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MAKING HEADLINES
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World
Wide Technology Ranks No. 1 in Nation in Black Enterprise
Above:
The national publication
Black Enterprise recently recognized
World Wide Technology as the largest
black-owned business in the U.S. |
With
an unprecedented 105.5 percent leap in revenue—from $201 million
in 1998 to $413 million in 1999—World Wide Technology (WWT), a
distributor of information technology products, is recognized
in Black Enterprise (BE) magazine as the largest black-owned company
in the nation. The BE Industrial/Service 100 list represents the
powerhouses of the New Economy—ones driven by technological innovation,
high productivity and soaring financial markets, the article states.
“The utilization of the Web has allowed us to grow the business,
bring value to customers and supplier relationships and drive
down the cost of business,” says CEO David L. Steward, who built
the high-tech dynamo from scratch.
“We can accommodate large customers without diminishing the level
of service or driving up costs. The e-marketplaces have changed
the way we do business with our partners and clients. The availability
of information is much broader and deeper than ever before. Customers
can go out and get what they need to do business with us,” he
adds.
With about 600 employees, WWT operates out of seven buildings
in a modest office-warehouse area of Maryland Heights. WWT is
hiring about 35 to 40 people a month to keep up a sales growth
that has doubled over last year and edged out Philadelphia Coca-Cola
Bottling Co. for first place on the BE list. Two other St. Louis
companies—Roberts Broadcasting Co., with revenue of $32 million,
and Roberts Wireless Communications, which generated $28 million
in revenue—also made the top 100.
National IT Publication Showcases G.A. Sullivan
Above:
St. Louis entrepreneur Greg Sullivan,
president and CEO of G.A. Sullivan, was
featured in a cover story article in the
March issue of the national trade publication
Contract Professional. |
One of the secrets to Greg Sullivan’s success in the IT industry
has been his determination to do one thing and one thing only:
develop software. In a recent cover story in CP Magazine, a national
trade publication for IT contractors and consultants, Sullivan
explains how his focus on client relations and consultant training
has led him from a self-employed contract writer to becoming the
CEO of a software company with more than 300 consultants across
the country and revenues of $22 million in 1999.
“Consultants are aware that clients are businesspeople who are
more interested in the potential revenue increase an application
can provide than in the technology used to obtain it,” Sullivan
says. “Business managers want to know the dollar amount that can
be saved, not how many gigabytes the database uses. If clients
knew how to program, they would not be hiring consultants.”
The key to repeat business, Sullivan says in the article, is to
deliver a cutting-edge IT solution to a complex business problem,
on time and within budget. The company has developed a special
in-house training program to provide soft skills training in addition
to technical expertise. Students learn communications, time management
and relationship building skills. The ability to communicate clearly,
orally and written, is critical, he says. In addition, G.A. Sullivan
uses a unique approach to win and keep clients, many of which
are Fortune 500 companies that have contracted with G.A. Sullivan
for five years or more. For example, the company offers “brown
bag seminars” at client companies, providing an instructor to
teach an overview of “n-tier” development.
“Once a customer trusts you as an expert, your recommendations
are taken seriously, even when it means extending the contract,”
says Sullivan, who has won the 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year Award,
the 1999 National Small Business Person of the Year, placement
on the Inc. 500 list of “fastest growing private companies in
America” and inclusion in the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast
500 list of “fastest growing technology companies in the United
States.”
Edward Jones Bucks Internet Trends with Homegrown Business
Philosophy
Despite the current high-tech trends to sell securities fast
and cheap over the Internet, Edward Jones chooses to do business
the old-fashioned way: mostly in one-broker offices.
“If you aren’t interested in a relationship and you just want
a transaction, then you could go to E*Trade if you want a good
price. We just aren’t in that business,” explains Managing Partner
John Bachmann in a recent FORTUNE magazine article.
“The one-person office attracts a particular personality type—very
high-achieving. Even though it costs more, this person works
half again as hard. That means customers can think about other
things. Most of us—and you can count me in that crowd—don’t
want to spend all their time following every jiggle in the market.
We’ve got more interesting things to do.”
The article singles out the St. Louis-based brokerage firm for
bucking the e-trend and sticking with its homegrown formula
for success that wooed rural customers across the Farm Belt
in the first place. For example, its brokers refuse to sell
riskier investments like commodities, and they warn customers
about overpriced tech stocks.
The firm’s small-town conservatism pays off because despite
its small number of analysts, Edward Jones ranks among the top
brokerage firms in stock research. The company has grown from
about 300 brokers when Bachmann took charge in 1980 to more
than 6,000 worldwide.
Ten St. Louis General Contractors Rank in ENR’s Top 400 Firms
A total of 10 St. Louis area general contractors have placed
in the annual benchmark survey of the nation’s leading general
contractors listed in Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine.
The 10 St.
Louis firms ranked in the new ENR survey and their 1999 revenues
are: Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc: 20th with revenues of $2.9
billion; McCarthy: 40th with revenues of $939.8 million; J.S.
Alberici Construction Co., Inc: 55th with revenues of $672.9
million; Fru-Con Construction Co., Inc.: 74th with revenues
of $473.7 million; Clayco Construction Co.: 120th with revenues
of $304.6 million; HBE Corp.: 143rd with revenues of $265.8
million; S.M. Wilson & Co.: 208th with revenues of $175.5 million;
Paric Corp.: 211th with revenues of $174 million; Fred Weber,
Inc.: 282nd with revenues of $139 million; The Korte Co.: 289th
with revenues of $135 million; and R.G. Brinkmann Construction
Co.: 310th with revenues of $125 million.
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