BUSINESS SERVICES
Best Accounting/Consulting Firm
The category says accounting and consulting, but this year’s Gold medalist, BKD, crunches a lot of other numbers in such areas as corporate finance, ESOP succession planning and wealth management. With nearly a score of specialized services, it appeals to readers in broad fashion, as does this year’s Silver winner KPMG, the audit, tax and advisory giant. Those two have been duking it out for top honors in this category for six years running. This year’s Bronze goes to Marks Nelson Vohland Campbell Radetic, the largest locally owned accounting firm in Kansas City.
Best Small Advertising Agency
For a moment there, we flashed back to July’s Corporate Report 100, Ingram’s annual list of the 100 fastest-growing companies. Trozzolo Communications Group has made that list nine times, but the folks there have established a reputation for quality, as well as growth, Trozzolo is back for a third straight year in this category, this time as our Gold winner. Two more rapid-growth companies also turn up in the Best of Business honors this year: Gragg Advertising, which debuts here—and impressively so—by snaring the Silver medal, and Salva O’Renick, which walks off with the Bronze.
Best Large Advertising Agency
Back in the 1990s, VML embraced digital marketing in a big way. And it paid off in a big way. From its offices at Wheeler Downtown Airport and a growing satellite operation in the Crossroads, VML has stomped out a global footprint in on-line marketing expertise. For that reason and more, it bags the Gold this year. Silver honors went to a long-time Kansas City favorite, Bernstein-Rein Advertising, a full-service advertising agency working in print, broadcast, digital and direct venues. This year’s Bronze goes to Barkley, the largest employee-owned advertising agency in the U.S.
Best Airline Serving KCI
Quite a year for Southwest Airlines: The Dallas-based company just celebrated its 40th anniversary in June, it acquired a competitor in AirTran Airlines, and now it’s back for another heaping helping of Best of Business Gold. Southwest is the nation’s most successful low-fare carrier, now serving 72 cities with its fleet of 550 Boeing 737s. Another regionally based carrier, Frontier Airlines out of Denver, stakes its claim to this year’s Silver honors. And Bronze goes to Midwest Airlines, back for a final time before its merger with Frontier in 2009 sees the Midwest brand fade out this year. But airline officials said the Midwest tradition of warm chocolate-chip cookies would live on.
Best Architectural/Design Firm
Readers offer up proof that biggest and best can be synonymous by designating stadium-building heavyweight Populous as winner of the Gold for a second straight year. With offices on five continents, Populous has been bringing people together at stadiums, convention center, ballparks and arenas dating back to its founding as an arm of the HOK Group in St. Louis back in 1983. This year’s Silver goes to HNTB, the century-old specialist in infrastructure. Bringing home the Bronze is Helix Architecture + Design, offering everything from building design right down to the furnishings.
Best Bank
Kansas City is known for family influences in its banking circles, but this year’s Gold goes to one you might not have thought of first, unless you’re a member of the Thompson clan. The readers bestow top honors to Country Club Bank, which has been a fixture in this market for nearly 60 years. Linked by their longstanding ties to the extended Kemper family, UMB Bank, with the Silver, and Commerce Bank, winner of this year’s Bronze, continue to be dominant forces in the region; they’re the only two locally owned banks with double-digit market shares.
Best Corporate Retreat Venue (Day/Overnight)
Discerning a difference between Lodge of Four Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks, winner of this year’s Gold honors, and Silver winner Big Cedar Lodge, on Table Rock Lake, is like arguing about which acre of heaven offers the best view of the universe. You simply can’t go wrong with either venue, each of which maximizes Missouri’s natural gifts in settings that are bound to soothe. Closer to home, the Bronze goes to the Sheraton Overland Park, conveniently positioned adjacent to the convention center in this region’s second-largest city.
Best Employer
This category boasts three big international players, and each of them attests to the entrepreneurial zeal of Kansas City. At Gold-winning Burns & McDonnell, employees think the world of their owners, which speak to their collective level of self-confidence. A leading figure in a region blessed with outstanding engineering companies, Burns & McDonnell is owned by its roughly 3,000 employees. Hallmark Cards, that icon of the greeting-card industry (and now the e-greeting industry), takes Silver honors. Both are at least a century old; the relative newcomer on the block, 32-year-old health informatics giant Cerner Corp., claims the Bronze.
Best Engineering Firm
Once again, Burns & McDonnell flashes Gold in a category that helps define Kansas City’s economic profile. Founded in 1899, the company has grown into an international force in creating the infrastructure that keeps nations running. An even bigger player in its global engineering footprint is Overland Park-based Black & Veatch, winner of this year’s Silver, which will be looking at its own centennial in 2015. The Bronze goes to Bob D. Campbell and Co., a multifaceted regional company that deals in hospitals, schools, parking garages, churches and more.
Best Small Commercial Contractor
From commercial properties to schools, from warehouses to distribution facilities, A.L. Huber has been in construction for nearly a century, and the family-owned company’s reputation rings Gold with our readers. And if you’re a church-goer, there’s a good chance that your Sunday mornings are spent under a Huber roof—the company has built more than 100 in the region. Another family concern, Rau Construction, nails down the Silver 90 years after setting up shop in Kansas City (and a remarkable 141 years after its founding—in Germany). Harmon Construction, in its 15th year in business, wins the Bronze.
Best Large Commercial Contractor
A number of nationally known construction companies operate in Kansas City, but readers in this category pledge their allegiance to the home-grown one, J.E. Dunn Construction Co., by awarding it the Gold. Engineering News Record places the company No. 25 among the largest contractors nationwide, and Dunn’s construction footprint is all over Kansas City. For more than 90 years and across four generations, Silver winner Straub Construction has been serving the region for many years as well, while McCownGordon Construction, with its strong emphasis on long-term relationships, pulls in the Bronze.
Best Commercial Printer
Much of Kansas City’s power structure is connected with the Downtown area, so it’s no surprise that many of the companies that cater to those folks are close to that center of the action. Which is why many of our Best of Business Kansas City winners are congregated in the geographic bull’s-eye of this region. But sometimes, the Gold-favored Kansas City company in a given speciality isn’t from Kansas City, at all. That’s the case with Summit Litho, based in Lee’s Summit. It earns the distinction this year from readers who appreciate its capabilities in everything from prepress to 6-color and digital printing, bindery, warehousing and fulfillment and both local delivery and nationwide shipping. Silver goes to Soli Printing, a Downtown fixture that for neary 40 years has been meeting the commercial-printing needs of businesses throughout the region.
Best Commercial Realtor/Firm
The places change, but in the hearts and minds of Ingram’s readers, three companies lead the pack in commercial realty, year after year. When the music stopped this time around, Kessinger/Hunter and Co. was sitting in the Gold seat. Tracing its roots to 1879, K/H oversees $2 billion in real estate assets today. Block is a name long associated with real estate in Kansas City, and the company that evolved into Block Real Estate Services continues the legacy with this year’s Silver. Another long-time player in this game is Zimmer Real Estate Services, winner of the Bronze.
Best Computer IT/Consulting Firm
Accenture, a global leader in consulting, technology services and outsourcing, and with $21.6 billion in revenues last year, the Chicago-based company has the heft and the reputation to win over readers for this year’s Gold honors. The award is Silver, but you can color the winners purple, as in Versent’s Kansas City subsidiary, the Purple Guys, specializing in data protection, IT consulting and cloud computing. And a company we’ve followed for years for its rapid growth, Alexander Open Systems, a telecommunications systems savant, dials up the Bronze.
Best Ground Transportation
It’s not a line that spawns may family businesses, but that’s exactly what this year’s Gold winner, Overland Limousine, is, and one in its second generation. Overland with one used limousine in 1979 bills itself as the largest luxury transportation service in Kansas. Bumper-to-bumper with Overland is Silver winner Agenda: Kansas City, which weds chauffered ground transportation with a full range of event planning services. And Ingram’s readers are nothing if not practical: Also getting a nod is an element of public transportation with The Jo, Johnson County’s transit program.
Best Health Club
There’s a great deal to be said about the value of access, and as the name implies, 24-Hour Fitness is indeed accessible—not just with scheduling, but with eight locations in the area. For those reasons, readers awarded Gold honors to the favorite. The YMCA of Greater Kansas City, now 20 area locations strong, also provides easy access, as well as a range of adult and youth fitness programming. And Life Time Fitness, after opening a second location in the market with its Lenexa facility, finishes with Bronze.
Best Health Insurance Provider
If the nation’s roiling debate about health insurance has done anything, it has refocused attention on the importance of that coverage. And with more than 1 million customers in the Kansas City region, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City is surely doing something right. Our readers agree, giving the Blues Gold again in the second year of this category. Humana, also offering individual, company-sponsored and Medicare plans, earns the Silver. UnitedHealthcare, with a comprehensive suite of coverage that includes life, dental, vision and disability insurance, earns the Bronze.
Best Home Builder
Family-owned Holthaus Builders of Leawood, now in its second generation, has been building quality homes since 1999. And quality is something Ingram’s readers recognize, which is why they’ve selected Holthaus for Gold designation. Silver honors go to Lambie Custom Homes, an award-winning builder that has worked in some of the region’s most exclusive subdivisions. The number of companies tied for Bronze honors made a selection for that award impractical for 2011.
Best Hospital/Medical Center
Not just a premier provider of health-care services but the cornerstone of one of the region’s largest businesses, Saint Luke’s Hospital wins the Gold this year. Its main campus near the Country Club Plaza is home base in a system that reaches nearly every corner of the metropolitan area. The University of Kansas Hospital, the public health author-ity that dominates health-care delivery on the Kansas side of the region, earns this year’s Silver, while Shawnee Mission Medical Center, closing in on 50 years of service to Johnson County, casts up the Bronze.
Best Hotel
From the pillow-top mattresses to the stunning view of the Country Club Plaza, the InterContinental Hotel Kansas City continues to redefine luxury accommodations, and readers respond by granting it Gold yet again—it has earned that medal since the inception of this award in 2005, back when it was the Fairmont Hotel. Just across Wornall Road sits the grand old dame of Kansas City hotels, the Raphael Hotel. A perennial pick for Silver, this historic landmark simply oozes charm as well as luxury. And combining elegance and space—lots and lots of it, with 724 rooms—is the Westin Crown Center. Anchored by the city’s Downtown retail magnet, it wins the Bronze by offering first-rate accommodations with easy acccess to great shopping.
Best Law Firm
Successful business executives know the importance of partnering with a top-notch law firm. Three that offer a complete range of legal practice areas, not surprisingly, are the picks for top honors in this Best of Business category. Leading the way is Polsinelli Shughart, winner of the Gold distinction for a second straight year—a time frame coinciding with the merger of two firms that created it. Lathrop & Gage, the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi River (founded in 1873), earned the Silver. Shook, Hardy & Bacon, with the largest staff of lawyers in-house in this region, wins the Bronze.
Best Meeting/Conference Facility
Long a bridesmaid in this ceremony, Overland Park Convention Center this year is the bride. Or, in more specific terms, the Gold medalist. Its reputation in the regional convention space reinforces the vital economic role that Overland Park plays as the second-largest municipality in the Kansas City area. Downtown’s H. Roe Bartle Hall, the cornerstone of Kansas City Convention and Entertainment Facilities, wins the Silver. And for something that still provides high-class accommodations in a more intimate setting, there’s the Ritz Charles in Overland Park, winner of the Bronze award.
Best Retirement Community
For two years running, Bishop Spencer Place has brought home the Gold in this category. Sitting near two assets that speak to the lifestyles of active seniors—the Country Club Plaza and Saint Luke’s Hospital—it offers its residents both vibrancy and independence. Senior living on a larger scale takes place on the 95-acre campus of Lakeview Village in Lenexa, which boasts more than 550 residential units and more than 700 residents, a setting good enough to earn Silver honors. And John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit, for more than 40 years a dominant force in this sector, earns the Bronze.
Best Spa
There’s a reason that “spa” rhymes with “ahhhh.” Sometimes, you just have to pamper yourself, and you can’t go wrong with any of these reader favorites. Sunlight Day Spa in Overland Park, just three years old, bags its first Gold honors on the strength of its luxurious treatments for mind and body. A long-time reader favorite, bijin salon & spa, body-wraps the Silver with is treatments on-site or right in your home. And the Spa Tuscano, which attacks the stress that’s attacking you with a full-body lineup of treatments, carries Bronze back to its Northland location in the Briarcliff Village center.
Best Wealth Manager (Firm)
It’s simple, really: You work to accumulate wealth, you want to retain it, and—assuming the Tax Collector isn’t there to erase what the Grim Reaper left behind—you probably want it to do some greater good for family or philanthropy. Getting you there are firms that have redefined wealth management in this economic environment. Leading the way this year is Creative Planning, based in Leawood. The company has seen its assets under management soar in the past few years, and readers reward it with this year’s Gold. Another Leawood firm, Mariner Wealth Advisors, chimes in with Silver, its team-based apporach to managing wealth resonating with readers again this year. Two other notables—Waddell & Reed, with its range of aggressive investing options including its Ivy Funds, and Merrill Lynch, one of the world’s largst financial institutions, tied for Bronze.
Best Wireless Phone Service
It’s not just a phone any more, it’s your business in a hand-held unit, and it has become the essential business tool. But wherever you roam with it, your lifeline to the rest of the world is the company you choose to provide wireless service. Our on-the-go readers turn to the hometown folks at Sprint dial up Gold honors in this category for a second straight year. Sprint’s focused efforts to improve service at all levels continue to pay off with higher customer retention. Ringing in with Silver this year is Verizon Wireless, with a similarly impressive list of devices, plans and accessories. And AT&T, the legacy name in telecommunications, earns Bronze. 
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