The business ambassador: a serial entrepreneur, driven leader and committed community mentor, the Cleveland Group's A. Eddy Zai wants to inspire the next generation of minority immigrant business owners.

No. 1 The Cleveland Group

LAUNCHED: 1998

LOCATION: BEDFORD HEIGHTS

FOUNDER: A. EDDY ZAI

SALES GROWTH PERCENTAGE 2003-2007: 8,026%

One of the most important lessons A. Eddy Zai has learned in business is that anything can change overnight. One day, your revenues are a modest million. Then you bid on a large public construction job--Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. You bid for another, the Mayfield Road project, a complete rehabilitation of one of Northeast Ohio's main arteries. You wait and see, then both bids are green-lighted. The next question is, "When will you break ground?"

This was the happy circumstance Zai, 40, confronted in 2007. As founder and CEO of The Cleveland Group, he suddenly needed to ramp his small business into a large-scale enterprise in just days.

"We spent more than $100,000 overnight to become a big player," he says. Zai needed a new fleet of equipment to sustain the $15 million in revenue his company would realize in a year's time. "It's like when you go from a corner grocery store to a supermarket. Everything changes: your staff, your philosophy, your systems," Zai says, earmarking clear obstacles to growth.

But Zai is somewhat of a master of reinvention. A Muslim born in Iran of Indian parents, Zai grew up in London, England, and Geneva, Switzerland, and attended college at Boston University. In 1991, he opened his own textile business in New York, which he sold when he moved to Cleveland with his wife, Tina, to be closer to her family. He launched The Cleveland Group in 1998, which provides construction, escavating, real estate and business consulting services.

"I had to sort of reverse-engineer my talents and put them to work in what industries were available in Northeast Ohio," Zai says. With no background in health care and manufacturing on the decline, construction was a logical choice for Zai. "The public construction market was untapped by minority businesses, and barriers to entry were low, compared to the private sector," he says.

From 2003 to 2007, The Cleveland Group boasted sales growth of 8,026 percent.

The number is staggering. "I've been pretty busy," Zai says, downplaying the windfall.

Baiju Shah, CEO of Bio-Enterprise, reflects on Zai's success in Northeast Ohio. "Eddy was able to open those doors that were initially closed to him, even though he wasn't from here and didn't have the longstanding relationships in our region," Shah says, calling Zai a "prototypical entrepreneur," hyperactive even, who is always working on the business.