byline: M.J. McAteer

HIGHEST REVENUE GROWTH:
Integrity Management Consulting, McLean
www.integritymc.com

Last year, Integrity Management Consulting placed second on the Fantastic 50 list of the fastest-growing companies in the commonwealth. This year, the McLean-based company came in at No. 1, thanks to a phenomenal growth rate of more than 2,165 percent from 2008 through 2011, the years covered by the Fantastic 50 list. Last year, revenues rose to $15.03 million.

Such success is nothing short of stunning, but skeptics might wonder whether Integrity can sustain it. Its business is to help federal agencies manage their acquisitions, capital, investments and performance. Many federal contractors, spooked by the prospect of fewer dollars coming their way because of federal budget cuts, have been retrenching. Not Integrity.

“The market is getting tighter and more difficult, but our advantage is that while the competition is peeling back, we are investing heavily,” says CEO Christopher Romani, who in 2006 co-founded the company with his wife, Mary Beth, now the company’s chief strategic officer.

“Our focus is to outperform the competition,” he continues. “Someone is going to come out ahead, and we’re trying to be that someone.”

It helps, Romani admits, that Integrity’s focus has been on areas of government that are somewhat sheltered from the budget bluster, such as cyber security and management of health care for military personnel. Not all federal agencies are seeing deep budget cuts, he says. Integrity clients include the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and Health and Human Services, and the General Services and Transportation Security administrations.

It also helps that Integrity already has contracts that can carry it comfortably through the next couple of years, even if no new business comes its way. Romani has no intention of that happening, however. He says he is “focusing on more ways to capture opportunities,” and to that end, he has been investing in new databases and software that aid in market research. His goal is to have an 80 percent win rate on future proposals.

To keep up with those ambitious aims, Integrity has been expanding its staff, too, going from 69 employees last year to 93 today. One of its most integral new hires is Chief Financial Officer Marc Klein. “We’ve invested in an excellent CFO,” Romani says. “He’s a high-caliber, smart guy.”

Klein knows something about working for companies with momentum. Before coming to Integrity, he was finance director for High Performance Technologies during the five years in which it grew from $40 million to $100 million in annual revenue.

When Dynamics Research Corp. bought the company, Klein became the operations director for its $30 million, 100-employee science and technology unit.  “I wanted to get back to a fast-growing company. Integrity has a good history. It has a nice portfolio, solid financial stability and no debt. There’s lots of room to move.”

Since his arrival in September, Klein has been working on pricing strategies and an infrastructure that allows a rapid look at financials and fast feedback for project managers. His approach is “holistic, rather than just the bottom line,” he says.

Romani gives employees such as Klein plenty of input into the company and lots of credit for Integrity’s success. “Our people don’t just do what they are told to do,” he says. “They look to outperform other people on site, [finding] new ways to be successful.”

That shared commitment, the CEO believes, has been at the root of Integrity’s super-charged growth and should allow the company to continue to flourish even when competitors may founder. “Every contract we have, we won through head-on competition,” he says. “We’ve had no special set-aside status, and we are very proud of that.”

Principals and principles are homonyms that regularly trip people up, but there is no need to sort them out at the firm named the commonwealth’s best large company at which to work in 2013. Accounting Principals-Richmond embraces one of the world’s oldest moral principles — the Golden Rule — and that, say its employees, is central to what makes it a great place to work.

“The culture emphasizes ethics, fairness and good communication, and it permeates our office,” says executive recruiter Lydia Smith.

“Our moral compass is set in the right direction, and that sense of integrity feels good to me,” says Melanie DuPriest, senior manager of the firm’s consulting division.

Accounting Principals-Richmond, lo­­cat­ed in Glen Allen, is a 15-member branch of a 2,000-employee company based in Jacksonville, Fla. The company helps businesses find accounting, financial, human resources and marketing personnel. Its “do-unto-others” approach, its employees say, informs their relationship with the one another, the corporate office, their clients and the community.

First and foremost, Accounting Principals treats them as individuals and lets them play a central role in shaping their own careers. “It’s not our way or the highway,” Smith says. “The company has allowed me to be who I am. I have been able to customize my role” — she enjoys interviewing and recruiting — “and do what I excel at.”

“There are lots of ways to move up in our structure,” DuPriest says. “I like how the company puts people on a path to be successful in life.”   

As a point of policy, Accounting Principals tries to make communication a two-way street. The corporate office sends out emails daily to keep employees abreast of developments. It also listens to what employees have to say by conducting regular opinion surveys and offering them the opportunity to interact with the CEO in an open chat room.

The company’s sensitivity to the individual combines with the atmosphere of collaboration and mutual respect that it nurtures, employees say. “No one has that ‘It’s not my job’ mentality,” says Managing Director Jennifer Dodge. “Everyone pitches in.” If that means covering for someone who has to take a child to the doctor, that is what gets done.

“I work with nice people,” says Smith, who has been with the firm since 2004. “I’ve been in the industry for 20 years, and believe me, they are not all like this.”

Accounting Principals employees also value the firm’s understanding of their need to balance their professional and personal lives. It allows for flexible schedules with extended lunch hours and demands little or no overtime. All business meetings take place during normal working hours.

The recruiting firm offers an array of other attractive perks, too, including generous compensation plans; bonuses, dinners, trips and prizes; educational and training opportunities; an above-market health-care package; four weeks of paid vacation the very first year of employment; a 401(k) plan and subsidized gym memberships. All are appreciated, of course, but employees seem to put as much value on the company’s dedication to public service.
Accounting Principals gives its employees three or four paid days off annually to work for charity. Corporate causes include Win 4 Youth, an international initiative that the company combines with its commitment to employee wellness. Its Win 4 Youth fundraisers generally feature a fitness event such a bike ride or foot race.

On Sept. 11, 2012, the firm closed early so that employees could join a 5K walk that its branch offices were hosting simultaneously across the country.  The Richmond office also has a three-day “build” each year for the local Habitat for Humanity and supports Meals on Wheels programs.

“It’s good for our image, but it enriches us as individuals,” Smith says. “The company is giving me a gift by having me participate.”

Clients often participate in in these charitable events, too, in part because Accounting Principals gives them the employee treatment.

“They are not looking to score every day,” says Tim MacAleese, CFO of Elephant Auto Insurance of Richmond. “It’s a relationship built over time.” He describes Accounting Principals-Richmond recruiters as collaborative, personal, high-energy and passionate about their jobs.

Brian Paliotti, senior financial officer of the NewMarket Corp., seconds MacAleese’s opinion. In the past four years, he says, Accounting Principals-Richmond has found 10 to 15 new employees for his company, which is involved in the petroleum additives industry.  “They’ve done a nice job of getting to know us,” he says. “We don’t have to go through an articulation of who we are.”

Accounting Principals-Richmond, he adds, “is the kind of company you’d want to join.” Given the high rating it gets from its own employees, recruitment probably wouldn’t be hard.