One of my JibberJobber users sent me an email with suggestions on how to find companies that are growing. In this time of economic turmoil it makes sense that some companies would be able to grow and either navigate the recession well or find opportunities in the recession.
On my JibberJobber blog I wrote a post called how to find target companies, which this post complements. My JibberJobber user, who is an executive in Utah, suggested the following links to look for growth companies in Utah:
http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/the-full-list.html?sort=state&order=ASC&o=4450 – this is the Inc 5000 companies, ordered by state (in reverse alphabet, so you get Utah towards the top).
http://www.mwcn.org/?page=Utah100 – this is the MountainWest Capital Network’s list of 100 growth companies in Utah. Every state has some kind of financial group (VCs, etc.) who keep a similar list.
http://utahvalleybusinessq.com/features/2009-top-25-fastest-growing-companies – this is a list from a local business magazine that has awesome information about 25 companies in a small geographic area (locally referred to as Happy Valley, or Utah County, or something like that). The information here is excellent as it provides company revenue, leadership names, issues and corporate thoughts.
Each of these are examples of what you should be able to find locally, to help you identify growth companies where you are looking for a job.
My buddy also goes on to suggest:
You can also do a google search for “fastest growing companies” (in quotes) and then type in the state name.
Here’s a link to that using Utah – simply click this link (which takes you to Google) and change the name of the state in the search box:
What do you do to find growth companies?
Try to take your core competencies and match them up with organizations that would have the same activities, not necessarily companies in the same “industry” For instance, the principle activity in the elevator business (industrial) is field service. This is also the case in the hospital diagnostic equipment business (healthcare). So in preparing to discuss Vice President of Operations positions you can accentuate managing the highest controllable cost in those businesses which would be unionized, mission critical, field service employees.
I’m sure this is a good plan most of the time, but sometimes definitely not. I know of a company that is incredibly fast growing, but the owner’s sole intention is to sell at a certain point, which doesn’t necessarily mean job loss, but a lot of the time it does. Just based on my own experience I am hesitant to agree that all fast growing entities have the workers’ best interests at heart.
I guess my motto is “stability” and not “growth”.
-Dave