Innovation, flexibility, embracing technology, recognizing your niche, superior customer service, consistency of management and ownership, and employee appreciation all qualities that any business consultant would say are essential if start-up companies are to succeed, if existing companies are to survive.
But these are concepts that go back to the beginnings of some of the state’s oldest companies, and have been noted by many of them as the reason they have survived for, in come cases, two centuries or more.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
In a special section in this week’s edition we celebrate the companies that have formed the backbone of Rhode Island’s business community – our oldest companies. Excluded from the list and consideration were those companies that over time had been acquired by other companies.
There is much to be learned from understanding why and how these companies have survived over time.
Take Washington Trust, the Westerly based bank that started because it understood the need for a bank in that part of Rhode Island and nearby Connecticut. Residents of the area were tired in 1800 of doing their banking in places as far away as Providence, so a bank was formed to serve a specific geographic region. While the bank continues to add and modify services to meet customers’ needs, it has never lost sight of the fact that it is first a community bank, grounded mainly in the southern end of our state.
And at The John Stevens Shop in Newport, the oldest continuously operating business in America, tradition is engraved in stone. There, the hand carved stone cutting business remains in the same location where it was started in 1705, and with the same commitment to superior work.
At Gilbane there is the recognition of how technology can help Rhode Island’s largest private company continue to grow. B.A. Ballou has a long-held appreciation of its workforce, and at company after company there are stories that provide us with the very basics of how to run a successful business.
And then, of course, there’s the White Horse Tavern, where not only is the food and drink legendary, but so is the house ghost, a tall man dressed in overcoat and tall hat, often found sitting among the tables, enjoying the company of new found friends.
We celebrate these companies that have found Rhode Island a place in which their businesses can grow and prosper. They are a part of the Rhode Island landscape, a part of what helps define Rhode Island’s superior quality of life.
