything else.”)

He thrashed around early in his career – nine months at Ford & Earl (Detroit), three years at Morison Cousins & Associates (New York), two weeks at Lowey/Snaith, two days at George Nelson, six months at Kisselof & Wimmershoff – until he landed at Gregory Fossella Associates in Boston, where he stayed for 12 years.

He was a partner and senior vp at RichardsonSmith (in Columbus, Ohio) when it was acquired by Fitch. It became Fitch Richardson/Smith, which became Fitch R/S, which became Fitch, which became Fitch: Worldwide, a publicly traded company of which Beck was chairman, president and ceo.

He was later part of a group that bought Fitch and took it private. They bought 13 other companies and then sold to Cordiant Communications Group, an international marketing behemoth.

Beck says his focus at CloverLeaf is the development of strategic business opportunities. He develops marketing and positioning strategies, manages program portfolios and identifies potential partnership ventures. Considered a leading futurist, Beck also brings a unique perspective to the direction of numerous programs.

Beck lives on a farm near Columbus with his wife, son, 12 horses, six dogs, donkey, goat and many cars and trucks.

Fitch grew to be a huge worldwide organization. Discuss the joys of working in a smaller environment.

I actually loved the hustle, bustle and buzz of lots of people, lots of locations and lots of clients. We recently became part of CloverLeaf Group, a Matthews Brand Solutions company, and I now head up a group with three companies, over 550 people and $80 million in revenue. I feel much more relaxed now than when we were just six people starting Big Red Rooster.

2005 is the year of the rooster. How does Big Red Rooster conform to your view of what this industry could and should be?

We believe that great retail design comes from marketplace knowledge, consumer insight, a view of the future, great creativity and operational knowledge to allow for real profitability.

What are the limits of what we used to call a design firm?

Great design poorly implemented is no longer great design. Weak design well-implemented is still pretty lame. The ability to understand the opportunity, design the solution and help build it seems to be the answer.

Can you express your vision for this industry in five words?

To create ever better solutions.

What is the best advice you've every received?

Don't have a Plan B – live your life believing Plan A will work.

What is the worst advice you've every received?

Buy USAir stock.

What retail project (yours or anyone else's) has particularly impressed you in the last 12 months?

Ours – Nike Active. Not ours – Whole Foods.

What is your first thought in the morning? Your last thought at night?

Pretty much the same: What a great trip this is. How lucky I am. And how I wish I could sleep just an hour longer.

June is VM+SD's Store Fixture issue. What do you think has changed most about the business?

The blurring of displays and fixtures. What is a permanent fixture? A semi-permanent display? How and where does signage fit in? It's all integrated and needs to be thought of at the inception of a concept and implemented with consistency.