The Fastest-growing Company In America

 

If you think you have headaches coping with rapid growth, consider this: There is a corporation in Los Angeles that began with 2 employees in 1979 and will have about 50,000 workers by this summer. The outfit in question is the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, a private, nonprofit corporation that is probably the fastest-growing company in the country today.

Currently, the committee staff numbers a mere 1,000, which means that tens of thousands of full-time and part-time staffers will be joining the organization by the time the Olympic torch is passed at the Los Angeles Coliseum in July. "Many management experts say that we can't get there from here," says Amy Quinn, spokesperson for the committee. But she politely disagrees, explaining that "we're getting a lot of help, a lot of talented people, and a lot of commitment." At the moment, there are about 20 departments coordinating everything from transportation and food service to protocol, government relations, and security.

The committee is an odd creature, an unintended offspring of California's Proposition 13, which cut sharply into the tax revenues of most municipalities in the state. As a result, Los Angeles couldn't underwrite the cost of the Olympic Games. So Mayor Tom Bradley and attorney Paul Ziffren founded the committee to organize the effort. This marks the first time the games have been staged anywhere without government funding.

But perhaps even more unusual than the rapid growth of this company will be its hasty disappearance. "After the games, the whole committee will simply dissolve after a short wind-down period," explains Quinn. "It's a little like an accordion, starting small, getting big, and then getting small again."