petitive advantage. If they
don’t adapt they will have a
problem with respect to being
competitive in the market-
place and that falls into the ar-
eas of efficiencies and value.”
Despite already being ranked
in the Profit 500, Dan be-
lieves that the future is even
brighter. Unlike many young
companies, which experience
“incredible growth simply be-
cause of the newness of their
offering,” Phoenix Systems
grows through acquisition.
“The market is very mature
[and] the product offering is
very mature, so that leads to
consolidation. We’ve spent
the last 6 years specifically
going through acquisition
as a means of growth. That
brings in a mature client into
our organization. We look
at acquisition opportunities
from businesses that have a
similar product offering with
a similar type of client,” says
O’Toole. “We’re not looking
to be anything other than in-
cremental innovators with a
related diversification strat-
egy. We don’t really want to
start opening restaurants. Our
acquisition targets are for or-
ganizations that have a simi-
lar philosophy, a similar type
of customer, and employees
with a similar nature.”
Looking at company growth
he also added, “If we look
back from 5 years ago to to-
day, we are probably 3x larg-
er. This year we will literally
be 3 times the size we were in
2008. In the next 3 years we
have the potential to double
our business from where we
are today. We are aggressively
looking at attaining this goal
in the near future.”
No matter how big they even-
tually grow, their core be-
liefs remain the same as they
have always been. Their guid-
ing principles create a strong
sense of responsibility to their
customers, stakeholders, em-
ployees and community. More
than just providing superior
manufacturing, distribution
and accounting solutions,
they actively seek to achieve
customer satisfaction through
quality of service. If current
estimates hold true, the sky
is the limit for this soaring
phoenix.
OCTOBER 2013
H
business elite canada
27
