Staying on top in a topsy-turvy world: this year's top company winners made the grade despite a rocky economy.

• Position: Editorial

It's been a tough year to be in business.

That long, dark slog of an economy we thought we'd be wading through became a giant lake of quicksand, sucking Wall Street down into the muck and sending markets reeling worldwide.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The subprime mortgage mess begat the credit crunch, and once mighty banks surrendered to a federal bailout or a takeover by one of the survivors. Prices are rising. Layoffs are looming.

So where's that silver lining?

How about seven companies and a nonprofit that still managed to pull off a good year, from their financial performance to their connections to the communities in which they do business. We'd be remiss to celebrate this year's crop of Top Company winners without placing their achievements in that context--which makes their No. 1 rankings all the more remarkable.

It's hardly a popularity contest. The ColoradoBiz Top Company competition requires candidates to undergo an examination of their financial performance by sponsor Deloitte. From there, judges made up of business and community leaders assess each company's community involvement and one or more operational aspects of the entrant's choice.

This year, Deloitte delivered a list of 22 finalists in eight categories to the judges, who made the final selections. All the finalists were honored at an award ceremony Sept. 16 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

On the following pages, we present the winners we announced that day, including a hospital that celebrates a century in business by expanding its reach; a restaurant chain that continues to achieve rapid growth without compromising quality; and a community bank that aims to outgun bigger players by offering old-fashioned customer service.

-- Mike Cote, ColoradoBiz editor

The Children's Hospital

From its humble beginnings in a cluster of canvas tents in 1908, to its 90-year-history at its downtown location, to its recent move to a 1.5-million-square-foot facility in Aurora, the Children's Hospital has maintained a reputation as the place to go when a child is seriously ill, ranking among the nation's top five pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in 2007.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

So how does a private, not-for-profit hospital operating on a razor-thin margin not only survive but thrive for so long?

"It's been true to its mission since the very beginning," CEO Jim Shmerling says. "While a for-profit hospital often has the end goal of returning equity back to its investors, our end goal has always been caring for children. A means to that end is fiscal preservation and being a good steward of the limited resources we have."

In September, the hospital celebrated a century of operation and one year in its new $560 million, 270-bed facility on the Fitzsimons medical campus. It also celebrated a banner year in which emergency department visits were up 21 percent, patient days were up 13 percent, and outpatient visits were up 7 percent.

Shmerling credits the growth to a larger facility that has enabled the formerly space-crunched hospital to help more patients faster and has served as an attractive draw for recruiting talented specialists. The new hospital also boasts the nation's first Electronic Medical Records system at a freestanding pediatric facility-a huge step forward in ensuring children's safety.

"When a patient is seen in multiple locations, sometimes information can get lost in the hand-off," Shmerling says. "Having one electronic record that follows them everywhere reduces the potential for mistakes."

The new facility is just the latest step in a concerted multi-year effort to make Children's more accessible across the Rocky Mountain West. In the '90s, the hospital began opening satellite Network of Care offices. It now has 13 across Colo rado, as well as clinics in Wyoming and Montana. In total, the clinics saw business increase 50 percent in 2007.

Shmerling notes that the hospital "turns no patient away," regardless of whether they have private insurance, Medicaid or no insurance at all. Covering the difference between what Medicaid pays and what care costs amounts to a roughly $60 million shortfall annually--a loss that could be enough to prompt some hospitals to cut programming.

But due to a dedicated donor base--which pitches in $40 million annually--and a philosophy of emphasizing efficiency, Children's is not only surviving, but serving as a model.

"Because of our ability to be efficient, we can keep the doors open and provide state of the art technology in an environment that is conducive to healing," Shmerling said.

That environment has also served to retain staff, with Children's boasting a 6 percent turnover rate, while the national average hovers around 12 percent

With a new building and a host of new talent in place, the hospital now hopes to increase its focus on research, spending as much as $100 million over the next five years to study childhood medical problems and how to prevent them.

--Lisa Marshall

Alpine Waste & Recyling

In the past year, Alpine Waste & Recycling has grown from a client base of 2,000 to 3,000, largely on the strength of a program dubbed Altogether Recycling, launched in September 2007.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

John Griffith, a University of Colorado graduate with a background in retail and waste-industry sales, started the company as a one-man operation out of his Washington Park bungalow in 1999. With 38 trucks now running and four more soon to be added, Alpine is now the...