A few months into the pandemic, Inc.’s business side asked for a new recognition program, launched in two months. We were down about 20 percent of our staff, and the world was reeling.
I decided first what it would stand for. Best in Business would honor superlative positive impact on a community, an industry, society, or the world — not dollars donated or hours volunteered, but what companies actually did. I built it on the Inc. 5000’s architecture so we could reach our existing audience efficiently, designed a judging framework I ran end to end, and added bronze, silver, and gold tiers by industry so we could celebrate more companies.
For Company of the Year, I searched the country for a winner that embodied the program’s soul, and found Puritan Medical Products, a century-old family business in Maine that stepped up to make nasal swabs for Covid tests when the world ran short.
Best in Business brought in seven figures in its first cycle and remains one of Inc.’s most successful franchises. I’m proud of what it did for the business, and prouder of what it recognized at a moment when the world needed proof that good was working overtime.
