Carried out by Il Sole 24 Ore and Statista – the world leader in statistical analysis and market research – the initiative is now in its fifth year and as a tradition it does not include large entrepreneurial realities, but small companies capable of competing at a European level.
Before the registration phase, through specific searches based on databases, lists and public registers of companies, Statista created a list of around 8,000 potentially relevant companies which it invited to participate in the competition by mail and e-mail. The data was certified by a member of the company’s executive committee and checked by Statista.

To be eligible for self-nomination, companies had to meet the following requirements:

Methodology Leader of Growth
Leader of Growth 2023 is the list of the 500 Italian companies that achieved the greatest growth in revenue in the three-year period between 2018 and 2021. Both private and listed companies were taken into consideration. The competition was held for the fifth consecutive year in collaboration between Il Sole 24 Ore and Statista.

Requirements for inclusion in the list
To be included in the ranking of Italian companies with the highest revenue growth, the company had to meet the following requirements:

• Revenue of at least €100.000 in 2018
• Revenue of at least €1,5 million in 2021
• Company must be independent (no subsidiaries or affiliates)
• Company must have its registered office in Italy
• The growth in revenue in the three-year period 2018-2021 must be predominantly organic, therefore internal
• The company is not in any of the conditions referred to in art. 80 of the Legislative Decree 50/201

Growth rate calculation
The calculation of the company growth rate was based on the revenue data communicated and confirmed by the candidate companies.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated as follows:(( revenue 2021)/( revenue 2018))^(1/3)-1=Compound annual growth rate (CAGR)

Preparation of the list
Before the registration phase, Statista created a rich list of potentially relevant companies. Sources for the identification of companies were: paid databases, public lists and rankings with focus on company growth as well as public companies registers and applications relating to the previous edition. Thanks to these sources, it has been possible to filter from the entire national corporate system, approximately 8,000 companies belonging to various sectors of activity, with a high rate of revenue growth in the last three years.

Evaluation and quality control
All the data reported by the candidate companies have been processed and checked by Statista. The missing data (number of employees, address, etc.) were searched for in detail. Companies that do not meet inclusion or quality requirements have been omitted from the ranking. The minimum annual growth rate considered for the ranking is 15.26%.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore
https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/leader-della-crescita-2023/