Honored
Leader: Patty McManus, President
Company Name: Olsson Associates
Location: Lincoln, Neb.
Nature of Business: Engineering consulting firm
Founded: 1956
Revenue: $41.5 million
Growth Rate (2004): 18 percent
Number of Employees: 416
Average Tenure: 4.73 years
Olsson Associates is a 49-year-old engineering consulting firm with 416
employees. Under President Patty McManus' leadership, the company consistently
gives back approximately 85 percent of all profits to employees through
an employee stock option plan, retirement plans, and bonuses. Employees
can be nominated for a leadership development program, the firm's most popular
and successful program. The flat structure of the firm allows for nimbleness
and open communication. Instead of a hierarchical structure, small teams
– made up of people from a variety of levels and functions – focus on a
certain discipline within the office. The firm practices open-book management
and trains employees on how to read key financials. McManus says that by
communicating how employee behavior impacts the bottom line and by providing
her people with a stake in the company's fortunes, she has fostered a culture
of continuous improvement.
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