Editor’s Note | Numbers Tell the Story

If you want to know how well an outfit is doing, measure its revenue. This is where the tale of the tape is told. Revenue is the RBI tally, season’s goal production and bragging rights all rolled into one. It is that single defining statistic of corporate life, and it’s one where size really does matter. You don’t have to be the biggest company on the block, but a healthy top line makes you the banker’s friend. It instills confidence in your employees and customers and lets the world know that you are a success.

With sound revenues come the kind of flexibility that’s crucial in business planning. Your revenue picture provides the roadmap for your company’s future, whether that includes making capital investments, expanding your empire or adding to your bench strength.

With this in mind, we present the 2010 edition of the Venture 100, Next 100, PWC Private 50 and Non-Profit 50 rankings. Along with our accounting partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, Alberta Venture editors and contributors have worked diligently to provide readers with this comprehensive ranking of corporate Alberta.

The numbers have not just a single story to tell, but many stories. The raw data itself is something of a marvel. First off, those who like to make comparisons with past performance will notice a major trend: for the most part, company revenue was down in 2009 from 2008. A staggering 68 of the top 100 listed corporations report revenue shrinkage. That is a lot of fiscal pain, but given that last year’s financials reflect the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it is hardly surprising.

Readers will find the charts informative, easy to read and stuffed full of interesting facts and figures. New features among the data tables this year include select crown and government agencies, and rankings of the largest Alberta subsidiaries of U.S.-owned companies. We also post compilations of Alberta’s largest employers, the largest gains and declines in revenue and the biggest deals of the year.

It’s not all numbers, though, and this issue also features profiles of top-ranked companies that describe how these high performers achieved their results. A corporate board of directors’ matrix offers a rare behind-the-boardroom look at where the power really lies in this province and who’s wielding it.

Our Venture 100 and Next 100 lists tell us where Alberta’s leading public and private companies are right now, but we wanted to see where they’re headed, too. To do that, we added some new questions about spending on capital investment and research and development to the questionnaire from which the information presented in this issue is derived, and the results are, to say the least, a little surprising. Despite the choppy economic seas that they had to contend with over the past 12 months, Alberta’s leading companies didn’t just batten down their hatches and switch into survival mode. Instead, they continued to spend, to invest and to look ahead.

While we’re proud of our Venture 100 and Next 100 package it isn’t the only thing that you’ll find in this month’s issue, and our Industry Report, which focuses on Alberta’s arts and culture sector, provides a nice element of ballast. Contributor Marliss Weber chronicles the slipping fortunes of the province’s film industry, while Emily Senger, the editor of Venture Publishing’s contract magazine division, has penned a piece on the contributions that cultural industries make to Alberta’s overall economic well being.

Also in this issue, we are pleased to introduce Steve Williams as our new marketing columnist. Steve is the former creative director of a national advertising agency. He brings a wealth of knowledge and will offer sage advice to Alberta Venture readers on this all-important facet of business. His first foray in Marketing Intel describes how companies can benefit from doing a self-audit on corporate marketing practices.

Current Issue