How do you make money in the water business? According to CEO Phil Petrocelli,a good place to start is with people.

Boyle Engineering Corp. had a lot going for it. For more than six decades, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based civil engineering firm had been helping municipal and state governments meet their water infrastructure needs. Whether it was a question of ensuring clean drinking water, treating wastewater, designing drainage systems, or any other water issue that local and state governments faced, Boyle had a long and successful track record. For a long period starting in the 1990s, though, one thing it didn’t have was growth—but that would soon change.

“The company had a great history, but for about a decade it hadn’t grown much, and the board was looking for someone with a growth orientation to help them take it to another level,” said Phil Petrocelli, who took over as president and CEO of Boyle in August, 2004, assuming the chairmanship as well shortly thereafter.

The road to growth began with unflinching assessment. “We looked at our strengths and weaknesses and then took an external perspective, looking at the opportunities and challenges that existed in our industry.”

Phil Petrocelli

The plan is working. “In the last two years, we’ve doubled in size from approximately $55 million a year in sales to $110 million,” Petrocelli said. And that growth has been double-edged, with strong organic growth (23% in 2006) coupled with the acquisition of California-based Stoddard and Associates in 2005 and a dynamic Florida water resources firm called LBFH, Inc. in 2006.

Doyle realizes that many businesses say their people are their most important asset. “But for us, that’s not just a mom-and-apple-pie type of statement. Whether it’s Boyle or the industry in general, we depend on professional engineers—knowledge workers—and today, the demand exceeds the supply coming out of college.”

This shortfall used to be covered by an ample supply of foreign engineers seeking work in the US, along with foreign students who would gain their engineering degree at US schools and then stay here to work. Since 9/11, both of those sources have weakened.

Boyle has responded with an intense focus on recruiting. “We use internal recruiters who work full time helping us find qualified candidates and external recruiting firms. We are on key college campuses twice a year. And it has paid off: last year we were able to hire nearly 30 qualified people right out of school.”

Getting talented people is one thing, retaining them in a highly competitive industry where knowledge workers are at a premium is another. “Boyle’s reputation for engineering excellence is an important factor in our competitiveness, so retaining skilled employees at all levels of the organization is critical to our ability to develop new business as well as to ensure a high level of client satisfaction,” noted Petrocelli. “To do that, you need a corporate culture that rewards people and shows them that management has their best interests at heart.”

Along with competitive salaries, those rewards include 401(k), profit sharing, and a bonus plan. “For key employees who have a direct impact on revenue growth, client satisfaction, and leading the organization, we have a bonus program that’s tied to yearly objectives. We also have a spot bonus program that’s aimed at anyone who goes above and beyond the call of duty—from someone staying late to work on a proposal to someone who comes up with something extremely creative. It might be $500 or $1,000 or a gift certificate to Nordstrom. It’s essentially a means of reinforcing desired behavior.”

While many firms in the industry court work from the Department of Energy and other Federal agencies, Boyle continues to derive 90% to 95% of its work from its traditional base: municipal and state governments. Petrocelli pointed out that growth in focused markets can help generate a sense of excitement and dynamism within an organization, whereas the same degree of growth spread out over the entire country would hardly be noticed.

Although Boyle’s recent growth has been dramatic, Petrocelli insists that this strategy is decidedly longterm. “We have a process we call strategic account management. It involves specific clients for whom we’re not focused so much on winning a particular project as we are on building a client for life. We try to understand that client’s needs and anticipate those needs. This is one of the ways we differentiate ourselves.”

This approach is bolstered with a series of training seminars aimed at helping key personnel better understand the client’s perspective, and helping them be better ambassadors for Boyle. “We’ll continue to grow in existing markets as well as in contiguous areas,” said Petrocelli, “but it will be smart growth.” Smart, and judging by past performance, highly successful.

Greg Farnum is a Detroit-based journalist specializing in business and technology. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .