18 And Still Growing

In the midst of profound uncertainty regarding the state, national and world economies, Strategic Staffing Solutions celebrated a major milestone October 1st. We turned 18!

It hardly seems possible that it was 18 years ago when we opened for business with three employees at our initial headquarters on Woodbridge just east of the Renaissance Center.

At that time, the idea of building a business consulting in what was then the fledgling industry of information technology was not something that many saw as a successful business model. And businesses were moving out of, not into, the City of Detroit.

But, filled with optimism and a belief in both our vision for a business model and the benefits of hard work, we opened Strategic Staffing Solutions. Since then, we have posted 18 consecutive years of revenue growth. We are on track in 2008 to make that 19 in a row. We have expanded from three employees to more than 1,600. We have opened 19 offices in U.S. cities and two in Europe – in Vilnius, Lithuania and London, England. And we have grown from a small office on Woodbridge to a global corporation taking up the 29th floor of the Penobscot Building.

We have proven you can be headquartered in Michigan, and more specifically headquartered in Detroit, and sustain growth. And we have successfully made the transition from a small, entrepreneurial start-up to an established presence on Detroit’s business scene.

What’s our secret? An important one, as I mentioned earlier -- we are not afraid of hard work. But it takes more than that. We know our market, we know our customers and develop strong relationships with them, we learn from our experiences, we deliver a quality product, we go where we are needed and we are continually assessing and improving our internal operations.

We also have maintained a continued commitment to growth and expansion. We have never rested on our laurels. We believe that as a business, if you are not growing and continually looking for new opportunities, you are going to start falling behind. And we don’t intend to fall behind.

So look for further announcements between now and the end of the year related to our continuing commitment to growth and expansion. As far as we’re concerned, 18 years is just a good beginning.

Cynthia J. Pasky is CEO and president of Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc., based in Detroit. Strategic Staffing Solutions paid for placement of this article.