OtterBox.

• Author: Cote, Maria
• Position: MANUFACTURING

OH, HOW THE PUP HAS GROWN SINCE ITS BIRTH IN 1998.

In the last three years done, OtterBox enjoyed a three-year growth rate of 3,179 percent. It's gone from a small company with only a handful of employees to a Colorado success story that employs more than 350 and had 2010 revenue of S168.9 million.

The business, which has been honored both locally and nationally for its business practices, placed 70th this year on Inc. 500 list.

"When people ask about the recession, I respond, 'Ah, we decided not to participate this year,"' says Curt Richardson. CEO of OtterBox.

The Fort Collins-based company, which makes cases to protect smart phones and other handheld technology faces many challenges with such rapid growth, Richardson says. "Planning is incredibly important when you're growing so quickly'

It all starts, he says, with a very pure vision.

"You have to be aware of what you want in a business and where you're going with it," Richardson says. "To back up that vision, you have to have a strategic way to move the company forward, as well as the infrastructure to implement it."

In the past two years, OtterBox has built a new headquarters in downtown Fort Collins. Another building holds the engineering and design groups, and the distribution center has enlarged. The company also expanded globally with offices in Ireland and Hong Kong:

Around 50 consultants help the OtterBox team move forward. Most important, Richardson says, is that the company hires the right people.

"They can have all the Qualifications and know everything they need to know: but if they don't fit into our culture, they aren't going to work out, " he says.

What every employee needs, Richardson says, is summed up in one simple word.

Ottertude: "This has to...