I just received this in the mail today. This survey was commissioned in March of 2008 on behalf of NYSE Euronext by Time Inc. Content Solutions and was conducted by Opinion Research Corp. 254 CEOs responded - approximately 72% from the US and a majority from companies whose market value exceeds $1 billion.
Not surprisingly, almost all (around 90%) of respondents rate US economic conditions as fair/poor. This differs completely from last year's point of view and is less than that of the American public.
What is surprising though is the answer to this question:
Which internal factors will have the most impact on profitability and revenues through 2009?
The surprising answer? 82% of responding CEOs say "Operational Efficiency" will have the greatest impact on profits through 2009.
Analysts for the Supply Chain market space have been of the view for several years now that companies of the size primarily represented in this survey have been well penetrated and have significant implementation of supply chain systems in place. If this is so, why is it apparent that CEOs of these companies recognize that inventory accuracy is not at 100%, labor efficiency and space utilization are not optimized, and customer service has points of failure within their organizations? It seems that there is a disconnect between what is actually in place versus what almost all CEOs place as the primary factor in front of what their companies can do to affect what they are most measure by during times of economic challenge.
And if that's true for organizations of that size - that are considered well served by the supply chain industry - what about the market that is represented by those companies smaller than $1 billion in value? Those that are considered underserved?
In any event, it seems clear that leading CEOs are acknowledging that companies aren't as efficient as they could be - and for those of you that are responsible for doing something about your company's supply chain it appears to be a high sign: your CEO knows.
There is a significant amount of interesting data in this report - from CEO advice to presidential hopefuls to external growth factors to compensation calculations.
You can access the full report here.
