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recent louisville rankings

One of the "Top 100 Safest Cities in America" by FreeBackgroundChecksUSA.com

2010 Champion Award winner "Preparing Youth for Work, Community of the Year" by Ready by 21 National Partnership, and Corporate Voices for Working Families

One of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" by America’s Promise Alliance

3rd Safest City for Kids by ParentDish

2nd-best housing market in the United States by Forbes.co

Top 25 U.S. Cities with the Most ENERGY STAR Buildings as reported by EPA

One of America's top 25 "Bicycle-Friendly Cities" by Bicycling Magazine

The United States’ 40th most literate city in “America’s Most Literate Cities, 2009” conducted by Central Connecticut State University

One of North America’s “Small Cities of the Future” by Foreign Direct Investment Magazine

“Most Livable U.S. Cities for Workers” by WomenCo.com

Top 25 for Forbes Best Bank For Buck Cities

Louisville events named as “Top 20 Southeast U.S. Tourist Attractions” by Southeast Tourism Society

One of the “Cities to Watch” in the Smarter Cities environmental survey

Among "America’s Foodiest” Cities by Bon Appetit

4th Most “Photo-Friendly” City in America by Popular Photography Magazine

*Rankings for 2009 & 2010

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High Impact Report Series

The High Impact Report Series provides research, survey data and business information on various topics of interest relative to the life cycle of a fast growth business. Research is conducted among national business leaders, authors, theorists and then combined with the actual activities and experiences of high impact leaders – to offer valuable perspectives for their consideration in their business leadership.

Reports in the series include "Succession Planning and Exit Strategies." "Building a High Performance Management Team", "Partnering for Growth" and "PeoplePowerPlanning: An Emerging Recruitment Model."

Report #4 - PeoplePowerPlanning: An Emerging Recruitment Model
The fourth report is a whitepaper looking at emerging recruitment alternatives. Many high impact businesses are caught in a “war for talent.” High impact employers are finding it challenging to keep the talent they’ve got, and also find the qualified employees they need for their quickly growing business. While many are using a blend of labor — employees, contract employees, consultants, and outsourcing— few are optimizing these opportunities. A new strategy of handling the labor needs of high growth businesses is emerging. This strategy calls for a blended use of traditional employment and independent workers, and provides an agile workforce with the ability to respond to changing business needs, resulting in the best use of PeoplePower™. By using a more strategic approach called PeoplePowerPlanning™, high impact companies can decrease employee turnover, increase effective management practices, manage their labor force more effectively, and maximize their agility in changing business environments.

Report #3 - Partnering For Growth
Our third report assists fast growth leaders broaden the scope of their thought process of various forms of growth--whether it is organic, acquisition, or in this case, through strategic alliances. In considering a potential joint venture, companies must understand their objective, how to select an ideal partner and how to structure the relationship formally to protect all parties involved.

Report #2 - Building a High Performance Management Team
The second report in the series emphasizes the significance high performance management teams have on the successful growth of high impact companies and offers advice on how to effectively build one. This report identifies a high performance management team as an essential component of a growing company and explores CEO's strategies and experiences through a survey of high impact company CEO's, anecdotal stories and thought-provoking research.

Report #1 - Exit Strategy and Succession Planning for the High Impact Company
Succession and exit planning is the focus of the first report in the series -- the way in which high impact business owners may extricate themselves from their business at the appropriate time. This report looks at succession as a leadership issue and explores CEOs' strategies and experiences through a survey of high impact company CEOs, anecdotal stories and thought-provoking research.