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.