Wednesday, May 12, 1999
Gold Star top business
Chamber cites chili chain, others
BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce announced the plum local businesses of 1999 on Tuesday with its annual awards.
The chamber, which will formally honor the businesses at a luncheon May 26, named Gold Star Chili Inc. its 1999 Small Business of the Year, an award given annually to the best local company of 250 or fewer employees.
Gold Star, the chamber found, has demonstrated excellence in strategic planning, leadership, human resource development and management, and customer focus and satisfaction.
The 110-restaurant chain also focused on a mission statement in 1999, sought feedback from customers with focus groups and established a quality improvement team of corporate associates, suppliers and franchisees.
Other winners are:
• SS&G Financial Services, which will receive the 1999 Customer Focus Award for its efforts to improve customer service through a survey on the Internet, which doubled the usual response rate.
• CIMx, a Milford firm that markets software to the aerospace industry to improve and speed production of aircraft engines, including the space shuttle engine, is being pre sented with the Emerging Entrepreneur Award.
• PC On Call LLC, Blue Ash, is being honored with the Innovation in Business Award for its mobile ServiCentre vehicles that provide on-site computer upgrades and repairs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Raymond Buse, manager of public relations for the chamber, said small businesses like those being honored remain the foundation of commerce and are job generators.
“Of the 46,041 business establishments (in Greater Cincinnati), 45,658 employ 249 people or less. That means that about 99 percent of all companies in the region are small businesses,” he said.
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