Although Ravel Technology is literally keeping litter out of landfills, Massachusetts can be a hard place to do business – even for a good corporate citizen. By the end of the year, Bay State businesses with 11 or more employees must pay a "fair share" of the cost of employee health care. Ravel Technology is too small to hit this threshold, but still plans to provide health insurance for its handful of full-time workers. The company's part-time staff includes several clients from Berkshire Family and Individual Resources (BFAIR), an organization which provides vocational services to people with disabilities. Success stories include that of a man with physical limitations whose strong phone voice made him a natural for telephone sales.
Modern Art and Kevlar
Like many small businesses, Ravel Technology is affected by decisions made at the local and national levels. Locally, the company is part of a community which now favors tourism over manufacturing. Although North Adams was once the home of Sprague Electric, the Tunnel City now houses the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). Indeed, a quick check of the city's directory reveals a Mayor's Office of Tourism and Cultural Development, but not a department of Industrial Development. Nationally, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped drive up the cost of Kevlar, a DuPont-made material that is also used in personal protection apparel.
Today, the greatest challenges that face Ravel Technology may come not from the future, but from the past. From its location at the intersection of Massachusetts and Protection Avenues, the young company cannot escape history. During the 1890s, textile towns like North Adams clamored for "protection", a metaphor for high tariffs that would protect nascent industries against foreign manufacturers. Now, over 100 years later, companies like Ravel Technology need protection from New England's own industrial past.
An Indelible Past
Years ago, the building that Ravel Technology now occupies belonged to the Miller Paper Co. The business next door, a family-owned print shop, bought its paper there. Unfortunately, the printer's legacy may be more than just a vacant building. From what Kennedy has been told, used ink may have been dumped out back. Today, as Ravel Technology plans to expand its operations, annexing the printing company's lot isn't a matter of black and white. Mindful of his vendor's problems with the state's environmental regulators, Kennedy worries about having to pay for someone else's mess.
Next month, Ed Kennedy and Debbie MacDougall will leave autumn in New England for the shimmering lights of Las Vegas. There, at their company's first trade show exhibit, Kennedy and MacDougall will showcase various industrial products – and maybe even the Toaster Pocket® Sandwich Maker, a Teflon-based toaster accessory which Jane Pauley once favored on The Today Show. Later, when they return to North Adams, the co-owners of Ravel Technology will face many of the same challenges that are endemic to small businesses. They'll also have to face the legacy of New England's industrial past, and decisions about whether to keep their company in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Part 1 of this story is already here, right here on CR4.
Additional Resources:
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/lowrhe.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20255585/
http://www.bfair.org/
http://northadams.boxcarmedia.com/index.php?nav_id=66
Steve Melito - The Y Files
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Re: Tough as Teflon: Ravel Technology (Part 2)
