 Last month, we focused our attention on Ohio's efforts to build small start-ups into the next generation of large companies. But there's another group of businesses wedged in the middle. These companies are responsible for more than one-third of America's GDP and 41 million jobs. Yet little is known about the middle market and how to help it grow. Ohio State's Fisher College of Business and GE Capital are co-hosting a national summit in October to get some answers. On this episode, we'll get a preview of that event and take a closer look at the middle market. And it's going to be a preview of what's going to happen next week. And it's going to be a preview of the next episode of the middle market and its significance with a finance professor from Fisher College. We'll also get a business perspective from the CEO of Lancaster Pollard, a Columbus based mortgage and investment banking provider named one of the nation's fastest growing private companies by Ink Magazine. Some describe the mid- market as the heartland of American business, a powerful engine of growth and innovation. So why then is it so hard to define? Well, most agree that the middle market is comprised of businesses with revenue between 10 million and 10 million. Nearly 369,000 companies made up the middle market in 2007. The latest census data available. It's estimated that only 1,200 of those companies are publicly owned. While it's easy to measure the success of middle market companies, collectively there has been a lack of quantitative assessment of the segment. Columbus based Lancaster Pollard isn't a household name, but the investment firm has managed to grow into a successful middle market business despite the turbulent economic economy. And it's going to be a preview of what's going to happen next week. And it's going to be a preview of what's going to happen next week. It's going to be a preview of what's going to happen next week. It's going to be a preview of what's going to happen next week. It's going to be a preview of what's going to happen in the turbulent economic environment. CEO Tom Green recently took part in a unique lecture series at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business about the history of financial thought and practice. He gave business students insight into the company and how it operates. Green also shared the advantages and disadvantages of being a midsize company. Here's his view from the top. Lancaster Pollard is an investment banking, mortgage banking and company that owns three different companies. And we primarily serve a unique niche in the economy. We provide investment advice and debt capital markets solutions to senior living, long-term care, and health care organizations around the country. And I think what makes us unique might be that we are such a niche player in that business and focus all of the energies of those three companies on really a fairly narrow segment of the U.S. economy. Well, we've been expanding geographically. You know, we're an Ohio-based company. But over the last five or six years, we've been opening offices in different locations around the country. We started out opening up an office in Kansas City. And then now we have offices in LA, Austin, Atlanta, and Philadelphia as well as Kansas City and Columbus. The disadvantages, I guess, might be that you maybe don't enjoy the name recognition, the marketing power, and capital. You know, you have a large capital base. The advantages, I think, are that you're much more nimble. You can change direction or make adjustments to the trajectory of your organization based upon opportunities you've identified in the market. And, you know, it doesn't take a committee of 20 to make that decision. You can literally make it in a day. And, you know, I think it's easier to control. And you have really one culture. And as organizations grow and they become quite large, and it's very difficult for the CEO or management team to really maintain a sort of homogeneous culture. And you end up with lots of offices and lots of departments and lots of managers. And I think that's a different task. I think the entrepreneurs and CEOs that are successful at running small or mid-sized companies may or may not be, but probably aren't going to be great CEOs for large companies. And the reverse is also true. I think the CEOs for large companies may make a not so good CEO for a mid-sized company. We don't feel constrained by our size. It's been a, I think, at least to date, it's been a benefit because we've been able to change direction and adjust our trajectory as the market presented itself to us. And some of our larger competitors are just, it's more difficult for them to change direction and to be timely in seizing opportunities. As we grow, that will be increasingly difficult for us as well, but so far we're doing, I think, a reasonably good job in that regard. And I don't feel like we're constrained. We have great banking relationships and we, and people have been very supportive of our company. The current economic environment is definitely hurting business. I think that's universally the case. In our case, with one exception, the deterioration of the U.S. economy, and really the world economy, has driven interest rates down. And that has helped a lot of people refinance not only their homes, but in our case, their organizations. And so we've been the beneficiary of some refinance opportunity that may or may not have been available to us a few years ago when rates were a little bit higher. So, generally we've been sailing into a headwind, just like every other business in the country. But I'd say the interest rates are probably a big advantage. And the other is that we're not making large, fixed capital investments. Most of our investments are in people. And those are a little easier to make than a manufacturing company who might be making large capital investments. That you have to have a much, much longer horizon to repay. Our outlook is great. We are very confident about our pipeline. We have enjoyed the development of a pipeline that is very robust. And so our vision of the next few years is very positive. It's always difficult to project beyond a couple of years. Our five-year forecast is good. And we're excited about that. So I would say the outlook is pretty good. We're hopeful that the economy doesn't deteriorate more in these difficult times.