by Joe Romanowski
Chairman & CEO
Machinery Systems, Inc.

We have relationships throughout our lives… God, parents, friends, spouses, children, bosses and people we work with.  Relationships come and go, but the ones that last through good times and bad are the truly special ones and should be cherished and treated like gold.  I believe the common thread for a long-term successful relationship is mutual trust and respect.  Arie Zweig, Founder & Owner of R. A. Zweig, Inc. (www.zweig-cnc.com) and I began our relationship in 1980 when Arie purchased his first Mazak from me.

I remember that order very well.  Arie’s company was one year old, and mine was just three years old.  At that time, he was located in Skokie, IL and owned a manual lathe, a Bridgeport and a cut-off saw.  Arie had a bed in that shop, which he used frequently.  He would visit his customers and prospects in the morning and work in the shop in the afternoon, evening and all night if it was necessary to satisfy a customer.

Today is a lot different.  Machinery Systems is currently celebrating its 30^th anniversary.  R.A. Zweig is located in Glenview, IL in a 130,000 sq. ft. plant, currently operating 73 Mazaks, 24/7.  Twenty of those Mazaks are multi-tasking Integrexes.  Arie has purchased at least 150 Mazak CNC machines from us over our 27 year relationship.

Since Arie is one of our oldest and most loyal customers, I thought it would be appropriate for me to interview him to honor our long-term relationship. Arie was born in Poland and lived there until the age 11.  In 1957, his family immigrated to Israel.  He is a driven and competitive individual, and has always wanted to be number one. He started his own business, a machine shop, in Israel when he was 23.  He sold it when he was 30 and moved to the United States.  I asked Arie why he decided to give up a successful business in Israel and start over in the United States.  He said, “I fell in love with the U.S.  I was attracted by the opportunity I saw here.  Israel is a great place to run a business, but the United States is a much bigger country and, of course, a much bigger market.  I saw the possibility to machine parts and sell them anywhere in the world.”  Arie understood the significance of a global economy long before most of us.

There is one other thing I remember about Arie in those early years.  He always talked about being the biggest.  I’ve heard many people declare that they were going to be the biggest in something, but I’ve seen few deliver.  My experience with Arie was that he always had a vision.  He wasn’t afraid to talk about his vision and he has always delivered.  For example, Arie helped sell the U.S. F-16 jet to the Polish government.  He hosted a meeting at his facility in Glenview between the Lockheed executives and high ranking Polish government officials.  He then traveled with them to Poland to conclude the deal.

One of my favorite questions during customer interviews is to ask about the obstacles they encountered as they were building their businesses. I asked Arie that question.  He thought for awhile.  Finally he said, “You know, I can’t think of any obstacles.  I’ve always had my ideas and once I decided what I wanted to do, there were no obstacles.”  I asked him for an example.  He said, “When we moved to our current facility, many of our customers were concerned that we would miss our delivery commitments during the turmoil of the move.  We didn’t.  We didn’t disappoint anyone.  We developed a plan to move only two machines at a time and did not move the next two until the two moved machines were installed and producing parts.”

I asked Arie what makes him special.  He modestly declared that he didn’t know.  Well, I do know!  Arie is an excellent engineer, a great salesman and he has phenomenal people skills.  He is one of the most involved people I know.  Arie is active in many charities and community projects.  He knows more high ranking individuals than anyone I know.  He has met every U.S. president since President Reagan, and personally knows many senators, congressmen and Israeli and Polish ministers and prime ministers. 

I asked him of all the people he met who was the most interesting and nicest.  He responded without pause, “President Reagan was the best.  He was charming, easy to talk to and down to earth. He had a great feel for people. I enjoyed him very much.”

Arie is the founder and president of the Polish American Symphony Orchestra, today known as the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra.  His wife, Bozena, is on the Board of Directors of the Polish American Association.  She was also very active with the Duchess of York in the Children in Crisis Charity Ball, and has been instrumental in raising over $500,000.

I asked Arie, "What are your passions?"  He answered, “My number one passion is music and art.  My second is my work and third, I enjoy traveling and being with people.”  I asked Arie how he managed to meet so many people in high places.  Arie responded, “I love people and I love to help them.  Through the many organizations in which I work I have met many people and those people have led me to other people.  I love to put people in contact with others.”  I can give personal testimony to this.  During our meeting, I told Arie I was looking for some schools to potentially partner with to develop precision machining training programs.  His eyes lit up, he told me about a contact he had and called this person immediately.  He had me talk to him on the telephone to set up another meeting.  Just that quick!

I asked Arie, "What advice would you like to pass on to younger people who could be inspired by your path?"  Arie answered, “Education is the most important thing.  Then, give back to the community.  Don’t forget the people around you. Share with them.  Finally, once you decide what you want to do just keep working for it with determination, passion and drive.”

I still wanted to know more about the famous people that Arie has known and who were the nicest.  Arie said, “Well, the former President of Poland, Alexander Kwasniewski, is a very nice man.  Like Ronald Reagan he is very charming and down to earth.  The Chairman of Iscar, Eitan Wertheimer, is an extremely friendly person and easy to talk to.  When I was in Israel on a recent trip, he asked me to visit him in northern Israel, which was a three hour automobile trip.  I told him that it would be impossible because we were leaving late the next day for the United States.  He said it was no problem.  He sent a limo to our hotel, which took us to the airport where a helicopter was waiting that flew us to him and back in time to make our flight."

Arie is warm, charismatic and extremely friendly.  He is kind to everyone.  He holds no grudges.  He’s a true gentleman.  As I was concluding my interview, I asked Arie if I could take him to lunch.  He told me that he was going home for lunch and asked me to come home with him.  I attempted to decline three times, because I was afraid that I would inconvenience his wife, but he persisted.  I did go with him and we had a wonderful lunch of homemade cabbage soup and organic vegetable salad.  This delicious lunch was topped off with stimulating conversation with Arie and his wife, Bozena.

I am so proud to be able to call Arie my friend and business associate for so many years.

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