As Steve Takacs prepares to retire from Toyota Material Handling Australia, the company’s President and CEO reflects on family, resilience, loyalty and the people who shaped his career.
Steve did not set out to build a career in materials handling. The President and CEO of Toyota Material Handling Australia says his entry into the forklift industry “started by accident”, after he saw a newspaper advertisement for a repairman role at Crown Equipment in the mid-1980s.
For Steve, the job became more than an entry point into a trade. It became the start of a career defined by stability, loyalty and a commitment to the people working closest to customers.
“I’m a son of two Hungarian migrants that come to Australia in 1956,” says Steve. “Life wasn’t a good start.”
Raised in a housing commission home in Cartwright, near Liverpool, Steve says his family had no telephone, a failing hot water system and no family car until he was in his late teens. After a series of jobs, including time as a tradesperson, he joined Crown as a workshop technician. He later became a field technician and worked his way up through the service ranks.
It was during those early years that one small moment left a lasting impression.
“There was a time not long after I started at Crown when I went out in the field as a mechanic, and they provided me with a uniform and that uniform had my name on it, ‘Steve’,” he says. “It was such a proud moment for me. It was like the first time I felt like I really belonged to something.”
That sense of belonging stayed with him. Steve spent 20 years at Crown, moving from the workshop to the field, then into sales and management. His move into sales came after colleagues began asking him to join customer meetings when technical credibility was needed.
“When it was time to talk practicality, can the forklift lift it? Can it turn in that turning circle? Can it do the job that was required? They turned to me,” says Steve.
He says he was direct with customers, even when the answer was not what a salesperson might have wanted to hear.
“In some cases, I’d say, ‘Well, no, it’s the wrong one for this application,’ or, ‘Yes, it is the right one,’ or ‘You need to make some modifications’,” he says.
That honesty helped win business and eventually led Steve into a sales role. From there, he progressed through several senior positions, including sales manager, rental manager, national rental manager and general manager roles across rentals and Asia Pacific. After two decades at Crown, Steve was approached by Toyota. He says he initially rejected the opportunity three times because of his loyalty to the business that had given him his start.
After discussing the opportunity with senior people at Crown, he decided to make the move. Steve joined Toyota as General Manager of Sales at a time when the forklift business in Australia was smaller than it is today. He says Toyota Material Handling Australia had 11 branches and was in a position of financial loss with poor market share. Since then, Steve says the business has grown from about $150 million in annual turnover approaching $1 billion.
His career at TMHA has taken him from General Manager of Sales to Director, Chief Operating Officer, and then President and CEO. While the numbers point to business growth, Steve’s reflections return repeatedly to people. He says his upbringing shaped his view of work and the importance of providing stability for others.
“No matter how bad things were, his alarm clock went off at 4am in the morning,” says Steve of his father. “He got up and went to work and never missed a day. He had an amazing work ethic.
“Although we had turbulence, he gave stability. Stability was something that I always craved in my life.”
That has carried into his leadership style. Steve says he does not look for short-term spikes, but for long-term decisions that strengthen the organisation and support the people within it.
“When I make decisions at work, when I look at strategy and I look at things, I think, ‘Well, I’m not after a spike. I want long-term stability’,” he says. “I always look for how is it going to affect our people? Is it going to hinder them? Is it going to help them? Is it going to strengthen the organisation?”
For Steve, that perspective is grounded in his own time wearing a technician’s uniform.
“My best times, and I still reflect, were when I was wearing a blue uniform. They were some of the best times I ever had in the business,” he says.
He says technicians carry a level of responsibility that is not always fully understood.
“When you’re wearing a blue uniform as a technician, you can’t negotiate your way out of a problem. You have to fix the problem,” says Steve. “The technicians are also diplomats. They’re the one that the customer yells at. They didn’t sell the customer the truck, they didn’t negotiate the price, they didn’t set the terms and conditions, but they’re the first ones to turn up when there’s a problem.”
That respect for service teams has influenced how Steve leads.
“One of the things I will say in my time at Toyota, I’ve never, ever retrenched anyone that’s wearing a blue uniform,” says Steve.
Looking back across his career, Steve says young people entering the industry should focus on resilience and longevity.
“I think my observation is that a lot of young fellas these days approach a career with stepping stones in mind, and they don’t necessarily approach it with longevity in mind,” says Steve. “They’re looking at the next job while they’re starting the first job.”
His advice is to commit, work hard and allow opportunities to develop over time.
“If you’re resilient enough and you just stay there long enough and do a good job, opportunity will come,” he says.
That message is one he shares with apprentices at TMHA. He encourages them to see the business as a long-term home.
“One of your ambitions should be to start an apprenticeship with this company, but actually retire with this company,” says Steve. “You may retire in a different position, when your time comes, but just lock yourself in. Give yourself long-term stability.”
As Steve prepares for retirement, he says he hopes his lasting impact is measured less by commercial performance and more by how he treated people.
“I like to think that, first and foremost, I’ve been kind to people and I’ve shown empathy,” says Steve. “I want to be known as a decent human being before being known as a good businessman.”
Retirement will bring a different kind of focus. Steve says he expects to travel initially, but his priority will be family.
“I’m a family man, first and foremost,” says Steve. “By the time I retire, I’m going to have six grandkids, and so I’m going to help my family a lot in and around their house.”
He also plans to spend time on small hobbies, including beekeeping. But more than anything, Steve says he wants to be present.
“There will be nothing more pleasing than going to the kids’ footy and just being around,” says Steve. “Nothing sensational, just the rest of the life being a good husband and a good family man. That’s all.”
Steve concluded: “I’d like to thank family, friends and colleagues for their support, and Crown Lift Trucks and Toyota Material Handling for 40 years of stable employment.”
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