But one number often gets over-looked in the daily drumbeat of serving customers and responding to the marketplace: the years a company has been in operation.

It’s an understandable oversight, given the preference among business leaders to look ahead rather than be-hind. They focus on the future, envisioning new products and services they can bring to the marketplace. Successful businesses don’t rest on their laurels, however well-deserved they may be.

But every so often, it’s worth step-ping back to appreciate how far you’ve come and what you’ve learned along the way. That’s why NJBIZ created Mile-stones. The publication offers a chance for companies to share their anniversa-ries and other significant achievements with their employees, their customers and their prospective customers.

In these pages, you’ll read about firms and companies that owe their longevity to their flexibility and to an innovative approach to their business-es, from law, banking and accounting to staffing, distribution and healthcare. Indeed, these companies continue to peer into the future even as their roots in the Garden State grow deeper.

Past performance is no indicator of future results, or so the boiler-plate goes. But companies that have survived and thrived for 10, 20 or even 175 years have something to teach the rest of us about the value of persistence and the benefits of flexibili-ty. Those lessons will come in especially handy as we navigate the challenging economy that lies before us.

We extend our congratulations to all those companies celebrating mile-stones in 2009. We wish you decades of continued success and innovation.