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Service
winner:
A happy
work force is key to Cube's growth
Related
stories:
This year's Fantastic 50
(intro)
The 2002 Fantastic 50 (chart)
Highest Overall Growth Rate: RGI
- Robinson Gareiss
Manufacturing winner: Parker
Compound Bows
Retail-Wholesale winner: Schiller
International
Service winner: The Cube Corp.
Technology winner: TechBooks
by Robert Burke
Click
image to enlarge |
The
Cube Corp. is all about simplicity. There are no fancy
digs, just a modest office tucked into a Sterling business
park. "Perfect for what we do," says CEO and
co-founder Jack Mencia. There is no corporate parent
to distract them, no high-tech trends to chase. Cube
makes its money by providing facilities management services,
mostly to the federal government at places like NASA's
Wallops Island facility on the Eastern Shore. "We
keep our overhead low, and we're still able to take
care of our employees," Mencia says.
That
focus is helping it grow rapidly in a competitive market.
Since its founding in 1994, the privately held company
has seen revenues climb 1,343 percent from 1997 to 2000.
This is its second year as the leader among service
companies in the Fantastic 50. And newly won contracts
- such as a five-year, $95 million contract at the U.S.
Army's Fort Bliss, Texas - are pushing the numbers higher.
Mencia projects this year's revenues will reach $105
million. "We can be a billion-dollar company,"
he says.
Employee
perks and incentives are key to the company's strategy,
from Thanksgiving turkeys to holiday parties. It typically
shares incentive fees; Cube workers for a client in
New Orleans, for example, get half the incentives the
company earns. Mencia doesn't mind sharing. "It's
not all for me. There's too many entrepreneurs out there
[asking] how much they can make. I think there's enough
for all of us, and in the end I think I'll do pretty
well."
In
total, Cube handles more than two dozen government contracts,
providing everything from logistical support and security
services to groundskeeping. Along with the Army and
NASA, other Cube clients include the Department of Energy,
the Air Force, the Department of Agriculture and other
agencies.
Mencia,
40, first got involved with facilities management after
graduating from George Mason University in 1983. He
worked for Arlington-based System Planning Inc., a facilities
management company. After his unit was sold to a West
Coast firm he and two partners, who have since left,
bought the division and took it private. Mencia named
the new entity "Cube," the nickname of his
older brother. Mencia's parents fled Castro in 1961
and settled briefly in Florida before relocating to
Falls Church. The older brother was called 'Cube"
for "Cuban."
Government
outsourcing is a $120 billion-a-year business and is
growing. Cube's growth, though, isn't driven solely
by an expanding demand, Mencia says. "Most of the
work we have are recompetitions that we've been successful
at winning from other companies. We're in a very competitive
market. They're low margins and we understand that.
That's the market that we thrive in."
The
company grows in spurts - it added 300 employees when
it won the Wallops Island contract, for example, and
now employs more than 1,200 people. Mencia last year
moved to stay ahead of the company's explosive growth
by hiring several senior managers, including a vice
president of contracts, who had experience working at
big companies. It made the company seem top-heavy, he
says, but as new contracts were won the extra hands
helped. "From a resource standpoint we're well-positioned,"
Mencia says. This year may bring its biggest expansion
to date: Mencia is making plans to acquire at least
one competitor, an unnamed firm that does about $80
million to $100 million in revenues a year. The deal
could be done by mid-year.
If
that happens, Cube's managers will face the challenge
of spreading the corporate culture to hundreds of new
employees. "It has to permeate through all levels,
from me all the way down," Mencia says. "That
attitude breeds success. You make your employees happy,
they make your customers happy, and they tell your potential
customers, and you kind of see the circle."
Return
to Virginia Business - May 2002
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