Methodology

 

This year, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) received more than 7,000 nominations for the Inner City 100. The organization garnered the nominations with the assistance of national nominating partners including the US Conference of Mayors and the National Inner City 100 Program Sponsor, Merrill Lynch. To qualify for this year's Inner City 100, a company had to

  • be and independent, for-profit, corporation, or proprietorship;
  • be headquartered in or have 51% or more of its physical operations in economically distressed urban areas;
  • have had 10 or more employees in 2002; and
  • have a five-year operating-sales history that included sales of at least $200,000 in 1998, an increase in 2002 sales over 2001 sales, and 2002 sales of at least $1,000,000.

ICIC evaluated the economic status of each company's location by using 2000 Census data and research on the 100 largest cities in the US from ICIC's State of the Inner City Economies project. Companies submitted relevant parts of signed tax returns, and/or financial statements for 1998, 2001, and 2002. That information formed the basis of a financial due-diligence process conducted by ICIC with the advice and assistance of PricewaterhouseCoopers, ICIC's pro bono adviser to the project. Of course, responsibility for the accuracy of the assessment belongs solely to ICIC.

Dennis Andrade, Analyst, Inner City 100

Notes: Employee figures are for the year 2002. Five-year sales growth is for 1998 through 2002.
Special Thanks to the Merrill Lynch team, the PricewaterhouseCoopers team and the Inner City 100 team of Dereje Bereta, Francis McClafferty, and Devi Ramachandran.