In this month’s CEO Connection Mid-Market Index, members spoke loudly and clearly in regard to which potential outcome of November’s election would have the most positive impact on their industry:
- Fully 66% of the respondents said a Republican victory in the White House would have the most positive impact on their industry
- 53% of respondents said a Republican president and Republican-controlled congress would have the most positive impact
- 13% said a Republican president and split control of congress would have the most positive impact
- Only 22% of respondents said an Obama re-election would have the most positive impact on their industry
At the same time, when asked about the availability of credit:
- 30% of respondents said it was getting better, a positive sign
- 4% said it was getting significantly better
- 55% said the availability of credit had remained unchanged
- Yet 10% said availability was either worse or significantly worse
Encouragingly, when asked to describe current business conditions in their industry compared to last month:
- 38% said they were better
- 2% said they were significantly better
- 45% said they’d remained unchanged
- While 15% said they’d actually gotten worse
Finally, when asked whether they were considering relocating any operations to a lower-tax country, state or municipality:
- 11% said they had already done so
- 29% said they were either considering it or strongly considering it
- A full 59% said they were not considering it
I asked Carol Roth, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Entrepreneur Equation and regular contributor to CNN, Fox Business and MSNBC, for her interpretation of these results:
“It is compelling, although not surprising, to note that the majority of business owners and leaders are seeking a change in our country’s leadership, starting with the President. I think this sentiment reflects that the current administration has a mindset that prioritizes entitlement over innovation and self-reliance, a mindset that is in direct conflict with the very nature of the capitalist system that American CEOs and business leaders both respect and nurture.”
What’s your interpretation? Post Publishing Update: I’m receiving a lot of email comments today. It’s ok to find these results surprising (to be honest, I did) or to disagree with Carol’s interpretation. Please feel free to comment here on the post – I’d love to hear your views!
The CEO Connection Mid-Market Index is a CEO Connection project in collaboration with CEO Magazine, Edelman, WCG, Heidrick & Struggles, PrimeGenesis, The Segal Company, President and CEO Magazine, and The Wharton School. The mission of CEO Connection is to help mid-market CEOs and rising CEOs succeed. Mid-market companies, generally those with revenues between $100 million and $3 billion, are essential to the global economy as their $3.84 trillion annual contribution to the U.S. private sector GDP alone ranks them as the equivalent of the world’s fourth largest country.
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6 Response Comments
Lisa,
No shocker there at all. A study a while back showed that those earning $200k-$10m were more likely to vote Republican out of perceived self-interest, while those making less were more likely to vote Democrat (again, over perceived self-interest) and those earning over $10m a year were more likely to vote Democrat over national interest – perhaps their view being, “Now that I’ve got mine, what would be best for my country rather than me personally?” I realize that is a powerfully-loaded value statement, but… I’ve never been accused of being timid.
I’ll take Warren Buffett’s wisdom over Carol Roth’s every time.
Hi Ted,
I sincerely appreciate you sharing your opinion! And I like that you’re not timid… 🙂 All the very best and thank you so much for the comment!
Lisa,
I really like this post! It is very interesting to see the strong differences in the political mind sets of the different income levels. For the most part I agree with Carol Roth’s statement. The democrat party leans strongly towards the mindset that the government should intervene and do things for the people, while the republican party leans more towards pro-business do-it-yourself. Going forward, it will be very interesting to see how things pan out in November.
Thank you, Brandon. And I couldn’t agree with you more that it will be very interesting to see how things pan out in November. The entire process just to this point has been fascinating! All the best and thank you so much for the comment!
Without getting all partisan and ideological or philosophical, I think the results you report are unsurprising just based on the numbers. Compared to four years ago, the country has an additional $4+ trillion in debt, unemployment is up, economic growth is anemic, and gas prices have nearly doubled. No consultant could provide results like that to a client and expect to keep the client.
Tom,
Very interesting analogy to a consultant’s inability to keep a client when there is a lack of results. Thanks for sharing!