Lee’s Summit-based Acceleration Zooms to Business Success
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When the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry was passing out awards last year, it wasn’t just the Lee’s Summit Chamber of Commerce that brought home a trophy. Also on the podium was Acceleration, a pharmaceutical research organization that’s one of the city and state’s biggest success stories.
Acceleration picked up the state chamber’s Fast Track award, which certainly seems appropriate for a six-year-old company that has grown from three founders to 22 employees and has a national reputation for excellence. A contract research organization, or CRO, Acceleration provides information related to product development, analytical methods, testing and marketing of pharmaceuticals and other products.
This is the latest recognition for the company, which also was singled out by Kansas City’s Ingram’s Magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in its Corporate Report 100 from 2004 through 2007. Acceleration also was tapped by Kansas City Small Business Monthly last year to be part of its 25 under 25® award, which honors 25 Kansas City-area businesses with fewer than 25 employees.
Early on, Acceleration’s founders made the decision to run the company by the principles of legendary Missouri entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman. His philosophy of treating others like you would want to be treated has served Acceleration well, says Keith Koehler, chief executive officer, who co-founded the company along with Gary Schmitt, chief scientific officer, and Robert Pendland, chief information officer.
“We had all gone through several mergers and acquisitions at other companies, and we believed in the Kauffman principles of treating others as you want to be treated, and also that sharing makes you successful, things like giving back to the community,” Koehler says. “We decided that we could operate on our own, so we began Acceleration.”
While the three were residents of Lee’s Summit, that played only a small role in their decision to set up shop here. Strong support from the Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council, including assistance with site selection and other efforts, was critical.
“We didn’t know what we were doing, because we hadn’t started a business before,” Koehler says. “They took us by the hand and helped us, and we’re located here because of their efforts.”
These days Acceleration is focused on its new good manufacturing practice, or GMP, facility that opened in spring 2009. The new branch allows the company to use the chemical testing it currently conducts with drug substances and drug products and put those substances into capsules or vials.
“That will further enhance business opportunities for us,” Koehler says. “It lets us go to the next step, which is preparing products that can then be administered to animals or patients in clinical trials. It also will help us be better positioned to continue growing when the current economic climate turns around, because we’ll have a whole new business line.”
All the growth and change hasn’t affected the company’s basic business principles, however, and Koehler says receiving the state award only validates that early decision to keep Acceleration local.
“We have a good chamber of commerce and economic development council here, and they work hand in hand with a lot of different businesses,” he says. “This is a great place to live and raise a family, and to be on the receiving end of this award really makes us feel good to be a part of this community.”
Story by Joe Morris
