Radiant rays

It might be a stretch to call Heico Corp., a $900 million aerospace, defense and electronics conglomerate, a company with 50 worldwide subsidiaries, nimble and flexible.

But Anish Patel, who runs one of Hollywood-based Heico's business units, can testify to the company's agile entrepreneurial spirit.

In fact, Patel, president of Manatee County-based Radiant Power Corp., says the unusual amount of autonomy given by the parent firm is a key factor in the local company's recent growth surge. Radiant designs and builds high-tech sensor products for the aviation and marine industries. That includes boxes that control emergency lighting for planes and wireless digital cabin controls. The latter set of products is a growing niche in the private jet industry.