Upstate companies dominated the list of the 2014 top 25 fastest-growing companies recognized by the Capital Corporation at its inaugural CEO RoundTable event last week at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce in Columbia. State Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt gave the keynote address to an exclusive group of past and present nominees of the SC Fastest Growing Companies Program.
Afterward, a panel of CEOs from last year’s top 25 list shared their business practices and growth strategies in a moderated discussion. The three-person panel included Patrick Hassell, founder and managing director of Solbright Renewable Energy in Charleston; Noah Leask, chairman and CEO of ISHPI in Mount Pleasant; and Frank Mobley, founder and CEO of Greenville-based Immedion. Immedion owns and operates four enterprise-class data centers in Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, and Asheville, N.C.
Among various strategic and operational topics, panelists discussed customer acquisition and retention, lessons learned in personnel recruitment, and bottlenecks they had to overcome. Other CEOs in attendance shared their own perspectives on keys to success, making for an inclusive discussion.
When asked which infrastructure aspects of Immedion’s business model had become stressed by growth, Mobley said “replacing our sales process system in order to stay and get to the next level of sales” was a challenge. He also told the group that increasing revenue per square foot, geographic redundancy and growth through acquisitions were some of the key strategic issues for his company over the next three to five years.
The Top 25 SC Fastest Growing Companies 2014 Awards Luncheon will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at the Downtown Marriott in Columbia. Registration is available at bit.ly/SC-fast-growing.
