Last month IBM, Microsoft and Nokia all issued their quarterly earnings reports. While some industries are struggling, the examples of these three show technology is seeing sustained revenue growth.

The growth is fueled by healthy demand for technology from outside the United States, the growing importance of the Internet and customers’ needs to increase productivity in their firms.

One thing all technology companies share at this point is reported by Roy Sasiadek, CEO of Sasiadek’s Information Technologies, 4555 S. Palo Verde Road, Suite 131, in the Butterfield Business Center.

"The economy has affected everybody’s business in some way, costs are up and people are more sensitive to value," Sasiadek told me. "They want to make sure they get a value for what they are spending."

Sasiadek’s business is still growing at the same rate as it was pre-slowdown.

Nancy Roberts, account manager for Southern Arizona, said, "It is more challenging for some sectors to decide to invest and some have minimized certain products and shifted into cost-saving technology. Return on investment is very important to our customers. Improving the way business is done using software applications is very much in demand and our business is still growing."

So far most technology companies are riding out the recession. Executives at Microsoft and Google have publicly taken the position that if the economy softens further, this could change. Conditions are so volatile that while revenue may remain high, profit margins may decline if conditions worsen.

Movie theatres are enjoying record ticket sales. During a recession, people often turn to the movies as a relatively low-cost night out. The movie industry, plagued by new technology competition, has been declining for years and counts success by a low rate of decline. The combination of powerful new movies in the theatres and the relative bargain of movie going is the gain the industry is counting on for 2008 – the first in many years.

Apartment management firm MEB Management Services, 1039 N. Sixth Ave., is in another industry where there are challenges and yet many are faring well.

One challenge is that vacancies are up as people in lower socio-economic groups have lost jobs. People in these circumstances often move in with friends or relatives. Also, Arizona’s new Employer Sanctions Law appears to have resulted in renters moving to other states.

The housing slump has resulted in larger than normal inventories of single-family homes on the market due to foreclosures. Those homes are competition for a segment of apartment hunters.

Two out of four management companies I talked with are still profitable and growing during the current downturn. MEB Management Services is one of them. It has seen double-digit growth and, while it is still growing, it’s now at a slower rate.

"Many owners bought apartments at the top of the market and values are declining, making it difficult for them to reach their projected profitability," says Melanie Morrison, one of the owners of MEB. "The clients are very assertive with trying to maximize operations, sometimes expecting miracles."

But she says the increased competition is actually helping fuel MEB’s current success.

"We have a lot of apartment owners who know that now it is important to have excellent property management because it is so competitive. We have clients who used to manage their own properties but hired us for the competitive edge," Morrison said.

MEB has reduced the numbers of properties each district manger oversees to maintain a level of service.

Morrison, and partners Jodi Bart and Libby Ekre, say they are careful only to manage properties they believe can be maintained to professional standards.

Each of these industries is using some creative ideas. What can you do in your business to thrive in today’s economy?

Contact Sharon Youngblood at say@youngbloodconsulting.com or call (520) 795-7498. She is a certified management consultant, corporate coach and speaker who works with leaders to improve performance and profitability of their firms. Her website is www.youngbloodconsulting.com. Best Practices appears the first Monday of each month in Inside Tucson Business.