Since founding Dream Systems LLC nearly 12 years ago, Terriance Moody has attempted to hire the right mix of employees at the Nashville-based communication and information technology firm. It’s not enough to have the technical capabilities, Moody said; employees have to possess a certain “substance.”
Since founding Dream Systems LLC nearly 12 years ago, Terriance Moody has attempted to hire the right mix of employees at the Nashville-based communication and information technology firm. It’s not enough to have the technical capabilities, Moody said; employees have to possess a certain “substance.”
That difficult-to-define quality proved invaluable in the weeks and months that followed the 2010 flood. Dream Systems’ offices on Third Avenue South took on nearly six feet of water, forcing the firm to take temporary shelter at the Nashville Business Incubation Center where it stored damaged equipment.
For Moody, the ordeal was an opportunity to discover employees’ internal makeup.
“Our team members had to handle not only their workload, but additional work related to the flood,” said Moody, Dream Systems CEO. “Our team responded to the challenge in an incredible way.”
The flood hit Dream Systems in two waves: First, the firm had to repurchase damaged inventory using operating capital. Second, as a result of being focused on recovering from the flood for two months, sales dropped dramatically, Moody said.
For 10 straight years, Dream Systems had experienced 30 percent annual growth. And while the firm remained profitable in 2010, it was off noticeably from its decade-long track record, he said. But Dream Systems has rebounded and is on track to grow up to 80 percent in 2011 over last year.
Moody declined to disclose figures but said Dream Systems has grown in number of employees and clients. Later this year, the firm will open its first international office.
Nearly all of Dream Systems’ clients, which include HCA Holdings Inc., were affected in one way or another by the flood, Moody said. However, he still believes the economy – not the flood – dominated most of the conversation in business in 2010.
That’s not to say that Dream Systems emerged unchanged. The firm has implemented several changes to better handle natural and unplanned disasters. It’s in the process of moving from the dependence of a centralized office to a model that allows the firm to function as an organization from anywhere in the world with broadband Internet services, Moody said.
“Every great international city experienced some type of devastating event … but after that event, the cities rallied as a people and focused their energies and resources to transform the city,” he said. “I think 20 years later, as Nashville is a global leader and international destination, we will look back at the 2010 flood as that moment for Nashville.”