Promoting Excellence in Small Business

Two of the eleven winners of the Chamber’s 2009 Excellence Awards Honoring Small Businesses are featured in this issue: Customer Service Excellence of the Year, Pediatric Therapeutic Services, and Emerging Business of the Year, The Hub. Be sure to look for additional winners in upcoming issues. Nominations for the 2010 Excellence Awards will be accepted starting in April.

Customer Service Excellence of the Year, Pediatric Therapeutic Services

Founded in 1998, Pediatric Therapeutic Services, Inc. provides advanced therapy staffing solutions to school districts, charter schools, approved private schools, and early intervention programs throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. PTS owners, Diana Fongheiser and Pam Hackett, MPT, realized the potential to change the way children with disabilities are supported in their school environment. They had both previously managed therapy-staffing companies and rather than just focusing on the business perspective, they decided that PTS could offer services to special educators with the view of doing the right things for children.

With more than 130 therapists serving more than four dozen clients, PTS expands a traditional staffing model by partnering with school programs to give special education teachers the skills needed to support struggling students in the classroom. PTS has created the "Therapy Achievement Approach," a five-step process that includes assessment of the school’s program, development of lesson plans, classroom activities with supports and tools, analysis reports and quarterly meetings, and budget reports and conferences to refine programs to meet agreed upon goals.

To help its clients better manage their therapy dollars, PTS created BudgetWatchTM, an innovative management software that enables on-demand review of key performance metrics. This technology allows them to analyze trends, forecast budgets and work with schools to control long-term costs by using data to guide decision-making. Fongheiser has an adult stepson with disabilities and Hackett received speech services as a child due to a cleft lip and pallet. Their personal experiences contribute to their philosophy of placing the needs of children first.

PTS also supports charities working to improve the lives of handicapped children. PTS has sponsored the "Best Buddies Ball," an event giving disabled children the opportunity to attend prom and has partnered with the Beautiful Gates School in Mysore, India to provide clinical consultative support and resources.

Emerging Business of the Year, The Hub

A corporate meeting and event centers business serving 65,000 guests in 2007, The Hub is a leader in hosting professional and social events in 41,000 square feet of unique sites at CityView, Cira Centre and Olde City Phila.

Priding itself on providing consistently high-end service, The Hub created easy-to-use, customer-friendly meeting spaces featuring spectacular rooms, incredible food and cutting edge technology. Their clients include small to large businesses that need access to professional meetings space for two to 400 people — everyone from the modern day bride to public schools to Fortune 500 companies such as IBM and GlaxoSmithKline.

Collaborating with local enterprises such as Starr Events, embracing corporate social responsibility, empowering their employees, and consistently exceeding their clients’ high expectations for quality and creativity, have turned a conventional paradigm upside down and spurred tremendous growth in its three years of operation.

With extensive backgrounds in corporate America, Georgetown University graduates Bill Decker and John New began transforming the meetings industry when they became business partners in 2005. Decker’s professional experience includes pharmaceutical marketing and sales for Eli Lilly, strategy and process management for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and economic/political analysis for Triton Energy. Organizing and facilitating hundreds of meetings in traditional settings, combined with fine dining and banquet experience at a California resort, brought valuable insight to the details of planning successful meetings. New brings 15 years of leadership, management and entrepreneurial experience, including consulting for BearingPoint on the implementation of Citibank’s CitiDirect program for the U.S. Navy. As a captain in the U.S. Army, New coordinated the deployment of more than 3,000 employees and $120 million in equipment to Kuwait.

Part of The Hub’s sustainable business model includes its designation as the first silver rated LEED-certified, privately held meeting and event center in the U.S., and donating 1% of its gross revenue to local and global environmental causes. Next stop: Pittsburgh.

Click here for more information on the Excellence Awards »