As A.J. Hyland sits comfortably on one of the two modern leather couches in his second-floor office at Hyland Software, it could be easy for him to look through his office’s glass walls across the maze of cubes and simply smile in contentment.
After all, the software company, which develops the enterprise content management solution called OnBase, grew 77 percent between 2006 and 2009, reaching $133 million in revenue and landing it a spot on the Inc. 5000 list last year for the fifth time. The company has made six acquisitions, won numerous awards and has more than 9,700 customers, and of that, 97 percent renew maintenance on the software each year. On top of that, it now has more than 1,100 employees and constantly has no shortage of applicants because it has gained a reputation of having a Silicon Valley culture despite its suburban Cleveland location.
Yes, Hyland could simply smile in contentment, but all of that is just the beginning for him.
“I get more excited each year because we’re getting more and more strong, but we have so much potential to grow,” the president and CEO says. “For me, it’s about building a strong foundation but never being content. That’s why we’re talking about evolving this year with all the employees. We’ve got to move forward. It doesn’t have to be this massive rip-up change — we’re doing so many things well, but let’s continue to tweak things and get better and better and better and grow and that’s key.”
Evolution is vital because the competition has taken notice of the organization and all of its successes.
“We can’t just sit here — we have to move forward,” he says. “There are way too many people coming after us in this marketplace. There aren’t a lot of barriers to entry in this space. People can develop products and services to compete with us, and a lot of people are trying to copy what we do, so as they get close to us, how do we leapfrog ahead again? A lot of that has to do with evolution.”
To continue growing and getting better, Hyland is proactive about growing the company by making sure he hires great people, focuses on customer service and effectively communicates.
He says, “If you want to grow, you have to believe that you’re going to do it and make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
