When R.L. “Dick” McComish joined Electrical Consultants Inc. in 1990, he hardly expected that someday, as its future president and CEO, he would be meeting a payroll of nearly 500 people. Back then, McComish was employee No. 5. With luck, he thought ECI might grow into a small, well-respected regional designer of transmission lines, substations and other elements of the electric-power industry.
Instead, Billings, Mont.-based ECI now completes between 150 and 200 projects a year in the U.S. and Canada for both electric power and telecommunications providers. It operates from 17 offices in the U.S. and counts some of the largest utilities in the country among its steady customers. According to McComish, ECI has grown at a 20% compound rate every year since he joined the firm—and it has never had a layoff.