Tin man has a heart.

• Author: Gray, Tim
• Position: RUNNER-UP - Company overview

W.P. HICKMAN CO.

Headquarters: Asheville

CEO: Scott Hickman

Employees: 52

Founded: 1945

Projected 2009 revenue: $15 million

Business: Maker of commercial-roof edging

Scott Hickman grew up in San Francisco and, after graduating from Stanford and earning a Harvard MBA, was a corporate nomad in such places as New York, Geneva and Budapest, where he led Sun Microsystems' operations in Eastern Europe. His was not a resume for running a small factory in the Carolina mountains. But blood did what a head-hunter probably could not have. In 2004, he became CEO of the company his grandfather started in a Michigan garage in 1945 and his uncle moved to Asheville in 1975. Though he had been on its board nearly two decades, it wasn't until directors started looking for someone to turn it around that he offered up himself. "I didn't want to see the company go down. It was a family company that I felt that I had a real stake in, and the employees loved it."

His efforts are paying off. At a time when American manufacturers are struggling--in some cases, strangling--W.P. Hickman is increasing market share and anticipates double-digit profit growth this year. That will allow Hickman, 52, to continue following his uncle's example to treat employees as family. In addition to traditional benefits such as health insurance, a 401 (k) and a match of charitable gifts, the company provides on-site care from a physician's assistant and on-site counseling from a financial adviser. The P.A., who visits monthly, will meet one-on-one with any employee on company time. Employees pay nothing for the appointments and are guaranteed confidentiality.

When Scott Hickman became CEO, the benefits were in jeopardy. The company was bleeding money. Offering a premium product--it custom-makes most of its edges for metal roofs--at commodity prices, it focused on selling its products to commercial roofers, who demanded low prices to bring projects in under budget. And the company simply wasn't focused on the bottom line. "We're not trying to make money because we're greedy bastards," Hickman says. "We're trying to make money because without that we can't give good benefits...