Mission Driven

In the case of Chicago-based Midway Moving & Storage, the long road to a document destruction division actually was paved with good intentions. But the company’s business model, designed to eliminate exclusion and to change lives, is evident in the company’s history.

Community development was the last thing on his mind when Jerry Siegel walked into the office of a moving company in his university town and made the owner an offer he couldn’t refuse: Siegel would work for free if he could learn the business through sales.

“I was on the football team, and all the ‘cool guys’ moved furniture on the weekends,” he says. “I was a business major, and not exactly a 300-pound bruiser, so I was really intrigued with what made the moving business tick and was willing to create an opportunity for myself.”

By his senior year at Illinois State, Siegel was the top salesman at the company and, with the passion of a true entrepreneur, he was ready to fly. Siegel quickly established and then steadily expanded his own moving and storage company in Chicago.

Midway Moving & Storage was founded in 1987 with, in Siegel’s words, “$1,000 of personal money, a used U-Haul truck and a simple desire to be the best in the industry.”

COMMUNITY AS DESTINY 

His ambitions for the company were reflected in the name he selected: Midway.

“I wanted a ‘big name’ that resonated in Chicago and that would project a big image and the promise of best quality for the service provided,” Siegel says. “I knew as well that finding a good balance between profitability and the desire to remain affordable—and to help people—was very important to me.”

He adds, “The roots of my commitment to community were planted during those early days.”

Siegel also says he possessed a fierce belief in the power of branding and the value of name recognition in the marketplace. He developed a brand identity for his new enterprise, including a logo and distinctive blue and orange color scheme.

During the 1990s, Midway grew from a company with 12 trucks, 60 employees and 1,500 annual moves to a 100-truck fleet, 195 people and 10,500 moves annually. This aggressive growth curve included signing a contract with National Van Lines and adding interstate and worldwide relocation services to Midway’s portfolio of services.

Midway became the largest residential mover in the state of Illinois and gained a reputation for hiring diverse individuals.

Siegel also embarked on a positive business relationship with the city of Chicago in 1999, initially donating services for the high-profile project, the Summer Public Arts Program, “Chicago Cows on Parade.” As the  program’s “official movers,” Midway moved, stored and delivered the cow sculptures to the winners of an auction to benefit local charities. Siegel also invested in a Midway cow featuring the company’s colors.

Midway’s demonstrated service quality led to contracts within the public sector, Siegel says. In 1999, Midway was selected by the Chicago Housing Authority to provide services in a five-year relocation plan for the residents of Cabrini Green. The company also won contracts to relocate Chicago Public Schools and the Board of Education and to transport voting machines for the Illinois Board of Elections. These state and municipal contracts, with their high-security requirements, created a perfect springboard for Midway’s entry into secure storage and its expansion into document destruction services.

BUILDING A NETWORK  

Siegel and Midway’s community engagement, notably with support for charities like the Glass Slipper Project, a group that supplies free senior prom gowns to low-income girls, also began to position the company within a network of organizations that share goals and commitments. Midway donated a percentage of its profits to charity, taking the adage, “Doing well by doing good,” to a new level.

Midway, based primarily on a track record of social responsibility, entered into a five-year sponsorship as the “official mover” of the Chicago Bulls, the first in franchise history. Midway was granted a six-year extension for “outstanding service.” The Bull’s logo is displayed on Midway trucks, storage and collection containers and uniforms as well as on the company’s Web site and promotional materials.

POINT OF CONVERGENCE

As Siegel’s approach to commercial business and job creation grew more fruitful, he was appointed to a number of boards and committees focused on community development. Joining the board of the Little City Foundation, however, proved fateful for Midway.

The Little City Foundation, located within a 50-acre campus in the Chicago suburb of Palatine, is dedicated to ensuring that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are provided the widest range of opportunities and support for living a happy, healthy and productive life. Common to most groups enabling the disabled community, budget cuts and the fragile economy were drying up funding, and Little City began to look at options to build revenue streams and to create meaningful employment and training opportunities.

One of the businesses proposed for Little City was document destruction, and, as a board member, Siegel took on the task of analyzing the business model. The idea that emerged was a partnership between Midway and Little City to employ its residents “in real jobs for real pay” within a new Midway Document Destruction division. Little City would receive a portion of all proceeds from shredding.

What followed was a collaboration between Midway and the Little City Foundation. “The Vision is to provide jobs and to break down barriers for people with disabilities; people are the catalyst for this venture,” Siegel says. “Basically, Midway Moving & Storage is a logistics company with 200 vehicles available for backhauls within a 50-mile radius of Chicago, and we’re networked throughout the country, as well. By leveraging our routing system for relocations, we can save fuel and recover paper from documents shipped back on return trips for secure shredding at our facility,” he continues. “Document destruction is a ‘good fit’ for us as a service provider and a deeper green alternative for our clients.”

Building on a plant-based business plan, Midway could offer “a ‘one-stop-shop’ operation”, in Siegel’s words, including secure storage, records retention and secure destruction services. Meeting hiring goals gave Midway the ability to act on this partnership with Little City. With funds from a grant, Midway could establish a state-of-the-art shredding facility adjacent to the company’s secure storage operation.

Two years were devoted to designing and engineering the shredding system. “Jerry was willing to support a phenomenal amount of research to produce the best result,” says Charles Spencer, sales manager for Midway Moving & Storage. Spencer was the natural point man for this effort. Prior to joining Midway in 2002, he had spent two years in operations with a document destruction company and had “frontline startup experience—I’d taken the hits,” Spencer says.

He cites his insight into “the nature of paper shredding and the durability required of equipment long term” as invaluable in the selection process. “Paper, particularly volume purges, can be brutal,” Spencer says. In addition, Midway was battling space constraints. “We needed to pack a lot of productivity into a small area.”

Midway’s solution for automatic dust collection and systems engineering was to bring Mike Carver and Al Sherwood of SC Environmental LLC, Mequon, Wis., into the process. “Midway was willing to invest in dust pickups for covered transition conveyors to maintain a clean atmosphere, install a return air fan and to assure safety with fully integrated controls,” Carver says.

When it came to system capacity, “We realized that our volume levels may vary, but our preconceived volume throughput requirement was 8,000 to 10,000 pounds per hour,” Spencer says. “We wanted the flexibility to grow into it and we were looking for the best ratio of throughput to horsepower for cost efficiency.”

Shredder selection was aided by field research. “I had a list of criteria for the shredder, and when I actually saw a Cresswood HF-70 in operation, I was impressed with the simplicity of the machine design and how literally heavy it was, and I liked the fact that Cresswood is located in the Chicago area,” Spencer says.

The Midway shredding system was installed in 2008. Early marketing led to the development of a branded process using a system called “Security Thread” that shreds material “practically to confetti for that extra measure of security required by health care and law enforcement,” Siegel says. But this material, shredded through a 0.5-inch Cresswood screen, required a new auto-tie baler. Midway selected a baler from Nexgen, a division of Marathon Equipment Co., Vernon, Ala.

COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS

Siegel says, “When you walk into a procurement office, the burden of proof is squarely on you to provide professional credentials and the documentation that backs them up. And the reality is, with a differently abled workforce, that level of assurance may be a higher hurdle.”

To shape Midway’s marketing of its document destruction services and to interface with the community development network, Siegel put together an in-house team with diverse skills. “Personalized service has been a hallmark of Midway, and we need to bring that level of professionalism to every transaction in the document destruction division,” he says.   

Although Little City Foundation remains the company’s primary collaborator, the Midway team is leading an effort to work with other agencies, initially in Illinois. “The challenge is to create as many opportunities for clients as possible,” Siegel says, “with the ultimate goal of empowering disabled individuals to work in the same environment as non-disabled persons.”

The team is focusing on “reaching out to sister agencies and Midway’s corporate network of commitment to get a good solid business going,” Siegel says. “We’re in the relationship-building business.”

He adds, “It’s crucial that we make the Midway model work so that we can realize ‘the big vision’—taking these real opportunities for enhanced lives to communities across the nation.”  n