Cover Story
Surge protection
How Jack Greber deals with the challenges of rapid growth at Environmental Quality Management Inc.
By Meredyth McKenzie
Smart Business Cincinnati | May 2008
Page 1 of 4
When a natural disaster or major catastrophe strikes, Jack
Greber’s team gets ready to go to work.
In the past few years, Greber, president and CEO of
Environmental Quality Management Inc., an environmental consulting, engineering and remediation firm, has worked on projects related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax contaminations, the space shuttle Columbia disaster, and hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.
“Those hurricane events alone generated a business volume
over an 18- to 24-month period that literally equaled the size of
our business,” Greber says.
These growth spikes have created some challenges for
Greber. Besides plotting a steady growth plan for the firm, he
has to be able to manage these spikes to maximize the company’s long-term potential. An example of how dramatic the
spikes can be is that the company usually sees gross sales
close to $85 million, but it hit $177 million in 2006 because of
these large projects.
Being able to handle this rapid growth has required Greber to
create a solid plan, hire people that can deal with the changes
associated with growth and be a strong leader to handle these
demands.
