The story of the mail room clerk who works his way up in a giant corporation is a cliche in Hollywood movies. Not so common is the story of a teenage chip-sweeper, machine-cleaner in a machine shop who works his way up to become the owner-president of a highly successful silicon-valley machining job shop.

But if such a cliche existed in the machine shop business, Dennis Kimball, president and co-owner of San Jose, CA’s B&Z Manufacturing Co., Inc., would fit it perfectly. B&Z occupies an 18,000 sq ft facility in San Jose and another 6,000 sq ft in Arkansas. The company employs 56 people and specializes in ultra-precision machining for such companies as Hewlett Packard, Agilent and Honeywell.