2010 Business Leaders of the Year
In my career I’ve had the opportunity to work for some great leaders and, let’s be honest, some not-so-great leaders (I won’t be naming names here). What I’ve learned from the people who fall into both those groups is this: It’s really hard to lead.
And when I use the word “lead,” I mean more than just calling a monthly staff meeting. I mean lead in the sense of inspiring a group of people to move toward a common goal of excellence and achievement.
It’s pretty easy to hide in a corner office and only come out for air during the annual meeting. But to be actively engaged in a business, to be the figure head that energizes a room full of employees and sets clients at ease, is a skill not easily taught.
But if you could bottle leadership and repackage it for consumption by the masses, you might want to take samples from the individuals and companies profiled within this very special edition of the Worcester Business Journal.
That’s because each of the four honorees profiled as part of our annual Business Leaders and Corporate Citizen of the Year awards have those often sought-after qualities.
Fundamentally, what each of the business leaders profiled share is a passion for their businesses. Take Jack Healy, our Nonprofit Business Leader of the Year, who after years of working in private industry, now devotes his time to helping spread the gospel of lean manufacturing throughout the Northeast. There is probably no better advocate for common sense business smarts in manufacturing than Healy. And when he speaks about keeping manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts, there is a light in his eyes that speaks to his devotion to our industrial roots as a region and as a nation.
And then we have one of the great old-line Worcester manufacturers, Morgan Construction, which we’ve selected as our Corporate Citizen of the Year. As Philip Morgan tells it, the company’s devotion to doing right by employees as well as by the community, stretches back generations, and will only continue under its new ownership, Siemens VAI.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have eClinicalWorks, a relatively young company run by Girish Kumar Navani, our Big Business Leader of the Year. He’s surrounded himself with a talented group of executives who have helped him take his little electronic medical records onto the national stage and into consecutive years of revenue growth and profitability.
And finally we have Frank Carroll, the founder and chairman of the Worcester-based Small Business Service Bureau and our Entrepreneur of the Year. Every inch the entrepreneur, Carroll has been a tireless advocate for the little guy. His passion for his work is so infectious, his family, including a son and daughter, have followed him into the business and taken on leadership roles themselves.
We’ve enjoyed getting to know our honorees this year and we hope you enjoy reading their stories.
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