By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Kevin Marmion's resume speaks volumes about his employer.

Though he is just 56-years-old, the president of William S. Hein & Co. is celebrating 40-years with the only employer he has ever known. It is the quintessential tale of climbing the corporate ladder. A Buffalo kid takes a part-time high school job and rises from the loading dock to the president's office and along the way helps grow the Buffalo legal publisher into an international force in the world of legal printing.

Marmion says the second-generation family business - owner Bill Hein Jr's dad started the company in his garage in 1961, though with acquisitions of one of their competitors, the company has roots dating back 80 years - has been an employee-centered place to work since he began and he never saw a reason to go elsewhere.

"We have owners who truly believe the only reason they are making money is because of the employees working for them," he said. It is a belief that Marmion and Hein say is the cornerstone of their operation and one that has allowed them to survive and prosper through several turbulent periods in the publishing business.

"When we started, we basically found books around the world that people needed, bought them from one law library and sold them to another," Marmion said. "From there we went into reprinting because the demand for the books was exceeding the supply." It was the first of what would be several "reinventions" of the business as the demand for books was replaced by microfilm in the 1980s and online access in the 1990s. Through it all, Marmion says the core strategy of the company has been to center the business around hiring and keeping the best employees they can find.

"We look for people of high character. We want people who we feel fit into this climate, who want a long-term job," he said. "We feel that if you are a hard worker, if you are a good character person and you take pride in what you do, we can teach you the job."

Marmion says as the business has grown, management has worked to maintain the family atmosphere that he sees as paramount to their success. That includes a fierce loyalty to long-term employees, even when that loyalty comes with a price tag.

"In order to keep long-term employees you have to value the person," he says. Marmion points to the shift in demand at the start of the Internet boom that found less need for bookbinders and printers and more demand for data entry workers to scan and input books for the web. It was a watershed moment for the company.

"It would have been much better for us to go get some Internet kids rather than try to train employees who had very little computer skills but it's the commitment to the value of the company that keeps things the way they are," he said. "If you don't show loyalty to your employees, how can you expect your employees to be loyal to you?"

Principal players: In addition to Marmion, who took over as president of the company in 1996, the company has three owners. William S. Hein Jr. is chairman of the board, Susan McClinton serves as vice president/treasurer and Bonnie Morton is vice president/secretary.

Core business: William S. Hein & Co. supply books to high-volume legal libraries ranging from public and private universities to local law firms such as Phillips Lytle LLP as well as the United Nations and the Supreme Court. It also provides online content through Hein Online.

"Today, we have 4,000 major accounts, 1,500 larger libraries and we are connected in over 150 countries," Marmion says. As part of the continual evolution of the business, the company operates HeinOnline, which Marmion credits with driving the company's international growth.

"We now have about 56 million pages online and we can connect that into an office and bring a Harvard Law-type library into a smaller institute," he says.

Employees: The company employs 85 people, including many friends and relatives. Among the vice-presidents are Marmion's son Shane, who oversees the online operations, and Shannon Hein, a third-generation Hein.

"Most places, they say it's not good (to employ family members), but we feel the best thing is to have people committed to your organization," Marmion said. "If people see you have a common goal for them and their families, they stay committed to your organization. If you don't breathe that into everything that you do, you can't sell it to people and you end up with workers who are there to build a place on their resume."

Hein says since taking over from his father in 1976, he has operated under a more flexible model of incorporating the employees into the decision-making process.

"If you have more of an open mind and listen more to your employees, you'll get great things," he said. "We are always looking for new ideas from them. They are the ones doing it day-to-day and a lot of times, they know better than management what we need."

Revenues: Between $32 and $33 million annually. Marmion says $10-12 million comes from the sales on online products, $3-4 million from microfilm sales, and the remainder from traditional print materials. He says the shift from print to online offered a major boost to the bottom line.

"The front end is still there with the online, but on the backside, there are no mailing costs, no return costs, it is much more profitable." What's next: With much of the 100,000 square foot main building that used to house a sea of legal tomes sitting empty, its former occupants long-ago scanned into computers and stored online, Hein says he is considering moving the company out of the building it has occupied since 1971. As for the core business, Marmion says he scoffs at the notion that a decline in demand for books will spell the end of the company.

"Publishing is never about just putting something on a page and printing it, anybody can do that," he said. "It's the value add, the delivery and the marketing that makes the difference. As long as we keep evolving our technology and products, we feel like we can compete with anybody."