http://www.ExactingEditor.com/Rubinfield.html

 

Who: Iris Rubinfield (born 1927)

When: Friday, Sept. 20, 1996
Where: Cleveland, OH
Web: www.MasterMfgCo.com
Source: Women Business-Owners
in Post-Corporate America
Length: 4,500 words

 
President, Master Manufacturing Company Inc.
A company making household products, launched in 1951 with husband Don in nearby Lorain. The Rubinfields' move to the southeast side of Cleveland in 1955 means that MASTER has inhabited the same city block for over 40 years (with a sizable expansion and renovation during '96). One write-up notes: "MASTER MANUFACTURING is located in the inner-city and more than 90% of its employees are minorities and women." Main lines these days are office products with an emphasis on safety and health: Furniture casters, Comfort-Makers, ergonomic seats and lumbar supports, other floor-protection and floor-safety items. Revenues in 1996 totaled $4 million, with full-time employment over the prior decade ranging from 20 to 26.

That’s the ’96 summary by Gregorsky. For how and what this company is
a decade later, see http://www.mastermfgco.com/aboutus.html


FRANK GREGORSKY: The number of women working for themselves has quadrupled since 1981. I can tick off a bunch of reasons for this spike in the graph. But -- why do you think the trend has taken off to such an extent?

IRIS RUBINFIELD: About 10 years ago, I went to [an event organized] by the first organization in Cleveland trying to get women together. The speaker was Lois Wyse (I happen to have gone to high school with her). And she predicted women in the corporate field would only go so far. So, to get ahead, they'd have to open their own businesses. And I think this is what happened. You need two salaries, but you can't always find a satisfying job, a job a woman could grow with.

The other big reason is more general, but also a strong one: The independence of women. Now, saying this doesn't mean I'm a woman's libber. When it comes to work, man or woman, you should be professional -- sex has nothing to do with it.

FG: Well, let's go back to the 1970s for a minute: Feminism was exploding, women were going into law schools --

RUBINFIELD: Becoming doctors.

FG: -- yes, entering medical school, becoming engineers. In fact, a majority of all bartenders today are female!

RUBINFIELD: Yes, that's right -- not [that I'm a] bar-hopper, but I have seen that [statistic you cite].

FG: So you weren't cheering [those trends] on back then. Or were you?

RUBINFIELD: I did cheer them on. What I didn't agree with is the way they went about some of it -- you know, the Gloria Steinems and Betty Friedans.

But I will agree that women are not treated fairly. For example, I went for a loan -- as an established, mature business, with great credit. I didn't have any trouble getting the loan. Yet the restrictions, the demands placed on me, were twice as stringent as on those with far worse credit histories. I used to be on the board of this same bank, I sat on their loan committee, and I know how they granted loans. That's why, with a more than 40-year clear history of non-borrowing, it was hard to believe all the guarantees I had to submit.

FG: Are you sure that was a gender thing? Maybe they were trying to signal "no favoritism" for someone who had been on their board.

RUBINFIELD: No -- I don't believe that. I think it was a women's thing. I really do [laughter] -- I know it.

FG: Other examples of the double standard?

RUBINFIELD: When my husband died in 1979, I began to run this business on my own. There were plenty of doubts in my mind about whether I could continue it, and I'm very proud of the fact I did. But I have to tell you: Even in 1980,one of my biggest customers came in here and told me that I was "on trial." They still didn't know whether I could run my business. Of course they were very "proud" I was doing such a good job, and they would continue to do business [with me] -- as long as the pattern continued.

FG: A customer, not a board member. Because I could understand a board member sayin' that.

RUBINFIELD: No, this was a customer. A large customer -- and one I still serve. I could have lost [a big chunk of revenue]. But -- why? Because I was a woman, I was going to fail? If a man had taken over, would he have faced the same scrutiny we came under because I assumed the leadership of the company? I don't know, but I doubt it.

It was fortunate for me that, six months before he died, [Don] hired someone, a friend, for the position of President. This was so [Don could become CEO] and do some specific things [which would not happen] if he remained hamstrung by the day-to-day grind. Then, 18 months later, he died. At that point, completely on my own, I didn't realize that women were so rare at my level -- and they still are. Really.

FG: What are the key differences between how men and women conduct business?

RUBINFIELD: My strongest trait, and also my weakness, is emotion -- putting heart into the way I run my business. This is something I don't see, not much anyway, in successful men. I'm judging partly by the 17 [other] members of [the aforementioned bank] board -- I was the only woman. There tends to be no heart.

FG: It's all cold logic, you mean?

RUBINFIELD: Uhhh, well -- I think it's simply the difference between a woman and a man when it comes to running a business. The woman will tend to have heart. But you need to balance that. The men probably go too far one way, while the women go too far the other way.   

FG: Sort of like feeling versus thinking, in a sense.

RUBINFIELD: Exactly.

FG: Are you engaged in regular mentoring or coaching?

RUBINFIELD: No. But I did appear on a panel with six other local owners for NAWBO this week. And I'd like to share [my experience with whoever reads this study]. But can it really help these people? I don't know if my manufacturing experience applies to the type of business most women go into.

I'm in the office-products industry. The Clinton Administration [has promoted] set-asides, which some of my customers have taken advantage of: They're looking for second-tier purchasing people. In other words, if you do business with the government, you have to do so much with minorities and women. My customers -- dealers -- can give their customers credit towards the governmental requirement by buying from companies like me -- [ones that are] women- or minority-owned. So they're looking for mature businesses -- which are hard to find! They can find start-ups, but they can't find mature businesses [owned by women or minorities]. How many exist in the office-products industry? Maybe five.

FG: You mean five in Ohio.

RUBINFIELD: I mean five in the whole country. Now I'm not talking about dealers, I'm talking about manufacturers. You can find dealers.

Another big difference: I didn't start this [on my own], I started it with my husband. Yes, we built a good business. But my husband was very farsighted: He knew I wouldn't be happy just being a housewife. And my husband had great respect for women. When we started out, we hired a woman sales manager -- not the first [person put in that sensitive role], but it was very unusual.

FG: Because she was managing men who were in sales.

RUBINFIELD: That's right! It was unusual. And he gave me confidence -- let me do my thing. When my daughters were born [1956 and '58], I only worked part-time, until I got them into school. But there were no women -- or very few -- in business at my level at that time.

PART TWO: From the 1950s through the '80s

FG: How hard was it -- and I mean not financially but procedurally -- to acquire a business like this back then?

RUBINFIELD: It was a family situation, which helped a lot. It was also a complete surprise. My husband and I had just gotten married -- June of '51. We were in our early twenties, and we had no intention of being in the office-products industry. In fact, I was in California hoping to start an acting career -- I'm a Carnegie-Mellon drama graduate.

And my husband, a Carnegie-Mellon engineer, had a job lined up with the Los Angeles Times Press -- a five-year apprenticeship to be in charge of the inks department. Besides being a chemical engineer, he had gone back to graduate school and earned his printing-management degree, on the G.I. Bill. We were married in the last year of his graduate program.

But, that September, we were back in Ohio for a family wedding.Along with my brother, my father had been running a "job shop" [there] -- a modest business that, during the War, did pretty well. He was approached by another young man, who wanted to go into partnership. They would build on a company, in Lorain, Ohio, that had made casters during the War. [Editor's Note: Lorain is about 20 miles outside of Cleveland, heading west on Old U.S. Six.]

The company also had a new invention -- a patent on a floor waxer -- which they had acquired from a convict [who needed the money]. If my father's job shop could make the parts, this young man would concentrate on the advertising.

My dad decided to go ahead with the partnership. Then the young man backed out, leaving my father holding the bag. So he asked my husband to run this business, back in Ohio, until he could sell it. Remember, we were concentrating on California when this surprise proposal emerged.

But my husband's job turned out to be less than it was cracked up to be: The "five-year apprenticeship" looked more like 15 years. And the pay? We couldn't make ends meet -- no way, shape or form.

So Don Rubinfield redesigned the floor waxer, the couple innovated wildly at trade shows, and -- against all expectations -- logged nearly five years in Lorain. "We liked it," says Iris, sounding a little surprised even 40 years later. "Naturally the future was a helluva lot brighter than waiting 15 years." Their time in California had lasted all of three months. But what if, in that fateful Summer of '51, she had met a Hollywood agent and he had said, "Stick with me, kid"? In fact, "a number of my friends from Carnegie-Mellon did become famous. We had a very small class, and Jack Klugman, Nancy Marchand and Sata Thompson were in it."

FG: Tell me more about your parents.

RUBINFIELD: My mom was a housewife. She was born in Cleveland and lived to be 64. My brother worked with my father in the job-shop business -- [though most of Dad's] life was spent in the pharmaceutical business as a salesman. He would be on the road two or three weeks at a time: No Interstates, it was terrible.

He died in 1992, at the age of 98. I've never seen anybody who read as much as he did -- right up to the day he died. He was very wise. And he never graduated from high school -- completely self-taught! He came to this country from [the Polish part of Russia] at the age of 9, in 1903. He already had an uncle here. And he loved this country, he was a patriot -- a Republican and a patriot. Diehard Republican [laughter].

FG: Did he like Robert Taft?

RUBINFIELD: Of course! He liked everybody that me and my brother hated [laughter]. He probably even liked Tom Dewey. But he was a wonderful mentor, for both my husband and myself. He coached me -- imparted a lot of business common-sense.

By the late 1950s, the Rubinfields had shifted MASTER toward the specialty of making casters, which held some engineering appeal to Don. More urgently, the rise of the discount chains as the major outlet to the consumer of "stick-goods" -- e.g. waxers, mops and brooms -- was displacing "the traditional wholesaler/department-store distributors which comprised our market. The discounters purchased all their stick-goods items from one vendor only. But ours was a limited offering and we were too small a company to compete [for their bulk orders]. We could see what was happening: Little by little, [the stick-goods market] was dying. By the time it really dwindled, we were making it up in the caster business."

RUBINFIELD: Until the mid-1980s, the company didn't have any bad years. Then came the birth of the office-product discount superstore, and it affected our sales. At that point we only made casters. Not wanting history to repeat itself, we began looking at developing more products for the retail market. They also wanted to deal with fewer manufacturers [offering] longer lines, just like the home-products discounters did years before.

PART THREE: Location, Workforce, Attitudes

FG: Whether it was three years ago or 20 years ago, there must've have been the temptation to move the plant out to the suburbs. Didn't you face this from time to time?

RUBINFIELD: Yeah. Definitely, given the fact of some killings and break-ins in this area. Absolutely. And believe me, when I put this addition on, it was a consideration.

FG: What stopped you?

RUBINFIELD: Two reasons. Basically, I employ minorities. And they all live, if not quite in this general area, then at least it's easy for them to get here. Plus, you know, we have this land and this building. For me to move out to the suburbs would've been very, very expensive.

FG: You were going to have to build more space anyway.

RUBINFIELD: I already had 20,000 square feet, and needed at least 10,000 more. But I wouldn't get the caliber of factory worker [away from this area]. Granted, I don't get the highest qualified people here -- my office people are not the most talented. Still, they're the right kind of people: They're conscientious, and in most cases they like their jobs and they like this company. 

Besides, there's a give-and-take in a small business -- you know, it becomes a little bit more family-oriented -- and this is the plus from being in a neighborhood setting, even though it’s an inner-city hub zone area. The people here stay.

I have a real great retirement plan: Whatever 5% of their salaries computes to, every year the company invests an amount equal to that 5% figure. For years it was just in CDs -- I wouldn't gamble with it at all. When those interest rates went down to nothing [after 1991], we shifted to mutual funds and stocks. In the five years since that shift, our financial advisor has enabled them to earn over 10% a year on their investment and, in 1995, 22%. And they haven't put a dime in -- it's all put in by us.

FG: Julia Klein, president of CH Briggs Hardware in Reading [PA], spoke to that in my congressional study. Here’s her whole argument:

“An ESOP is a horrendous vehicle for a company our size. I mean, it does not matter to people... We've given away 30% of our company, and we have 10 people here who ‘get it.’ For the rest, it doesn't count... It's not a motivator. They don't understand. It confuses them more than it inspires them. It's too complicated -- and an ESOP is very complicated -- talking about stocks, shares, and valuations. We have probably a 98% participation level in our 401(k), with a pretty generous match. And folks aren't too sure even about that. We need to constantly put it in front of them: This quarter, the company contributed X number of dollars to your retirement. They have to see it in black and white, and we never used to do this. Employers have a huge educational burden -- on that whole set of issues.”

Your comments?

RUBINFIELD: Absolutely right. What you learn in business is that employees will never say thank you. They don't know, they don't understand, and they don't appreciate. Don't be in business for that -- you'll be disappointed.

FG: Klein's point is not that she expects to be loved, but she thought they would feel more of an ownership of the company, even in a self-interest sense. Do you see any of that here?

RUBINFIELD: Not by the retirement fund. When we started this, the people protested -- they wanted it in their pockets. But here was our reasoning: People in the factory, they're not high-wage-earners -- but they're conscientious. So we wanted to be sure they had something for a retirement, because otherwise they would have had nothing.

FG: The psychological divide [I see most in this project] is owners versus workers. A given worker may be conscientious; and he may like his employers. But -- "it's a job, I do it, I take the pay, and then I'm gonna have fun." Owners and entrepreneurs -- people who create things -- are delighted by the joys of ownership. They're so delighted they're willing to take no money for the first five years, because it's so cool being an owner. And therefore they try to share that [sensation]: "We'll give you an ESOP, we'll help you follow the market, we'll help you plan your finances."

But, if somebody is psychologically a worker, that ownership stuff does not mean anything to 'em. Right?

RUBINFIELD: Absolutely. Not only that, but you can be the best boss. I feel towards them like a family and try to treat them accordingly. For example, if they need money, I'm willing to help. Yet none of that is really appreciated. You're still the owner, they're still the workers.

PART FOUR: Motivation and Musicals

FG: What keeps you going?

RUBINFIELD: Try to sell casters, and you'll realize the challenge -- I love it. We have only scratched the surface. My sales manager is a little older than you. And she convinced me that we gotta gamble, when we went into all these new products. And it was a gamble. I haven't so far recouped anywhere near what I should've. After sinking so much into the research and development of all these products, we are just becoming profitable again.

I also talked to my father before making those moves. It was a question of the business staying flat -- in other words, just rely on the casters, which meant running the risk of going downhill. He said, "You're not going to be happy semi-retired, and you're not going to be happy without being -- "

FG: Without some level of tension.

RUBINFIELD: Well, it isn't tension. It's achieving the goal, and aiming at something. It's not money, it's just being successful: Convincing somebody they need a set of casters, of course. But also offering a brand new product that I'm proud of. Being challenged.

The first [of the new items] was a doorstop. Now, what can you offer in a doorstop that will [make the market take notice]? One of my customers needed a doorstop, and he didn't want what was already out there. That's another factor helping our business: Everything by most companies is made overseas -- and it's garbage. You can go into a hardware store today and buy two doorsteps for $1.29. We produce a doorstop that retails for $4.95, is made in Cleveland, Ohio, and my doorstop works.

FG: You mean it won't slide around?

RUBINFIELD: That's right! And it was designed by the people who designed the Dirt-Devil. They made the package look like a foot -- a "bigfoot." And this led to a whole family: Littlefoot, Bigfoot, Giant Foot, Safety Foot. We had to make molds and dies. I went for patents on the products we've developed.

That line has been the most successful of the new products. But all the things we've developed, I am proud of -- I really think they're good. I use them myself. Doing that, and watching people respond -- I guess that's the actress in me. You know, the response from the audience -- it's what I get back.

FG: Has anyone over the past 20 years tried to buy you out?

RUBINFIELD: All the time. Every day. I'll only consider it when I can't come to work any more. Look at it this way: I have the best of both worlds. My daughters -- one is in Portland [OR], one in Boston -- if I want to go see 'em, I go. Go on the weekends.

FG: Those are two nice cities to have an excuse to go to!

RUBINFIELD: Yeah. And if I want to take a vacation -- well, last year, I couldn't. We were building this building, so I canceled this wonderful plan for an "exotic" trip from Hong Kong to Athens. But I usually take a vacation every year. And [this place will] run. It runs well. Got good people here. If they need me, I'm in telephone contact. They've all been here so long. The youngest people here -- and here I'm talking about the office [staff] -- are the only ones who cause trouble. They're women, they can be petty, they find fault. But we have enough mature heads in the factory and elsewhere. My customer-service manager has been here over 10 years.

The only [function] that probably needs me is costing, which I hope to put on the computer, very shortly. But, unless it's a rare product, it can be handled without me.

FG: I notice you don't even have a typewriter, let alone a laptop.

RUBINFIELD: I don't use either. But we've got all kinds of [equipment]. We're computerized. We have EDI, we have a mainframe, we have PCs -- all of that. But I don't have to run it. I know how to run the computer -- but I don't have to do it. I hand-type. And, as far as bookkeeping, I'm self-learned. I've worked since I was 14 years old.

FG: Did you ever put your dramatic training to use directly?

RUBINFIELD: Yes, with some local young people, I directed nine musicals with casts of 150 to 200 youngsters. I tell you, if there's anything I did with my life that was satisfying, it's directing these young people. They were not actors and actresses, but the productions we did were terrific.

Our high school, Cleveland Heights, was in deep trouble, going through a transitional period. It was a mixed school, and there were problems. Yet we could turn out wonderful musicals.

The neighborhood had become older, and these older citizens don't want to vote for school levies. But we changed a lot of their opinions. Our productions were so good, they would always be sold out, and we played multiple performances. People would walk into the school and they'd see a different breed of kid -- not like what they had read about in the newspaper. All kinds of things happened with that which were really satisfying.

Also, my daughter is a graduate drama director, and a good one. When I would direct in this area, she'd come in and help me with a lot of things. I was an acting major, she was a directing major -- and she taught me so much.

CONCLUSION: Passing On the Torch

FG: What's the one big change in tax policy you'd like to see?

RUBINFIELD: That would have to be the death tax -- I think it's outrageous. Talk about discrimination. You work hard in your life and you make money, paying your taxes all along the way -- why should you then have to give up [all or most of your assets]? Nobody ever addresses that. But it's absolutely unfair.

FG: The estate tax was put in 60 years ago under the New Deal to stop concentrations of [inherited economic] power. But it's never been indexed for inflation, and it hasn't been raised since 1981. The exemption is $600,000 now. Would you take it up to $2 million?

RUBINFIELD: Whatever it should go to. Maybe do it by percentage. The death tax now is something like 57%. That should not be. If they have to charge something, make it 20%. Still, you have already paid taxes [on most of that wealth]. And to have your heirs -- usually your children -- [then] pay 50% or higher? There's nothing left! There's nothing left.

FG: This is why most family businesses don't go into their third generation [of ownership].

RUBINFIELD: If the government went after all the corporations and all the people who evade taxes the way they do, they'd garner a lot more money than [they do under] this death-tax system. When my husband died, they didn't even give you $600,000. And -- this really is discrimination -- they took my homeowners' policy [after] I worked all my life with my husband. Now, he drew the major salary, I drew a very minor salary. Never got a raise [laughter] -- until he died.

FG: And that was because of a promotion!

RUBINFIELD: Yeah [laughter], right. But they said everything on the policy and in the home belonged to him, and [as part of the estate must be] taxed. I was furious. And I fought it, until finally they gave me a little bit of a break. But not much. I ended up owning, I think, 20% of what was there.

That was under a different law. Today it's a little fairer because of spousal exemptions. The taxes, I don't think they get involved where there's a spouse. But I have no spouse -- [so the assets after the estate tax would] go to my children. And it concerns me greatly: I have to worry about dying. Why should I be worrying about dying?

FG: You shouldn't -- not if your dad lived to be 98.

RUBINFIELD: Yeah, well, that is a positive. But the tax consequences, the longer I live, are not.

FG: But you do need to worry about succession at some point.

RUBINFIELD: Well, this business will be sold. No question about it. My children are not interested, plus they live far away. So it will be sold. Maybe it should be sold now, because now is when it's really good. Who knows what shape it will be in 10 years from now?

I keep saying 10 years -- [retirement is] always 10 years away. But I'm gonna keep working because I love it, and because it's good for me. Even so, the tax situation, whether now or then, probably isn't looking any better. If we're even more successful, the government gets even more that they shouldn't get -- because of all the taxes already paid on what we've done. It's double taxation.

You ask me what I'd want out of government -- there's my issue.

© 1996, 2005 by Iris R. Rubinfield

All rights reserved. The transcript published above has been reprinted and edited by Gregorsky Editorial Services (FrankGregorsky@aol.com) for educational purposes only and with the express permission of Iris R. Rubinfield, as conveyed by fax on 3/8/05. Neither Mrs. Rubinfield nor Master Manufacturing Company Inc. is affiliated in any way with Gregorsky Editorial Services and neither Mrs. Rubinfield nor Master Manufacturing Company Inc. is in any way responsible for any editorial content or other information (apart from this one document) appearing in any literature or publication (whether print, electronic or other form) created, compiled or edited by Gregorsky Editorial Services and/or its affiliated companies, or for any links that are found on this or any other website associated with Gregorsky Editorial Services.