Cover: Top Growth - All sectors on deck

Find a need and fill it. That long-standing recipe for success could be the motto of most of the companies and organizations on our Top Growth list. It’s far from the glory days of the dot-com boom, where investors threw money at all sorts of endeavors in fear that they’d miss the Next Big Thing. The companies on this year’s list have paved their way to success with varying combinations of hard work, forethought, and imagination - and many of them stress the importance of relationship-building.

You’ll find this year’s Top Growth Companies feature to be different than prior years. We simplified our evaluation process to rank simply on revenue growth over the past three most recently completed fiscal years, rather than factoring in employee growth and asking for profit/loss parameters. That’s because we’ve seen a significant number of growing companies that keep their workforce numbers steady while generating revenue growth. A look at our charts will tell the tale. The takeaway lesson: increased headcounts don’t always equate growth. It’s having the right heads in the count that makes the difference.

Simplifying the criteria had another benefit: it opened up the portals for more companies that are willing to disclose top line revenue but are protective of their bottom line.

We feature 50 companies and organizations in this year’s Top Growth feature, all ranked by three-year revenue growth. Among them: the top 25 private companies, the top 15 public companies and the top 10 nonprofits. As always with a project such as this, in which participation by private companies is voluntary, we’re aware that there are many more growing companies in our region which would easily make the list, but which choose not to reveal their numbers.

We profile five of these companies in this issue, starting on page 20. The rest also have good stories to tell, and you’ll be seeing more of them in future issues.

Last but not least, we are honoring the Top Growth Companies of Central Massachusetts with a ceremony and reception to be held November 16 in Westboro at the Doubletree Westborough, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. A panel discussion on how to manage and sustain growth will be followed by an awards ceremony. The event is sponsored by Clark University’s Graduate School of Management, Sovereign Bank, and Penta Communications. To attend, RSVP by November 10 to 508-755-8004 x 270. We look forward to seeing you there.

Top Private Companies of 2006 (PDF)

Five top growth companies share their success secrets

Enterprise Cleaning Corp.

340 Main St., Worcester 01608

Industry: Commercial cleaning service

Founded: 2003

Rank: #1

There’s nothing high tech about what Enterprise does, but it is a high-touch industry. The management structure, put in place by Buchalter and carried out by employees, has a well-defined chain of command which empowers and rewards those willing to work harder than average. Staff is salaried, not hourly, and cleaners can graduate to building supervisors and then, to area managers. The extra attention to employee development and management seems to be paying off.

The company has grown, in the space of the past 18 months, from 35 employees cleaning 23 buildings, to 85 employees cleaning more than 90 buildings. But starting up wasn’t easy at first, Buchalter recalls. As 2003 began, he’d just left a cleaning company which he’d helped grow from $750,000 to $6.8 million in five years. Now, he was at zero all over again. The first big account came in six months after Enterprise launched; soon after, the company had secured contracts for four of downtown Worcester’s biggest office buildings.

Cleaning is an intensely competitive business because it is so easy to get into, but Enterprise competes on service rather than price. Buchalter’s development of his support staff frees him to spend more time on business development.

The biggest challenge he faces, he says, is to find the right mix of managers. Those he initially hired who didn’t share his vision of the company parted ways, he says. Now, he tells new hires that Enterprise is a career-oriented company and that they have the opportunity to move into management. "I’ve learned that people will respect you more and work hard when they know they’re appreciated and that their work is appreciated," he says.

– By Christina P. O’Neill

Accounting Management Solutions Inc.

1400 Computer Dr., Westboro 01581

Industry: Outsourced financial services

Founded: 1998

Rank: #3

James Bourdon’s company has grown because its employees work at other organizations. Some of them rarely, if ever, see their home office. His company, Accounting Management Solutions, makes "outsourcing" a good word. It also makes it into a growth market. As more companies look to outside help to control their overhead and concentrate on their core businesses, AMS’ client list has exploded from 50-60 accounts four years ago to 250 in 2005.

The company bases its core business in providing third-party CFOs and other financial support staff. AMS had been a solid business since its inception but in about 2002 to 2003, it had plateaued out at about $1.3 million, Bourdon relates. Its growth path since then is the result of a scalable business strategy in which he took the risk of hiring several middle-managers who could do what he did. Some worked out and some didn’t, but the ones who did have flourished, he says. The result: 120 percent annual growth in the first two years. The current year is relatively slow with 40 percent growth, but he expects the pace to pick up again in 2007 and 2008 for another doubling in size.

AMS serves several distinct client categories and provides specialized personnel for each. Clients are private, public, non-profit and emerging small businesses.

"Sarbanes-Oxley has been good to us, but it hasn’t been the sole catalyst of our growth," Bourdon says. "It’s been the frosting." The company has seen growth in every business category it targets because it adds value. "If you’re simply closing the books, after a while [clients] look at you as a commodity," he says. But AMS employees constantly look for ways to improve the client’s business.

AMS has also been able to tap a valued employee market that wants to work part-time and as-needed. But don’t, advises Bourdon, call them "temps." Even the company’s part-timers have benefits, vacations and career paths. And the intention is that they stay AMS employees; the temporary to permanent staffer is not the AMS model. In fact, the company discourages clients from hiring its staff.

This year, AMS invested in infrastructure and training, and brought in more managers to support its growth and prepare for the next wave. "There’s a lot of energy here right now," Bourdon says. "Everyone wants to be part of a winning team."

– By Christina P. O’Neill

Z Resource Group

69 Milk Street, Westboro

Industry: Executive search and

recruitment

Founded: 1999

Rank: #4

When dealing with human capital, investing wisely has the same payoff as a carefully purchased share of stock: a proven track record of success and an exhaustive analysis of strengths and weaknesses often yield favorable results.

That’s the mindset of Ken Vancini, managing partner and founder of Westboro-based Z Resource Group, an executive search, consulting and advisory firm. Vancini saw a need to provide more in-depth data collection for companies looking to fill high-level executive positions. Revenues hit $2.9 million in 2005 despite the fact that it’s not run on a commission basis, making its growth from $750,000 in 1999 even more impressive.

Executive search firms rule the recruitment roost, catering to the area’s biggest financial and tech sector players. But Z Resource Group isn’t a head-hunting firm. Its search tactics go above and beyond blast emails to dozens of candidates. Search and placement often takes four to six weeks from start to finish. When a recent Boston Globe article revealed that most jobs are won on personality, Vancini realized the important role his company plays.

"We match the candidate up according to company DNA," he says. "Personality has something to do with it, but there have to be other skills associated with the selection process."

Z Resource Group was born of necessity. Vancini cites a pattern of experienced search consultants leaving large search agencies to start home-based outfits. They created a market of "searchers going into business, not business people going into searching." The latter is how Z Resource Group operates, with Vancini and partner Larry Hartmann creating a team of professionals with years of experience in the industries for which their clients seek qualified candidates. The patent-pending Z Score process includes a candidate book with a summary, resume and job match score - how close the individual came to matching the client’s qualifications. The end results are better odds that the person selected is the right fit, with a higher possibility of employee retention.

With repeat customers accounting for 85 percent of Z Resource Group’s business, Vancini says that business development efforts are kept to a minimum. The firm also maintains the policy that if an ideal candidate can’t be found, they won’t take the search job. In an industry with a low rate of successful placements, Z Resource Group’s positive growth is no accident.

"We’re a different breed," says Vancini.

– By Jeffrey T. Lavery

FIBA Technologies Inc.

1535 Grafton Rd., Millbury

Industry: Specialty manufacturing

and service

Founded: 1958

Rank: #9

FIBA’s growth in revenue and employees is expected to continue this year. With offices in Kentucky, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, FIBA is hiring another 30 now, and Finn expects to add another 20 to 30 in 2007.

FIBA has come a long way since it was started by Finn’s father, Frank Finn, in 1958 as a gas distribution company. In 1978, the company began building trailers to transport compressed gases and emerged as a top provider in that niche. It purchased the tanks from a Pennsylvania company and incorporated them in its products. In 2004, after moving its headquarters from Westboro to Millbury, FIBA launched its own tank manufacturing process. It’s now one of only two such manufacturers in the nation. It now dominates the high-pressure vessel and trailer niche, with 50 percent of the market worldwide, according to Finn.

Bob Iverson, president of Springfield-based Ivey Industries, which sells gases for manufacturing, has relied on FIBA for gas storage and transportation equipment for more than 20 years. He says FIBA Is easy to work with and its added manufacturing capabilities provide a much-needed increase in available gas storage equipment. Megan Kujawa, a materials engineer at Montana-based REC Silicon, which provides silane gas to electronics manufacturers, adds that FIBA provides the engineer support, "can-do" attitude and attention to detail her company wants to insure safe storage and transport of that volatile gas.

Finn expects FIBA’s business, which includes the industrial gas and chemical markets as well as diving and exploration, to continue to increase. FIBA is also doing R& D work on containers for hydrogen fueling stations which require extremely high-pressure tolerances. "We want to be one of the foundation companies in the alternative fuel market," he says.

– By Micky Baca

Coghlin Cos. Inc.

17 Briden St, Worcester

Industry: Maufacturing services for electronic, medical and clinical sectors

Founded: 1992

Rank: #21

of this manufacturing services firm: Selectivity and diversity, says Columbia Tech President Chris-topher Coghlin.

Selectivity refers to the way Columbia Tech and DCI Engineering - the two halves of the Coghlin Cos. Inc. - pick their partners. There’s diversity in the range of industries those customers occupy, and the range of services Coghlin Cos. offers. Both strategies have helped the company increase sales by 50 percent between 2003 and 2005, and increase the number of employees from 160 to 278, with more growth expected.

"People wonder how we’ve been successful when all the statistics say manufacturing is on decline from off-shore competition," he says. "We focus on companies with burgeoning technology and intellectual property who don’t necessarily want to share that with an international manufacturer."

With 241 employees, Columbia Tech is the by far larger piece of the company. The firm specializes in manufacturing small to medium volumes of electronic products or subsystems for medical and clinical devices, homeland security devices, wireless devices, and a myriad of other products.

It functions as a virtual extension of an assembly line and can take a company’s product all the way from design to final shipment. Since firms are increasingly averse to building their own bricks-and-mortar factories, partnering with Columbia Tech is an attractive option for businesses looking for design and manufacturing expertise - but without the overhead.

The Central Mass. location plays a very important role, says Coghlin. "We’re in an area where there are a tremendous number of startup companies and that business model especially involves using a company like Columbia Tech to take a product to the masses," he says. And the close proximity to Interstates 290 and 495 give easy access for suppliers, customers and employees.

The company is betting its growth will continue, having recently completed state of the art upgrades at its Briden St. headquarters. Across the street at its 104 Prescott St factory, the company is renovating and installing two automated circuit board assembly lines.

"We have created a place that is one-stop shopping for product development, optimization, manufacturing and fulfillment and we think we have created something very special here," says Coghlin. If its growth is any indicator, his customers seem to agree.

–By Kenneth St. Onge