INC. 500 BY SECTOR
Service 55.0%
Manufacturing 29.2
Distribution 8.2
Retail 7.6
INC. 500 BY INDUSTRY
Computers 23.0%
Consumer goods and 14.4services
Business products and 12.4services
Health care 8.6
Real estate and construction 6.4
Environmental products and 6.4services
Industrial equipment 4.4
Telecommunications 2.8
Media 1.8
Transportation 1.8
Other 18.0
THEIR TOP 10 HEROES
Either these are not heroic times, or the Inc. 500 are just not a group inclined to look to others for inspiration -- 120 are heroless. We did feel a little sad when one CEO told us he had "none left." When the CEOs did choose heroes outside their immediate families, they tended to look to successful entrepreneurs, people who could be role models for their business lives.
My father 13.8%
H. Ross Perot 5.7
Sam Walton 3.9
Lee Iacocca 3.4
Bill Gates 3.0
Winston Churchill 2.8
Abraham Lincoln 2.3
Jesus 2.1
My grandfather 1.6
John Wayne 1.4
Number of respondents: 435
SOURCES OF SEED CAPITAL
Personal savings 78.5%
Bank loans 14.3
Family members 12.9
Employees/partners 12.4
Friends 9.0
Venture capital 6.3
Mortgaged property 4.0
Government-guaranteed loans 1.1
Other 3.4
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
* Women may be starting more businesses than ever, but by and large, they are not starting the high-growth companies that make the Inc. 500. The number of Inc. 500 companies with women as CEOs has been increasing gradually, but even so, only 8% of the companies on the list have female chief executives. Almost one-third of the companies, however, involve husband-and-wife teams.
* Only 14.6% of the Inc. 500 report any acquisitions; the rest have generated all their growth internally.
* Forty-five percent of the Inc. 500 CEOs describe their companies as high-tech businesses, and 58.6% say their use of technology gives them a competitive advantage.
* One out of every five Inc. 500 companies has at least one employee who works primarily at home, using the computer and the telephone to stay in touch.
* Public accounting firms aren't just for public companies anymore. While most Inc. 500 companies use small, local accounting firms, about one-fourth use one of the Big Six.
* Inc. 500 Companies are almost twice as likely to have employee stock ownership plans as to have unions (6.5% have ESOPs while only 3.8% have unions).
* Half of the list's CEOs had started at least one other business before founding their Inc. 500 company.
* The majority of Inc. 500 companies still choose the traditional C-corporation status, but a large minority (43.8%) prefer the tax advantages of S corporations.
* The average Inc. 500 CEO is 50 years old and works 63 hours a week. Seventy percent have worked for large companies, and 60% for other small companies.
* Although the Inc. 500 companies are on average only 8 years old, 22% of the CEOs say they run family businesses.
* One out of three Inc. 500 companies has a strategic alliance with a large company. High-tech companies are more likely than others to have partners, and the three most common partners were, in order, IBM, Apple and Digital.
* Despite the growth of their companies, many Inc. 500 CEOs are still enmeshed in their original role as chief salesperson. When asked to describe a typical workweek, the average Inc. 500 CEO reported spending 27% of the week on sales and marketing -- far more than on any other management area. Tracking the competition, for example, gets only 5% of the average Inc. 500 CEO's time.
EVEN THEY EAT HUMBLE PIE
For all the praise we shower on the Inc. 500, these folks are just as fallible as the rest of us. So this year we made a point of asking about their worst or most humbling business experience. Many were what you'd expect: the wrong partner, the wrong hire, the failed product, the bad bank, and the nonpaying customer. But here are a few of the more candid and unusual admissions, with the names omitted to protect the innocent. Or the guilty, depending on how you look at it.
* I was in a briefing at the Pentagon -- a very formal environment. When I got through with the briefing, one of the military people came up and told me to zip my fly up.
* I hired my ex-husband.
* When I started, I had a business plan that was meaningless eyewash. We floundered for five years before starting all over.
* We thought we were recession-proof.
* We faxed information about a business deal to the wrong potential partner in Italy.
* Twenty percent of our customers went bankrupt last year.
* On my first big sale, I lost the check -- for $100,000. I was embarrassed to go back to the customer. I finally found it a week later in a book that I was reading.
* The CEO we're most worried about? The one who said his worst mistake was "getting into business." And the prize for the most honesty has to go to the entrepreneur who replied simply, "We make mistakes on an hourly basis."
