Fanfare for the uncommon man.

• Position: Behavioral consultant Ronald Cruickshank of Optimax-Performance Management Technology

Ronald Cruickshank can tell you what you do, but he has a hard time describing what it is he does.

The founder of 6-year-old Optimax-Performance Management Technology in Chapel Hill studies experts in everything from kayaking to computer programming, then tells them how they do it - and wannabes how they can do it, too.

Sound strange? Cruickshank, 42, had to hire a marketing consultant to help him explain the concept to potential clients.

It all started in 1985 when he spent $100,000 of his savings to find out why the best athletes and executives got that way. He persuaded top race-car drivers, kayakers and 105 CEOs to let him videotape and interview them.

Some - such as I. MacAllister Booth, CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Polaroid Corp. - hired him on the spot. After hearing Cruickshank's report, Booth said the behavioral scientist knew him better than his mother did.

Cruickshank then studied Polaroid's best engineers, and the work led to the shortening of a training program from 11 months to two weeks.

Cruickshank won't disclose his fees or revenues for Optimax, which has seven full-time employees, but says the business is growing steadily. He started the company after resigning as president of Durham-based Record Bar in 1985, when the...