Nortec’s 20th Anniversary

Nortec’s 20th Anniversary is approaching in March. According to the US Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2009 there were 552,600 new businesses, 660,900 closures and 60,837 bankruptcies. 2009 was a net loss of 169,137 businesses so not a good year for business. 2005 had a net gain of 39,176 businesses and this is a better sample of most years. SBA states that 50% of businesses survive 5 years, 33% survive 10 years and 26% survive 15 years. The longer a business survives the more likely it will continue as 67% of those that survived 5 years survive 5 more. 79% of those that survived 10 years survived 5 more years resulting in 26% reaching 15 years. This extrapolates to 85% of the 26% of business that survived 15 years will survive the next five years and this would mean 22% of businesses survive 20 Years - this is about 1 in 5. This success is certainly something worth celebrating!

I was reflecting on the key principals that have given us 20 years of success. Nortec has 5 principal values: Excellence, Integrity, Responsive, Flexibility and Follow up and these principal values are the foundation of Nortec. Here are 6 keys principals that build on the foundation:

1. The first rule of business is to stay in business
2. Business model trumps everything!
3. Hiring the very best people at all levels
4. Commitment to the business – no matter how difficult things get!
5. Thinking long term
6. Aligning management and compensation around the goal of profitability