Decidedly different.

• Position: Top 100 private companies in North Carolina - Directory - Cover Story

Doing just what Daddy did is not enough to keep a private company climbing the North Carolina 100.

Look at the list of private companies that make up this year's North Carolina 100, and "you won't find many instances of textile companies expanding into pig-farming operations," says T. Michael Henderson, a national director of the Arthur Andersen Center for Family Business.

But he says, "A common theme is recurring and successful diversification."

Take, for instance, Goldsboro-based T.A. Loving Co., a general contractor that moved up 37 places on the list, from No. 95 last year to 58, more than any other company. When it was founded in 1926, T.A. Loving built bridges, first in Eastern North Carolina, then throughout the Southeast. It established a commercial-construction division in 1935.

As the country geared up for World War II, Loving landed contracts to build barracks and other buildings at Fort Bragg. At the same time, it was putting up hospitals and clinics. Its track record in health care led to contracts for research labs and retirement homes and communities.

In the beginning of 1991, says Mark Moeller, Loving's director of business development, the company decided to adopt an aggressive growth strategy. "If you want to grow," Moeller says he realized, "you really have to go after it. The advantage we've got is, we are pretty well diversified."

For example, the company set up a separate utility division in 1960. In the decades that followed, it was able to win contracts from municipalities that were upgrading and expanding their water and sewer service. "Given the commitment in this country to improve infrastructure over the past five to 10 years, water and sewage has been a very active and steady market that we've been able to capitalize on," Moeller explains. The nice part about infrastructure construction, he says, is that in lean years, unlike some areas of commercial construction, it doesn't dry up.

Other companies that made significant moves up the list include Wilson-based Watson Electrical Construction Co. (from 97 to 67); Raleigh-based Waste Industries Inc. (from 86 to 64); and Harrisburg-based Plastics Manufacturing Inc. (from 84 to 63).

"If you track the history of the North Carolina 100 companies, you will see numerous examples of fairly regular diversification," says Henderson, who is based in Charlotte. But he adds, "Diversification often happens through serendipity."

That's pretty much what...