Top finance execs (mostly) optimistic about 2010
October 9, 2009 by Jared BilskiPosted in: Benchmarking, Economy, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest news & views
What a difference a year makes. Now, fewer than 10 percent of the leading U.S. finance execs are skeptical about a big-time market recovery in 2010.
A recent CFO Magazine and Duke School of Business study revealed that over 90% of the leading finance execs are poised and ready for a large-scale economic recovery.
Moreover, finance chiefs’ optimism seems to only be getting stronger. For example, around 60% of execs are more confident about the economy now than they were as little as three months ago, according to the study.
In addition, 50% of execs are optimistic about their firm’s ability in the upcoming months and, on average, CFOs expect profits to increase more than 3% in the upcoming quarter (compared to the 4% drop CFOs were expecting three months ago).
Of course, finance execs wouldn’t be finance execs if they didn’t worry. Tight to non-existent credit and a lack of consumer demand were cited as the top worries of study participants.
In addition:
- 50% of participants don’t believe their company will do any significant hiring in 2010, and
- Around 25% of execs don’t believe their staff will ever rebound to pre-recession levels.
What does 2010 look like for your company? Leave your thoughts in the Comments Section.
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Tags: CFO Magazine, Duke School of Business, Economic recovery, Finance Execs, Optimism
October 12th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
It does look a little more hopeful for 2010 but a lot of our work is going to depend on easing of the credit market. We have a lot of jobs on hold due to funding issues, so if that could ease up, I think this ball might actually start rolling again. Expect to do little to no hiring though. Will manage with the employees we have left.
January 27th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
19 months into recession and it seems to me that we’re still light years from recovery. Granted, Bernanke and the big boys are saying the economy is getting better but it sure doesn’t feel that way on main street.