Top performers in difficult times.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Winners of the 15th Annual Colorado Business Awards

In a tough economy, top Colorado companies ranging from home builders to high-tech firms to restaurants found a way to thrive in the past year. And usually a winner's path to success involved special care of people.

"I know it sounds warm and fuzzy and esoteric and all that," said Michael Snyder, CEO of Denver-based Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, a 2002 ColoradoBiz Top Company of the Year. "But we truly do believe in this cool culture we have of having passion and compassion for people.

"After all, just about any business I can think of is a people business. I don't care if you're selling widgets or burgers or cars."

Francisco Garcia, who founded Integrated Information Technology Corp., another 2002 Top Company, shares the same philosophy.

"I spend a lot of time coaching our folks, listening to them, talking to them and just keeping them pumped up, charged and excited about where we're going," Garcia said. "I surround myself with smart people, and they make me look good."

Red Robin arid IITC are among 11 winners of the 15th Annual Colorado Business Awards, sponsored by ColoradoBiz, UMB Bank, the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, and law firm Holland & Hart.

This year's Top Company awards, along with the Colorado Council on Education's Enterprising Teacher of the Year Award, will be given Aug. 5 at the Colorado Business Awards Luncheon in the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

The Top Company competition attracted 57 entries for nine award categories. Deloitte & Touche chooses three finalists for each industry category, with winners selected by a statewide panel of executives from business, industry and education.

The company awards are judged on financial performance, achievement in the company's chosen area of emphasis and community involvement. Judges picked two winners in the energy category this year.

Winners are invited on a three-day trip to San Francisco to catch up on the latest trends in the high-tech industry. ColoradoBiz and UMB Bank sponsor the excursion. The winners are profiled on the following pages.

RELATED ARTICLE: Top company: Biotechnology

ARRAY BIOPHARMA

EMPHASIS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Boulder-based Array Bio-Pharma, a drug discovery company, increased revenues 140 percent in the last year, thanks to six deals with major pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

The company has 260 employees, of which 175 are scientists and 120 are Ph.Ds. Along with pursuing its own proprietary drugs -- primarily in the fields of oncology and inflammation -- Array BioPharma collaborates with major pharmaceutical and biotech companies to come up with new drugs. Its partners give Array research funding for every scientist that the company devotes to a program. The company also is compensated for its successes as it goes through the research and development phase, and it receives royalties on drugs as they go into the marketplace.

Array BioPharrna currently has a promising drug of its own in clinical trials. The drug, called IC485, was developed in collaboration with the ICOS Corp. of Bothell, Wash., to treat inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. "If that gets onto the market it would be a big, big money maker," said CEO Robert Conway.

"The drug went into clinical development in less than three years," said Conway. "That's about as fast as I know of a drug going from concept to clinical development."

His 3 1/2-year old company has been one of the best-performing IPOs in the biotech sector over the last two years, Conway said. "In fact, I think there are very few biotechs today that are (trading) above their IPO price," he added. "Array is one of them."

top company: Financial Services

ANTHEM BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD

EMPHASIS: PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

In 1997, studies conducted by Anthem ANTHEM BLUE Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield revealed that 25 percent of Colorado's children were going without dental care because they could not afford it, or could not gain access to services. In addition, the study showed that 80 percent of all tooth decay could be attributed to poor, uninsured, and minority children.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield took an active role in relieving this problem in 1998, when the health plan's foundation created and approved $1.5 million in funding for a multi-year initiative to improve the oral health of children. The program is called Shining Smiles.

Anthem focused on providing low-cost comprehensive dental services to eligible children by building a state-of-the-art mobile dental clinic on wheels. The mobile clinic, called Miles for Smiles, operates in several communities including Durango, Rifle and Glenwood Springs on the Western Slope. As the clinic moves from town to town, local nonprofit organizations take responsibility for scheduling, volunteer coordination and overall operation of the clinic.

"We've served over 100,000 children that way," said Anthem Chief Operating Officer Caz Matthews. "It's been a phenomenal program."

Anthem enjoyed a 29-percent increase in members in 2001 to regain the No. 1 position in the market for Colorado...