Madden Family Evolves Businesses with Innovation
In March of 2003, Ken Madden, Class of '85, got the greatest compliment of his career. His family's employment agency, Madden Industrial Craftsmen, Inc. (MICI), was rated as one of The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon.
Not only did MICI make the list, it made the Top 10 - placing No. 8 among small businesses surveyed by Oregon Business magazine. The stellar ranking was no fluke. MICI made the list again in 2005 (ranked No. 30) and again this year (No. 23).
What makes this so surprising and gratifying to Ken Madden is that his family-owned, family-run business is a temporary employment agency. MICI matches a pool of 2,000 skilled workers - electricians, carpenters, welders, millwrights and other blue-collar specialists - with the ever-changing needs of industrial, construction and wood products companies.
Mad Fab
The staffing business grew out of the Madden family's original general contracting business, which supplied repair crews for the timber industry in the 1980s. That first business also spawned Madden Fabrication, Inc. (www.madfab.com) in north Portland, led by Ken's younger brother Greg. "Mad Fab" has evolved into a specialty metals shop that counts billionaire investor Warren Buffet as a client. (Buffet buys corrosion resistant valves for an experimental geothermal plant in California's Mojave Desert.)
Obviously Innovative
The secret to MICI's popularity is great benefits. MICI offers a suite of benefits that would make some salaried employees envious, including health insurance, dental coverage, paid holidays, paid vacations, retirement investments and even college scholarships for children of employees, past and present. Such benefits are a rarity in the temporary employment industry, which has at times served as a benefits dodge.
"We definitely buck the trend," Ken said. "We are so different. When I go to staffing conferences and tell them what we offer, sometimes they give me the third eye."
Having grown up in a union contracting tradition, the family never doubted that offering benefits was the right thing to do.
"We didn't start as a temp agency," Ken explained. "We started as a general contractor. We were even in a union. After about five years, we realized we had found our niche. We wanted employees to see working for us as a long-term option. You can't keep good, qualified workers unless you offer benefits."
The real business challenge was finding top-notch employees who would command the premium fees that would support the benefits package.
"If you were to compare us to other staffing agencies," Ken explained, "we don't compete on price. We provide skilled, high-end industrial employees. We're not hiring just anybody who comes through our door. We interview, screen and administer skills tests. We charge more for that."
Many of MICI's employees are fishermen, hunters and travelers who want more time than allowed by the standard 10-day American vacation. Once, a business requested an electrician with troubleshooting experience. They wanted the best. The journeyman electrician MICI sent them turned out to be the author of the troubleshooting text book on the client's bookshelf. The electrician, a recognized authority in his field, works part time for MICI in order to have time to write.
Pressed for Success
The seed for Madden family businesses was planted in 1971 when Ron, Ken's father, was transferred to Oregon by General Electric. He and his wife, Isabelle, fell in love with the state and started a dry cleaning business to provide a financial anchor. For 15 years Isabelle and her sons - Paul, Ken and Greg - worked the dry cleaners, while Ron launched the contracting and staffing businesses.
"Dad was great at starting things and then slipping out…a typical manager," said Ken. "He has entrepreneur make-up and doesn't recognize it. He never stops to smell the roses."
By high school, the boys were getting a diversified on-the-job business education.
"I started when I was 10," Ken recalled, "We had to do everything, so I learned to work on the equipment. I wrote up orders, worked the register, fixed frozen pipes in the rafters and changed washer belts. But more than anything, it taught me to work with my family and how to get along. It taught us how to specialize but still work together."
After graduating from OSU's College of Business, Ken worked as a sales representative for specialty food supplier S.E. Rykoff, then came back to the family to manage MICI's booming business while Paul, Ken's older brother, set up the accounting control systems for the corporation and Greg expanded Madden Fabrication.
Employee Clients
As head of a family business, it would be easy for Ken to attribute his success to "treating employees like family," but he doesn't.
"I think of our employees as clients," Ken explained during the interview. "I have two bosses - our business clients and the employees we place."
Hearing that, father Ron leans across the table and corrects him. "Three," he says. "You have three bosses," indicating himself.
Everyone laughs. It is a glimpse of the humor and good natured camaraderie that has carried the family through difficult times - like the time they won a huge Boeing contract that almost crushed the fledgling company, or the time at Crater Lake when brother Greg - on his first job - found their materials buried deep under snow, or the time they had to build a screening wall out of seamless tubes for the Tri-Met North Terminal in Portland. After winning the Tri-Met contract, they discovered that no one made tubing long enough to meet the "seamless" requirement.
"When we brought it to Tri-Met's attention, they just said 'Figure it out.'" Ken recalled. "It was a family crisis. The business was still young. The family was still young. Cash flow was an issue, so instead of taking a loss on the project, the whole family pulled together. We got together down at the Fab shop on the weekends, eating chicken out of a bucket until we found a way to hide the seams with Bondo. When they were painted, you couldn't see the seam."
Austin Family Business Program
In 1998 MICI was honored by OSU's Austin Family Business Program for its success as a family business. Networking with other family businesses, Ken has found many similarities, regardless of product or service. He is a charter member of a Portland Affinity Group for family businesses.
"We are all at different stages of our life," Ken said of the other members. "Some are just out of college, some are learning about the business, and others are older and taking over the business."
Next Generation
Looking back over the growth of her boys and the family businesses, Isabelle sums up the family's sentiment. "It has been nice. We solve our problems together, each one helping the others. It's like it was when they were younger. We pull together, and somebody always solves the problem."
Now the grandchildren are joining the business, picking up summer jobs and learning the ropes as they prepare to shape the future of the Madden family businesses. | 
