What is a gazelle firm?

U.S. State and federal Economic Development Agencies are now using the term "gazelle firm" to donate any company that has grown at 20% per year or greater for at least a five year period. These firms are producing most of the growth in U.S. jobs, and virtually all of the growth in high wage jobs.

There has never been a time in history when firms can form and grow to global significance so quickly, and, so far, only the U.S. nurtures or allows such firms. Lester Thurow notes in his recent book Building Wealth that "Eight of America's twenty-five biggest firms either did not exist or were very small in 1960. Three of those that did not exist in 1960 were among the world's ten biggest in 1998."

These innovative gazelles, not America's traditional Machine Age firms, are the key to our creating a new golden age of prosperity in the 21st Century. If we lose the ability to grow such firms, our alternative future is not hopeful. Indeed, as Thurow notes later in his book, "Real wages are falling for the bottom two-thirds of the (United States) workforce."

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