The Inner City 100 ranks the fastest-growing inner-city businesses in the U.S., a Who’s Who of companies located in downtrodden urban areas that are prospering, despite the recent recession.
The annual roundup is compiled by the Boston-based not-for-profit Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School competitiveness guru Michael Porter.
The goal is to show that not only can companies thrive in the inner city, but there are also competitive advantages to locating there. Over the past 12 years, winners have created 71,000 new jobs and employed 40,000 inner-city residents.
Porter notes that the Inner City 100 dealt nimbly with the effects of the recession and is prepared for the recovery. That may be why 85 percent of the companies on the list expected revenue to increase in 2009-10, with more than a quarter predicting upwards of 30 percent, about double from the previous year’s expectations.
(READ the story in Business Week: Watch videos of CEO profiles and see the Top 100 list there…