Religion Reaps Rewards

At first glance, TURBOCAM looks like many successful manufacturing companies. The lobby of its Barrington headquarters showcases the company's products and accomplishments, including its ranking on Inc.'s 5,000 fastest growing private companies list in 2007 and a prototype of the engine compressor it built for a Rolls Royce helicopter.
TURBOCAM also displays its mission there. It is that mission that sets it apart.

TURBOCAM exists as a business for the purpose of honoring God, creating wealth for its employees and supporting Christian service to God and people, the mission statement reads.

There are many faith-based businesses nationwide, but most aren't in the high-tech sector. TURBOCAM stands out for other reasons as well. At a time when many companies are struggling, the 23-year old international company, which creates turbomachinery for the aerospace and industrial markets, is growing. Since 2000, annual sales have rocketed from $6 million to more than $50 million. The company also increased its workforce fourfold from 50 to 300 employees, 200 of whom are in the United States.

If you haven't heard of them, you're not alone. The company has grown quietly. TURBOCAM has no marketing department and never sends out press releases. Last year, it hired 50 new employees, but spent less than $3,000 on advertising to do so.

Founder and Chairman Marian Noronha says people are attracted to the company's mission and its culture of trust. I'll tell you where my trust comes from; it is purely religious. To me, the company culture becomes an outflow of our values, he says.

That is why visitors and prospective employees are directed to the plaque bearing the company's mission. And trust is more than a concept; it is actively practiced. For example, employees use an honor box in the cafeteria to pay for meals.
Noronha, who has a background in engineering, started TURBOCAM to create jobs for a group of people who moved to the Seacoast to start a church at the University of NH. I was really an entrepreneur from then on, but without a product, without a skill, he says of his arrival to the area in 1982. From those humble beginnings, the company now has locations in Canada, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

But for Noronha, profits are a byproduct of doing the right thing. He says he's heard some people call him a religious nut, but, he points outs, he has numerous employees who have been with the company for more than a decade, and many who leave come back.

People do not have to be Christian to work at the company, but they must be willing to support the mission. Prayer is happening all the time in the company in different places, he says, adding that he offers a prayer before monthly company lunches. There is probably a minority that chooses to snigger. Noronha says only two prospective employees have declined jobs because of the mission. The mission is also on the company Web site, he says, and no customer has ever complained about it. In fact, Noronha says one of his largest customers played a slide show about TURBOCAM's unique culture at the customer's company meeting.

TURBOCAM has a high-tech culture that treats machinists and engineers as partners. The CAM in TURBOCAM stands for computer aided manufacturing. Using networked milling machines, advanced software and fast computers, the company can produce parts accurately and with a high degree of precision. TURBOCAM exports 70 percent of its products and recently opened a facility in Romania. Research and development is ingrained in TURBOCAM's culture, and the company is always seeking better ways to compete in the global economy.

Asked about the company's philosophy on giving back, Noronha is concise: I haven't taken anything, so I don't need to give back. While internationally, he is involved in numerous missionary projects, the company is not as involved locally.
Noronha says creating jobs is his way of giving locally. Payroll and benefits account for 30 percent of his budget, while corporate giving accounts for just 1 percent. A $500 park bench with my name on a plaque may be more visible than an employee, but each job is more valuable, he says.

That 1 percent goes to many international causes, including buying 42 Nepali families out of slavery and establishing towns and schools for them. A former missionary helped connect him with local Nepali church leaders. Some of the money for those projects also came from customers and suppliers. Last month,
Noronha took a three-week trip to Nepal to visit a school TURBOCAM helped fund.

While TURBOCAM has flown under the radar for years, that may soon change. Since it moved its headquarters from Dover to a new facility on Route 125 in Barrington a year ago, its visibility has increased dramatically. (It still maintains operations in Dover.) Noronha says part of that visibility came last year after the company won the Secretary of Defense's Employer Freedom Award along with 14 other companies nationally for supporting employees deployed overseas and their families.

The company also recently worked with a public relations firm for the first time to develop a new tag line, Innovate with grace. You can call it a purely technical statement or you can call it a religious statement, Noronha says. When you put it together, this is who we are.