“Cautious optimism. A global survey of CEO’s in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.”

Here is an overview :

• CEO’s are focusing less attention on cash flow, shifting priorities from customer retention to customer acquisition and stockpiling talent in key positions.
• Although preparing for growth, CEO’s continue to focus on profitability. That’s a big change from the late 1990’s when many business leaders pursued a growth strategy at any price.
• Last year, roughly 30% of respondents cited the economy as the biggest challenge to sustained revenue growth. This year, that number was cut in half – down to less than 15%.
• The top operational challenge this year is developing a strong marketing and sales strategy.
• Roughly 25% of the CEO’s surveyed cited recruiting and retention as their biggest operational challenge, second only to establishing a strong marketing and sales strategy.
  There is worldwide agreement that developing and bringing new products to market is the top marketing challenge. In North America, hiring the right salespeople is the second highest priority.
• CEO’s in Europe and Asia Pacific are very concerned about competition from China and India. Companies in North America are focused more on terrorism and the general economy.