During my work at meliorate, one of the harshest challenges for me was understanding the organizational system. I tried to research it to understand the consulting firm structure and positions’ meanings. Although I comprehended it theoretically, some concepts were challenging for me to realize practically. Partner’s role in consulting organizations is one of them. Mike Beck was the one to help me with this and also share numerous valuable insights, just by the way. In this article, I will share some of Mike’s vision on asset management and his personal life.

First and foremost, Mike kindly shared the definition of ‘partner’ role and their responsibilities. So, Mike Beck is a partner in meliorate. As a part of the management team, he fulfills general responsibilities beyond project work such as developing topics, advancing knowledge, ensuring quality, and assessing performance. Finally, I can practically imagine a partner position. Let’s move on to Mike’s background and ideas toward asset management and consulting in general.

Mike initially wanted to be a doctor, then an architect, and ended up becoming an engineer. Overall, he was a curious adolescent, spending his free time with martial arts and leading a group at the red cross youth. He started his professional life doing an apprenticeship as a draughtsman in a local engineering office to afterwards enroll in engineering and doing some programming on the side. After graduation, Mike got a job in a family – run engineering company, which ended up becoming boring due to repetitions. Accepting a job offer to be responsible for a software for asset risk assessment enabled him to develop in various fields – combining engineering with IT experience and editing, consulting, and risk management.

Gradually, Mike’s professional life moved towards asset management. He realized that asset management is about making shared decisions. In 2013/2014, he became involved with the Institute of Asset Management (IAM), visiting IAM conferences and working on Subject Specific Guidance. Here, he met Oliver Förster, meliorate’s owner and managing director, who shaped his enthusiasm for this topic. Shortly, Mike realized he doesn’t do what he loves in his technical consultancy routine. 2020 thus became another story-changing moment for him. Moving into his new role at meliorate he left technical consultancy to focus fully on supporting organizations in making optimal decisions.

“Asset management is in what I do even when it is not apparent,” is how Mike explains his view on work to me. On the surface of course not each project is about asset management. For meliorate the responsibility lies in providing expertise and improving the organizations, processes and methods to achieve high-quality outcomes. For Mike, asset management is always in the background as it is at the core of how organisations make decisions, “Like philosophy is a foundation to so many sciences, asset management is the foundation of creating a collaborative culture.”

Another insight Mike offered was on work-life-balance, a topic already discussed in our blog articles (here). Mike believes that it is not useful to focus too much on work-life-balance. After all, eight or more hours daily provide numerous social interactions and opportunities that remain even in the personal adult life. “Dividing a day into a dull part (work) and a relief part (private life) is a key to failing and burnout – it teaches you to be unhappy during work-time and puts enormous stress on your private life, which will never be good enough – especially in Instagram-times,” believes Mike. Of course, he does not resist personal time and private life separation from work, but often life is, what is happening while you wait for some experiences you planned. Finding a job that you are interested in and embracing the chance to meet and connect with so many interesting people is what enables you to cope with a consultant’s lifestyle, and putting that constant effort into quality and learning.

In his personal life, Mike has a wife and two children who join forces in making sure he doesn’t get too lazy. Having given up on regular training himself, he now took up watching American football. When doing repetitive tasks he likes to have the TV running comedies. Overall, Mike is a compelling person who shares his life lessons and experience. I am grateful for such a comprehensive dive into each life’s sphere. I believe Mike’s example can be inspiring to achieve even the highest aims through constant self-development, diligence, and devotion to work.

Iryna Nykoriak

Published 19.10.2022

Also may interest you: THE GIRL WITH SOUTH AMERICAN HEART: ANNA HADDICK ABOUT HER LIFE PATH AND WHY WORK-LIFE BALANCE IS OUTDATED