Ingram's May 2024

Spotlight on the Stars of Business

Ingram’s awards help build connections by showcasing the best and the brightest in commerce and executive leadership.

SINCE 1986

by Dennis Boone

I ngram’s has long prided itself on de livering relevant, actionable business intelligence aimed largely at the ex ecutive class. That’s been done through multiple content silos, where enterprise reporting on key business sectors, indus try ranking lists, thought-leader insights as guest commentators and industry-out look assemblies have been content pillars. But we support business interests in one other fundamental way by helping build connections between high-achieving executives at high-performing organi zations. That’s done through our roster of highly influential, highly-read awards programming. From promising young executives to the most influential chief executives, from fastest-growing companies to the best companies to work for, from giants of higher education, health care and philan thropy to readers-choice award on the best of all things Kansas City, any 12-month run of the magazine can be aggregated into a Who’s Who across a 16-county re gion from Topeka to Sedalia, and in some cases, from the Colorado border to the Mississippi River. The evolution of those awards, com petitions, and recognition programs has been, itself, a story of business growth in this region. And it all started with the pre decessor to today’s Ingram’s , then known as Corporate Report , and a simple ques tion: Who are the fastest-growing compa nies in this market? The birth of the Corporate Report 100 in 1986 produced some eye-popping growth metrics—more on that in a min ute—and instantly became a print plat form for a company’s declaration that

it had arrived and was now a force to be reckoned with. More than just bragging rights for the Top 100, it distilled addi tional value for the rest of the business community—opportunities for new con tacts and transactions or cautionary mes saging for competitors in those same spac es. Multiply that across more than 1,100 companies that have made the CR100 over the years, and one begins to see the potential impact. It took a few years, but eventually some standards were required to level the CR100 playing field. Setting a baseline for revenues in the first and fourth years being measured, for example, eliminated the garage startups that had scratched out a few hundred dollars in their first year before hitting it big. In 2016, that evolu tion continued with tightened standards, including not-for-publication proof of per- formance via financial statements and tax returns. Sad to say, not everyone who en tered over the years did so with a deep com mitment to honesty and integrity. Now, all do. Not long afterward, the Golden Ladle Awards were introduced, giving readers the opportunity to vote on their favorite restaurants, mainly with a focus on their role in helping other businesses grow— best business breakfast, business lunch, and business dinner were key elements. A brand challenge prompted the change to Silver Spoon awards, which eventually became Best of Business Kansas City . After 38 years of those awards, hun dreds of companies have earned the loyalty of an affluent and influential readership, in a few rare cases, earning the Gold honors in every year of voting for that category.

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SINCE 1986 (GOLDEN LADLE AWARDS)

SINCE 1997

SINCE 1997

SINCE 2002

71

I ngr am ’ s

Kansas City’s Business Media

May 2024