5th Annual 2015 Business Excellence Awards
Annual 2015 International Business Awards
Business Awards Winners
Fastest Growing Private Companies in America
Customer Base Growth
Gold Winners
United Credit Consultants (Burnsville, MN USA – 11 – 99 Employees) Growth: 79.01% Industry: Consumer Products and Services
Motive Interactive (San Diego, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees) Growth: 62.29% Industry: Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
The Cambridge Institute of International Education (Waltham, MA USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) Growth: 40.22% Industry: Consulting
iCIMS, Inc. (Matawan, NJ USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 29.81% Industry: Human Resources
Alliance Health, LLC (Sandy, UT USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 23.92% Industry: Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, & Biotech
Partners and Distribution Growth
Gold Winner
The Cambridge Institute of International Education (Waltham, MA USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) Growth: 40.00% Industry: Consulting
People Growth
Gold Winners
The Cambridge Institute of International Education (Waltham, MA USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) Growth: 195.47% Industry: Consulting
N3 (Atlanta, GA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 156.79% Industry: Consulting
Alliance Health, LLC (Sandy, UT USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 60.46% Industry: Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, & Biotech
PureCars (Charleston, SC USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 50.00% Industry: Internet/Cloud Computing
iCIMS, Inc. (Matawan, NJ USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 41.30% Industry: Human Resources
The Vertex Companies, Inc. (Weymouth, MA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth 18.28% Industry: Consulting
PR and Marketing Growth
Gold Winner
HighPoint Global (Indianapolis, IN USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 150,000.00% Industry: Business Products and Services
Products and Services Growth
Gold Winner
Catalogic Software (Woodcliff Lake, NJ USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 50% Industry: Information Technology Software
Profits Growth
Gold Winner
The Cambridge Institute of International Education (Waltham, MA USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) Growth: 58.73% Industry: Consulting
Motive Interactive (San Diego, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees) Growth: 39.01% Industry: Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
Madwire (Loveland, CO USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 36.64% Industry: Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
Rise Interactive (Chicago, IL USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 12.30% Industry: Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
Revenue per Employee Growth
Gold Winner
Motive Interactive (San Diego, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees) Growth: 7.66% Industry: Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
Sales Revenue Growth
Gold Winner
United Credit Consultants (Burnsville, MN USA – 11 – 99 Employees) Growth: 105.23% Industry: Consumer Products and Services
PureCars (Charleston, SC USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 67.77% Industry: Internet/Cloud Computing
Alliance Health, LLC (Sandy, UT USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 51.87% Industry: Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, & Biotech
iCIMS, Inc. (Matawan, NJ USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 34.82% Industry: Human Resources
The Vertex Companies, Inc. (Weymouth, MA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 24.29% Industry: Consulting
Marathon Data Systems (Neptune, NJ USA – 100 – 499 Employees) Growth: 23.04% Industry: Cloud Computing/SaaS
IST Management Services (Atlanta, GA USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) Growth: 10.77% Industry: Business Products and Services
Motive Interactive (San Diego, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees) Growth: 5.85% Industry: Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
ADVICE FROM TOP EXECUTIVES
My advice is to follow a merit-based philosophy driven by two important mandates: 1) Do right by the customer, and 2) Do right by the company’s reputation. While this may not be the fastest way to build a company, it’s the best way to match passion and drive with integrity, which leads to long-term sustainability as the ultimate reward for doing what’s right for the long run. At the end of the day, revenue is just revenue, but reputation becomes the lifeblood of future success. Today, iCIMS is now the second-largest provider of talent acquisition software in the United States for U.S. companies with 100 or more employees.
Colin Day, President and Chief Executive Officer – iCIMS, Inc.
Private companies can drive sustainable growth over time by focusing on improvements in four key areas. The first is developing and communicating a clear vision that aligns directly with the target market on which your company and/or product is focused. The best way to do this is to take an “outside-in” approach, spending a great deal of time truly understanding the key pain points and needs of your target market. Once you understand those needs, you can align your product management and engineering resources tightly around building a product that solves these problems, and your sales and marketing resources around messaging that resonates in market. Secondly, hire and develop great people with a passion for delivering the solution you’ve outlined in your vision. No matter what you do as a company, your success or failure stems from the quality of people you have at your side to help you execute your vision. The third is to deliver clear communication, ensuring that each and every person understands and retains the vision, direction and focus of the company. Finally, sustained growth requires a balance of execution capabilities, both in terms of product maturity and organizational performance with sales/marketing efforts. Firm alignment of the sales/marketing investment with execution capability will yield effective and efficient growth in the long run of a company. This has been a key factor in Marathon profitably growing our top line by over four times in the last six years.
Chris Sullens, President and CEO – Marathon Data Systems
Invest in digital inbound marketing, where you see the highest ROI. Roll 7-15% of gross monthly sales back into your monthly marketing budget. This will propel continual growth. I think many companies fail to continually invest enough in targeted marketing which ultimately impedes growth.
JB and Joe Kellogg, CEO’s, Founding Partners – Madwire
Build a strong team to support you.
Ben Lanius, Chief Executive Officer – HighPoint Global
To quickly realize that you may be smart, but long-term growth and success requires hiring smarter people.
Hal Blackman, President and CEO – IST Management Services
Be confident but never arrogant, arrogance in management will kill growth. Do not force a culture upon a company, allow it to come from the people; a successfully growing company should have a culture that does not mirror the CEO or Founders’ personalities or beliefs, but be an accumulation of the staff that powers the growth of the company.
Brendan Smith, CEO & Founder – Motive Interactive
Resist the urge to be an island. As proud as I am of the work we have done and our success in looking ahead, I can’t tell you we did it on our own. I am in constant contact with our stakeholders, asking existing clients, prospects, peers, partners, employee and industry experts about their concerns, where they see possibilities, and what they need the most help with. You can invent the best gadget in the world, but nobody will buy it if it doesn’t solve a real problem. It starts with serving a niche that has longevity. In our case, it is helping find, accelerate and close revenue for our clients, but there are infinite possibilities depending on individual levels of expertise and interest. The most fundamental needs are things that never change. No matter how much products, companies, services, or consumers change, sales will always be the engine that drives growth. Once you find that niche, it’s all about taking that deep dive and finding out what’s important to all the involved stakeholders and how that is changing over time. Also, the old adage is true: Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are. There’s no way N3 could do what it does without our brilliant management, business development, and support teams.
Jeff Laue, Co-Founder + CEO – N3
There are two very important pieces of advice that I’d like to share. First, hire rock stars. You need the best people in your industry if you want to succeed. Second, help those key players grow to their full potential. If you have the right players playing at their A game, you’re company will grow and succeed.
Jeffrey Smith, Chief Executive Officer – Alliance Health, LLC
- Delegate work and allow for autonomy: As a company grows, a good leader must allow employees to own aspects of the business that may have previously been under the CEO’s purview. This is because CEO’s have too many high-value daily tasks to complete and cannot afford to handle all of the responsibilities that she may have owned when the company was smaller. It is key that the CEO delegate all work that can be handled by the larger team and that the CEO allow for those employees to feel ownership over the task.
- Delegate work, not facetime with employees: As noted above, it’s crucial that CEO’s delegate work wherever possible so as to ensure that the CEO is owning the most high-value tasks. However, it is absolutely crucial that delegating responsibility never become an excuse for a CEO losing touch with her employees. Although it may seem trivial, maintaining interactions with employees is crucial for company culture.
- Don’t allow the pursuit of new business to sabotage current business: During the growth phase of a company, leaders and employees can become too focused on acquiring new business at the expense of maintaining current business. It’s obviously crucial to grow by acquiring new customers, but service to one’s current customers can never be compromised, as such losses have a profound negative impact on growth. One way to achieve this balance is to silo those who are responsible for new business versus those who are responsible for maintaining current business.
Christine Lin, President and CEO – The Cambridge Institute of International Education
Growth, technology specifically, comes from innovation and having a product or service that solves a need. It also disrupts a stagnant market. When we started PureCars and launched SmartAdvertising- it came when dealer’s were still spending billions on traditional advertising when consumer behavior was changing quickly.
Jeremy Anspach, Chief Executive Officer – PureCars
Vertex credits our success to constant commitment to core values that drives everything we do. These include exercising an exceptional degree of responsiveness, implementing value-added solutions every day and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit to attract and maintain top talent to Vertex.
William McConnell, Chief Executive Officer – The Vertex Companies, Inc.
Maintaining focus is extremely important when you’re leading an organization, and it’s a quality that will help a CEO propel his or her organization toward growth. As our Senior Advisor and former COO of Leo Burnett, Jack Kraft says, “Success is about doing the right things right.” As a business leader, many potential opportunities will come your way and having the discipline to say no to good ideas will ensure you don’t lose sight of greatness. Keeping focus in those situations is what truly distinguishes a great leader, and when you’re doing the right things right, success will follow.
Jon Morris, Founder and CEO – Rise Interactive
I would start with telling them to do what you love, if you don’t, you will not last long. Becoming a business owner takes countless hours and 7 days a week type attitude, if you’re not passionate about what you’re in business to do, you will lose interest and in the end, lose money. I would then go into the traits that had been spoke on in the questions above as: Positive Attitude: I feel a motivated team that are all working towards the continued success of the company is an absolute MUST! It is important to buy lunch for the team, and talk about their life or family from time to time. Knowing that we are all in this together and work 8-10 hours a day. Ability to Inspire: Weekly meetings, daily emails or off the cuff team talks is how I continue to place inspiration into my team. The meetings are to make sure my team sees the same vision of the successes I do. I place weekly bonus items or daily bonus features into the mix to keep it all fresh and new. Communication: Placing every last thought you have in terms of your business and what is expected on paper is a very important habit to form. Being able to clearly and succinctly describe what you want done is extremely important. If you can’t relate your vision to your team, you won’t all be working towards the same goal and clear goals.
Joseph McGlynn Jr., President & CEO – United Credit Consultants
PR World Awards
PR People
PR Executive of the Year
Gold Winner
Matt Kovacs, President – Blaze PR (Santa Monica, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees)
PR Department of the Year
Gold Winner
Kelly Parisi, Chief Communications Executive – Girl Scouts of the USA (New York, NY USA)
PR Achievement of the Year (PR Agency)
Gold Winner
Activision Publishing, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA USA – 2,500 or more Employees) and PMKBNC (Los Angeles, CA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Destiny First Consumer Brand Featured in Newsweek Special Collector’s Edition – Key Players: Genevieve Waldman (Activision), Kelvin Liu (Activision), Andrew Meyer (Activision), Walker Adamson (Activision), Michele Wyman (PMKBNC), Christi Lardy (PMKBNC), Evan Bader (PMKBNC)
PR Achievement of the Year (Organization)
Gold Winner
Girl Scouts of the USA (New York, NY USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Girl Scouts PR Team Adds ‘Byte’ to Its Iconic Cookie Program – Key Players: Kelly Parisi, Stewart Goodbody, Josh Ackley, Marissa Driscoll, Erika Sosa, Michael Lopes, Kayla Santalla, Valerie Geiss
PR Work (Case Study) – Best Case Study for U.S.A.
Gold Winner
Girl Scouts of the USA (New York, NY USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Girl Scouts Successfully Revolutionizes and Reboot An Icon
Best Use of Social Media or Digital Media Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Blonde 2.0 (Tel Aviv, Center, Israel – 11 – 99 Employees) for StoreDot – The Electrifying Pitch That Conquered The Internet
Crisis or Issues Management Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Medtronic plc (Minneapolis, MN USA – 2,500 or more Employees) for Medtronic Overcomes Challenging Environment to Acquire Covidien
Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Activision Publishing, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA USA – 2,500 or more Employees) and PMK*BNC (Los Angeles, CA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Consumer Launch of Destiny the Video Game
Global Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Activision Publishing, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA USA – 2,500 or more Employees) and PMK*BNC (Los Angeles, CA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Global Launch of Destiny the Video Game
Nonprofit Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Girl Scouts of the USA (New York, NY USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Girl Scouts Adds a ‘Byte’ to Its Iconic Cookie Program
Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Activision Publishing, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA USA – 2,500 or more Employees) and PMK*BNC (Los Angeles, CA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Destiny Branding: Introducing a New Video Game Franchise
Technology Campaign of the Year
Gold Winner
Blonde 2.0 (Tel Aviv, Center, Israel – 11 – 99 Employees) for Yo! – the one word campaign
PR Agency of the Year
Gold Winners
Bhava Communications (Emeryville, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees)
Eastwick (San Francisco, CA USA – 11 – 99 Employees)
Innovative PR Agency of the Year
Gold Winner
PPR (Sydney, NSW, Australia – 100 – 499 Employees)
Best Apps of the Year
Gold Winner
FleishmanHillard (Washington, DC USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) for That Guy “Buzzed” (Defense Health Agency)
Best Website of the Year – Best Mobile/ Tablet Friendly Site
Gold Winner
FleishmanHillard (Washington, DC USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) for ThatGuy.com
Best Website of the Year – Best Overall Web Design (1 – 10 Employees)
Gold Winner
Emerging Media (Nyack, NY USA – 1 – 10 Employees) for http://emergingmediapr.com
Best Website of the Year – Best Overall Web Design (500 – 2,499 Employee)
Gold Winner
FleishmanHillard (Washington, DC USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) for ThatGuy.com
Best Website of the Year – Best Web Writing/Content
Gold Winner
FleishmanHillard (Washington, DC USA – 500 – 2,499 Employees) for ThatGuy.com
Best Video of the Year
Gold Winners
Arise Virtual Solutions (Miramar, FL USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Imagine Arise https://vimeo.com/118855718
Verne Global (Falls Church, VA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) for Verne Global Data Center Fly-Through Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWmoig1ghL4
Marketing Team of the Year
Gold Winner
Lisa Rhodes, Vice President of Marketing and Sales – Verne Global (Falls Church, VA USA – 100 – 499 Employees) – Team includes Adam Nethersole, Megan Bozman, Matt Pugh, Ken Chow & Connect2 Communications
Marketing Professional (non-executive marketing professionals) of the Year – USA
Gold Winner
Carly Kaplan, Global Marketing Manager – Arise Virtual Solutions Inc. (Miramar, FL USA – 100 – 499 Employees)
Marketing Executive of the Year – Asia-Pacific
Gold Winner
Gigi Liu Pui-Chi, Corporate Director – Marketing & Communications – The Executive Centre (Hong Kong SAR)
