2015
Pacesetters
Survey
This year’s survey found
that Atlanta’s pacesetting
companies are building for
long-term growth, focusing
on organic growth and
innovation to drive profit.
Built to Last –
Atlanta’s Pacesetting
Companies Set Their Sights
on Long-Term Growth
THERE’S A COMMON PERCEPTION THAT STARTUPS ARE
BUILT TO BE BOUGHT. “START IT, GROW IT, SELL IT”
IS A COMMON WEALTH CREATION STRATEGY.
Atlanta’s pacesetting companies buck that trend. HA&W performs an annual survey of recipients of the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Pacesetter Awards. This year’s survey found that Atlanta’s pacesetting companies are building for long-term growth, focusing on organic growth and innovation to drive profit. HA&W surveyed winners of the Pacesetter Award from 2010 to 2014, whose industries ranged from technology to professional services and everything in between. To qualify for the Pacesetters award, companies must be privately held and headquartered in the metro-Atlanta area, with two-year sales growth of more than 50 percent. The company’s annual revenue must also be between $1M and $300M.
According to the survey, 60 percent of companies had annual revenues of over $25M, while 16 percent of companies had annual revenues of over $100M. Seventy-six percent of companies surveyed had either a regional or national footprint. The survey featured 36 questions designed to identify the best practices that pacesetting companies follow around innovation, growth, marketing/sales, culture and technology.
So what are those best practices?
They promote spontaneous, grassroots innovation and
perceive failure in a positive light.
Forty-eight percent of respondents said that innovation occurs spontaneously at their company. Additionally, 64 percent stated that innovation comes from the front lines of their business. Not surprisingly then, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that they innovate with their customers and another 28 percent said that they co-innovate with suppliers.
Sixty percent of
respondents described
their companies as
“leading edge” rather than
“bleeding edge.”
Moreover, the pacesetting companies encourage failure as a means to improve. Forty-four percent of those surveyed acknowledged that you have to fail sometimes to make progress, while 16 percent of respondents encourage employees to fail fast and often. They are also investing in innovation, with 56 percent of respondents planning to increase innovation funding and add more projects.
But the pacesetting companies aren’t hasty innovators either. Sixty percent of respondents described their companies as “leading edge” rather than “bleeding edge.” While they might not be the first business to develop a technology or process, they’re still leading the pack. And they’re not alone. Many household brands, including companies like Apple, follow a similar strategy. The iPod was not the first hard drive-based media player, and the iPad was not the first tablet, but both were executed well and became game-changers in their industry.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Who drives innovation in your company?
Ideas come from the
front line (grassroots) self-designate (it's my Innovation owners idea, I'll run with it)
Innovation is part of the goals and objectives for senior executives (more than one
person is responsible)
We have a Chief Innovation Officer (one person is
responsible)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Failure is not an option Occasional failure is tolerated but not encouraged You have to fail sometimes to make progress We encourage employees to fail fast and often
Thirty-six percent of
respondents indicated
that their company most
emphasizes customer/
client service.
They focus on client service to power organic growth.
The overwhelming majority of respondents (92 percent) plan to grow their business organically in the next year, with profit being the most important financial goal according to nearly half of respondents (48 percent). Managing costs isn’t the top priority for pacesetting companies, with 60 percent of those surveyed indicating that they are more concerned with growth than cost containment, and more than half of respondents (52 percent) plan to focus on national growth.
But what’s more interesting is how they plan to achieve that growth. Thirty-six percent of respondents indicated that their company most emphasizes customer/ client service. When asked how they planned to increase profitability, 64 percent of pacesetting companies said they plan to understand why their customers/clients buy from them and then add more value. Fifty-six percent also planned to increase customer/client intimacy. Similarly, just over three fourths of respondents (76 percent) plan to increase their market share by selling more to existing customers/clients and reaching out to prospects that are similar to their existing customers/clients.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Product
development developmentPeople developmentLeadership Operations marketing Sales / client service Customer /
Which area does your company emphasize the most?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
How do you plan to increase profitability
in the next 12 months?
Face-to-face is still the
most popular channel to
interact with prospects and
clients, with 92 percent
of companies surveyed
utilizing face-to-face
communications.
”It costs seven times more to acquire a new client than to expand business with an existing one,” says Richard Kopelman, CEO and managing partner of HA&W. “The pacesetting companies are smart to get close to their clients as a more effective way of grow revenue.”
They use all the sales and marketing tools at their
disposal to capture and leverage customer data.
When it comes to marketing and sales, the pacesetting companies are taking a balanced approach and using many different tools. Face-to-face is still the most popular channel to interact with prospects and clients, with 92 percent of companies surveyed utilizing face-to-face communications.
Eighty-four percent of respondents are also supplementing personal communication with digital tools to stay top of mind with prospects and customers. In the digital toolkit, CRM systems, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media are the most popular technologies with the pacesetting companies, with data analytics not far behind. Additionally, contrary to the popular belief that mobile is a must-use channel, nearly two thirds (64 percent) of companies surveyed state that mobile was just another channel and not their primary focus.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Digital Face to face Call centers Traditional media
What channels do you use to interact with
prospects and customers/clients?
Fifty-six percent of
respondents use customer/
client data to understand
how customers/clients feel
about their products
and services.
The pacesetting companies are leveraging the sales and marketing data they collect in a variety of ways. Fifty-six percent of respondents use customer/client data to understand how customers/clients feel about their products and services. Forty-eight percent capture data that shows how and why customers/clients buy, and 56 percent analyze customer/ client wants and needs through data captured. This data powers the strategies the pacesetting companies favor for increasing market share – selling more to existing clients and reaching out to prospects similar to existing clients (see above).
They take the same organic approach to building
culture as they do to innovation.
HA&W asked each respondent to describe their company in three words. “Innovative” was the most popular, followed by “collaborative,” “fun” and “supportive.” The vast majority of pacesetting companies (76 percent) utilize Town Hall meetings to communicate company strategy, values and goals. The respondents indicated that they don’t prioritize employee satisfaction surveys or team development programs that strengthen communication and interaction, seemingly preferring to let the company culture develop organically and naturally.
Culture was the number one factor that engages employees and creates a great place to work, with 88 percent. The pacesetting companies also indicated that meaningful work, total rewards (including compensation and benefits), the vision of the company’s direction and the company’s management and leadership were important factors in building a best place to work.
“Pacesetters epitomize the value of a clear leadership vision intersecting with
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Data analytics Mobile
technologies CRM managementContent Search engineoptimization Social media
Which digital technologies are you leveraging to
achieve your marketing/sales goals?
More than half of
respondents (56 percent)
said that technology was
a strategic advantage to
their business, with a large
percent of respondents also
viewing IT as a business
enabler.
at Clearwater Consulting. “The challenge for most fast-growing companies, especially those with sights set on long-term growth, is sustaining the culture and dynamics they began with – fun, innovative, collaborative.”
They believe technology to be a strategic advantage,
fully aware of cybersecurity risks.
As we’ve already seen, the pacesetting companies are not afraid to embrace technology. More than half of respondents (56 percent) said that technology was a strategic advantage to their business, with a large percent of respondents also viewing IT as a business enabler.
Once again bucking the popular trend, the majority of pacesetting companies are not fully cloud-based, with 60 percent of companies indicating that they utilize a combination of dedicated in-house infrastructure, outsourced servers and virtualized
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Meaningful
work rewards Total developmentEmployee opportunities
Culture Industry
focus Management/ leadership of the company
Vision of where we are heading
Which of the following engages your employees in
terms of creating a great place to work?
What role does
technology play
in your business?
Strategic advantage Business enabler Necessary evil Cost centerOver half of respondents
(68 percent) said that they
plan to introduce more
projects and allocate
more spend to IT in
the next 12 months.
Cybersecurity is also clearly top of mind for the pacesetting companies. Nearly 30 percent of respondents have completed a formal risk assessment of their business, while 40 percent indicated that they retain tight control of their IT environment in house.
However, when asked what level of risk oversight they follow with regard to their suppliers and clients, nearly half (48 percent) of pacesetting companies indicated that their suppliers and clients retain responsibility for their own environments. Only 36 percent of respondents designed their IT ecosystem to control risk associated with suppliers and clients, while another 16 percent said that they maintained appropriate certifications and required their vendors to do so as well.
“You can’t outsource risk management,” says Dan Schroeder, partner-in-charge of HA&W’s Information Assurance Services. “Look at what happened to Target – their breach came about as a result of a vendor’s inadequate risk management. You can rely on others to help you, but ultimately it is still your business and your risk to manage.” Despite the risks associated with IT, the pacesetting companies plan to move forward with new IT initiatives in 2015. Over half of respondents (68 percent) said that they plan to introduce more projects and allocate more spend to IT in the next 12 months.
How are you handling cybersecurity risks?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
We have completed a formal risk assessment on our business We rely on strategic partners to keep us secure We retain tight control of our IT environment in house It is just one of the risks we have to manage
ABOUT HABIF, AROGETI & WYNNE, LLP:
HA&W has been recognized as a “Best of the Best Accounting Firm” in the United States. Since 1952, clients throughout the U.S. and in more than 40 countries have counted on HA&W to build value, manage risk and drive growth. As the largest tax, audit and business advisory firm headquartered in Georgia, our expertise across a broad range of services and industries provides clients with winning financial practices and insights to help them grow at every stage of their business lifecycle.
For more information,
contact:
Kayla Payne
Marketing Associate [email protected] 770-353-5345
