The road to supercharged growth for each of the companies in Ingram’s Corporate Report 100 in the many years of tracking and ranking the area’s fastest-growing companies is paved of similar material: layer upon layer of vision, risk, faith, timing, perseverance, and perhaps a bit of luck.

And always a heckuva lot of grit.

In this, our 21st year of tracking these rapid-growth firms headquartered in the greater Kansas City area, we welcome back some of our most familiar Corporate Report friends, veterans such as Cerner with 16 appearances, Lockton with 15 and Henderson Engineers with 13.

We also welcome a total of 29 companies new to our list, with six of those rookies cracking the top 10. Three of the 10 have “consultants” as part of their name, two include “solutions” and one—a definite oasis—both “sunlight” and “sauna.” In what is surely a Corporate Report 100 top 10 first, 60 percent of one company’s employees play soccer, while the rest have children who do.

Whether solutions, saunas or soccer, all are passionate about what they do. That passion is the essential difference between a Sunday drive and a Saturday night at the races. With holding-on-for-dear-life growth among the top 10 rates between 465 percent and nearly 3,700 percent, passion makes the employees of these and all of our winning companies enjoy the ride.

We hope you enjoy reading about this year’s pacesetting companies as much as we enjoyed getting to know the drivers.

 

CORPORATE REPORT 100
(l to r) : Eric Harland, Ronald Harland Sr. and Ronald Harland II.

Evolv Solutions, llc.

Gross Revenue: 2005: $4,898,417 2002: $130,000 Growth 3,668.01% Full-time employees: 10

You might say that the three founders of Evolv Solutions take their company name literally. The Harlands, father Ronald, sons Ronald, Jr. and Eric, started the company in 2002 and say they always look for improvement. “We still find ways to evolve how we do things,” says Eric. That approach resulted in the company landing the coveted top spot in the 2006 Corporate Report 100 ranking, with nearly 3,700 percent growth. Leveraging the 28-year Xerox career of Ronald, Sr., as well as the information technology experience of Ronald, Jr. and Eric, the family set out to provide asset management solutions to major corporations. This grew into leasing printers, copiers and faxes, which then grew into leasing nearly any sort of equipment as a minority supplier. But they don’t stop there. “We often find ourselves coaching our clients and partners about our services, solutions and best practices,” says Eric. Based on their success, it’s advice well heeded.

NUMBER ONE

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