Storing Records May Sound Like a Boring Business, But Some Laugh at That Idea.
FOR THE RECORD Take ArchivesOne, for Instance

New Haven Register
March 3, 1998
By Paul F. Jackson, Register Business Editor

Listen to A.J. Wasserstein describe his business:

"Clients give us their documents, we put them in boxes, and we put the boxes on a shelf. When they want their documents back, we take down the boxes and return them."

"And that," says the owner of ArchivesOne. Between modest chuckles, "is about how complicated it is."

OK, so record storage doesn't rank among the flashiest enterprises and may not even occur to students and entrepreneurs as a profession worth taking up.

Yet competition within the industry is as fierce as any other, consolidation is raising the stakes, and the cost of survival is great.

Wasserstein is determined to show it can also be something that many other businesses are not.Good old fun.

"We take what we do seriously," said the 31 year old company president, whose initials stand for Adam John. "But we try not to take ourselves seriously. We try to have fun. People sometimes take their titles too seriously."

The fun begins: Wasserstein founded ArchivesOne at age 24 after earning a master's degree in business administration from New York University. Today the company owns three buildings with 150,000 square feet of warehouse space in the Watertown area and leases a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Milford.

The company employs 25 people and provides records management and storage services to about 450 clients including banks, law firms, hospitals, medical practices and corporations. Sales have grown 25 percent a year- one reason why the company was named the 1997 Small Business of the Year by the Greater Waterbury Chamber of Commerce.

Wasserstein said he chose records storage in large part because it's a steady business. "The model is, if you make a customer once, you have a customer for life. It's a long-term decision for our clients. We'd like to think we have them forever - if we live up to their expectations."

That means come Jan. 1 of each year, Wasserstein knows exactly what his revenues will be, how well he's positioned to acquire other companies, and other budgetary factors that drive financial officers in other businesses whacky come budget time.

Amid such predictability, Wasserstein has made it his mission to keep employees not only interested in their work but also happy to be doing it.

"How we treat our people will trickle down to our customers, and a company can't grow otherwise," he says. And in a consolidating industry, growth means adding customers and buying competitors before they swallow you.

Those who laugh last: According to the latest statistic available, the number of records storage companies nationwide increased from 2,494 in 1993 to 2,638 in 1994. In Connecticut, the number grew from 42 to 45 in that time.

Since then, however, the industry has entered a consolidation period with larger firms acquiring smaller ones, said April Ryan, executive director of professional records and information services- Management (PRISM), a trade group based in Raleigh, N.C.

Over 90 percent of the companies serve local markets, Ryan said, with only a handful of national competitors. "Most of them are doing quite well, although the past year and a half has seen a lot of consolidation," she said.

The largest U.S. company , Iron Mountain Inc. Based in Boston Mass., operates in 54 U.S. markets including Hartford, said Judith Brackley, director of corporate communications.

Few companies have gone national because of the expense involved, Brackley said.

"It requires extensive investments in real estate, a large capital investments in racking, which uses very specialized metal, and for computer systems and technology. Then you have software, and drivers, and vehicles - it's quite an obstacle. Small companies can't afford to make that kind of investment." Wasserstein, however, has invested significantly in his business by installing a computer system that tracks every box of documents by bar code. "We're very high users of technology - we have more computers than people," he said.

Wasserstein has also managed to grow by acquiring three companies, and is now negotiating to buy two more. His goal is to build a "super-regional" company operating in multiple, contiguous states.

Achieving that goal, he said, will depend on his employees and on how well they are treated.

"I'm obsessed with the notion that the companies that treat their people well are the companies that are the most respected and successful," he says.

Managers are required to report at monthly forums what they've done to make employees happy. "it can be something simple - like writing thank-you notes for a job well done," Wasserstein said.

When an employee raised a concern about the companies health plan, the entire health benefits package was reviewed and upgraded within 60 days, " which for a company is lightning work," he said.

One worker was rewarded for his loyal service by having the Milford building renamed after him - The Phil D'Addio Records Center.

You really needn't look further than Page 1 of the company's guidebook for employees, which lists three goals: Make Customers Happy, Operate Profitably and Have Fun.

That doesn't mean the guidebook that Wasserstein himself wrote is devoid of the usual legal mumbo jumbo Page 19, in fact, is titled "A whole Bunch of Legal Mumbo Jumbo." And while Wasserstein is president, the title on his business card - and the one he prefers using - is Director of Customer Happiness.

It's contagious: In an era of downsizings and mega-mergers, that philosophy hasn't washed with all employers, although more and more are seeing its merits in light of extremely low unemployment rates and difficulty in finding and keeping good workers.

Matt Weinstein, founder of Playfair Inc., the international management consulting firm, and author of "Managing to Have Fun" (Simon & Schuter 1996) writes: "Are companies where the employees are having fun, where they are excited about coming to work, and where they answer the phone like they're happy to be there going to have a competitive advantage? You bet they are - a tremendous advantage."

"Those companies leave their customers feeling good about dealing with them. And the intentional use of fun and play is the easiest way to create that kind of an enthusiastic work environment."

Whatever the reason, clients say they have been impressed by the professionalism shown by ArchivesOne's people.

Sherry E. Sopin, director of administration for the law firm of Cohen and Wolf, with offices in Westport, Bridgeport, Danbury and Stamford, called ArchivesOne's service "well organized, reliable and timely," and she praised the staff as "professional, courteous and helpful."

Nancy DeMarchena, of Diagnostic Radiology Associates in Waterbury, cited Wasserstein's dedication and noted that the chamber's award shows the company is also appreciated by the community.