Google: From a Garage to Torrence Boone

The quintessential garage business to NASDAQ success story, Google Inc. has long since become the world’s leading search engine. The addition of Torrence Boone in 2010 as Managing Director of Agency Development for North America signaled just how far the company had come. Once essentially a place for self-service ads, Google now seeks relationships with major ad agencies and the billions of advertising dollars they control. Torrence Boone came to the search-engine leader with an impressive resume that included serving as CEO of Enfatico, Dell’s integrated marketing agency; and as President of direct-marketing and digital agency Digitas.

Established in that proverbial garage in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergei Brin, who met at Stanford University and developed a precurser, BackRub, before generating more than $1million in seed money, Google answered more than 10,000 queries daily almost from the start. By the following year, the number had risen to 500,000 searches, enabling the partners to relocate the company to larger headquarters in Mountain View, California. By 2000, Google had become the provider on Yahoo! of supplementary searches. Garnering more than 50 percent of all online searches, the company maintains a reputation for speed, relevance, and reliability.

Hiring Torrence Boone makes perfecct sense in Google’s growth strategy from a simple search engine to an intuitive machine with added products such as Chrome, gmail, Nexus 7, and Nexus Q. While the platform may not have appealed to large agencies in the past, by 2010, the year Google brought on Mr. Boone, the technology was handling 3 billion searches per day. Even assuming many people conduct multiple searches, that’s a boatload of potential customers for ad agencies and their clients. And based on its record, Google should continue to expand its product portfolio, making future ad purchases even more inviting.

Rocky Mountain Sanitation: Trash Hauling Services At Its Best

When Loren and Lisa Mullen decided to build the Rocky Mountain Sanitation and deliver trash hauling services to Mesa County’s household and industrial establishments in 1997, nobody knew that the valley would, in next to no time, see hefty amounts of purple. Except maybe for Lisa, whose favorite color is purple and who thought that having a couple of purple trucks would get easily noticed. Yet getting noticed was just one thing, delivering premium services at affordable rates in the face of a tough competitor was another. 

But it turned out that Loren and Lisa knew that was not really going to be a huge problem at all. After several years of working in the cutthroat industry, the couple knew that a small company can compete triumphantly by offering better customer services, paying special attention to the needs of the customers and exuding value at every aspect of their business. Fifteen years later, the Rocky Mountain Sanitation has grown to fifteen trucks, providing liquid and solid waste removal and disposal to over 10,000 residential, construction and commercial clients in Mesa County. 

The Davey Tree Expert Company: Providing Tree Solutions to a Rapidly-growing World

Trees reduce carbon in the environment, improve property value, augment energy savings, enhance air quality, protect people from the harmful effects of the wind and sun, provide safe habitats to birds and animals, and lessen storm water runoffs, not to mention minimize stress and reduce heart rates and blood pressures as they provide breathtaking sceneries and cool spots people can hang out on during the scorching hot summer days.

As a matter of fact, trees may be one of the most undervalued and underestimated natural resources in the entire world. Realtors state that individuals and families with a number of trees around or near their homes have a safer, more satisfying and more pleasant quality of life as compared to those without trees close by. This could be attributed to the fact that tree-lined neighborhoods can lessen traffic speed, shade unappealing views, reduce crime rates and diminish noise levels. When provided with a choice between a place with trees and another one without, a research study showed that people from all walks of life prefer the one with trees, regardless of whether they reside in the rural, suburban or urban area.

Working on this premise, the Davey Tree Expert Company takes care of trees like no other. Since its inception in 1880, countless clients have trusted the company to take good care of their natural assets, from treatment to preservation, cultivation to planning, removal of unwanted shrubs and landscaping, tree surgery to feeding, and the application of insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers. The Davey Tree Expert Company boasts of one hundred thirty-two years of proven expertise as well as a passionate and professional commitment to the needs of the trees and their owners. Davey is one of the few environmental companies in the entire world that boasts of a long, rich heritage of constant growth, even amidst the grim economic conditions.

When planning and taking care of trees across the United States and Canada, The Davey Tree Expert Company stands as witness to the communities that thrive and flourish as they benefit from the blossoms and growth of healthy trees that surround them.

BenQ: Owning a Chunk of the Electronics Market

The market for electronics has been largely dominated by a handful of companies all over the world, one of which is BenQ Corporation, a Taiwanese-based company that sells electronic products, computing and communications products under the brand name BenQ. The name is a derivation of the phrase, "Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to Life". The company's main consumer goods include LCD monitors, televisions, projectors, digital cameras and mobile devices. As of 2011, BenQ's revenues have been pegged at 2.24 billion US dollars.

BenQ started out as a spin-off of electronics giant Acer in 2001, as a way for Acer to create a separate brand. Acer completely sold off its shares of BenQ in 2006. The company’s headquarters is located in Taipei, Taiwan, under the directorship of Li Kunyao, Chairman, Wang Wencan, Vice Chairman and Li Wende, CEO and President. BenQ currently employs more than 1,600 people in Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Africa, and markets their goods to some 100 different countries.

Piaggio: Driving Success in Compact Commercial Vehicles

The niche in the automotive industry, which is compact commercial vehicles, is claimed by a selected handful of multinational companies; one of them being the renowned, century-old Italian company Piaggio. The fourth biggest maker and marketer of scooters and motorcycles globally, Piaggio's brand names include Aprilia, Derbi, Gilera, Ligier, Moto Guzzi, Piaggio and Vespa. With over 600,000 scooters and motorcycles being produced yearly, Piaggio had a 2010 revenue of 1,485.4 million euros and a net income of 42.8 million euros.

Established by Rinaldo Piaggio in Sestri Ponente, Italy in 1884, Piaggio started out producing railway carriages and trains, and in World Wars I and II, was manufacturing aircraft. Enrico Piaggio, Rinaldo's son, inherited the business and decided to leave the aircraft industry in order to make modern, compact yet affordable modes of transportation. The idea was simple: to create vehicles that both men and women could drive easily, could carry passengers and would not get any of the riders' clothes dirty.

Piaggio released the Vespa scooter in 1964, the name taken from the Italian for "wasp". Because of the Vespa's success, Piaggio went on to produce similar vehicles throughout the 1960's. The twentieth century saw troubled times for Piaggio in terms of finances and ownership, but Roberto Colaninno, the company's present Chairman and CEO, took the reins and held the company above water.

Presently, Piaggio has its headquarters in Pontedera, Italy. Colaninno is running the company with the help of Michele Pallottini, General Manager for Finance. Piaggio has some 7,500 employees working for it in its various operations hubs in 50 countries worldwide. Piaggios continues to make high-quality scooters and motorcycles and its most recent model was the electric scooter, a hybrid version of the Piaggio MP3 that uses both petrol and electric motors, in an effort to make changes in their environmental impact on the world.

Japan Post Holdings: Courier Services at Its Wealthiest

It may come as a surprise that one of Japan's biggest and wealthiest companies is in the courier industry, but such is the truth with regards to Japan Post Holdings Co. Ltd. A state-owned enterprise, JPH is a courier and mail service that also deals in financial services. Its headquarters is in Tokyo, Japan, with Jiro Saito as President and CEO of the company. As of 2011, JPH saw a revenue of 211.01 billion US dollars, a net income of 5.938 billion US dollars and over 230,000 employees.

Japan Post Holdings was founded in 2006, and in only six years, has achieved massive growth. JPH's subsidiaries include the Japan Post Service, which is responsible for mail and courier services, the Japan Post Network that runs all the post offices, Japan Post Bank that manages banking activities and Japan Post Insurance, which deals with life insurance services. As of 2012, Fortune Global 500 ranked JPH as number 13 on the list of the world's biggest corporations.

E.ON: Providing Energy for Europe

As far as German companies go, E.ON AG, more known simply as E.ON, is the world's biggest investor-owned provider of electric utilities and one of Europe's largest public utility companies. With headquarters in Dusseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, E.ON has operations in some 30 countries all over the planet, with a customer base numbering 26 million. Headed by CEO Johannes Teyssen, E.ON's services include electricity generation and distribution, exploration, production and distribution of natural gas. As of 2010, the company's total assets was pegged at 152.88 billion euros, while in 2011, total sales reached 113 billion euros. The company has more than 85,000 employees working for it.

E.ON was formed in 2000 as a merger of VEBA and VIAG, both energy companies. In the succeeding years, E.ON took over several more European power companies, including UK's Powergen, gas company Ruhrgas, Swedish Sydkraft, OGK-4 in Russia and even LG&E Energy in the USA. Due to these acquisitions, E.ON now oversees numerous subsidiaries across the planet. It is divided into nine units: the Central Europe Market Unit, Pan-European Gas Market Unit, Spain Market Unit, Nordic Market Unit, UK Market Unit, Italy Market Unit, Russia Market Unit, Climate and Renewables Market Unit and Energy Trading Market Unit.

Apart from all these, E.ON UK has environmental projects in the form of the London Array project, a wind generation operation along the Thames River. The company likewise opened a windfarm in Cornwall in 2007-2008 in order to run its “Wind of Change” ad campaign. E.ON also holds an interest in sports, having sponsored the FA Cup from 2006-2010, and is the official energy partner of The Football League. The various E.ON units in other countries have also sponsored other major sports teams. E.ON's aim is to continue providing clean, better energy to the world and keep its reputation as one of the top providers of energy solutions.

Clearview Electric: Providing Premium Quality Electricity at Highly Competitive Prices

Established in 2006, Clearview Electric is a provider of electricity in Texas and several other states. It enrolled its first customer in the summer of 2007, and has since then experienced tremendous growth across all kinds of markets. Clearview Electric now has more than 60,000 clients who are saving huge amounts of money on their electric services. The company provides electricity to the residents and small business owners of Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware and Connecticut, with plans to widen their reach to the rest of the United States.

Clearview Electric is an excellent option for customers from all walks of life. It requires no credit checks or deposits, and provides an easy and convenient sign-up process.  Its customers enjoy no interruption of electric services and can depend on the supply to be delivered in exactly same manner as their current provider. As a matter of fact, Clearview can even do so much more. The company also provides their clients with the lowest electric bill possible, which makes them all the more pleased. Clearview Electric prides itself with the ability to provide high-quality services at a rate everybody can afford.