2009 Results - Executive Summary

For the third year in a row, Inside INdiana Business, Ice Miller LLP, and the Butler University College of Business collaborated to conduct and present the findings of the Indiana CEO Survey. This report captures the opinions of over 350 Indiana chief executives from all areas of the state and from a wide range of manufacturing, service, and not-for-profit organizations. In some cases, their opinions are very consistent with the 2007 and 2008 findings. In other areas, opinions have changed. The report also presents findings related to how Indiana organizations are dealing with the 2009 financial turmoil. Through our on-going efforts we will continue to monitor executive opinions, plans, and trends over the years to come.

Study highlights include the following:

Section 1: CEO Challenges and Issues

   VIEW RESULTS
  • "Customer loyalty and retention" and "corporate reputation" still top the list as the most significant issues for CEOs, though "customer loyalty and retention" has increased significantly since 2008.
  • "Employee retention and recruitment" and "sustained steady top-line growth" have become less important in 2009.
  • A question to measure the importance of "raising capital or otherwise securing funding" was added in 2009 due to the economic slowdown; however, this issue did not rate particularly high relative to other issues.
  • Plans to pursue succession planning and adding jobs dropped significantly in 2009, while plans to reduce jobs increased significantly.
  • Given the magnitude of the economic downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, respondents were asked several questions related to their opinions about the downturn and their organizations' response to it. Respondents generally agree that "media have made the crisis worse." Surprisingly, there was not widespread agreement that "credit market changes impede our ability to obtain working capital," or "my organization is dipping into cash reserves."
  • When asked what specific activities organizations are taking in an effort to deal with the economic situation, larger firms are more likely than smaller firms to mention cost-reducing activities, while smaller firms are more likely than larger firms to mention revenue-generating activities.

Section 2: Indiana’s Economic Climate 

 VIEW RESULTS
  • Indiana's cost of living is once again viewed as a strong advantage over surrounding states.
  • The educational system, once again, is viewed as a disadvantage for Indiana compared to the surrounding states, though its rating is higher than it was in 2008.
  • Indiana's business environment generally is perceived to be improving relative to neighboring states over 2008 levels.

Section 3: State’s Role in Economic Development 

 VIEW RESULTS
  • Indiana's executives are not overly enthusiastic about the availability of public or private funding sources. In fact, perceived availability of public funding sources both inside and outside the state have dropped significantly since 2008.
  • Those responding feel the state is "somewhat effective" in terms of attracting new business, encouraging business growth and retaining businesses in Indiana, with the latter two seeing slight increases over 2008.

Section 4: Human Resources and Diversity 

 VIEW RESULTS
  • For the first time in the CEO Survey, perceived availability exceeds perceived demand for all types of workers.
  • Compared to 2008 levels, large decreases in relative demand and/or large increases in relative availability are seen for information technology, sales/marketing, administrative/clerical, and skilled trade worker classifications.
  • Acquiring talented mangers and job satisfaction remain the top concerns for the executives responding to the survey, though concern for most workforce issues is lower than it was in 2008.
  • On average, respondents are only moderately concerned with the potential impact of the Employee Free Choice Act, though there are significant size and region-based differences.

Section 5: Education 

 VIEW RESULTS
  • When asked about the strength of Indiana's educational programs focused on specific industries, "agriculture" is rated highest and "film" is rated lowest.
  • Most other programs are rated moderately strong, with "motor sports" increasing significantly and "life sciences" decreasing significantly from 2008 levels.

Section 6: Information Technology 

 VIEW RESULTS
  • Over 60 percent of respondents indicated their company has no method for monitoring the amount of time employees spend on the Internet, and over 75 percent indicated their company has no formal policy on employee-authored blogs.
  • There is only weak agreement that executives are able to monitor the productivity of their IT staffs, or that they are able to evaluate their IT leaders.
  • "Production/maintenance of company Web site" and "server maintenance" are the only IT functions which emerge as having a "likelihood of outsourcing" that rises above the scale midpoint.

What We Learned



The full report will show that views on most "big picture" issues, and the profiles of the respondent organizations, remain relatively consistent over the past three years. Such consistency helps illustrate the validity of these data, shows that the issues identified are real and that Indiana's executives take them seriously. There are some views that have changed. Some are surprising and some are expected given the current economic environment; we plan to continue to monitor these changes.

Future Plans



Indiana's top executives make decisions every day that ultimately affect all Hoosiers. They decide to grow or expand or to stay in Indiana or relocate their operations elsewhere, or whether they will lobby to support the state's initiatives or not.

Understanding their perspectives on a wide range of issues can help us all prioritize and focus on what is critical to the future of the state. For example, what specific issues challenge our top executives? Do they plan to add jobs or relocate their operations? How do they evaluate the state's business climate? Do they support Indiana's economic initiatives? What issues are becoming more important?

Inside INdiana Business, Ice Miller LLP and Butler University joined together in a unique partnership in 2007 to collect and disseminate information gathered from Indiana CEOs and other executive officers. The results reported here are from the 2008 administration of the survey.

The objective of this project is to identify key issues from the perspective of Indiana business leaders and to track these issues over time. The survey is conducted annually. Topics addressed include:

- General CEO business and economic challenges;
- Indiana's economic climate;
- The role of government in economic development;
- Human resources and diversity issues;
- Indiana's educational system; and
- Planning, managing and accessing information technology.

This report summarizes results of the second annual survey of this group.

Methodology of the 2009 Online Indiana Executive Survey



The 2009 survey was designed to replicate key portions of the previous two annual surveys. The 2007 survey was designed based on extensive qualitative and secondary research. Since one main goal of the project is to track changes over time, many of the key questions in 2009 were unchanged from 2007 and 2008. However, we made two types of changes in 2009. First, we added several questions which were related to the emerging economic conditions of late 2008 and early 2009. Second, we significantly shortened the survey in an effort to reduce the time respondents needed to spend on the questionnaire.

The revised questionnaire was administered online between March 4 and April 16, 2009. A total of 360 usable responses were received, which represents a large increase over the 210 received in 2007 and the 227 received in 2008. The larger sample in 2009 is primarily due to a larger initial sample frame and to a slightly higher response rate.

A detailed description of the methodology can be found in Appendix 1 at the end of this report.