Spring 2009 issue of Horizons

Guest ARTICLE Sam Toumayan, Meridian Enterprises Corporation

Meridian Enterprises Corporation: Sustaining Through Versatility

When you founded Meridian (1978), what was your initial vision for the company? What need did it meet in the marketplace? We began as an incentive group travel company selling to corporate clients. These clients used travel incentive programs to improve their business performance and market share. Eventually our clients started requiring additional services that were non-travel-related. We began to add those additional marketing services, and our platform expanded beyond travel. Today, Meridian is composed of multiple divisions, all serving a different function. As the CEO, how do you determine when the time is right for the company to expand? As a client-focused company, our growth has primarily been driven by the particular services clients require. We have learned over the years that clients won’t ask us to do something if they don’t think we can. Even if a service does not fall within one of our existing services, we evaluate it and see if we can execute it with tools already in place. We evaluate each opportunity by asking ourselves these questions: Can we be really good at it and expand that service? Is there a market for it? Can we make a profit? We have rarely had to say no to a client.

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u spring 2009 issue