| Page 2 of 2 < |
Vocus Puts Playtime on the Agenda
Vocus chief executive Rick Rudman, at right, plays Ping-Pong against reigning champ Greg Detlass.
(By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"We made a decision in two hours that would ultimately impact the long-term success of the company in our time," Rudman said. Because it was too expensive to offer software and a Web-based system, they converted the product to the latter. The move propelled the company's growth rate exponentially. Since going public in 2005, Vocus stock has tripled in value, closing Friday at $25.55 a share. The company had its first profitable year in 2006, with $40.3 million in sales. Last month, it reported its 32nd consecutive quarter of revenue increases.
Its biggest competitor, the Swedish company Cision, had about $300 million in annual revenue in 2006, but its growth rate slowed to about 4 percent last year. Other similar firms, such as PR Newswire, which has annual revenue of $150 million to $200 million, have been switching to online distribution systems that help public relations companies manage their news releases, media contacts and clips.
To keep up, Vocus regularly updates its online software and in June launched a service that lets customers incorporate clips from YouTube and other consumer video sites into news releases designed to get maximum hits on search engines. This month, Vocus launched Issues Wire, an online distribution service for news releases on political and public-interest issues.
With about 2,000 clients worldwide, Vocus estimates that its target market of about 300,000 businesses is worth about $2.4 billion. That's a lot of opportunity, Rudman says. And a lot of work.
Even so, there are still plenty of play options at the company's Lanham headquarters -- a pickup game of H-O-R-S-E on the basketball court in the middle of the office or the yearly miniature golf tournament that winds its way through the cubicles. Last week, the annual Ping-Pong championship ended with the chief executive being unceremoniously trounced by the champion.
"The better thing to do is to give people an opportunity to balance work with personal lives and make sure they have time to do things they need to do," Rudman said. "Because otherwise they're just going to be thinking about that while they're at work."
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
