Comments on: Surveys reveal CEOs’ biggest hopes, fears

By: Vaughn

Vaughn — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:38:12 +0000

So, I think our business is picking up and will continue to do so throughout 2010. In fact, we have even recently raised our prices. Why? Because we sell an application and services designed to make businesses of all kinds more efficient through enterprise grade task management and workflow software, allowing them to get the same job done with less people. That’s the driver right now. Don’t mistake this for macro optimism though. In my humble opinion, the investments that CEO’s are making are not intended to make workers more productive to avoid hiring more, it’s to make them more productive so they can let more of them go – to tighten the belt. They are afraid of a contracting economy and they want to find new revenue streams, acquire competitors, and cut costs to increase their chances of survival. None of them want to say it either, but it is true none the less.

The negative effects of seemingly bizarre fiscal policy, and continued market manipulation for social purposes (such as Gary describes above) has had its effect on the psyche of CEO’s. We are worried. We don’t mind paying our fair share, as long as it doesn’t destroy entire industries that are a crucial part of our economic ecosystem, or make us non-competitive in the global markets we all live in. But that IS what they have done. And, as soon as you cross that magic little line where your government becomes a competitive disadvantage, fear creeps in. It is the force multiplier, like working a lever that pushes reactionary output at rates much faster than bad policy is input, and it really can spiral until an election cycle plus the amount of time it takes to reverse course.

Many people don’t understand this because they see social change implemented without negative results, even though evil business people said it would hurt. The lack of cause and effect is, simply put, because those changes were implemented before the crossing of that line that we were all warning about. But we are not only concerned that we have crossed it, but also deeply concerned that we have not figured out the error of our ways.

We do well with our task management software (http://www.JobTraQ.com) in soaring economies because firms need efficiencies when properly skilled workers are scarce and expensive, and we also do well in slumping economies because firms need to reduce headcount without getting dumped by their clients for bad service, which means they still need to execute well. I would MUCH rather be bullish on our year because of the growth side of our benefit set, but I’m feeling pretty confident that Australia is our growth market, and that we will be selling a lot in the U.S. because of the downward pressure on headcount and the upward pressure on customer retention.

Simply put, I am Micro-optimistic and Macro-worried. We need to see some fiscal discipline from our Federal Government before the wheels come off, otherwise like Gary aptly pointed out above, our investments and actions are going to be targeted at cost cuts, not growth.

By: Galen Huffman

Galen Huffman — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:15:00 +0000

I too, believe that over regulation by BIG government will inhibit our growth. We had plans to expand this coming year, and i still will plan in that direction. However, fear of the present administration’s attitude toward business, holds our immediate plan for now.

We have a great group of employees who are loyal and report to us a high degree of satisfaction with our company’s way of operating. Our hope is to expand our production and development departments so as to provide even more and better jobs to our community.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:09:03 +0000

Put me down among the 20% who don’t think we’re going to bounce back, for exactly the reasons you mention:
1. The global economy will slip back into a downward spiral, resulting in an economic meltdown worse than the one we’ve already seen, and/or
2. Over-regulation will make it nearly impossible for companies to grow or diversify at the rate they otherwise could.
The people in charge of the ‘recovery’ are the geniuses who created the act that forced banks to lend to people who wouldn’t pay them back in the first place. That’s at the root of the original meltdown. Now they’re going to ‘fix’ the insurance industry by forcing them to take people with pre-existing conditions. That’ll be the root of the health care meltdown.
The crisis is that we’re being buried in debt and losing jobs. So the current administration continues to spend, is raising taxes, and piling on loads of costly new regulations. Does it sound like they understand the problem? And worse, if they do understand the problem, why won’t they stop making it worse?
I’m not sure everybody gets it yet, but the complete collapse is what the Marxists in power in the US today want. But fear not, when the government collapses our Supreme Leader already has the beginnings of his new structure in place. There is a Czar in place now to pick up the slack almost everywhere.
The survey really does say it all. If 80% are that confident, why would 25% be going to continue layoffs? If they are so confident, why would 80% plan to “continue to cut costs over the next three years”? People ‘speak’ most clearly by their actions. Look at the actions and see if they are consistent with what’s being said. You each know the answer to that question.