Two years ago, Owens & Minor Inc.'s finish atop the InformationWeek rankings dovetailed with the horrifying events of Sept. 11. Company executives were in Tucson, Ariz., where they were to be honored at InformationWeek's Fall Conference, when news of the terrorist attacks hit. CEO Gil Minor quickly made a decision that CIO David Guzmán isn't likely to forget: He turned his focus toward customers.

Rather than accept any of the plaudits the company was due to receive at the conference, Minor and his colleagues set up an operations center and began the ultimate working demo of Owens & Minor's IT capabilities. Tapping customer-profile data, Minor and his colleagues triggered automated supply shipments to New York-area hospitals to let those customers cope with the onslaught of emergency patients. "Gil said to me, 'Before this day is over, every one of us will be either directly or indirectly affected by what happened today, and as proud as we are of our achievement, it is not a moment to celebrate,'" Guzmán recalls. "That was typical Gil."

Maybe Minor also was confident that Guzmán and his IT crew would help lead the company to the top of the list again. Just two years later, it's back.

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