Press Releases
August 14,
2001 |
Council for
Entrepreneurial Development |
North Carolina Communities Recognized for High-Growth Companies
National Commission on Entrepreneurship Releases First Report to Examine Entrepreneurial Growth Companies in Communities Across the U.S.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., August 14, 2001 — Five North Carolina communities - Charlotte, Raleigh, Hickory, Wilmington, and Rocky Mount - scored highly for the number of high-growth companies, relative to population, in the last five years, reports the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED).
The National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) recently released High-Growth Companies: Mapping America's Entrepreneurial Landscape, the first-ever report to examine entrepreneurial-growth companies in communities across the country. The report found that the bulk of high-growth companies in the last decade were not in Silicon Valley and Boston, but in cities like Elkhart, Indiana and Provo, Utah.
Using new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the report tracks the development of high-growth companies - those with 15 percent employment growth per year for five years or 100 percent growth over five years. While most studies of this type focus on a limited number of regions such as the "Top 50 Hottest Cities," this report breaks the entire nation into 394 Labor Market Areas (LMA), a designation used by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Labor.
In our state, Charlotte and Raleigh were ranked #14 and #16 in Labor Market Areas (LMA) with populations of 1-3 million. The Raleigh LMA includes Chapel Hill and Durham. On a 200-point scale, in which "100" is the average score, Charlotte had a slightly higher Growth Company Index (169) than Raleigh (167).
The Growth Company Index (GCI) weighs the percentage of existing firms with high growth and the percentage of firms that had at least 20 employees in their first five years.
Hickory, N.C. was ranked #10 in LMA with populations of 300,000- 500,000 with a GCI index of 153. Wilmington and Rocky Mount, both ranked #18 and #28 in LMAs with populations of 150,000-300,000; Wilmington's GCI index was 150 and Rocky Mount's was 131.
"This study reflects the power of entrepreneurship across the country in not just the technology industry," said Monica Doss, CED president. "This study shows that growth and entrepreneurship are happening everywhere — it's a good start."
Other North Carolina cities that ranked above average for high-growth companies include Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Gastonia.
Primary Findings of the Report:
- High-growth companies are found in all regions of the country, often concentrated in the most surprising areas.
- Most high-growth entrepreneurial companies are not just in "high-tech" industries but are instead found in all industrial sectors.
- While high-growth companies gained much attention in the economy, fewer than one in 20 U.S. businesses achieve this status.
- Each one of the 394 regions in the country contains some high-growth companies, providing a base for future economic growth in the region.
"The New Economy is often depicted as a handful of companies in a few select cities creating significant, but sometimes short-lived wealth," said Patrick Von Bargen, NCOE executive director. "Our report dispels that notion. High-Growth Companies shows that nearly every American city contains companies that are creating jobs at an extraordinary pace, and that span a diverse range of industry sectors." The full report, rankings sheet and a color-coded map can be viewed directly at the NCOE's Web site, www.ncoe.org.
About NCOE
The National Commission on Entrepreneurship is funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. For more information on
the National Commission on Entrepreneurship, please contact Ken Berlack at 202.434.8066
or kberlack@sso.org.
About CED
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, located in Research Triangle Park,
NC, is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to stimulate the creation
and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region.
CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and
existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, seminars, workshops
and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED is the largest
entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 5,000 members
representing 1,300 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms.
http://www.cednc.org