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Shap Talk

JoC  Week Publication of the Journal of Commerce September 2-8, 2002 by Bob Edmonson

Moving on, and up

When the Philadelphia advertising firm she was working for named her most-valued employee of the year, "I thought it's time to move on," Marjorie Shapiro says. "I didn't feel challenged."

In 1991, Shapiro decided to spend the rest of her career at the family firm, the Baltimore-based customs brokerage Samuel Shapiro & Co. Her only stipulation was that she didn't have to leave Philadelphia, so her father, M. Sigmund "Sig" Shapiro, told her to open a branch office there.

Last March, Sig Shapiro named Marjorie, now 38, as chief executive of the company, the third generation of the family to head the business. The promotion pushed her into a small circle of women in the customs-brokerage business. Traditionally it's been male-only, although there are more women in the business now than there were a few years ago. There are still only a few who are top executives, and even fewer who are third-generation customs brokers.

Marjorie Shapiro, along with her older sister and brother, grew up in the family business. "All of us worked summers. When I was 10 or 12, my father would bring home checks - people still paid in paper checks then - and I'd have to put them in order at the dining room table," she recalls.

Her sister, Rosellen, worked in sales at Shapiro & Co. before leaving to raise a family. Her brother, Robert, also worked for the company before deciding to attend law school. He is now an attorney in Washington, and the firm's corporate attorney.

"I was the one child who rebelled," Marjorie says. After graduating from high school, she decided to attend the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a degree in psychology, and began her advertising career, but after five years, she felt the tug of the family business.

"It's amazing how many people don't know this business exists. It's a business where you learn something new every day," she says. "Anyone who gets in and gets their hands around it won't get out."

She gauged her progress in Philadelphia against the Shapiro & Co. office in Norfolk, Va. which had opened a year earlier. "My dad said that my goal was to get five shipments a day. I would go home every night and count." Within a year, the Philadelphia office was showing a profit.

"She made money from Day 1," Sig Shapiro says. After a few years in Philadelphia, he appointed Marjorie as executive vice president. "Margie's an achiever. When the job has to get done, it gets done." Since taking over as chief executive - her father remains chairman - Shapiro has improved company profits and won the loyalty of employees and customers.

"Our focus is on customer service," Marjorie Shapiro says. "We're a smaller company, we can accomplish excellent customer service, with a focus on compliance." She says the company takes pride in its compliance department. Shapiro & Co. recently offered a series of compliance seminars in Atlanta and Baltimore.

Shapiro says that the industry has grown complicated, and 'it's getting exceedingly more complicated, because of the whole world situation." Since last Sept. 11, the industry is a scarier place than it used to be - everyone is living with the specter of a sea container blowing up, she said.

The new environment and the soft economy means Shapiro & Co. will stick to its core operations in the near future, rather than expanding into new lines of business. "We need to perfect what we have going," Shapiro says. Branching out is not the thing to do right now."

Despite automation and importer informed compliance, Shapiro says importers will continue to need customs brokers. "There will always be a place for brokers. They can facilitate imports, and they can provide information that customers would have to get from an attorney," she said. "Brokers have the knowledge at a lot cheaper cost. This allows you to guide the customer." For her, there is always the challenge of the job.

An example: "I had a customer call me and ask what he had to do to import frozen ostrich carcasses. I looked into it, and it involved Customs, USDA, Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Food & Drug Administration." Too complicated for the would-be importer, but Shapiro says she learned something from the research.

"My goal is to have every day be this way. It's important to feel inspired - daily. Life is too short."