The fast 50 and beyond.

• Author: Stewart, Heather Dawn
• Position: From the Editor

The Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, according to economists, but slow economic growth persisted into the next year, if not longer. It's well in our rear-view mirror at this point--a fact reflected in the strong showing of our 2016 Fast 50 companies.

The Fast 50, which ranks Utah's fastest-growing companies, is calculated based on five years of revenue growth, combined with an actual revenue element. In the years following the Great Recession, companies were plagued with two or three recessionary years pulling down their numbers. But now, a good six or seven years past the recession and into a period of stronger economic growth, the competition for a spot on our Fast 50 list was fiercer than ever before, with a record number of companies applying to participate.

I applaud all those companies, whether or not they made it onto the final list. Each one of those companies has spent the past five years, at least, working in an ultra-competitive environment to propel their business forward.

Corporate growth is not a simple matter of selling ever more widgets. For a sole-proprietor, growth can mean hiring your first employee--and all the complications that come along with a payroll. For a large, well-established company, growth can come in the form of an acquisition and the challenge of integrating the acquired company into your current operations and culture. Growth requires scaling up. It often demands more sophisticated IT systems and perhaps bringing outsourced functions like legal advisors and public relations in-house.

Growth is a beast that must be fed and tended to constantly.

So why do companies and entrepreneurs focus so strongly on growth? I asked a similar question to some of the execs from our...