It's a small, small world. Exporting is big on this year's list: about 45% of the 1995 Inc. 500 sell internationally. So it makes sense that the list contains a handful of companies whose business is the business of the global economy. (See " The Globalists"). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the dollar fell, those businesses grew, just as U.S. exports increased. Their métier is supporting other businesses that do business overseas. For example, CIBT (#265) spotted an opportunity in expediting visas for traveling executives, and DXI (#249) provides rate information to international shippers.
We're a nation of neurotics. Back in 1985, companies made the list the old-fashioned way: by making software, distributing gaskets, or baking brownies. Now there's another way: catering to our citizenry's emotional and social problems. Call it a legacy of broken families, turbulent economic times, or simply the privatization of government services. Whatever the reason, in 1995 there are several Inc. 500 companies making a business out of personal dysfunction; in 1985 there were none. Today Family Advocacy Services (#256) provides mental-health services to troubled youths, and Correction Management Affiliates (#162) is part of our nation's burgeoning jail industry. And National Safety Alliance (#298) administers substance abuse testing programs in the workplace. (On the bright side, perhaps all this pain is leading Americans to seek spiritual growth of all types: Sounds True, #442, has grown by selling meditation and inspirational tapes, while Platinum Entertainment, #238, is a fast-growing gospel label.)
Government regulation is truly out of control. Want proof? Take a look at the 1995 Inc. 500. Entrepreneurs know a growth market when they see one. There have always been companies on the list whose markets were shaped by government regulation -- businesses that deal with hazardous waste, for example. What's different from a decade ago is the number of companies whose only reason for existence is to interpret and navigate government regulations for other companies. It's sad but true: it has become so difficult and time-consuming to keep abreast of regulatory requirements that companies hire red-tape experts -- experts like Compliance Services International (#432), which ensures that its clients' plants meet environmental requirements, and Linderlake (#248), which deals with local real estate bodies on behalf of large utilities that need to acquire rights-of-way.
Take my employees -- please! A related (and unsettling) trend on the 1995 Inc. 500 is the prevalence of businesses engaged in handling other businesses' personnel needs -- including the red tape. Although temporary-help firms and employee-leasing firms have long been staples of the Inc. 500 list, this year the phenomenon is especially pronounced. About one in every 15 companies on the Inc. 500 provides some form of contingent employment services -- more than five times the number of comparable businesses on the list a decade ago. That's a sobering commentary on the way relationships between employers and employees have weakened over the years. The temporary-help business has become so pervasive that it's spawned fast-growing suppliers of its own: Tricom Inc. of Milwaukee (#445) has grown rapidly by selling administrative and financial services to temporary-help agencies. Can it be long before we have a host of Inc. 500 companies without any employees?
The one-to-one future is here. In 1993 Don Peppers and Martha Rogers made marketing news with their book The One to One Future. The authors describe the way companies can harness technology to create marketing messages tailored to individual consumers. Several companies on the 1995 Inc. 500 have grown by turning that theory into practice. Desktop Data (#59) uses technology to create customized news reports delivered to clients' computers, while Best Personalized Books (#167) produces children's books in which each child gets a starring role. Personal Creations (#187) takes one-to-one marketing to an extreme: the company's catalog features everything from monogrammed cereal bowls to golf balls sporting their owner's photo.
The Inc. 500 list, then, isn't just a collection of 500 smart or lucky companies; it's a yearly snapshot of an economy very much in motion. Any one company in a moribund industry may make the list through smarts, savvy, pluck, and luck -- but the odds are, 20 won't. As a group, the Inc. 500 speak volumes about what's happening in the marketplace. Individually, the companies' tales are inspiring; collectively, they have an even bigger story to tell.
