Concept Technology Named Inner City 100 Winner By Fortune Magazine and ICIC

Online, May 11, 2012 (Newswire.com) - The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Fortune magazine announced today that Concept Technology, Inc. has been named to the 2012 Inner City 100, a list of the fastest-growing inner city companies in America. Concept Technology ranked 53rd on the list.

To be considered for the Inner City 100, a majority of a company's operations must be located in an economically distressed urban area, which is defined as having 50 percent or higher unemployment, 50 percent or higher poverty and 50 percent or lower median income than the metropolitan statistical area. Businesses must also have at least 10 full-time employees, a five-year operating sales history and current revenues of at least $1 million.

"We're proud to be located on Music Row, a historic, culturally and business rich area in Nashville. More importantly, we couldn't operate our business from the suburbs," said James Fields, president of Concept Technology. "A large part of being an IT service provider is computer and technical support. Our engineers have to be able to respond to customers' emergencies within 30 minutes, and often that means traveling to their places of business. If we weren't centrally located, we wouldn't be able to provide the same quality of service. It's that simple."

In the last 14 years, 720 different companies have earned positions on the Inner City 100, which collectively generate more than $2.2 billion in annual revenues and create nearly 73,000 jobs. For the 2012 list, winners represent a wide span of geography, operating in 46 cities and 30 states. The 2012 Inner City 100 winners grew at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent and an average standard growth rate of 577 percent between 2006 and 2010.

Highlights of the 2012 Inner City 100 list:
Companies generated $15.3 million in revenues on average and $1.5 billion in the aggregate.
Companies employ 7,965 workers and have created 4,635 new jobs in the last five years.
Forty percent of their workers are inner city residents.
Thirty-six percent are minority-owned. Nationally, minorities head only 21% of all companies.
Twenty-five percent women-owned. Nationally, only 10 percent of companies with over $1 million in annual revenues are women-owned.

Chevron Corporation, Staples and Goldman Sachs sponsored the awards program. The complete list of winners can be viewed at http://money.cnn.com/smallbusiness/fastest-growing-businesses-inner-city-100/2012/full-list/.

Concept Technology, Inc.
Concept Technology provides IT services to small and mid-sized businesses throughout Nashville. James Fields founded the company in 2003 with just himself and one engineer. Now with a staff of 25+ and growing, Concept Technology is one of the top IT companies in the region, serving over 200 area businesses. Concept Technology was twice named one of the Best Places to Work by the Nashville Business Journal. The company was also named to Inc.'s 500|5000 in 2011, Fortune's Inner City 100 list of the fastest growing inner city businesses in America in 2011, and has received numerous Nashville Chamber of Commerce awards. You can learn more at concepttechnologyinc.com, or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/concepttechnologyinc.

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
ICIC is a non-profit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that thrive there. Founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, ICIC expands inner city economies by providing businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities. ICIC's unique knowledge and expertise about inner city success factors and thriving companies is developed from specialized urban networks and path-breaking research. www.icic.org