Roots and wings

Each of our 2006 Business Leaders of the Year has an interesting story to tell about how they got where they are. Each of them shares a common trait: They never forget where they came from. They have deep roots in their communities and strong wings on their imaginations, which will be evident when you hear their stories.

Large business: Reinaldo Lopez (center, main photo) owns Resource Management Inc., a company that provides HR, payroll and benefits support that frees up his clients to concentrate on their core business. He also contributes time and money to help small businesses in Fitchburg’s Latino community that aren’t anywhere near ready to become his customers. His story starts on page 14.

Entrepreneur: Elaine Osgood (right, main photo) could be considered the Atlas who lifts up Atlas Travel International, based in Milford. The head of one of the fastest growing woman-owned businesses in the state, Osgood also supports the Milford Whitinsville Regional Medical Center as a board member and contributor. Her story starts on page 16.

Non-profit: Maurice "Mo" Boisvert (left, main photo) is the driving force behind Worcester-based Youth Opportunities Upheld, or YOU Inc. He has grown the agency over a span of decades to serve more than 9,000 clients today, and he’s a donor’s dream because of his talent for bringing in proposals that stay on-budget. His story starts on page 18.

Corporate Citizen: This award goes to Rotmans Furniture for its multifaceted community outreach programs touching on everything from used-furniture donations to music and reading programs. Rotmans story starts on page 22.

Along with our partner in these awards, the Clark University Graduate School of Management, we will honor our Business Leaders at a Feb. 15 reception at the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester, starting at 4:15 p.m. We’d love to see you there. For reservatons, please call 508-755-8004 x 238.

Broad shoulders

Reinaldo Lopez, President, Resource Management Inc. - Large Business

By Christina P. O’Neill

When his bosses at an Albany employee leasing firm shut the business down, leaving hundreds of thousands of tax and other payments in arrears in the early 1990s, Reinaldo Lopez knew he was in a difficult situation.

His customers – the Massachusetts-based companies that were his accounts – were out hundreds of thousands of dollars for taxes, unemployment insurance and even 401(k) payments that had never been made. "The people here did not know the company principals from New York," he says. "They knew Rey Lopez."

Without the cash on hand to make good on the company’s commitments to its clients, Lopez, who has a wife and three children, borrowed on his life insurance policy to personally make good to as many clients as he could, paying the workers’ compensation and tax liabilities. His reputation was on the line, he recalls. While he wasn’t able to cover all the shortfalls, four clients he could help joined the firm he opened in 1995, Resource Management Inc., of Fitchburg. Two of them are still clients.

Shouldering other companies’ risk is what Rey Lopez does for a living now. The former New England Golden Gloves Champion, who still walks with a boxer’s taut-muscled step, has built a $111 million business by addressing the administrative needs of small to midsized businesses. RMI offers its business clients and their employees the types of benefits and administrative support that has historically been available only to large companies. And, as its service and benefit portfolio grows, it’s setting its sights on larger companies.

From what began as sheer adversity, Lopez has created a client-service powerhouse that is the largest Hispanic-owned business in Massachusetts and the 48th largest such enterprise in the country.

Life in these United States

Lopez, a Puerto Rican native, came to this country at the age of 9 and settled in North Springfield. He recalls working alongside his migrant-worker mother at age 14, in the tobacco fields of Windsor Locks, CT, about an hour away from his new home. He regarded it as a great opportunity to get acclimated to life in the United States.

Entering 3rd grade in the U.S. unable to speak a word of English, he became fluent in about six weeks, because bilingual education didn’t exist back then. In middle school, a guidance counselor saw his potential and encouraged him to apply for a scholarship to Wilbraham Academy, a prestigious prep school. He won it, and says the school prepared him well for the future.

He attended Fitchburg State College at night but didn’t graduate. In the late 1970s, he was supporting his growing family by day, working at Foster Grant and then Simplex Time Recorder Co., and by night, running a janitorial services company, R&M Maintenance, at night. It was a grueling schedule of 16-hour days, seven days a week. To spend more time with his children, he took them with him to work. All three now work at RMI: Reinaldo "Naldi" Jr., operations manager; Alex, marketing manager, and Rachel Chesbrough, vice president, payroll.

Naldi remembers the R&M days. A Becker College graduate, he says he’s taking a six-month leave of absence to spend more fathering time with his two-year-old firstborn, Illyana. He brings her to the office, where she seems very much at home, particularly with her beloved abuelo (grandfather).

Naldi worked with his father at R&M from the age of 9, and as a teenager, worked weekends. "It was a pretty good learning experience. I was working with the rest of the crew. I was 15 and at the bottom of the food chain," he laughs. "It gave me a lot of insight."

When an R&M employee was a no-show, a somewhat too-frequent occurrence, father and son would get into their work clothes, go to the site, and do the work, Naldi recalls. "I’m fortunate that since the age of eight, I’ve been with the Old Man. I’ve seen it through his eyes. I’ve seen the frustrations, the sleepless nights."

The day came when R&M was bringing in twice as much money as Lopez could get working for someone else, and he quit the day jobs.

From crisis comes opportunity

R&M was Reinaldo Senior’s first experience as an employer. By far, he says, it was the most challenging time of his career. The labor pool was less than stellar — "It’s the nature of the industry," he says — and profit margins were too thin for most companies in the sector to provide good worker incentives.

Because it was an easy business to get into, competitors came along. R&M, which strove to pay a good wage and give workers some accountability, got underbid by competitors with subcontractors that they paid under the table. While some customers did appreciate the extra quality R&M brought to the job, it was difficult to deal with such a price-driven marketplace, he says.

In 1992 Lopez sold R&M and was recruited by the Albany firm to sell time and attendance recording systems, based on his Simplex experience. Armed with a brochure that constituted his only training, he racked up sales until the bottom fell out.

The next crisis of his career came in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when workers comp insurance became so expensive it drove many Professional Employer Organizations (the formal designation for what RMI does) out of business. But Naldi says his father had been putting money in a rainy-day reserve account before 2001. "In his whole life, he’s always covered all the bases," Naldi says. The company survived, and has been on a continuous growth path since then (see chart, page 14).

RMI has recently opened offices in Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida, staffed by 10 account executives, and within the last month, has entered markets in four new states.

Something of value

Those who know Lopez aren’t surprised by his success. Milan Yager, executive vice president of the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations. says, "Rey’s business grew because, fundamentally, he ran it with integrity and the promise and commitment to his customers that he wasn’t there just to make a buck, but to deliver something of value to them."

Lopez currently serves on the board of directors of the North Central United Way, the North County Latino Advisory Committee, Central Massachusetts Condo Association, Employers Insurance Group, North Central Chamber of Commerce, and the Fitchburg Art Museum. He also supports the Thayer Symphony Orchestra and has numerous affiliations, including the Leominster Spanish American Center.

Former Worcester City Councilor Juan Gomez, who works in business development at the Lowell office of Enterprise Bank, says that without Lopez, the North County Latino Advisory Committee might never have launched a successful Latino Expo last August 7. In addition to what Gomez calls "early money," Lopez also lent office space for planning meetings.

But while RMI put up money for the expo, it didn’t set up a booth. RMI wasn’t seeking to profit from the expo, Lopez says. Instead, the goal is to empower the Latino community.

When RMI began, Lopez says, there were few, if any, established Latino business to which he could market. Even today, the client base is 99 percent non-Latino. But that, someday, may change. "The environment to start a Latino business today is much better than when I first started," he says. "There is a stronger base to draw from as far as economic and educational resources. At the same time the Latino community has emerged as a very powerful asset to anyone who can market to it."

Lopez notes that ethnic communities that isolate themselves instead of assimilating delay their progress. If they try to mobilize on their own, they’ll fail, he warns. Partnerships, such as the one between municipal leaders and Latino advocates, are the key to integration, assimilation and success.

Yager characterizes Lopez as low-key. He’s not a self-promotional person who brags about how he’s changing the world, Yager says. "He’s out there doing it."

Writer Donald N.S. Unger contributed to this report.

Christina P. O’Neill can be reached at coneill@wbjournal.com

It pays to listen

Elaine Osgood, Atlas Travel International – Entrepreneur

By micky baca

Elaine Osgood, CEO and president of Atlas Travel International, isn’t one to keep her business success to herself.

In fact, sharing her achievements with those around her is one of the 51-year-old Worcester native’s top goals as she continues to map the double-digit growth of her Milford-based travel agency in the increasingly challenging travel industry.

"It’s important for me to achieve and be successful, but I want to take as many people with me as I can," she says.

As workmen unload building materials outside her Milford office window for a 3,500-square-foot expansion of her company’s 4,500-square-foot headquarters, Osgood says, "I want to provide a work environment for people to experience success."

Raised in a family in which women were expected to be teachers, nurses or secretaries, Osgood still relishes that first-year break-even. Many people, especially women, "don’t give themselves enough credit" when it comes to pursuing business achievements, she notes.

In fact, Osgood — who spent two years as an eighth—grade math teacher and eight more as a social worker before starting her business — says it took her some time to realize that her earlier skills were critically transferable to business. "Business is relationships," she says. The skills she used to interact with parents as a social worker were vitally transferable to the business world.

Learning the ropes

After years of dealing with child sexual abuse cases, she decided — with her husband’s encouragement — it was time to do something else. She’d earned a master’s degree in psychology while working for DSS. But she wanted to do something that didn’t involve "listening to other peoples’ problems." She began looking for a franchise as a way to learn business and considered such options as Jiffy Lube or a video store, before spotting an ad for Uniglobe Travel.

Osgood underwent the training program, donned the polyester Uniglobe uniform, which she calls a "plastic blue jacket," and opened an office with a single employee.

Those initial days weren’t easy, Osgood recalls. "I can remember like it was yesterday, sitting at my desk and making call after call after call. There were tears every day. I wasn’t used to that rejection."

Armed with her Uniglobe flip chart and a plea for an impatient company executive to hear her out, Osgood landed her first corporate client – an auto parts and service company that had seven or eight travelers. In 1987, she signed Massachusetts Electric after months of work.

Today, her company – which 10 years ago stopped being a franchise – does 82 percent of its business in corporate trade. It serves the middle-size corporate travel market with travel budgets of several hundred thousand to $10 million a year. Among the clients are more than 500 corporate customers that include high tech and biotech companies, medical organizations, law firms and universities.

Sales "got in my blood," and she now enjoys going out with her four sales representatives from time to time, though her role is now overseeing the broader company strategy.

Her business style is still the same as those early days – listening, asking questions and finding out what customer needs are.

A boatload of praise

Osgood has received a string of accolades in recent years recognizing the fact that she has grown her company from a two-person, break-even operation 20 years ago to a 62-employee travel service. This year, she expects to grow by 65 percent. Atlas has made the list of largest, women-owned businesses compiled by the Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College for the last three consecutive years. Osgood was named a Top Woman Business Builder by Fast Company magazine in 2005 and one of the "100 Most Powerful Women in Travel" by Travel Agent Magazine in 2003.

What’s more, Atlas has achieved double-digit growth through the industry-crippling effects of 9-11, the ensuing recession and corporate downsizing and the onset of teleconferencing and heavy-hitting Internet competitors like Expedia and Travelocity.

Osgood credits her focus on relationship-building. She’s been known to court people for years to get them to join her company. But she’s also known for another trait that has set her agency apart. Her pursuit of cutting-edge travel-industry technology has given Atlas the edge against much larger companies.

"She’s quite an innovator," says Scott Ahlsmith, chair of the non-profit Travel Institute, based in Wellesley. "Elaine has what I would call an innate ability to marry technology with the customers’ travel needs but to do it in an almost seamless way."

Ahlsmith has followed Osgood’s achievements with interest since he met her 10 years ago. As he sees it, Osgood has leveraged technology to track customers’ needs and respond seamlessly with "trip repair" measures if there’s a problem. "Her customers know there’s always a human watching if something goes wrong," says Ahlsmith.

Weathering travel changes

Osgood says she thrives on challenges and changes in her work, noting that "status quo to me is boring."

The first major shift in the travel agency landscape, she says, hit well before the terrorists did. Until about eight years ago, airlines and car rental agencies paid travel agents a fee, usually 10 percent, on each sale. But then airlines lowered commission levels and eventually dropped them altogether aside from occasional incentives. Agencies had to assess customer fees directly and many went out of business. When Osgood opened her business, there were some 35,000 travel agencies in the U.S. Now there are about 15,000.

In response, Atlas began to branch out to include vacation services, which still offered commissions for cruises and tours. It also added meeting incentive planning services to its offerings.

In August 2001, Atlas bought an established $5-million-a-year meeting and incentive business as the next piece of its growth strategy. After terrorists struck on 9-11, all the business on the books for the new division was cancelled. "I thought, ‘well, I just paid a lot of money for nothing,’" she recalls. But Atlas prevailed. Its vacation segment was down but stayed profitable, and the corporate segment continued to grow.

To avoid having to lay off staff, Osgood put everyone on a four-day work week, but by yearend 2001, she was able to restore fulltime hours. The meetings and incentives business basically became a startup effort, Osgood says, only reaching profitability in 2004. She now expects to triple its business in 2006.

Around five years ago, Internet booking services like Expedia began to take hold. Osgood says five or six Atlas clients turned to such services, but eventually all came back to Atlas. What they found, she says, is they lost control of their travel programs. Atlas provides travel management services that track monthly spending, following company-designated criteria. It can even alert management if someone is not in compliance. And then there’s the more personalized service of handling any trip difficulties that arise. As for teleconferencing, Osgood says, it was something of a competing factor after 9-11, but, she says, in many business interactions "nothing’s better than face to face." She expects to add 20 employees to the company in 2006.

Overall, Osgood isn’t worried about continuing to grow her company, which is now affiliated with World Travel, one of the largest travel agencies in the world. The mid-range corporate market has plenty of room for growth, she says. A vacation-oriented Lexington office that Atlas acquired in 1996 is also growing rapidly. That office features travel clothing and merchandising, a segment Osgood says is doing very well.

Giving back

When Osgood isn’t running Atlas, she donates time and money to support the Milford-Whitinsville Regional Medical Center, where she serves on the board of trustees. She’s set to chair a major fundraising event for the hospital, featuring food, entertainment and an auction. Osgood chose the hospital for her community efforts because it is a way to help many good causes.

Frank Saba, the medical center’s president and CEO, says Osgood has brought her "get-the-job-done mentality" to hospital causes for many years. "She’s got a great heart, and she’s got a wonderful sense of humor," he says.

Three years ago, Osgood undertook another life-changing effort that has her spending less time at the office these days. She and her husband adopted Veronika, a two-year-old girl from Ufa, Russia. "There was something missing," she says. "I felt I just needed to do more with my life." For the first two months, she says, she stayed home with Veronika but decided "it wasn’t good for either of us." Now, Veronika, age five, goes to daycare and Osgood works nine to 4:30.

Osgood says she has, with maturity, become better at deciding what’s important and better at delegating on the job and in her personal life. "I don’t do that to myself anymore — the perfect house, the perfect meal, the perfect wife."

As for being singled out as an extraordinary woman leader or entrepreneur, Osgood says it’s nice but doesn’t put too much stock in such pronouncements. "I think that anyone who really wants to do it can do it," she says. "I don’t think I’m really all that special."

Micky Baca can be reached at mbaca@wbjournal.com

The business of second chances

Maurice Boisvert, President, Youth Opportunities Upheld Inc. - Non-profit

By jennifer lucarelli

Very few people can lead an organization for 35 years and stay on the cutting edge while keeping to their original mission.

Maurice Boisvert, president and CEO of You Inc. is one of those few. He mixes compassion, energy, vision and practicality as he continues to anticipate the needs of the youth and families throughout Central Massachusetts and provide appropriate programs and services.

"Moe and You Inc. saved my family," says Pat Harmon, a former president and current board member of You Inc. When her daughter was a teenager, Harmon says, the girl had the most suspensions of any student in the history of Doherty High School. "She was actually proud of that," she says.

The Doherty staff suggested it would be best if Harmon’s daughter dropped out because she obviously was not interested in school, but Harmon’s daughter wanted an education.

At the time Harmon was working at United Way and searched their agencies and affiliates to find a program that would help her daughter. "I worked for an agency that helps families and I couldn’t help my own," she says. "That’s when I found out about You Inc. and Moe."

Harmon found the Kathleen Burns Preparatory School in Worcester and it was a perfect match for her daughter. "They figured out how to motivate my daughter and made a connection with her," she says. "They found out she was good with her hands and that she loves music."

After three years at the school, Harmon’s daughter had a perfect attendance and wanted a career building guitars. "They gave her the self confidence to succeed." And my daughter always says that Moe saved her life." Harmon says that Boisvert takes very little credit. "He always says she did it herself and all You Inc. did was give her the opportunity."

Time to listen

When a child is in crisis, the whole family is in crisis, says Harmon. And You Inc. helps families and children together without blaming the parents or family for the problem. "Moe worked with me and helped me be part of the solution," she says. "And Moe takes the time to listen and know each of the children in the organization."

For many years, Moe knew every child they helped by name, and now he still knows the majority of their names. "He has breakfast a few times a month with the children and he makes a connection with them on a personal level. He’s an absolute visionary."

Current You Inc. Board President Laurance Morrison says that Boisvert is compassionate, a clear-eyed executive with superb, administrative ability, vision, financial acumen, and practicality.

"When a child who is a client makes a presentation to You Inc., Moe’s jaw hangs open with a soft, transported look," Morrison says. "He is so absorbed and engulfed by the youngster - bombs could go off and he wouldn’t stop listening."

Morrison says that Boisvert doesn’t just plan - he anticipates, fixing on the situation and readying a plan to put into motion when the time comes. "He finds out what needs to be done and has a Plan A, B, C ready to go," says Harmon. "He surrounds himself with great people and he goes non-stop." She observes that Boisvert gets more done by 10 a.m. than most people do in a whole day.

"Whether he’s rowing Lake Quinsigamond or at the gym, Moe is up and ready to go by 5 a.m.," she says. "He’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro - he has so much energy."

"Some people are just put together with more energy and electricity than others, and that’s Moe," Morrison says - energy enough to run marathons, teach master’s programs, mentor others and also oversee a $30 million plus, 550 employee non-profit organization.

Boisvert is married, with four daughters and a growing number of grandchildren.

Children and family have always been important to Boisvert.

Boisvert credits those who gave him a chance during what he describes as a less-than-perfect adolescence. He doesn’t give details, but says he was more trouble than most kids. But the people who helped him gave him the vision to help children and their families in need, he says. "Most people who are given the opportunity take a second chance," he says. "And since people helped me, I always want to give other children the same opportunity."

Already established as a social worker and psychologist by 1970, Boisvert applied for the first program director of Worcester Juvenile Court, which was established in the late 1960s.

He led an intensive juvenile probation program for children and their families. With a background working with child welfare agencies, and children suffering from abuse and neglect and other multiple problems, he began an intensive after school program. It took high-risk kids and provided structured, intense, community-based programs, foster care programs, volunteer programs and shelter programs, he says.

Boisvert said it’s been a very successful journey over the last 35 years, and it began with his passion for kids and families. "I have breakfast with the kids often," he says. Morrison says that Boisvert is always in the moment with whomever he is with.

"At any time, he is completely with you - he is all there all the time," Morrison says. "That takes a large measure of humility and his own deep belief that other people are mighty important." For his own part, Boisvert credits YOU Inc.’s board and staff for making the programs a success.

Easy to say yes

When asking for benefactors’ support, Boisvert is well known for thoroughness when presenting capital projects, observes Warner Fletcher. "His costs are manageable, and the projects usually come in on-time and under budget," says Fletcher, director of Fletcher, Tilton and Whipple of Worcester, a donor to You Inc. When he sees a proposal with Boisvert’s signature, he knows that the cost has been analyzed and that the proposal is thorough. "There is a comfort level that the project will succeed and that Moe will find the money to fund it," he says. "He makes it easy to say yes."

Some challenges Boisvert has faced include growing the organization while still keeping to the original mission and principles. "We were very thoughtful in strategic planning for every three years as we grew," he said. "If our organization had $1 million now, we looked to where we would be when we had $5 million and what kind of structure we will need."

But while the agency grew, Boisvert kept the amount of staff lean and efficient. "You can always justify more staff, but we’ve kept the staff to what we need and we’ve planned thoughtfully, identified needs and then prioritized them," he says.

Boisvert also said he focuses on maintaining a corporate culture while also looking at the agency’s mission, goals and values. "We’ve spelled out our values that kids and families come first and that our number 1 asset is our employees," Boisvert says. "We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk."

Paula Aiello, CFO for You Inc., says that Boisvert creates an environment at the organization that respects everyone. "He has a great management team and everyone works together as a team. Leadership starts at the top and he really cares about the kids we serve and he cares about the employees."

Boisvert is always innovating and using new ideas to continue to motivate his employees. "He is a passionate and compassionate leader," Aiello says. "He has an ability to know what people are looking for and he figures out a way to get what he wants and what other people need."

And as a result, Boisvert retains staff for many years. "We had daycare as a benefit for our employees with families before it was popular to do that. And we offer tuition benefits and we reinforce our corporate values."

Those who show up

One of Boisvert’s most recent accomplishments is co-chairing the Mayor’s Social Service Task Force last year. "I knew it was going to be controversial and probably a no-win situation," Boisvert says. "But the government is governed by those who show up, and when I’m asked I want to be part of the solution." The task force brought together social services agencies who wanted to place programs in neighborhoods and people into whose neighborhoods the programs would come.

"We ended up with a consensus report, without a minority report," Boisvert says. "We created a balanced atmosphere of respect and allowed for compromises."

Boisvert says he was able to facilitate a balance between the legitimate rights of fair housing law that clearly protects the rights of patients and the needs of the neighborhoods and come up with recommendations that are beneficial to all sides.

Boisvert chaired the Task Force with State Representative Robert P. Spellane (D-13th Worcester District). "Moe came in without an agenda and figured out how he can make a difference," Spellane says. "All the opinions were valued and equal — it was an emotional issue and he brought people together from all sides."

Spellane said Boisvert valued everyone’s ideas and has an amazing ability to listen. "He is driven to help people and improve their lives," Spellane said. "People burn out quickly in the field of social services, but Moe lights his own fire and is driven by the children he serves." Spellane says that while Boisvert is old enough to be his father, his drive and energy is equal or more than younger people in the community.

"Moe is a role model and a mentor, which I think is the greatest compliment you can give anyone," Spellane says.

Going international

With the success of You Inc. and its programs, Boisvert is now working to take its vision international.

"I have a global view of local people helping local people," he says. "The Kenyan government has a large street kid population, and we are in the process of consulting with them to help them take care of their own."

Boisvert says that he will be sharing their successful principles with the Kenyan government in the hopes they can help solve their own problems.

"Moe is both an incrementalist and a giant step taker," Morrison says. "And he knows when to do which."

Boisvert always strives for continuity of You Inc. to go beyond just his leadership. "He regards himself as one of the many who came to the agency over the years," Morrison says. "He possesses modesty and humility, and he has helped grow the agency artfully over the years."

Jennifer Lucarelli is a contributing writer. She can be reached at jlucarel@aol.com

Worcester’s view on Rotmans:

"They’re fantastic"

Bernie Rotman, Vice President of Rotmans - Corporate Citizen

By lawrence d. maloney

For years, commercials featuring Bernie Rotman have proclaimed the "fantastic" values consumers will find at his family’s landmark furniture emporium just off I-290 in Worcester.

But every bit as fantastic, say those who know the Rotmans, is the family’s long commitment to addressing a whole raft of pressing social needs throughout Worcester County. Name a cause — homelessness, education, cancer research, the United Way — and chances are the Rotmans have played an active role themselves and encouraged their employees to do the same.

That spirit of "giving something back," says Marketing Vice President Bernie Rotman, started with his parents, Murray and Ida, who launched the family business in Worcester back in the mid 1950s when they ran the furniture and carpet concessions at downtown department stores. And that community commitment quickened as Rotmans expanded its operations over the last 40 years at a former mill complex along Southbridge St. Even more significant, the family’s three sons — Barry, Steve, and Bernie — have embraced civic causes with the same enthusiasm and persistence that they bring to growing the family’s furniture and carpet business.

"When I meet with Bernie and Steve, they don’t want a report saying how wonderful things are," notes Grace Carmark, director of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance. "They are always challenging us to do more."

Priority 1: Furniture for all

Carmark is well acquainted with the Rotmans’ generosity. Beginning in the late 1980s, the alliance’s Donations Clearinghouse relied on a donated pickup truck and a two-car garage to distribute used furniture to about 100 needy families a year. Then the Rotmans entered the picture.

"I was struck by all the requests we were getting at the store for furniture donations," recalls Bernie, who at 61 is the youngest of the Rotman brothers. "It seemed that I was always going to the warehouse to find furniture for fire victims and others in need."

Result: the Rotmans struck a partnership in 1992 with the Donations Clearinghouse to set up the infrastructure for significantly expanding the furniture distribution effort. The Rotmans provided a delivery truck and committed to pay the salary of a staff member. That support in turn leveraged other funds, including state money, so that the program now includes three staffers and a 2000-square-foot warehouse to inventory the donated furniture.

"The Rotmans were the proverbial godsend for the clearinghouse," recalls entertainment promoter Troy Tyree, who worked with the program in those days and has since helped the Rotmans establish their Café Fantastique venue, which provides live weekend music and other entertainment for children and adults at the Rotmans store. "To get support from a company of the size and influence of Rotmans was amazing."

Over the years, the Rotmans have insured a steady supply of furniture to the clearinghouse by establishing and promoting a "furniture exchange" program. Under this setup, the store encourages people who are buying new furniture to give their "gently used" older items to the Donations Clearinghouse. A truck picks up items prior to delivery of the new furniture. About 20 percent of Rotmans customers participate each year — and get a tax deduction as well for their generosity.

"It’s a win-win for everyone," says Bernie Rotman of the program, which other furniture companies have replicated across the country. "This cause is consistent with our company’s mission of helping people create comfortable homes, and our customers are thrilled that they have been able to help someone in need, while at the same solving their own worries about what to do with furniture they’re replacing."

Carmark estimates that about 1,200 families a year benefit from the program, with some 15,000 pieces of furniture distributed over the years. Donations from Rotman customers account for 60 percent of the inventory. Among those helped: the elderly, fire victims, destitute families, and women and children fleeing abusive homes. In many cases, the most desired items, such as beds, dressers, and kitchen sets, get snapped up within 24 hours.

Walking for the homeless

To support the ongoing operations of the clearinghouse, as well as area shelters and other housing-related programs, Rotmans also backs Worcester’s annual June "Walk for the Homeless." Since 1999, Bernie Rotman and now retired Worcester Bishop Daniel Reilly have served as co-chairmen of the event, which last year raised $80,000. "They make an incredible team for building awareness about the problem of homelessness," notes Carmark.

Bishop Reilly recalls that Bernie was among the first people he got to know when he came to the city in 1994 from Norwich, CT to head the Worcester diocese. "Bernie is an engaging and impressive man who is so committed to reaching out and helping others," says Reilly. "Yes, he’s a very successful businessman, but that’s not the first thing you see. It’s his interest in people."

The bishop is one of the few people in the city who know the background that shaped Bernie’s legendary communications and people skills. A graduate of New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary, Bernie was a full-time rabbi of a Conservative congregation in Warwick, RI, through much of the 1970s. In 1980, he returned to Worcester to take what he thought would be a short sabbatical to work with the family furniture business.

"I was looking to find some fulfillment in the real world," remembers Bernie, "but I didn’t think it would lead to a complete career change." Even so, he adds that his role as the public face of Rotmans has allowed him to apply his rabbinical skills, such as fostering relationships, to a much wider audience. "I like to think that I have been able to pique the interest of our employees and the general public in the importance of community service," says Rotman.

From shelters to pink baseballs

There’s plenty of evidence that Bernie — and his brothers — have succeeded in making that helping spirit infectious. When Steve Rotman, the company’s president, heard in 2004 that the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance was converting the former Cambridge St. School into 35 apartments for families needing transitional shelter, he was quick to donate furniture and other household items. Rotmans volunteers also helped to set up the apartments and have worked with residents on employment preparation, such as creating a resume and job interview skills.

"Steve wanted us to create a place where people could build their self-esteem," says Carmark, who adds that the Rotmans president continues to serve on a key "Continuum of Care" committee, which tackles a variety of affordable housing issues in the area.

The last year in particular has produced a flurry of Rotmans-inspired community activities. Last summer, the Rotman Family Fund donated $6,400 for a "Summer Reading Book Talk" program that put 600 books in the hands of middle school children at two Worcester neighborhood centers. This program supplements the regular Saturday morning story hours that Rotmans has held for several years for small children in its "Café Fantastique" space.

"Bernie was concerned about the tendency for reading skills to erode during the summer months," notes Toby Parent, who directs both reading programs, along with his wife Kathryn.

Also last summer, Steve Rotman earmarked additional family foundation monies for a new program to improve the skills of teachers who work with students hampered by learning disabilities.

In the fall, Rotmans held a household goods drive that filled truckloads of items for the Donations Clearinghouse. The firm also held a silent auction to raise funds for Gulf Hurricane victims and put up $6,000 to match the donations of employees and customers to the same cause.

Led by Bernie, Rotmans community efforts are marked by a desire for creativity — and for forging partnerhips. In its annual United Way drive, for example, the Rotman brothers have been known to don chef hats and serve breakfast to employees to kick off the campaign. Employees who donate also can take part in a drawing for an extra week of vacation.

"I can think of only one other company that gives away vacation time," says Joyce Karchmar of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, who adds that Bernie always meets with her personally to plan each year’s campaign. This past year, Rotmans and its 250 employees donated more than $17,000.

On October 7, Rotmans joined forces with the Worcester Tornadoes and FM radio station WXLO to amass $25,000 in donations to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Rotmans volunteers worked with WXLO personality Steve Donavan, who did a 12-hour broadcast from the roof of the furniture store. Anyone donating $10 got a pink baseball, and Rotmans got the ball rolling with a $500 donation. During last summer’s baseball season, the Rotmans also gave $50 to the Donations Clearinghouse — and another $50 to a fan — every time a Tornado player hit a homerun.

"The Rotmans were wonderful to work with," notes WXLO Marketing Director Amy Wilfong, "and I am thrilled that we will hold the event again."

Adds Bernie: "I am always looking for these kinds of partnerships. You need to be smart in community programs and create benefits for everyone involved."

The future: Open to new ideas

The Rotman company’s widespread community support is all the more remarkable at a time when business pressures have forced many firms to back away from community service.

"Rotmans isn’t the type of company that makes a donation to look good—and then walks away," says Carmark of the Housing Alliance. "They stay at the table for the long term."

"It’s not like we’ve developed a grand strategy on community programs, so that when we’ve achieved it, we can then close the books," says Bernie. "The key is to remain open to new ideas."

Still, there’s no denying the cost pressures that face a privately-held, family-owned firm that must battle mammoth furniture chains. "Sure, we ask ourselves many times if we can continue to afford these programs," says Bernie. "And the answer is always the same: We can’t afford not to do them."

Larry Maloney can be reached at lmaloney@wbjournal.com

SIDEBAR: Pick your benefits, and leave the paperwork to us

RMI is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), a firm that insources what others outsource – administrative functions such as payroll, insurance payments, benefits, and employees. The industry is quickly supplanting the old model of "fire yours and hire ours" employee leasing (originally designed to save money on workers comp by aggregating clients’ employees into a single large group). Today, the typical PEO is a more client-interactive "co-employer" company that handles a wide range of human resource functions, up to and including interviews and background checks. This frees their clients to spend more time pursuing their core business.

The Harvard Business Review characterizes PEOs as the fastest growing business service in the U.S. The average business client of a PEO is a small business with between 15 and 20 worksite employees, according to the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, based in Alexandria, VA. But larger businesses are also turning to PEOs, which partner with the big companies’ existing HR departments.

RMI’s typical client wants to outsource its HR business, according to Andrew Porter, executive vice president and general counsel. The company may have tried HR in-house and it hasn’t worked, or they haven’t been able to get a cost benefit from working with other companies. "They tend to be companies that are doing very well, privately owned by one to three individuals, and are very focused on growing their business," he says, "and want the hassles involved with HR to be handled by someone else."

Because RMI cuts payroll checks for more than 3,000 of its clients’ workers, it creates an employee group large enough to get sizable discounts from benefits providers for everything from health insurance to pretax savings accounts. It offers more than 10 healthcare options, a 401(k) program with more than 70 investment choices, dental, disability, business travel accident insurance, life insurance, vision care, chiropractic, a 125 Cafeteria plan, and prepaid legal plans. Clients can effect on-line transactions and data entry, with 24-hour Web access to employee information. RMI also offers payroll and HR services.

One of the big problems companies have is that they don’t have HR expertise on site, Porter says. As a result, these firms tend to make mistakes at the very beginning, inlcuding costly legal mistakes. "We’re able to nip those," says Porter.

SIDEBAR: Keeping up with the big guys

Rock Blanco, chief technology officer at Atlas Travel International and the man behind much of its technological travel trend-setting, says CEO Elaine Osgood has always been willing to try new technologies and invest in innovation. Hers was one of the first agencies to embrace the use of e-mail and the Internet back in the mid 1990s, Blanco notes.

Blanco met Osgood back in 1986 when he worked for a company that provided computer systems for franchise travel agencies, including Osgood’s first affiliation, Uniglobe Travel.

Proof positive of Atlas’ commitment to technology, Blanco says, is his own CTO job, which typically doesn’t exist in an agency of Atlas’ size.

Besides counting Osgood as a close personal friend, Blanco says she’s a leader who lets him be creative and who is willing to invest in talent and technology in an industry that is typically "a pennies business." As a result, Osgood has created a more flexible company that better uses it resources.

Atlas claims to be the only travel company that allows customers to push a button on its website to communicate with the travel agent handling their arrangements. On a broader basis, Atlas uses software robotics to do much of the detail work that agents previously did.

The company also developed a corporate customer relationship management system that tracks, manages and synchronizes client data. Osgood notes that while Atlas may sometimes lose business to big Internet companies, it has the edge in drawing those customers that want personalized travel management from a company that is close at hand. Osgood says the larger Internet competitors "are now trying to learn this thing called travel management."

Blanco adds that Osgood is willing to license its groundbreaking technology for use by other agencies, creating a whole added avenue of technological advancement. "She’s right up with the big guys technologically," he says.

M.B.

SIDEBAR: A Worcester original

In an era where so many single-store furniture operations are failing under pressure from giant chains, the towering brick Rotmans structure is a monument to one family’s unflagging hard work and persistence.

Describing itself as "New England’s largest furniture and carpet store," Rotmans can indeed lay claim to an impressive record of growth in its half-century of operations. The vital statistics:

• Plant. A 250,000 square foot complex of showrooms and offices in two nineteenth-century buildings that once housed a carpet mill. In Clinton, the company also maintains a modern, high-bay warehouse.

• People. Murray and Ida Rotman started out in mid 1950s running the furniture and carpet concessions in the old Sherers and Barnards department stories in downtown Worcester. Now, with sons Barry, Steve, and Bernie running the business, the firm employs 250 people.

• Sales. About $45 million, a figure that industry experts say puts Rotmans in the top echelon of single-store companies nationwide.

Why not expand beyond its red brick bastion on Southbridge St? "There’s a certain mystique and character to this one large store in a mill complex that would very hard to replicate elsewhere," says Marketing Vice President Bernie Rotman. "It’s just a fun place to shop."

Adds Sales Manager Joe Quintal: "The single-store concept is a major reason for our success. There’s a cookie cutter feel to the chains, and we offer in one location a huge selection: 100 bedrooms, 200 living rooms, 80 to 100 dining rooms."

With more than 25 years at Rotmans, Quintal is typical of many employees who have spent most of their working careers at the store. "Going back to Murray and Ida, the Rotmans have always tried to treat their employees like an extension of their own family," he says. Included in that family culture: Programs like a college scholarship fund for the children of employees.

Like others in the company, Quintal is also proud of the company’s aggressive involvement in social causes. "To the Rotmans, community involvement and business success go hand in hand," says Quintal. LDM