Bishop McCann

Many a business owner will respond to organizational challenges by circling the wagons with the troops and looking inward for solutions. Not Dan Nilsen. Challenged with high growth a few years ago—and make no mistake, high growth really can be an existential threat—Nilsen instead looked outward. “I assembled a diverse group of five people who have been successful running organizations larger than Bishop-McCann,” he said. “It was important to me that they understood my vision, but that I needed help getting there.” Because of those quarterly mentorings, “I can honestly say I do business differently.”

That has helped in top-line growth, where Bishop-McCann brought in $40 million last year with a staff of only 41. And Nilsen has set his sights high: Within a decade, he hopes to turn his company, which organizes and administers large-scale corporate meetings on a global scale, into a $250 million monolith.

He launched Bishop-McCann in 1997 on this foundation: If you’re going to spend the time and money on a corporate meeting, it darn well ought to be a memorable event. As breaks from the normal course of business, he believes that such meetings are great ways to launch products, share best practices or conduct training. He also understands that a poorly executed meeting can be more than a waste of time and effort; it can actually work against a company’s long-term interests.

He’s managed Bishop-McCann’s rapid growth by embracing technology and applying it foremost to his clients needs, making sure his employees are getting industry-leading compensation and benefits, and living the mandate for business to do good while doing well—he has a long list of charitable, philanthropic, social and political extracurricular activities that reflect his and his company’s core values.

But long-term success, he said, comes back to understanding one’s own weaknesses: “Surround yourself with a leadership team of people who are experts in their fields and a lot better than you are in some key areas,” such as accounting, finance, operations or marketing, he said. In the end, though, success is “not just about building a profitable company,” he says, “it’s about taking good care of your associates, providing world-class service to your clients, and it’s about doing what you can to give back to your community.”

Boulevard Brewing Co.

John McDonald was never one to avoid the heavy lifting. A full keg of Boulevard beer weighs more than 150 pounds, and McDonald personally delivered the first one from his brewery to a restaurant, right out of the back of his pickup truck.

Since then, he’s elevated the brewery he founded in 1989 from start-up to the largest craft brewer in the Midwest. Boulevard products, the equivalent of 1.2 million kegs’ worth each year, are now available in 19 states, from the Gulf shores to the Pacific Northwest.

These days, he has nearly 90 employees to help with the lifting, including the recent addition of the company’s first chief operations officer. His key to success? “I think it’s keeping focused on what you need to do,” says McDonald. “Every business is constantly changing, but one of the things that helps us a lot is that we’re in a business that actually produces something.”

His own industry is front-and-center in the globalization of commerce. Five years ago, he notes, 85 percent of the beer consumed in the United States was made by American-owned companies. Today, that figure is just 5 percent. And yet, McDonald believes, within that globalization is a significant niche for local and regional products. That’s where he makes his living.

Almost from inception, Boulevard has consistently been among the region’s fastest-growing companies. Revenues for 2009, at $26.3 million, were up nearly 12-fold from 1994, when Boulevard was first recognized on Ingram’s Corporate Report 100 list. With about 35 percent of his sales in the Kansas City market and 90 percent within a five-state area, McDonald is willing to sell beer in Seattle, but his focus must remain on the consumption tastes of folks closer to home.

Two decades into it, McDonald acknowledges that “I didn’t have any idea we’d get this big.” His experience shapes this advice to others seeking a similar path: “The brewery is bigger than any one person here; it’s become its own identity. So it’s important to get good, talented people and let them do their jobs, because you can’t do it all yourself. That’s a really important aspect—make sure you’ve got the right people.”