2006 Future 50 of Greater Detroit: congratulations to these Southeast Michigan pacemakers for their positive impact on our economy.

The Future 50 of Greater Detroit is sponsored by BDO Seidman LLP, the Detroit Regional Chamber, LaSalle Bank and WWJ Newsradio 950. The awards competition is open to all businesses in Southeast Michigan (Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne counties) that have been in business at least two years and have at least $2 million in annual revenues. Winners are chosen based on growth in employment, investments, community enhancement, revenues and acquisitions.

Success Strategies

11 Future 50 winners share their best practices with the Detroiter

'Determine the right growth strategy'

CLEAR!Blue

Todd P. Smith, CEO

Business: Marketing and communications

Q: What was your greatest business challenge, and how did you resolve it?

A: Determining the right growth strategy. We have the talent pool to do almost everything in the marketing and communications universe, but it doesn't mean we should. So, we established a Strategy Team that evaluates opportunities and continually evolves our growth plan. The team helps keep us focused on the most strategic, complementary and relevant offerings in our arsenal of talent. These are the things we do best, and they position us well to address the continuing evolution of our industry.

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a new business?

A: First, learn all you can about marketing and finance. Second, if you haven't found the right business idea, look harder. Is there a saturated market you can break into? Study the Inc. 500 to see how others have done it. Third, have a vision and a mission, backed by values. Write it all out in simple terms and make sure it's deeply meaningful to you. Fourth, embrace your idealism and follow your passion. They're what get you through the sleepless nights. And finally, never stop being an entrepreneur. Keep on reinventing, because our world will never stop reinventing itself.

Favorite business book -- "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen R. Covey

Best place to find new clients -- Right in front of you. If you can make your company's product attributes better than the competition, the world becomes your playground.

'Focus on generating revenue'

Compsat Security Inc.

Daniel Glisky, CEO

Business: Physical and electronic security systems

Q: What was your greatest business challenge, and how did you resolve it?

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A: Learning how to manage two growing, dynamic companies. Compsat Technology has been a four-time Future 50 winner and this is Compsat Security's first win. Learning how to effectively manage my time amid the needs of both leadership teams, suppliers and clients has been a significant personal growth and management challenge.

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a new business?

A: First, you have to maintain a focus on revenue generation, for without revenue, you don't have a business. Second, understand your unique ability and hire great people around you that can enable you to stay doing what you do best. Third, join a peer group of entrepreneurs, such as the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) where you can share experiences and gain insight from others who are also growing businesses.

Quick tip for saving money -- Relentlessly focus on ensuring you have the right people. In my experience, no other effort could yield as dramatic a cost savings or cost expenditure.

Favorite business book -- "Good to Great," by Jim Collins

Best place to find new clients -- From referrals from current, satisfied clients

'Be honest with yourself'

Dynamic Edge Inc.

Bruce McCully, President

Business: Computer and business consulting

Q: What was your greatest business challenge, and how did you resolve it?

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A: Not just finding the right people but also knowing when it is just not working out with an employee and helping them make the decision to move on.

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a new business?

A: Know your weaknesses and be honest with yourself about them. Make sure the first people you hire are people who excel in those areas!

Quick tip for saving money -- I like to make my lunches ahead of time on Sunday night. This way, even though I am in a hurry during the week, I don't end up eating out as much. This also helps me eat healthier. It is as easy as grilling chicken breasts along side Sunday dinner, and having them ready to go for lunch.

Favorite Website for business information and resources -- http://goodtogreat.com. If you find Jim Collins' books to be insightful, his Website helps people really explore the concepts his research has uncovered. It is a seemingly endless resource of advice for anyone looking to improve their business.

Favorite business book -- "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. "Getting Things Done" by David Allen is a close second.

Best place to find new clients -- Through referrals from our existing clients. But we have found it is equally important to be active and visible throughout our business community.

'Never promise more than you can deliver'

Employees Only

Mario Apruzzese, CEO

Business: Professional Employer Organization (PEO)

Q: What was your greatest business challenge, and how did you resolve it?

A: Defining the type of clients that would benefit most from our services. Whenever you build a business there is a tendency to try to be "everything to everybody." We decided early on to give our clients and prospects the best feedback and information, even if it meant a different direction than utilizing our services. The result was a more focused staff that had the resources and desire to handle and support clients with those needs.

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a new business?

A: Never promise more than you can deliver and surround yourself with talented people. If you are a sole owner, establish an advisory board and compensate them to give you regular feedback and challenge you and your plan. You need to have your ideas challenged and have a sounding board of independent thinkers with access to resources and knowledge.

Favorite business book -- Any of the Pat Lencioni Books. They're very easy reads, and make perfect sense.

Best place to find new clients -- It may sound obvious, but your own clients should be your No. 1 source. If they're happy with what you provide, they should help. Any client reluctant to refer your business is NOT telling you something.

'Surround yourself with the best people'

FH Martin Constructors

R. Andrew Martin Jr., President

Business: Commercial construction services

Q: What was your greatest business challenge, and how did you resolve it?

A: Expanding our geographic reach to include new market areas throughout the Midwest. Construction, by its nature, tends to be more local--it may not be cost effective to bring all of the people and materials needed to build a building across long distances. But we work with a number of large national clients, and these clients have requested that we travel outside of our "home" market to perform projects for them. This creates a number of challenges, including finding qualified subcontractors in the local market.

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a new business?

A: Surround yourself with the best people you can find, make sure they understand and will act in a manner that is consistent with the vision you have and the core values of the company, and then let them go out and do good things.

Quick tip for saving money -- Take the time to analyze money saving opportunities. Don't just take the easy way of doing what you've done before.

Favorite Website for business information and resources -- Google. From there you can get almost anything!

Favorite business book -- "Good to Great," by Jim Collins

Best place to find new clients -- For us, the best new opportunities come from positive referrals. These referrals come from a number of places: existing clients, design professionals, subcontractors and many others.

'We are all in the people business'

Iknowvate Technologies Inc.

Venkat Mallya, Founder/Chairman/CEO

Business: IT products and services

Q: What was your greatest business challenge, and how did you resolve it?

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A: Our focus and expertise has been in two specific business verticals--automotive and government, both of which were badly hit in last years. We wanted to diversify and go beyond Michigan, so we launched a complete business process automation software for well drillers, which will be sold worldwide. This is a virgin market, and we are all set to create a world standard. We also moved rapidly into Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) to help auto companies cut costs in the product-development lifecycle and reduce the concept-to-market lead time.

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a new business?

A: Have a clear vision, invest with conviction to your vision, size the market and focus on getting that first order and first dollar. Otherwise, you'll never know how you've already spent all the money and time. Take great care of all the people you come across. Your clients are people, your suppliers are people, your employees are people and your community is people. We are all in the people business. The rest is incidental.

'Make sure you have the physical stamina'

Integrated Media Technologies Inc.