How The Survey Was Conducted

 

In the world of growing, privately held businesses, the INC. 500 define the elite. These are companies that have sustained unusually high rates of growth over a five-year period, starting with sales of $100,000 to $25 million. Our purpose was to discover what is distinctive about the CEOs who founded them and run them.

The study was undertaken jointly by INC. and USA Today, with the assistance of Gordon S. Black Corp., in Rochester, N.Y. -- a marketing research firm that is itself an INC. 500 company. In February, an eight-page questionnaire was mailed to the CEOs of the 1,322 companies that have appeared on the INC. 500 list since it was first published five years ago. The response rate was an extraordinary 46%, providing a sample of 604. After the results of the survey were compiled, our reporters and researchers followed up with phone calls to many of those who responded.

Assistance for this study was provided by Gordon S. Black, David H. Clemm, and Debra Hutchinson in Rochester; Tony Casale of USA Today; INC. staff members Sara Baer-Sinnott, Ellen Wojahn, Karen Angeline, Lisa Sheeran, Hope Tompkins; and INC. interns Bonnie Barber, Debra Rosenberg, and Lilia Wiener.