News Brief

CCR was recognized Wednesday evening as one of the Fastest Growing Companies by the Corridor Business Journal (CBJ) for the 2nd year in a row and the 6th year since the list’s inception. This year, CCR took home 9th place overall, giving us our highest placement yet.

 

So, cool. What does this mean to us, for us, and for our future as an Eastern Iowa business? Before we reflect on these questions, it’s important to understand what it means – literally – to be included on this list.

 

Award Criteria

Each year, beginning in 2008, the CBJ presented awards to the top 25 fastest-growing companies in the Corridor.  To be eligible for an award, companies must:

  • Have revenue of at least $350,000 in each of the previous three fiscal years
  • Show revenue growth in the previous year, as compared to two years prior
  • Be headquartered in Linn, Johnson, Washington, Benton, Jones, Cedar, Iowa, or Black Hawk counties
  • Be for-profit entities

 

Accelerated growth challenges

Growth has been a major theme for CCR in recent years. Since 2015, the company has increased revenue 49% (2015-2016) and 32% (2016-2017). We’ve also expanded our workforce, going from 74 full-time employees in 2015 to 113 in 2018.

 

With this level of growth comes a number of challenges for any business leader:

  • Managing resources and long-term planning
  • Recruiting & workforce development
  • Allocating space for your workforce
  • Building leadership and management
  • Team communications

 

CCR has made a conscious effort to rise to each of these challenges by being thoughtful and proactive in our planning and standard processes:

  • Our leadership team has implemented a full-scale annual planning process to define objectives and goals for the coming year, with regular communications and updates regarding progress and obstacles.
  • Our HR team has developed a set of interview questions designed to identify qualities that align with our company culture.
  • The company has invested in hundreds of hours of training – inclusive of professional, personal, and technical development skills.
  • We have added more than 10 supervisory/ management positions within the last two years to ensure that every team receives the leadership and direction they deserve.
  • We have also developed a facilities plan to address the increasing shortage of space in our building (which we moved into in 2015 with plans to stay for a minimum of 5 years).

 

Award-winning dedication fuels growth

Our continued growth can be attributed to a number of factors, but there are 3 that clearly stand above the rest:

  1. Dedication to our customers
  2. Dedication to our culture & employees
  3. Dedication to the applications of technology for businesses of all kinds

 

CCR has achieved a level of success in recent years that is indicative of the company’s priorities and values. In addition to this award from CBJ, we have been recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the country 8 years running, we have placed in the top rankings of Managed Service Providers in the world on the MSP 501 list, and we have has been certified as a national Great Place to Work for the past two years.

 

This year, CCR was honored to be named the Technology Association of Iowa’s (TAI) IT Service Provider of the Year at its annual Prometheus Awards. We previously won this award in 2014 and have been a finalist in numerous Prometheus Award categories each year since 2013.

 

Service is what we do

Awards are great and all, but what really matters to us is delivering excellent service to our clients and following through on the promises we’ve made. For us, the key to success has simply been to do right by the people we serve.

 

Our Marketing Director, Kate Nash, summed this up pretty perfectly when she said, “We are honored to be acknowledged by the CBJ among other talented, Corridor-based businesses. We see this recognition as a sign that we are serving a real need in the business community for smart, quality technology infrastructure services. We are thankful for the trust our clients have placed in us, and we couldn’t build that trust without the commitment of our team.”

 

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