| In the Corporate Report 100 program, we at Ingram’s do not hand pick Kansas area companies for their compelling company histories or the fascinating biographies of their owners. Instead, we base our list of the area’s fastest growing companies on the facts—we rank these companies by the growth of their revenues over the last four years and we hold them accountable for reporting them accurately. Given our rigid, yet objective standards, it is always a pleasant surprise to see such an interesting array of companies emerge, and refreshing to observe the diversity of entrepreneurs and innovators who have found success in our economy. The growth of so many companies in Kansas City and its surrounding communities affirms the achievements of the companies that made our list this year and provides a promising testimonial to the area’s entrepreneurial environment. From cottage industries to regional powers to international powerhouses, KC is a marketplace full of innovative and forward-thinking companies. Those who emerge on the Ingram’s Corporate Report 100 list each year clearly understand how to convert potential into practice and vision into success. Again this year, you will find companies large and small, old and new, and from a multitude of industries, that have literally “earned” their position on the Corporate Report 100. Interestingly, this year half of the Top 10 Corporate Report 100 honorees are minority-owned companies. The 2007 CR100 line-up is as diverse as the market itself, including sportswear companies, travel agencies, healthcare organizations, manufacturers, and distributors among many others. At the same time, ours is hardly a capricious market; construction companies continue to be prominent, as do advertising agencies and staffing firms. Given the city’s agriculture background, there’s always been a bit of a “no-frills, strictly business” quality to Kansas City commerce. Many area businesses continue down traditional industry paths in manufacturing and transportation, for example. Seven years after the peak and burst of dot-com commerce, however, the CR100 has enjoyed a growing influx of Web-based providers—e-Shipping, e-Finance, e-Transit—all suggesting a healthy future for technology-based regional commerce. In both mainstream and niche industries, new and old companies rank side by side. Approximately twenty-five percent of our honorees are more than twenty years old, ten percent have been in business for more than 50 years, and several of the Corporate Report 100 honorees have operated longer than a century, such as Burns & McDonnell (1898) and Kansas City Southern (1887). Right alongside these established and storied companies, the Corporate Report 100 includes a number of newer businesses with revenues ranging from $1 million to hundreds of millions. Perhaps what makes the Corporate Report 100 most unique, may in fact be be how this diverse collection of large and small companies can co-exist in an equitable and meaningful ranking. In these pages you will read about the drivers of Kansas City’s economy. You will meet architects, ad execs, bankers, builders, electricians, scientists, and IT professionals who have launched and guided these successful organizations. The only commonality among the 100 fastest-growing companies beyond the marketplace is the commitment and vision that drives their growth. We congratulate all of them and hope to see them again next year. | 
