Honored
Leader: Bob Cutler, Founder and CEO
Company Name: Creative Consumer Concepts (C3)
Location: Overland Park, Kansas
Nature of Business: Markets and promotional products for the restaurant industry.
Founded: 1987
Revenue: $35.9 million
Growth Rate (2004): 6 percent
Number of Employees: 47
Average Tenure: 5 years
C3 is an 18-year-old marketing agency specializing in children and family-based products. CEO Bob Cutler fosters a creative, fun-loving and values-based family environment for his 47 employees, evidenced, in part, by a rock-climbing wall in the lobby. Cutler utilizes open-book management and third-party employee surveys to bolster intra-organizational communication. C3's flat structure provides everyone with an opportunity to make a difference, and it is paying off. Since 2001, sales have increased 25 percent annually, and gross margins have remained consistent. Employees are encouraged to participate in C3's global community service program, which sends them anywhere in the world to complete 40 hours of community service while reimbursing them for time and travel expenses. It's one more way that C3 fulfills its mission of bringing families and the world closer together.