American Management Services' CEO Cloutier Cautions CEOs of the Inner City 100 To Emphasize Profits over Sales and Expansion.

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2001

"These are dangerous times for small business," warned George Cloutier, chairman and CEO of American Management Services, in an address today to an Inner City 100 awards luncheon hosted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

"Many small companies don't have the resources to make it through a protracted economic slowdown, and too many CEOs have never had to lead their company through a recession. It's a time to take stock, a time to focus on profitability. For small businesses, profits are the staff of life."

Cloutier delivered his remarks as part of part of a two-day program honoring 100 of the fastest-growing companies in America's inner cities. The Inner City 100 awards are sponsored annually by the ICIC (Initiative for a Competitive Inner City) and Inc. magazine.

Cloutier's warning to small business CEOs was sparked in part by the findings of a recent national poll of small business owners that finds that nearly two thirds of the owners are optimistic about the economic prospects for their company over the next six months and that more than 90 percent plan to either add staff or maintain current staff levels. "It's good to see that small-business owners are optimistic," said Cloutier, "but I'm concerned that too many businesses are ignoring the economic warning flags and forging ahead to build sales and expand facilities, just when they should be focusing on profitability."

Today's program concludes with a reception and dinner honoring the Inner City 100 winners.

Tomorrow the program will continue at Harvard Business School in Cambridge with a full-day CEO Forum. The event, which is open only to current and past Inner City 100 winners, includes distinguished speakers and stimulating roundtables.

Attracting a large audience of Inner City 100 CEOs will be a roundtable on "Managing Rapidly Growing Ventures," for which Cloutier and Michelle Garcia, CEO and President, Frontier Group, Inc, will serve as facilitators. Both are CEOs of organizations providing services to high-growth companies.

Cloutier was also recognized this month by the publication of a Harvard Business School case study that recounts the near collapse of Circon Corporation and Cloutier's role, as interim CEO, in bringing the company back from the brink.

American Management Services

Having served 5,000 small businesses since 1986, American Management Services is the leading provider of implementation-based profit improvement services. Its team of professional operating executives works directly with business owners to implement changes necessary to improve cash flow and profits.

To date, American Management Services has brought more than $1 billion in savings to its clients, forty percent of which are family-owned businesses. Its address is www.amserv.com.