Fastest Growing Companies

Posterity Group’s principles lay foundation for high-growth environment

May 23, 2017

Editor's Note

Each year, OBJ recognizes the region’s rapidly growing firms with its Fastest Growing Companies awards. The aim is to honour the city’s top performers for substantial, sustainable and profitable growth. Recipients are ranked by their three-year revenue growth. They must have had revenues of at least $100,000 in the first of those three years under consideration. Revenues must have risen to at least $500,000 in their most recent fiscal year. The companies will be profiled online in the coming days and recognized at a cocktail reception on May 24 at the Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards. Click here for more information on the event.

To keep up in the rapidly evolving market for green consulting, a company needs to grow quickly.

That’s not an issue for Posterity Group, an Ottawa-based energy efficiency and low-carbon advisory firm that has boosted revenues by nearly 300 per cent over the past three years.

The firm works with government and regulatory bodies, as well as utilities and private commercial clients, to design, implement and advise on greening policies and programs. If, for example, you receive a coupon in the mail for a rebate on energy-efficient bulbs, it might be part of a provincial hydro program that Posterity Group helped to build.

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The firm also helps to evaluate the success of these programs as well as assisting clients with looking around corners in the market to see what’s coming. Principal Alex Tiessen says these two examples demonstrate the company’s commitment to its customers and explain why the firm sees a high rate of repeat business.

Half a decade ago, Mr. Tiessen and Chris Pulfer co-founded Posterity Group, bringing Bryan Flannigan in as a third partner shortly after. The company has tripled in size since, with team members boasting dozens of combined years in green consulting.

Mr. Tiessen makes no bones about how the quality of his team has impacted the business.

“A smart, well-trained and happy team will provide the best results for the people that we work for,” he tells OBJ.

Founded: 2012
Local head count: 9
Product / service: Energy-efficiency and low-carbon advisory services
Three-year revenue growth: 281.5%

Mr. Tiessen says he and his partners knew when they were just starting the company and earning clients’ trust that the path towards Posterity Group’s growth needed to be “people-centric.” He says that approach – building a workplace culture that encourages professional development and makes people want to come to the office every morning – has enabled Posterity Group to achieve its growth.

“As we bring in more and more qualified people, we have more clients we can work with and more clients that want to work with us,” he says.

Posterity Group lands contracts in many ways – through procurement applications, repeat business and positive testimonials from clients. To this end, Mr. Tiessen says it’s critical that the company turns in the best projects it can deliver, down to the last coupon. “We live and die by the quality of our work,” he says.

Mr. Tiessen says the company started on the right foot with the right core principles: Focus on the people; treat clients like trusted partners; and maintain a standard of excellence in every project.

“We’ve slowly but surely been building a reputation in the market,” he says. “We’re going to stick to our mission.”

(Three-year revenue growth in parenthesis)