Just like the people that work in them, companies need direction.
Particularly in a recession when competition is fierce, the demonstration that a business has a defined specialty can give it an advantage over its rival that offers a similar service but is clouded by alternative facilities.
This was exactly the case for one such firm in California, as featured in a CNN Money article entitled 'Airport stimulus deal protects jobs – and planes'.
New Bedford Panoramex (NBP) was founded in a garage in 1966 and was a general-services engineering firm. It had no specialty, no particular niche.
The early days were filled with undertaking private sector and government contracts.
While these were exciting - clients included the Department of Energy, Department of Defense and the Department of Transport - they did not offer NBP with that defined service specialty.
However, about 20 years ago, things changed and NBP decided to adopt that much-needed focus.
They now specialize in designing and manufacturing navigational aids for airplanes as they descend for landing. All manner of airports use the technology, from military bases to small private runways.
Following five years of development NBP has produced a technology called Replacement Lamp Monitoring System (RLMS) that digitally monitors and navigates the landing lights leading up to runways.
A regular path has 247 lights. Owing to their navigational importance, it is imperative that these lights stay on.
Before the production of this revolutionary technology, the maintenance of these lights was a human responsibility. Thanks to this technology, it can now be continually monitored - and much more efficiently too.
An FAA spokesperson said: "In inclement weather, if we didn't have this system, we would have to send out an FAA person who would have to check the lights every couple of hours. This [technology] automates that and will eliminate human error."
What's more, it's cheap.
Steven Ozuna, who took over the running of the company from his father, said: "Some airports have lighting systems that are 40 years old. We can upgrade them to current technology without ripping out all the wiring and dealing with the hardware.
"Through the retro-hardware, it'll cost $250,000 to $300,000 [per landing path], as opposed to the millions it would cost for an entirely new system."
The FAA contract has allowed Mr Ozuna to keep 15 employees that he was very close to laying off as a result of reduced profitability during the recession.
Had the company still been involved in general-services then perhaps those 15 people may have gone.
It's lucky that the company found its niche, then.
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