How we built a strong company in a weak industry

When Roger Brown and Linda Mason decided to start a child care and early-education company 15 years ago, they knew about the challenges inherent in the industry: no barriers to entry, low margins, few economies of scale, heavy regulatory oversight--to name just a few. But that didn't stop them. They eventually built Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a company that now has more than 340 high-quality child care centers, serving 40,000 children and employing 12,000 people. How did they do it? Sheer determination helped. But even more important, they developed a business model that took advantage of industry weaknesses. When the couple sat down to hash out a plan for the company, they realized that the key to achieving profitability and creating barriers to entry was to partner with companies. They could achieve higher returns by having those companies build and outfit the centers and, at the same time, boost customer loyalty. Indeed, Bright Horizon's corporate clients came to see the state-of-the-art centers as a way to distinguish themselves in the eyes of current and prospective employees. The high-quality child care attracted the best employees and raised retention rates. Brown's first-person account describes the difficulties the couple and their company faced along the way, including the struggle for funding and a board that questioned Bright Horizons' business model and basic philosophy of good child care. But, Brown says, the commitment to a singular business model and the determination to make strengths out of weaknesses made the impossible possible.