Animated Automation

It was supposed to be a temporary name: "Wonderware." Founder Dennis R. Morin typed it into his company's incorporation documents in 1987 when he couldn't think of something catchy that included "integrated" or "micro." Now, with Wonderware Corp.'s cartoon-like logo emblazoned on a building in an otherwise anonymous industrial park in Irvine, Calif., the company still seems a little light-hearted. Indeed, more serious competitors' ads sneer at Wonderware's "fun-to-use" software.

Wonderware is no joke, though. It's a serious player in the mushrooming market for industrial-automation software, and No.38 on BUSINESS WEEK's Hot Growth list. College dropout Morin started Wonderware when he was laid off from his umpteenth job, the last one designing software. "I'd never been promoted; I'd never held a management position," he says. "I decided that the only way to get to the top of the corporate ladder was to start there."