Duke University/CFO Magazine Business Outlook Survey

1. Are you more or less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to last quarter?
More optimistic Less optimistic No change	Rate your optimism about the U.S. economy on a scale from 0-100, with 0 being the least optimistic and 100 being the most optimistic.

2. Are you more or less optimistic about the financial prospects for your company compared to last quarter?
More optimistic Less optimistic No change	Rate your optimism about the financial prospects for your own company on a scale from 0-100, with 0 being the least optimistic and 100 being the most optimistic.

3. What are the top three external concerns facing your corporation? (rank #1, #2, #3)

   Consumer demand
   Corporate tax code
   Cost of fuel
   Cost of non-fuel commodities
   Credit markets/interest rates
   Currency risk
   Environmental regulation
   Federal budget deficit
   Federal government policies
   Financial regulation

   Foreign competition
   Global financial instability
   Global political instability
   Inflation
   National employment outlook
   Potential for stock market correction
   Price pressure from competitors
   State or local government budget deficits
   Other:

4. What are the top three internal, company-specific concerns for your corporation? (rank #1, #2, #3)

   Ability to forecast results
   Ability to maintain margins
   Attracting and retaining qualified employees
   Balance sheet weakness
   Cost of health care
   Counterparty risk
   Data security

   Maintaining morale/productivity
   Managing IT systems
   Pension obligations
   Protection of intellectual property
   Supply chain risk
   Working capital management
   Other:

5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months? (e.g., +3%, -2%, etc.) [Leave blank if not applicable.]

   Capital spending
   Cash on the balance sheet
   Dividends
   Earnings
   Health care costs
   Marketing/advertising spending
   Number of domestic full-time employees
   Number of domestic temporary employees

   Number of offshore outsourced employees
   Prices of your products
   Productivity (output per hour worked)
   Research and development spending
   Revenue
   Share repurchases
   Technology spending
   Wages/Salaries

6. Have economic conditions for your company or industry changed or do you expect them to change? (Select one per column.)

	During the past year		Expected for 2014
	For your firm	For your industry	For your firm	For your industry
Significantly worse
Somewhat worse
No change
Somewhat better
Significantly better

7. Does your company have a corporate budget for charitable donations?

Yes
No

7b. Why did your company reduce or eliminate charitable donations?

8a. Given that implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) begins in early 2014, would you consider reducing your number of employees as a direct result of ACA?

  Yes, we may hire fewer employees than we otherwise would have over the next few years
  Yes, we may lay off current employees in response to ACA
  No
  Other

8b. Due to ACA, would you consider either switching some of your employees to fewer than 30 hours per week or hiring new employees that work fewer than 30 hours?

Yes
No

8c. Due to ACA, would you consider changing health benefits for your employees? (check all that apply)

  Yes, we would consider reducing health benefits for current employees
  Yes, we would consider reducing health benefits for our retirees
  Yes, we would consider eliminating our company-sponsored health care plan
  Yes, we would consider increasing the employee/retiree contribution for health benefits
  No, we will not change employee health benefits in response to ACA
  Our company does not currently have a health care plan
  Other:

9a. Do you think that the Social Security full retirement age should be raised in order to reduce the funding shortfall?

  Yes
  No
  I'm not sure

9b. Do you think raising the Social Security full retirement age would cause many of your employees to delay retirement?

  Yes
  No
  I'm not sure

9c. What are likely to be the most significant consequences of delayed retirements for your company? (Please select up to three.)

  Higher payroll costs (e.g., higher pay for longer-tenured employees)
  Higher company costs for medical benefits
  Higher company contributions to retirement benefits
  Lower productivity (e.g., due to skill set or health issues)
  Fewer opportunities for advancement by younger employees
  Additional training and education required to develop skills
  Limit our ability to hire new, more desirable employees
  Other (please describe):

9c. Which of the following factors is most influential in your response? (Please select one.)

  Social Security does not influence our employees' retirement decisions very much.
  We don't have a large portion of our workforce nearing retirement age.
  The Social Security age is not likely to be changed enough to make a difference.
  With their retirement savings eroding, our employees are already working longer than they used to.
  My company prefers to retain more experienced employees anyway, so raising the retirement age
        would not make much of a difference.
  Other (please describe)

9d. Does your company offer either defined benefit plans or defined contribution plans to your employees? (Please select one.)

  Both defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans
  Defined benefit plan(s) only
  Defined contribution plan(s) only
  Neither

10. On November 18, 2013 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 2.7%. Please complete the following:

a. Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:

Worst Case: There is a 1-in-10
chance the actual average
return will be less than:

%

Best Guess:
I expect the
return to be:

%

Best Case: There is a 1-in-10
chance the actual average
return will be greater than:

%

b. During the next year, I expect the S&P 500 return will be:

Worst Case: There is a 1-in-10 chance the actual return will be less than: %	Best Guess: I expect the return to be: %	Best Case: There is a 1-in-10 chance the actual return will be greater than: %
c. For part b above (predicting the S&P 500 return during the next year), among all respondents to this survey, what do you think will be the average of all of their 'best guesses' ?
	average %

Please check one from each category that best describes your company:

a. Industry

       Retail/Wholesale
       Mining/Construction
       Manufacturing
       Transportation/Energy
       Communications/Media

      Tech [Software/Biotech]
      Banking/Finance/Insurance
      Service/Consulting
      Healthcare/Pharmaceutical
      Other:

For manufacturing firms only:

% of capacity utilized in first half of 2013
% of capacity utilization planned for the remainder of 2013

b. Sales Revenue	c. Number of Employees
Less than $25 million $25-$99 million $100-$499 million $500-$999 million $1-$4.9 billion $5-$9.9 billion More than $10 billion	Fewer than 100 100-499 500-999 1,000-2,499 2,500-4,999 5,000-9,999 More than 10,000

d. Where are you personally located?

e. Ownership

       Northeast U.S.
       Mountain U.S.
       Midwest U.S.
       South Central U.S.
       South Atlantic U.S.
       Pacific U.S.

Canada
Latin America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Other

      Public, NYSE
      Public, NASDAQ/AMEX
      Private
      Government
      Nonprofit

f. Foreign Sales

g. What is your company's credit rating?

0% 1-24% 25-50% More than 50%	In what region of the world are most of your foreign sales? Africa Asia/Pacific Basin Europe Latin America Canada

Check here if you do not have a rating, and please estimate what your rating would be.

h. Return on assets (ROA=operating earnings/assets) (e.g., -5%, 6.2%)	i. Your job title (e.g., CFO, Asst. Treasurer, etc.)
% Approximate ROA in 2013 % Expected ROA in 2014

� Duke University, 2013

Duke University/CFOGlobal Business Outlook Survey Fourth Quarter 2013

Duke University/CFO
Global Business Outlook Survey
Fourth Quarter 2013