In their own words: Companies share their growth stories
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Ron Alvarado, president of Novus Staffing Solutions in Robinson, remembers a conversation he had with a former boss years ago about sound business practices in the staffing industry.
What the CEO told Mr. Alvarado, a 27-year veteran of the staffing industry, was simple: "We don't expand into new markets when there is a vibrant economy."
So, during one of the worst recessions on record, Mr. Alvarado decided to go into business.
The timing was right -- with the recession about to head into full swing, he opened a staffing firm at a time when companies were looking to cut costs by bringing in temporary, rather than permanent workers.
Over the ensuing two years, Novus has become a multimillion-dollar company. In terms of job creation, the company has placed more than 500 job candidates since its official launch in February 2009. Last year alone, Novus generated wages and payroll taxes of more than $1.5 million.
The company also has spearheaded the development of a consortium-based training program geared toward helping displaced workers and the long-term unemployed re-enter the job market. The program, a cooperative effort with Community College of Allegheny County, CareerLink and the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board, expects to graduate its first class by June.
In late 2008, when sales began dropping sharply at General Carbide, a Greensburg-based manufacturer of tungsten carbide tooling for a variety of industrial applications, the company's owner and president, Mona Pappafava-Ray, told the board of directors that something had to be done to ease the financial bleeding -- and that there was a "smarter" way to endure the recession than laying off employees to make short-term financial results look good.
Instead, Ms. Pappafava-Ray got the board to approve her plan, which consisted of temporarily decreasing employees' salaries and benefits, stopping company matches to 401(k) plans and eliminating outings while increasing budgets for activities that could position the company for long-term success, including sales and marketing activities, employee training, travel to customers' and prospects' facilities, and capital expansion.
Two years later, as a result of sacrifices made by General Carbide employees, sales are up 44 percent and the company, founded in 1968, is enjoying its best year ever without having laid off any hourly workers. General Carbide's board of directors voted in late October to give back one-half of the salaries that employees gave up to keep the company afloat.
General Carbide employs more than 170 people and has annual sales in excess of $20 million.
"By keeping our work force intact, we were ready to fulfill orders when things turned around and didn't have to recruit and train new workers," said Ms. Pappafava-Ray. "In fact, we have increased our market share by taking business away from competitors who conducted layoffs to improve their bottom lines immediately. Today, many of those companies are having trouble rebuilding their work forces."
The natural reaction during a downturn is for households to cut discretionary spending, and yet data also show that at any given time consumers seeking to lose weight are still spending an estimated $60 billion to do so, despite the economy.
Founded in 1999 as a spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University, BodyMedia is the only wearable body monitoring device that uses four different "on-body" sensors to automatically and accurately capture calories burned and sleep. And through its Web-based program, users can log food to see a complete picture of calories in and calories out. BodyMedia's accuracy has been validated in hundreds of clinical studies.
In 2010 alone, new product innovations, including an armband enabled with Bluetooth wireless technology and mobile apps, fueled a 30 percent increase in revenue and an increased user base of nearly 50 percent. In fact, BodyMedia's new Bluetooth-enabled armband received the Bluetooth SIG Best of CES award in the Next category for emerging technologies.
In the spring of 2010, the company announced aggressive growth plans that included a relocation of its corporate headquarters to One Gateway Center. By the end of 2011, the company will have nearly doubled the size of its staff since early 2010.
In the last two years, Waldron Wealth Management is proud to be one of the few financial services firms that have been able to not only sustain itself but also to grow our team by 30 percent. Oddly enough, we experienced a similar situation during the early 2000s downturn. As our CEO and founder John Waldron notes, "This is the best time to acquire the best and brightest talent."
First Published March 22, 2011 12:00 am
