QMR Staffing Solutions Inc.

Year founded: 2003

Employees: 7

Product: Professional-level employment and resourcing services

Revenue growth: 1,508 %

Anyone who doubts the significance of the exodus of baby boomers from the workforce need look no further than QMR Staffing Solution's outstanding growth numbers.

"There's a need in the marketplace for a niche provider of service. Given the decline of the 20 to 64 age group and increase in the 65-and-over bracket, there is a massive knowledge transfer out of corporate organizations in both the government and private sector," said Dan Moorcroft, CEO of QMR.

QMR provides senior-level resources to government and private sector clients across a broad range of sectors, including financial, HR and strategic management on both a contract and permanent basis.

When asked what has been going on with the company, Mr. Moorcroft answered, "What hasn't been going on?

"We've grown tremendously over the past four years. We've expanded our client base and our candidate consultant base, we have experienced a large growth in revenue and physical presence in Ottawa," he told OBJ.

President Marc Quesnel said QMR has been focusing on diversification this past year. "We have built a team to focus on staffing professional-level accountants in the private sector, which we did before, but didn't focus on it as much as we are now," he said.

Mr. Quesnel was an account executive for a large international recruiting company when he and Mr. Moorcroft noted the recruitment market did not properly service fields such as accounting and financial management.

Mr. Quesnel said as with other industries, specialization is becoming more and more important to clients. "We understand accounting and corporate strategic planning. If you strive to be the best at one thing, that's how you get to be the best, through specializing," said Mr. Quesnel. "Dan and I both have an entrepreneurial spirit. We saw where the demographic shift was going and that there would be opportunities there."

"We knew that there was an opportunity to quantify and qualify that knowledge back into the workforce on many different levels," explained Mr. Moorcroft.

According to Mr. Moorcroft, another secret to QMR's success is how the company treats their clients. It comes down to mutual respect.

"We're two guys who are as good as our word," he said. "What we say we'll do is what we deliver. And if we can't deliver, we say that too. As people progress in their careers, retire and then want to re-integrate back into the workforce, they want to deal with ethically-minded people who will work with them as a partner."

inRound Innovations Inc.

Year founded: 2002

Employees: 8 full time, 10 subcontractors

Product: IT professional services

Revenue growth: 182 %

Ottawa's second-fastest growing firm says getting there was a balancing act.

"We want to be profitable, (but) we don't want to be profitable at the expense of our clients," said Jeff Lynt, one of inRound Innovations' two co-owners. "We don't want to be gouging them. We are constantly gauging that."

Shareholders, clients, employees and partnerships are all treated equally at inRound, he said.

To keep clients happy, the IT consulting firm treats each one differently.

"I don't think we have two clients for whom we have done the same thing," said co-owner Don Stewart. "There are a lot of companies who think that for every client, all you have to do is go out there and buy the same tool, but that's not the case."

Although it finished in the top three this year, rapid growth is nothing new for inRound. Mr. Stewart said it's been planned, controlled, and expected from the earliest stages of the five-year-old firm.

"We took the time at the incubation stage to make sure we had the processes in place before we took on any new clients, to make sure that any client we bring in gets the same level of satisfaction," he said.

Success has seen them become Ottawa's go-to guys in the IT support management industry. In turn, being the public face of support management has spurred more success.

"We'll often get calls from (CTV) wanting to know what's going on in the business. People now recognize us as leaders in the management support business," said Mr. Lynt. "OCRI, for instance, will contact us when dealing with companies that are moving to Ottawa."

While inRound fulfils staffing needs for clients if required, they said they evaluate each client individually, often suggesting alternate strategies.

"We're not just a bums-in-seats kind of approach," said Mr. Stewart.

"We've had examples of that in the past, with companies asking for so many more staff. We come back to them and say, how about we give you one person and a tool? You'd think we're shooting ourselves in the foot, but it's optimization."

Finding talent for a growing company is a challenge, they said, but one that comes with rewards for successful applicants.

"We empower our employees," said Mr. Stewart. "I hate to use the WestJet philosophy, but people who work for us have the opportunity to become owners."

All indications, he said, are that inRound will make Ottawa's Fastest Growing Companies list again a year from now.

"It's cautious growth," Mr. Stewart said. "Every time we bring a new client into the fold, we have to provide them the same level of service. We don't look at it as a cookie-cutter approach ... we live that (philosophy) internally as an organization."

Macadamian Technologies Inc.

Year founded: 1997

Employees: 76

Product: Software research and development outsourcing

Revenue growth: 161 %

If there was ever a company that understood combining soft skills with business smarts, it's Macadamian Technologies and its president and co-founder, Fred Boulanger.

The motto at Macadamian is simple: Say what you do and do what you say.

"Macadamian is all about collaboration, flexibility and innovation, that is valid in and out of the organization. Say what you do and do what you say: this is something that we live by," Mr. Boulanger told OBJ.

"When you say what you do, you come across as credible, but when you do what you say, you become reliable. This is what our customer wants and that's why they come back. Most of our clients are repeat customers because if we say something, we are true to our word."

Macadamian was also honoured with an award for being one of Ottawa's top 10 employers by the HR community last year. Mr. Boulanger, a former software development manager at Corel, got together with chief software architect Francis Beaudet, and vice-president of engineering Stephane Lussier to start their own software research and development outsourcing firm in 1997. Business at Macadamian has been brisk, with the acquisition of local firm Maskery in August and plans for further expansion.

"In the past year, we firmed up our strategy of becoming a source of ideas as well as a source of engineering power. Maskery is in the user-experience field and that allows us to get in at the inception of the idea and help customers define and understand user needs and user perspective in a product," Mr. Boulanger said.

Last March, Macadamian also made the milestone of opening an office in Silicon Valley, which will be its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters. The company has also expanded its Romanian operation significantly.

"We have big ambitions and we're not done. We want to be a big success story and it requires us to take risks," Mr. Boulanger said. He also added there are plans to expand further into the U.S., as well as the global market in the future.

"In the outsource product development business, what we are doing is totally different from what a lot of companies are doing out there right now. The difference is now a source of ideas for customers. We can be a trusted advisor to innovate the products their user will be passionate about, and that is our trump card," he said.

Primecorp Commercial Realty Inc.

Year founded: 1998

Employees: 19

Product: Commercial realty estate investment brokerage and advisory

Revenue growth: 156 %

Looking at OBJ's list of top commercial real estate deals for 2006, it's easy to see why Primecorp Commercial Realty Inc. made it to the list of top-10 fastest growing companies.

"Primecorp did seven of the top 12 deals in Ottawa for largest commercial real estate deals. No company has ever achieved this before," said Aik Aliferis, co-founder and partner at the commercial real estate, investment, brokerage and advisory firm. To date, Primecorp has completed over $2 billion in transactions in 30 markets while headquartered in Ottawa and has offices in Montreal, Toronto and Halifax.

"We grew from $275 million in 2004 to $588 million in 2006 in terms of transaction value. We sold more buildings in 2006 in the Ottawa region than any other company," Mr. Aliferis told the OBJ.

In 1998, co-founders Mr. Aliferis, Steve Lerner, Nicolas Pantieras and Sam Firestone came together to form a sort of super group in the commercial real estate world. "Our common vision brought us together and led us to the opportunity to create a new company," said Mr. Pantieras.

The thing that makes them different, according to Mr. Aliferis, is their commitment to relationships with clients.

"All our clients deal with one of the four founding partners no matter where you are. That is a big part of the success," he said. "Our clients know us, they know us well, and we know them well. The level of respect we provide and the commitment to the relationship that is shown is reciprocated no matter what kind of investor."

As a result, 50 per cent of the four partners' time is spent travelling, something few other firms are willing to do.

"They call us, we go. If you called us today and needed us for a meeting in Toronto this afternoon, we're there. You need us in Halifax, Vancouver or Edmonton, we're there," Mr. Aliferis said.

Mr. Pantieras said big plans are ahead for the firm, including expanding into more international markets, but it must be done in a manageable way.

"A lot of opportunities have come our way, but we must evaluate every opportunity whether it is geographic expansion, or adding other service offerings for our client base. We're very careful in our growth, and we do it in a measured approach."

"We want to be really careful that we manage our growth while providing the level of professional services that we are known to provide for our clients," Mr. Aliferis said.

Knor Plast Inc.

Year founded: 2000

Employees: 40

Product: Plastic recycling

Revenue growth: 145 %

Thirty-six-year-old Cornwall entrepreneur, Eric Lang, remembers when the light bulb went off. A manager at medium-sized company, part of his job was to figure out how to deal with the company's garbage. "I started looking at what we were throwing out just for fun one day. I found we threw out over $100,000 worth of inventory that year that we didn't know had value. I could have been selling the inventory for 20 cents a pound, and we were landfilling it," he said.

In 2000, Mr. Lang started Knor Plast and in six years, the market has changed very much in his favour.

"When we started, a lot of what we were recycling was just saved from landfills, and a lot of recyclables were being shipped to China and India. But every year, I see a decrease in export and an increase in domestically recycled material," Mr. Lang said.

Knor Plast buys plastics from manufacturers, melts it down, re-extrudes it into pellets and then sells it back to companies. Mr. Lang said with the high cost of commodities like oil, the market is finally getting to the point that it's economically viable to reuse plastics in Canada. The company has gone from recycling 5.3 million pounds of material in 2004 to 19.8 million pounds in 2006.

This year has been challenging, as Mr. Lang is also working on his MBA at the University of Ottawa while running the business. "We got to the size where I hit the wall as far as being able to accomplish everything. I had to hire managers and people who knew more than me, which is hard to do when you're an entrepreneur," he said.

But, he said, it is all part of his plan. "I started the company with the intent of creating a large multinational. Everything I am doing is in the mindset that if we don't act like a large multinational, we'll never get there."

Mr. Lang is looking towards the future with plans to break into the post-consumer municipal recycling market.

"We are looking at all of eastern Ontario for a multi-municipal recycling program, either by providing them with better markets or working with them in a large recycling centre."Mr. Lang is also looking at recycling plastics from old computers. "We're looking at that as a niche that most companies don't have. I want to start that right outside of Ottawa," he said.

Halogen Software Inc.

Year founded: 2001

Employees: 98

Product: employee performance and talent management software

Revenue growth: 124 %

The value of a good product can't be overstated.

Five years ago, Halogen Software Inc. developed its employee performance and talent management suite of products, launching itself to the top of the market.

It's remained on top, CEO and president Paul Loucks said, by always adding improvements to the software.

"If you have a product that's simple to use, you have the recipe for success," he told the OBJ.

"The product solves a real business problem," he added. "(And) we're constantly getting input from customers on improving the product."

Formed in 2001 when Ottawa's high tech house of cards was in the midst of tumbling, Halogen somehow found a way to survive, then prosper.

Currently boasting some 1,000 customers, 85 per cent of them U.S. based, Mr. Loucks said he saw nowhere to go but up.

Clients that make use of Halogen's software the most have between 200 and 5,000 workers, including many hospitals that use Halogen's e-Appraisal, geared towards the healthcare industry.

"We were fortunate along the way," Mr. Loucks admitted. "You have to have some level of good luck to be successful."

Spun off from a larger consulting firm six years ago, Halogen was afforded some protection during IT's tough period. It was at that time that it moved into the employment management software sector.

"The competitors weren't gaining ground on us (then)," he said. "When the industry moved out of the slow state, we gained ground on them."

However, he gave full credit to workers for persevering throughout the recession.

"(It's) about the employee team that you have," he said. "The team is great at executing the business plan. They're dedicated, and they're passionate about what they do.

"It's been a good execution."

Revenue growth of 124 per cent does not come without challenges. Fortunately, an entire floor in Halogen's March Road building became available, just as pressures to grow were forcing its hand to find more space.

Hiring good staff, soon to break 100 employees, is also a challenge, but "not insurmountable."

"It's easy for a company showing success to recruit people," Mr. Loucks said.

Halogen's focus today, he said, is to beat the competition on a daily basis.

"We have a very long run ahead of us in terms of capturing the market we already sell to," he said.

"There are 48,000 (U.S.) companies with between 200 and 5,000 employees," he said. "About 2,000 of them have performance management software in place, so we have about 46,000 more to go."

Billet Precision Ltd.

Year founded: 1994

Employees: 40

Product: Job shop machining

Revenue growth: 103 %

Billet Precision Ltd., a job shop machining company out of Nepean, is growing so quickly, it doubled its workforce in the short period since it first applied to be one of Ottawa's fastest growing companies in early March.

Days before revenue growth levels of 103 per cent vaulted Billet onto the list of the 10 fastest-growing firms in Ottawa, the company bought out rival Otal Precision.

High growth forced Billet to expand and find more real estate, which it found with a second location close to the airport, said company co-owner Joe Schuster.

"(Otal) was a well-established machine shop, and we were looking for a permanent location," he said. "We bought the company lock, stock and barrel: all their employees, their location, and all their machines."

The buy meshes with Billet's bid to be the top precision machinist in the region, he said.

"We want to be the number one job shop machine shop in eastern Ontario," said Mr. Schuster who, along with Joanna Bertrand, manages some 40 workers, up from 22 before the purchase. "I think we have a ways to go, but by continuing to serve the customer, training the employees, and keeping the machines up to date, (we'll) get there."

Business is good these days, said Mr. Schuster.

"We make parts to print," he said. "A customer in the telecom sector or the medical sector will send us some CAD (computer-aided design) blueprints, and we work to their specifications," with either metal or plastic.

What sets Billet apart from competitors, Mr. Schuster said, is its investment in top-of-the-line machines.

"The machinery we do have is high-end equipment," he said. "The processing we can provide our customers is unique, (and) my competitors can't provide that. For example, we were the first in our area to provide a multi-tasking lathe," imported from Japan.

"These machines are worth well over $500,000. Our competitors may buy one that's worth $100,000."

Finding new workers is sometimes a challenge, he said, but young apprentices are proving valuable, and they are often more open to changing technologies, he said.

Growth is on the horizon, he said, here and elsewhere.

"As a whole, it is growing," he said. "We're doing work for companies abroad as well. We actually sell to China, Thailand and France. Fifty to 60 per cent of our business is outside Canada, and the U.S. is our biggest customer."

Fidus Systems Inc.

Year founded: 2001

Employees: 60

Product: Electronic design services

Revenue growth: 89 %

Self-proclaimed electronics junkie Fidus Systems is growing so quickly, it may soon have to specialize to sustain growth levels, its top executive said.

With gradually increasing workforces in both Canada and San Jose, president Michael Wakim said the company is evolving.

"We were generalists," he said, explaining how in the past, the electronic design services company was more of a catch-all firm, taking any and all projects. "We (weren't) fussy."

Things are changing, however. "The bigger you get, the harder it is to grow at the same percentages," he said. "Now, we're trying to become experts in specific technologies."

Fidus is finding itself honing some skills over others. Areas it finds itself loving more and more are maritime navigation equipment and board design for high-speed memories, he said.

"The world is going insane with very, very high-speed memory," said Mr. Wakim. "We're quite knowledgeable in that area right now.

"Another we're really enjoying is maritime navigation. We've developed equipment in New York for tracking commercial ships. That's been just an amazing project, and we want to become experts in maritime surveillance. That's different than in previous years, we never would have focused on something like that."

That's not to say Fidus won't continue being a catch all.

"We're finding areas we like a lot, and focusing on those. But in our business, we still have to be flexible. We still cover a lot of domains, but while trying to become experts in certain areas."

Asked how Fidus saw growth of 89 per cent, the Lebanon-born Mr. Wakim credited Canadian values.

"I think it's an ongoing trend for companies to seek partners to help them with design," he said. "It's not just us: there's two or three other software companies doing well, helping other companies with design.

"I think Canadians are just trustworthy," he added. "That's why I think a lot of companies are staying in North America to help with design."

This year marks the second in a row on the list for Fidus, an accomplishment Mr. Wakim said will be challenging to threepeat. The specialization might help, he said, and retaining quality employees is getting ever more important.

"I think the two keys for the future for us, is to keep it a place where people really want to work, and develop the expertise we have in certain technologies," he said.

He added that with Fidus being named one of Ottawa's top employers last November by its peers has also helped in attracting quality staff.

TRM Technologies Inc.

Year founded: Dec. 1990

Employees: 15 full-time, 60 subcontractors

Product: IT consulting and professional services with focus on IT security and infrastructure

Revenue growth: 83 %

Adapting to a changing environment allowed TRM Technologies Inc. to thrive in a revamped high tech sector in Ottawa, according to president Ted Martin.

Competent adaptation, as well as a broadening of the 17-year-old firm's focus over the years, has allowed TRM technologies to grow from the "boutique firm" it was when it began to a growing firm with expanding revenues.

"We recognized the change in the market environment and responded to it," Mr. Martin told the OBJ. "Between 1990 and 2002, we were very much a boutique firm, focused on solutions delivery, i.e. project-oriented work.

"(But) Y2K was kind of the last hurrah for significant projects in this town, and business shifted away from project-oriented work to staff augmentation work," he said.

Instead of providing turn-key solutions, TRM focused on solutions, he said: supplying the right people to work sites, engineering and architecture activities, project management, and elsewhere.

"In order to respond to the changing market, we changed our business model," he said. "We made an investment in the professional services business by hiring a seasoned executive and acquiring recruiting and sales management software tools."

The strategy, combined with successful efforts in getting itself on the federal government's list of preferred clients, has paid dividends. The IT consulting and professional services firm has posted high double-digit growth figures for most of the last few years, and has been included in the OBJ's list of Fastest Growing Companies two years running.

"Keeping in mind we're focusing on a couple of key areas: IT security and IT infrastructure," Mr. Martin added.

Main clients include the federal government and Crown corporations, he said, as well as some private companies.

"We have a presence in almost all government departments," said Mr. Martin. "We have some small activity in the private sector, and some small amount in the U.S."

While the company changed tactics at the start of the decade, it's fully aware it may have to do so again in the future to keep up with market changes, he said.

"Our fundamental philosophy is to engage in new and emerging sectors of technology, to keep the work interesting," said Mr. Martin. "In the '90s, we were involved in the communications technologies that ended up being the Internet. When that matured, we migrated into the securities world. That'll be interesting for the next few years. Then, we'll move into other areas as they evolve."

The Works

Gourmet Burger Bistro

Year founded: 2001

Employees: 120

Product: Family restaurant chain

Revenue growth: 80 %

Don't be fooled by the placement of the Works Gourmet Burger Bistro in the top 10 list this year. Although the burger chain placed second on the list in 2006, owner Ion Aimers said he couldn't be happier with the way things are going.

"This year was a little slower," he told the OBJ. "(But) we had a real banner year in terms of giving back to the community. We gave away a large amount of food to neighbourhood groups and charities. We've been blessed to be adopted by the Ottawa community."

With growth planned for 2007, The Works is sure to top the list again. A new location opened in Kanata in January and there are plans to open another in Orleans this fall. "Our growth plan was five stores in five years. But we don't grow for the sake of growing, we do it because there's business to support the locations," Mr. Aimers said. And that is an understatement.

With line-ups often out the door for one of the 434 different burgers, Mr. Aimers can't seem to open locations fast enough and is looking at franchise possibilities. "The second part of our growth plan is 50 stores in 10 years," he said.

Always listening to what customers want, Mr. Aimers introduced two new patties to the chicken, turkey, vegetarian, lamb and beef burger choices. One is a low-fat elk burger, which comes from a free range farm in Carp, and the other is a vegetarian tempeh burger, which is an Indonesian soybean patty.

"We re-invented the burger, bringing it back to how it was made in the old days, but now we are offering a new-aged spin on it to make it healthier. That's what people are looking for," Mr. Aimers said.

Some of the new burgers added to the menu this year include the Bubba Gump with shrimp and Growler 5-0 for Lowell Green's 50th anniversary on the radio. The most important burger on the menu, however, is the Guardian Angel. Last October, Mr. Aimer's sister passed away from cancer and she helped designed the burger. For 2007, $1 from each sale of that burger will go to the Regional Cancer Foundation. They also raised $33,000 for the RCF by giving away burgers for a day in January.

"I feel a big responsibility in taking care of not only our employees but our customers and the community. We are a neighbourhood restaurant above all, Mr. Aimers said.