May 9, 2005

Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick won the Mayoral Inner City Leadership Award at the 2005 Inner City 100 Summit held April 21 in Boston, sponsored by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Inc. Magazine. The award was presented by Harvard Business School professor and founder of ICIC Michael E. Porter, and Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran at a major luncheon sponsored by the Conference for the nation's Inner City 100 — the fastest growing 100 inner city businesses for 2005.

Detroit has the greatest number of companies, five, on this year's Inner City 100 list. In presenting the award, Porter cited Kilpatrick's unprecedented plan to develop Detroit's east riverfront featuring businesses, shops, residential units and a state park. "Under his watch, Detroit has struck six new hotel deals, a variety of new downtown restaurants and retail shops have sprung open, and large retailers like Home Depot, Borders and Brooks Brothers have set up shop," Porter said in describing the mayor's leadership.

"This administration is dedicated to revitalizing Detroit and doing so requires innovative ideas in how we approach the various challenges facing our city," said Kilpatrick. "I am honored our city has been chosen to receive this award from such a prestigious institution, which in many ways validates the revolutionary change underway in our city," he added.

In addition to his work in Detroit, Kilpatrick is also the chairman of the Conference of Mayors Council on Investment in the New American City, and has used that pulpit to promote investment in all inner cities at a nationwide level. "We are extremely proud that Mayor Kilpatrick is being honored today for his work to reshape the Detroit economy," said Cochran. "As Chair of the Council, he has helped shape a new direction for our nation's metro economies."

Despite a steadily declining population, Detroit is still growing — businesses are expanding and inner-city investment has increased. The luncheon was held to better understand the role that fast-growing inner city businesses are playing in Detroit and cities across the country.

The ICIC Mayoral Inner City Leadership Award is reserved for a select group of mayors with a passionate approach to supporting inner city businesses as vital players in the economic development of their cities. Kilpatrick joins previous winners — Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, and Rochester Mayor William Johnson.

The 2005 Inner City award winners in Detroit are Detroit Chassis, Integrated Media Technologies, L.S. Brinker Company, Piston Group, and Vision Information Technologies.

Nominations for this year's list were received from 150 cities, with the winning companies based in 58 cities. Chicago, Denver and Detroit have the strongest representation on the list with five companies each, and Baltimore and New York City have four companies each.

The list, a ranking of 100 of the fastest-growing businesses in inner-city areas around the country, reveals that virtually all of these companies are profitable and planning to expand their workforces. The 2005 Inner City 100 showed an astounding average annual growth of 827 percent between 1999 and 2003, compared with an average of 716 percent for all companies appearing on the Inner City 100 since its inception in 1999. This impressive list received over 4,500 nominations. These companies have created almost 9,600 new jobs in the past five years.

Mosaica Education, Inc, of Texas ranked first as the fastest growing company on the 2005 Inner City list. Mosaica operates twenty-five charter schools nationally serving over 11,000 K-12 students.

"Despite perceptions to the contrary, our research and work has continually shown that locating all or part of one's business in an inner city gives you inherent advantages — from workforce diversity to proximity to transportation nodes, to proximity to downtown and access to broadband," said Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor who founded ICIC in 1994. "By choosing to help and reinvest in their communities, the owners of these businesses are true corporate heroes."

Merrill Lynch, the international financial management and business advisory services company, returns for the 3rd year as national sponsor of this year's program. "Our partnership with ICIC and sponsorship of this year's Inner City 100 gives Merrill Lynch a unique opportunity to recognize and support the vitality, creativity and leadership of these fast-growing inner city companies," says John C. Minter, Jr., First Vice President and National Sales Director, Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services. "These companies embody the very best of American business." Both Merrill Lynch and ICIC are members of the Council on the New American City.

Highlights of Inner City 100 company profiles include:

• Thirty-one percent of the list is minority-owned and eighteen percent of the list is owned by women
• Seventy-eight percent of CEOs have lived in the inner city and 40 percent of all employees live in the inner city
• These 100 companies have created approximately 10,000 new jobs since 1999 and employ close to 15,000 people
• Ninety-three percent said they were planning to hire for new positions in the next six months, and 26 percent said they planned to hire for more than ten new positions
• Forty-five percent said that commitment to the city/community was their primary reason for locating in the inner city
• On average, the CEO owned 62 percent of the company, while outside investors (not including family, board members, top managers, and employees) held 10 percent
• Seventy-two percent report leasing their current location, with fifty-two percent under a long-term lease