Even though he sees more moose than traffic on the open roads of Sandpoint, "we get a wonderful workforce up here," he asserts, estimating a turnover rate below 5%. "Once you hire people, they stay." The challenge, of course, lies in finding enough of them. The paucity of top management and marketing talent in this northern finger of Idaho forces Pence to retain headhunters and recruit nationally. "Job candidates either love it here or hate it here," says Pence. "And they know it as soon as they get off the plane."
Still, the company carries clout on its own unspoiled terrain. When Pence considered leaving Sandpoint because the company's growth was straining the local infrastructure's ability to support it, the state of Idaho rushed to Coldwater's aid. One hundred seventy-five full-time jobs make for a big stack of chips in northern Idaho. To keep the company headquartered there (Pence was being wooed by West Virginia), the state legislature appropriated $100,000 to subsidize job training at Coldwater Creek. State officials lobbied for a federal grant to improve water pressure for a sprinkler system in the company's warehouse, and then persuaded the phone company to run 45 miles of fiber-optic cable up to Sandpoint so that calls could be processed more quickly. "I guess you could say they cared," says Pence, who won't say what he might have been told in New York.
Like Pence, Tom Clopton, CEO of $5.5-million Tekno (#169), in Cave City, Ky., enjoys the perks of being a big fish in a small creek. "This is just a little ol' speck of a place with a couple of grocery stores, a filling station or two, a few churches, and a funeral home," reports Clopton, who lives on the farm that his grandfather's grandfather cleared back when Kentucky was considered the Western frontier. "It's not much, but it's got just about all we need."
Declaring the company, which builds automated manufacturing systems, little more than "a bunch of country boys trying to make a living," Clopton doesn't boast about how sales bolted from less than $350,000 in 1989 to $5.5 million last year. Maybe he doesn't have to.
The biggest employer in Cave City, with a payroll of 46, Clopton's business sits quite handsomely on a street newly paved by the solicitous city fathers, who also see to it that Tekno's grass gets mowed and its trash gets picked up on time. "The police come around real often to make sure everything's OK," Clopton explains. His best friend is the deputy sheriff. "It's a personal situation here. They look out for us."
While Clopton's distance from major suppliers can pose problems (if a part comes in damaged or something in the shop breaks, it can take days to get a replacement), his distance from large corporate customers does not. "Once upon a time I worried about customers' not wanting to come out here, but I found out they liked it," he says. The drive from the Louisville airport takes 90 minutes. "You can spend the same time trying to get from O'Hare to the Loop, in Chicago. So what's the difference?" A stretch of pretty green hills, perhaps, and a lot of sky.
THE 10 BEST CITIES
Boulder, Colo.
Huntsville, Ala.
Tampa
Atlanta, Ga.
Miami
San Francisco
Birmingham, Ala.
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Nashville
THE 10 WORST CITIES
Detroit
Philadelphia
Chicago
New York City
Los Angeles
Milwaukee
New Orleans
Houston
San Antonio
Memphis
NUMBER OF INC. 500 COMPANIES
STATES '84 '89 '94
Alabama 4 4 9
Alaska 3 0 0
Arizona 10 7 6
Arkansas 2 1 1
California 86 83 73
Colorado 4 7 13
Connecticut 8 7 6
Delaware 0 2 1
District of Columbia 4 1 4
Florida 26 20 35
Georgia 9 14 13
Hawaii 3 1 0
Iowa 4 2 3
Idaho 3 1 3
Illinois 19 22 23
Indiana 11 5 5
Kansas 7 4 6
STATES '84 '89 '94
Kentucky 5 3 4
Louisiana 2 3 2
Maine 0 3 0
Massachusetts 22 29 33
Maryland 12 16 19
Michigan 10 28 15
Minnesota 10 5 9
Mississippi 0 0 0
Missouri 6 6 11
Montana 1 0 2
Nebraska 1 3 4
North Carolina 14 11 12
North Dakota 0 1 0
Nevada 1 0 1
New Hampshire 5 5 6
New Jersey 17 17 21
New Mexico 1 4 3
STATES '84 '89 '94
New York 31 34 24
Ohio 26 23 16
Oklahoma 3 6 4
Oregon 6 3 2
Pennsylvania 23 23 14
Rhode Island 2 4 3
South Carolina 0 2 3
South Dakota 0 1 1
Tennessee 6 8 7
Texas 38 27 25
Utah 2 4 5
Vermont 0 2 3
Virginia 32 26 25
Washington 11 9 15
West Virginia 0 1 1
Wisconsin 9 11 9
Wyoming 0 1 0
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