CEO Confidence Is Up But CEOs Say Healthcare Costs Threaten Growth
Among the greatest concerns of CEOs responding to a nationwide survey were government regulations, taxes and healthcare costs. When responding about specific challenges or opportunities, 60% cited healthcare costs as potentially crippling their businesses.
Despite these concerns, CEOs’ confidence in their own businesses and the overall economy continues to rise. The Vistage CEO Confidence Index rose from 60.6 in Q1 2009 to 69.0 in Q2 2009, an 8.4% increase, continuing an upward trend in CEO confidence.
Vistage members also say they’re shifting from defensive actions to offensive actions in preparing for the recovery and adapting their businesses to the new landscape. While the expected jump in healthcare costs is troubling to CEOs, their focus now is on diversifying product lines, increasing their customer base and utilizing new tools such as social media. About 55% are now using or plan to use social media to market and/or publicize their business.
Although just 7% percent of all firms thought the economy had already begun to improve, 37% anticipated that the economic recovery would start before the end of the year, with just 19% expecting the economy to worsen in the year ahead.
“The Confidence Index has now regained almost all of the losses recorded during the past year, bouncing back to nearly the pre-recession score of 69.6 we saw one year ago,” said Rafael Pastor, Vistage Chairman of the Board and CEO. “Every component of the Index posted gains last quarter, including revenues, profits, hiring and capital expenditures. The confidence in renewed economic growth is at the highest level in four years.”
The Q2 2009 Vistage CEO Confidence Index is a compilation of responses from 2,098 CEOs of small- to mid-sized companies in the United States, surveyed between July 6-16, 2009, with a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points. The quarterly Vistage CEO Confidence Index, established in 2003, is the nation’s largest and only comprehensive report of their opinions and projections.
[Source: Vistage]
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