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Tell your story in your own words with Business Profiles 2009.
Click here to get more information regarding how to tell your story.
Welcome to the WBJ’s Business Profiles 2008
Our business readers love to find out about other firms — about what they do, and the people behind the products or services. That’s why we developed this third annual special issue of Business Profiles. In the world of business-to-business that we live in, this publication is aimed at answering a very common question “What does that organization do, and what does it mean to me?”
The 36 successful companies telling their stories in this sponsored issue didn’t get where they are by chance. When you read through the stories here, you’ll notice some common themes: These organizations often go out of their way to develop and nurture their customers. They develop a holistic approach to the customer’s needs, offering planning solutions as well as a product or service. They balance just-in-time service with a long-term outlook that is sensitive to the business cycles or life stages of their customers. And many have very deep roots in their communities.
The companies you’ll read about in this issue have taken the time to tell their stories — how they started — and the strategies they’ve relied on to grow their businesses in our vibrant marketplace. Read this issue and you’ll discover a whole lot more about these companies and the products and services that make them leaders in their respective niches.
There’s another thing about our region that is embodied in the companies’ stories — long-term relationships with their customers and each other. You’ll see it in profile after profile — business partners who knew each other for years before taking the plunge and going into business together. Close-knit family businesses bringing on the youngest generation. And, older management partners serving as mentors to their young crews, showing them the ropes in a variety of demanding business sectors. In Central Massachusetts, the mantra that relationships are the key to business has been a reality for a long, long time.
The production of this issue has been a true team effort. Project Manager Paul Della Valle and his freelance business writers Brain Goslow, Phyllis Hanlon, Tayrn Plumb, Emily Roche, Karen Sharpe and Sara Withee helped the Profile companies tell their stories in words. Photographers Ron Bouley, Edd Cote and Frederick Peck helped them tell their stories in pictures. Our marketing team, led by Business Profiles Project Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, has assembled an impressive roster of companies. And our chief designer, Kira Beaudoin, with the help of Julie Jepsen, has created a clean and attractive look that showcases the best that our Business Profiles companies have to offer.
I hope you enjoy the issue, and that you find a few companies in these pages where you say, “We should be doing business with them.”
Peter Stanton
Publisher
Below is a list of our 2008 participating companies
Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center
Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts
Doubletree Hotel Boston/Westborough
Martin Luther King Jr. Business Empowerment Center
New England Business Media LLC.
Quinsigamond Community College
Sterling National Country Club