2011 Results - Executive Summary

The 2011 survey of Indiana CEOs and executives showed some differences from the 2010 survey. Compared to neighboring states, Indiana CEOs and executives expressed optimism about the overall business environment and economic incentives for businesses in 2011.

Indicators that the economy is improving include fewer business leaders intending to pursue outsourcing, but rather planning to add jobs in 2011. Health care costs and how health care will be funded continues to be a concern that executives feel negatively impacts their businesses and the economy. Additionally, business leaders have become more concerned over the low demand, but abundant supply of unskilled workers in the state.

On most other issues, attitudes and impressions remain consistent with prior years. Once again, Indiana business leaders persevere in spite of the challenges that confront them. It appears that staff reductions may be in the past and a brighter outlook on available funding opportunities may position corporations for further growth.

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2011 Results - Study Highlights

Section 1: CEO Challenges and Issues

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  • Corporate reputation continues to be the most important business issue while growing internationally is the least important. This may be an artifact of the survey being over-represented by small companies.
  • Health care costs have risen in importance since the introduction of major health care reform legislation.
  • Adding jobs has increased slightly while reducing jobs has decreased significantly.

Section 2: Indiana’s Economic Climate 

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  • Cost of living is still seen as the strongest advantage that Indiana has over neighboring states.
  • Perceptions of Indiana’s infrastructure, economic incentives for businesses and overall business environment have all risen significantly since 2010.

Section 3: State’s Role in Economic Development 

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  • CEOs believe that private and public funds inside Indiana are significantly more available than in 2010.
  • They further believe that the state is more able to encourage business growth than in 2010.

Section 4: Human Resources and Diversity 

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  • Indiana’s CEOs and executives continue to be concerned, in 2011 much more so, about the availability of non-skilled workers relative to the demand in the state. This year’s survey has a greater number of large companies represented and this opinion may be a result of this representation.
  • On the other end of the spectrum, the availability of skilled workers is perceived to be less than the current demand for them in Indiana.
  • Information/technology workers are the most in balance between supply and demand with sales and marketing workers being nearly in balance.
  • Large companies indicate they are more likely to add full-time employees in the coming year.

Section 5: Education 

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  • CEOs believe the state is strongest in providing educational programs in agriculture, life sciences and information technology.
  • Perceptions that educational programs are available in Indiana to support the industries the state is focusing on all increased slightly from 2010.

Section 6: Information Technology 

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  • CEOs and executives expressed opinions that technology moves too quickly to keep staff current, that they must outsource most of their IT work and that off-site backups are a necessity.
What We Learned

The full report shows that between 2007 and 2011 many things have remained consistent through the years although this year’s survey shows signs of optimism which have not been seen in previous years. During this period, 2008 appeared to be the high point in the state for hiring, success stories and business success. There is some trepidation with respect to government regulation and health care reform but funding for business growth is beginning to become more available. We will continue to monitor the trends and evaluate our progress as we measure the attitudes and observations of the state’s business leaders against the benchmark.

Background of the Project

As a group, the executive officers of Indiana’s organizations have a significant influence on the economic and social well-being of the state. Especially in times of economic upheaval, policymakers and other members of the community can benefit by understanding the attitudes, opinions, perspectives and plans of these executives.

Inside INdiana Business, Ice Miller LLP, and the Butler University College of Business 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 2010 administration of the Indiana CEO Survey.

The objective of this project is to identify key issues from the perspective of Indiana’s 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 state government in economic development;
  • Human resource issues;
  • Indiana’s educational system; and
  • Planning, managing, and assessing information technology.

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

Methodology of the 2011 Online Indiana Executive Survey

The 2011 survey was designed to replicate key portions of the previous four 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 2011 were unchanged between 2007 and 2011. In the 2011 survey we included new questions on legislative issues and shortened the survey slightly.

The revised questionnaire was administered online between February 21 and March 31, 2011. A total of 768 usable responses were received. We continue to see the number of responses grow with 210 received in 2007, 227 received in 2008, 360 received in 2009 and 428 in 2010. The larger sample in 2011 is primarily due to a larger initial sample frame of 4,443. This 17 percent response rate is slightly lower than in prior years.

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