A view from the head of the class

A TEAM SUCCESS: FM Global – Rhode Island’s largest private company by revenue – won an Innovation Award in 2010 for its RiskMark online product, developed by this team of loss-prevention engineers to allow companies to assess the risk factors in their business, something that the insurer believes would lower their costs of doing business. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RYAN T. CONATY
A TEAM SUCCESS: FM Global – Rhode Island’s largest private company by revenue – won an Innovation Award in 2010 for its RiskMark online product, developed by this team of loss-prevention engineers to allow companies to assess the risk factors in their business, something that the insurer believes would lower their costs of doing business. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RYAN T. CONATY

In a book filled with lists of companies, lists of people and lists derived from other lists, here is one more list to consider:
&#8226 Acushnet Co.
&#8226 Alex and Ani Inc.
&#8226 American Partners Inc.
&#8226 Citizens Financial Group Inc./Citizens Bank
&#8226 CVS Caremark Corp.
&#8226 Electric Boat Corp.
&#8226 FM Global
&#8226 Narragansett Bay Insurance Co.
&#8226 Ocean State Job Lot
&#8226 Synet Inc.
&#8226 The White Horse Tavern
These are the companies that stand at the top of the 12 lists in this section, lists that cut across most SIC codes and represent some of the best of what the region has to offer.
The Top Companies section of the 2012 Book of Lists contains Providence Business News’ collection of the region’s largest private companies, the fastest-growing private companies, the largest public companies and the oldest companies, among others. These hundreds of companies employ tens of thousands and describe a diverse economy filled with success stories.
For instance, Alex and Ani is the fastest-growing company in the smallest grouping of that family of lists (this year we broke the fastest-growing into three lists by revenue to be able to compare companies in similar situations). Yet it represents Rhode Island’s storied jewelry-making past. Is Alex and Ani leading a renaissance of that sector just as Providence turns the Jewelry District into the Knowledge District?
Of course, if you want to talk about a storied history, The White Horse Tavern has been serving customers since 1673 – that’s right, more than a century before the Declaration of Independence. Considering how high the failure rate for restaurants is, the White Horse’s longevity is beyond astounding.
Of more recent vintage, but much different scale, is CVS Caremark, Rhode Island’s only $100 billion (that’s right, with a “B”) company. From modest regional beginnings, the company has grown to now be one of the two largest pharmacy retailers in the United States, as well as an enormously influential pharmacy-benefit manager. It is likely that the future of health care in the country will be heavily influenced by what the Woonsocket company does, with the added potential benefit of more jobs being created here.
The only significant piece of the region’s economy not included in this section is the public sector. And given how poorly it is faring these days, which one would fit in lists of high-flying companies?
That is as it should be, because even though there are many obligations that government must take on (and reasonable people can disagree on just what those should be), the engine driving progress forward is decidedly private.
So, as you peruse the lists in this section and in the rest of the Book of Lists, let them paint a picture of Rhode Island’s economy. Think of your competitors, of your suppliers, of your customers. And think of how many of them you could start to do more business with in the coming year and beyond.
And most of all, think of what it would take for your company to earn a spot at the top of one of PBN’s Top Lists. &#8226

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