The Dodson Group.

• Author: Hayhurst, Susan
• Position: Company Profile

Buying power for smaller companies

What does it take to make Inc. magazine's 1993 list of America's 500 fastest-growing companies?

Ask the Dodson Group. On the list this year for the first time, the Indianapolis-based firm is ranked No. 108, with projected 1993 sales topping $6.2 million.

The company's premise--helping smaller organizations get the buying power of larger organizations--was initiated during the four partner's college years in the early 1980s. The group's founder and president, Jim Dodson, conceived the idea while treasurer for his fraternity at Purdue University. Dodson noticed that the price the fraternity paid for milk was higher than what the grocery charged and what the residence halls paid. "I then realized that big organizations getting big discounts and small organizations getting small discounts wasn't fair," he says.

With the help of a Purdue business-law professor, Dodson created a not-for-profit corporation to negotiate the bulk buying of dairy products for some housing units, with the corporation receiving a 1 percent rebate from the dairy vendor. The rebates flowed in, according to Dodson, and the money was given to scholarship funds and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The creative idea held through time and is the hallmark of the Dodson Group. How did Dodson and his partners transfer the concept from a fraternity house to a multimillion dollar business?

The concept was put to the test when Dodson returned to Indianapolis after working for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. He pounded the pavement with his idea during his noon hours, asking Indianapolis businesses to give the Dodson...