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After beating all of their schoolmates in Christ the King Catholic Grade School's eighth-grade spelling bee, Sally Huffine Breen and her younger sister Laurie were the only two students left standing — sister against sister. Laurie won. "I was so mad," Huffine Breen recalls of her sister (and best friend's) victory. The eldest two of nine children, Huffine Breen and her sister didn't have any choice but to be competitive. "Almost from the very beginning, it's bred in to you to be a survivor — to be competitive," she says of growing up in a crowded household.

Being competitive has paid off. She and one of her six brothers, Joe Huffine, 37, joined forces in 1997 to create Onex, an e-business consulting and professional search firm headquartered on Monument Circle. The firm provides all phases of consulting from strategy to implementation of client business applications, such as Web enablement, data warehousing and network infrastructure.

In less than three years, Onex has grown from five employees to more than 200. They built Onex — listed as Indiana's second-fastest growing company this year by the Indianapolis Business Journal — from $1 million in sales in 1997 to $15 million in 1999.

The 44-year-old executive vice president attributes her success to the lessons she learned in childhood. Because the first seven Huffine children were born only a few months apart, Huffine Breen had to assume responsibility early in life. She learned to cook and clean by the time she was 7, because her mother was taking care of "the babies."

Even though they lived in the middle-class neighborhood of Broad Ripple, money wasn't plentiful. The children had to pay their way through school, even high school. "We learned very early on you had to work hard for what you wanted," she says.

Already an entrepreneur, she started babysitting by age 10. By the time she was 14 she had a full-time nanny position with a family of six children, all under the age of 9.

In addition to clamoring for attention and identity in their large family, all of the Huffine siblings competed in sports. She not only could play a wicked game of kickball, she also could ace a tennis serve. Despite the fact that her school didn't have a girl's tennis team, she won a city tournament when she was 12. She thinks competing in sports as a child helped her and her siblings succeed in today's world. "I guess the interesting thing about the dynamics of our family is that everyone succeeded in their fields," she states.

The outgoing cheerleader won an athletic and academic scholarship to Bishop Chatard High School. When she was a senior, she won a full-tuition state scholarship to college. However, her family couldn't afford the room and board. She didn't push the matter with her parents. Instead the 18-year-old delayed the scholarship — which she never found time to take advantage of due to job-related travel — and jumped into the work world. "I was so hungry to get out there and make money and be on my own," she says. "You give so much to your family for so long; I just needed something for myself."

Her leadership qualities and competitive spirit, in addition to growing up with six brothers, buoyed her as she entered the uncharted sea of male-dominated technology. After working as Emmis Communications president Jeff Smulyan's receptionist, and eventually traffic manager for WNDE and WFBQ FM stations, she entered the online services industry in 1978 by implementing broadcast management systems at radio and television stations around the country for Computer Management Systems.

On her first implementation job, she walked into an ABC television affiliate as a single 22-year-old, raven-haired woman, and the vice president of sales said to the station director, "Is this who's going to help us with the installation?" Huffine Breen didn't hear this comment until a post-installation lunch, when the vice president told her, "I never thought in my wildest dreams that you could do this, and you did a fine job."

Huffine Breen admits others have questioned her ability, because she is a woman working in the information technology field. But she likes to prove everybody wrong. "I think you can look at that as a positive, because if you prove yourself, it's a stronger challenge and a greater success," she says.

She proved herself time and time again. After being promoted from trainer to systems analyst to sales and project management at CMS, Huffine Breen conquered a new frontier: high-tech consulting. She joined Technical Resource Group, a search firm specializing in high-tech talent. She was named top recruiter of the year consistently, and achieved sales three times the national average, ranking among the top 2 percent in the industry.

Because her father was a salesman, she never has had a fear of selling. In fact, during her three years there, she placed her little brother Joe as a salesperson at a high-tech consulting firm, Software Synergy. Eventually she too joined that company, to help co-found a sister high-tech search firm. Once that was established, she moved into the firm's consulting division as its regional search specialist for sales.

At the peak of her career, she retired to drive her then 4-year-old son Michael to preschool, where she met Kathy Witsken, another mother taking time off work to spend with her children. The two women remained friends and today Witsken is Onex's top salesperson.

During her time away from the work world, Huffine Breen gave serious thought to the idea of creating a new business. She and her brother had talked about starting their own company since they had worked together at Software Synergy. They knew it was their time "to make an impact."

Throughout her career, her feminine characteristics have been her greatest assets. When she meets with a client to find out what his company's e-information needs are, she uses her listening skills and ability in relationship dynamics to pair his company with the right strategies, applications and people. "Women have an innate, inbred ability in relational dynamics," she says. "Success comes from knowing how to use it. I consider it a gift."

As mother of an 8-year-old, Huffine Breen believes women excel in business skills such as listening to clients, understanding problems, being patient with employees and multitasking projects, because they practice them daily with the most demanding customers — children and husbands. "I think some of the maternal aspects of being a woman help you tremendously in business," says Huffine Breen. She's been married 16 years to husband Mike, whose support she couldn't have done without when starting Onex, she says.

When Huffine Breen entered the work world during the mid-1970s, personal computers didn't exist in the mainstream. But today, e-business has improved the balance of women's lives. "The good thing about the high-tech field is that it can be a wonderful career for women, as well as men, because given their personal situation, technology has helped so many women in the business world leverage their work lives with their families lives," she says.

Huffine Breen received a serious wake-up call when she moved from the entertainment field, which was an even mixture of men and women, to the online services industry, where she rarely encountered female colleagues. "It was so odd going from a fast-paced, lively environment to a very somber high-tech world," says Huffine Breen. She compares her days in radio, when she worked with David Letterman at WNTS, to the 1970s sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati.

The information technology industry is no longer a dreary place to work. The bright yellows and muted reds on the walls combined with silver corrugated metal columns and the lobby's funky chairs give Onex a hip, energetic feel. Employees think it's a fun place to work, which is exactly what Huffine Breen wants to achieve. She and her brother wanted to create a work environment where employees would wake up "Happy on Monday," an employee program they implemented.

Huffine Breen realizes that as the Internet grows, competition for e-service talent will become cutthroat. Realizing that Onex's success depends on the best talent it can attract, its leader does everything she can to support her employees.

Onex employees are reminded of how important they are as they walk into the office every day. Facing the front door in the office's foyer is a large yellow-framed mat backing a white card that reads "People to People to People."

Onex strives to be family-oriented. Huffine Breen knows that being a working mother is tough, so she supports employees who need to go see a school play or coach a soccer team. For example, either she or her husband — a farrier who shoes horses — attends every school event. With his shop on their Noblesville farm, they are able to complement one another as parents and partners. "We have lots of women here who have grown their families and every one of them come back to their jobs," she testifies.

The company practices a unique brand of philanthropy, encouraging employees to volunteer by reimbursing them for any expenses incurred and donations up to $200. Onex employees belong to more than 253 civic and professional organizations. "By doing this I touch others exponentially," she says. "We're really impacting the community; this means more to me than anything else."

Huffine Breen believes employees are more satisfied if they are constantly challenged. "They want to feel fulfillment from their job performance and have lots of opportunities to grow," she says. "It's basic knowledge and common sense to give people what they want." In doing so, Onex has attracted employees from all over the world.

Even though she and Joe would have started individual companies had they not been siblings, the company would not be the same without the bloodline. According to Joe, they complement one another with his sales and vision leadership and her operational and networking skills. "One of the best things about being related and in business is our candid conversation; we can be pretty frank with one another and not take offense. It's not an option to get rid of a sister just because you disagree," he says. "It's great to have somebody you can trust unconditionally. In business, it's hard to get that."

She and Joe don't let business get in the way of family. Huffine Breen and her husband socialize primarily with family members — the entire Huffine clan lives in Central Indiana. She and her sister Laurie married brothers in a double wedding, so they see each other frequently.

Even though Huffine Breen and her brother have a lot of projects they need to discuss, they make it a point not to talk business when they get together on the weekends. Instead they rehash the fun times of their childhood. "We had a car that wouldn't go in reverse, and whenever we went someplace, we had to get out and push it," recalls Huffine Breen. "It took a lot of team effort and a lot of bonding to get through the tough times. Now, we're all very close."

The Huffines were taught that family is the foundation for life, and Huffine Breen and her brother are putting those lessons to good use. "A lot of these things that I learned early in life — from the standpoint of what is good competition, what are the right values, and what is important about family — is exactly what we tried to pour into the culture of this company," Huffine Breen says. "And it must be working."