Table of Contents

1a. Are you more or less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to last quarter?	1
1b. 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
2a. Are you more or less optimistic about the financial prospects for your own company compared to last quarter?	3
2b. 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.	4
3. What are the top three external concerns facing your corporation? (rank #1, #2, #3)	5
3. What are the top three external concerns facing your corporation? Reverse scale & weighted by the number of respondents (Higher
number = greater weighted importance)	6
3. What are the top three external concerns facing your corporation? - Other specified	7
4. What are the top three internal, company-specific concerns for your corporation? (rank #1, #2, #3)	8
4. What are the top three internal, company-specific concerns for your corporation? Reverse scale & weighted by the number of
respondents (Higher number = greater weighted importance)	9
4. What are the top three internal, company-specific concerns your corporation faces? - Other specified	10
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]	11
5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months for:
[Unweighted - Sorted]	12
5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?  [All
Companies - Winsorized - Revenue Weighted - Sorted]	13
5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?  [All
Companies - Winsorized - Employee Weighted - Sorted]	14
5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?  [Public
Companies - Winsorized - Revenue Weighted]	15
6a. How much cash and marketable securities does your firm hold (as a percentage of total assets)?	16
6b.  Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months?	17
6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - No - Why not? (Check all that apply)	18
6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - No - Why not? - Other specified	19
6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - Yes - On what would accumulated cash
reserves be deployed? (Check all that apply)	20
6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - Yes - On what would accumulated cash
reserves be deployed? - Other specified	21
7. Is a percentage of your firm's budget being invested in pursuit of major innovations - projects that, if successful, would have a
significant impact on your business?	22
7b. What percentage of your firm's budget is being invested in pursuit of major innovations?	23
7c. How much of the innovation work your firm is doing is:	24
8a. How big a risk factor is business corruption (fraud, bribery, other ethical violations) in the country where you are located?	25
8b. To the extent that corruption exists, what would you say are its major effects? (Check all that apply)	26
8b. To the extent that corruption exists, what would you say are its major effects? - Other specified	27
9. Physical assets and workforce utilization	28
10. Weighted average cost of capital and 'hurdle rate'	29
10c. For projects that are novel or highly uncertain due to being highly innovative, do you increase the required hurdle rate?	30
10c. How do you decide how high to set the hurdle rate for projects that are novel or highly innovative?	31
10d. Suppose that last week you approved a project that just meets your hurdle rate. We are trying to get a sense of what changes in
economy-wide interest rates might stop or delay this project.	34
10d. What changes in economy-wide interest rates might stop or delay this project? - Comments	35
We are trying to get a feel for whether firms pursue all projects that beat the hurdle rate. Among projects that you could fund if you
wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement – do you pursue all these projects?	37
10e. Why not pursue all the projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to
implement?	38
11. On May 15, 2012 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 1.8%. Please complete the following:	43
Revenue Weighted: 11. On May 15, 2012 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 1.8%. Please complete the following:	44
Employee Weighted: 11. On May 15, 2012 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 1.8%. Please complete the following:	45
Manufacturing capacity utilized	46
Manufacturing capacity utilized (Revenue Weighted)	47
Industry	48
Industry (Other specified)	49
Sales Revenue	51
Weighted Sales Revenue (Millions)	52
Number of Employees	53
Weighted Number of Employees	54
Where are you personally located?	55
Where are you personally located? - Other specified	56
Ownership	57
Foreign Sales	58
In what region of the world are most of your foreign sales?	59
What is your company's credit rating? 	60
What is your company's credit rating? 	61
What is your company's credit rating? 	62

 1 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

1a. Are you more or less optimistic about the U.S. economy compared to last quarter?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	1=More optimistic	111	25.1 %	± 4.0 %
	0=No change	178	40.2 %	± 4.6 %
	-1=Less optimistic	154	34.8 %	± 4.4 %
	Total	443	100.0 %

	Mean = -0.1
	SD = 0.8

	Missing Cases = 1 
	Response Percent = 99.8 %

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

1b. 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.

	Minimum = 4

	Maximum = 100

	Mean = 55.7

	Median = 55

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased) = 16.1

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 54.1 - 57.3

Quartiles

	 1 = 49
	 2 = 55
	 3 = 65

Valid Cases = 391 
Missing Cases = 53 
Response Percent = 88.1%

3 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

2a. Are you more or less optimistic about the financial prospects for your own company compared to last quarter?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	1=More optimistic	166	37.5 %	± 4.5 %
	0=No change	149	33.6 %	± 4.4 %
	-1=Less optimistic	128	28.9 %	± 4.2 %
	Total	443	100.0 %

	Mean = 0.1
	SD = 0.8

	Missing Cases = 1 
	Response Percent = 99.8 %

4 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

2b. 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.

	Minimum = 0

	Maximum = 100

	Mean = 64.1

	Median = 65

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased) = 19.0

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 62.2 - 66.0

Quartiles

	 1 = 50
	 2 = 65
	 3 = 75

Valid Cases = 391 
Missing Cases = 53 
Response Percent = 88.1%

5 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

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

(N=444)

	Mean & SD	1st	2nd	3rd	Total	
	1.6	123	45	42	210
Consumer demand	0.8	27.7%	10.1%	9.5%	47.3%

	1.9	23	12	17	52
Financial regulation	0.9	5.2%	2.7%	3.8%	11.7%

	1.9	58	67	48	173
Price pressure from competitors	0.8	13.1%	15.1%	10.8%	39.0%

	2.0	59	62	58	179
Federal government agenda/policies	0.8	13.3%	14.0%	13.1%	40.3%

	2.0	17	18	17	52
Cost of non-fuel commodities	0.8	3.8%	4.1%	3.8%	11.7%

	2.0	14	29	16	59
Cost of fuel	0.7	3.2%	6.5%	3.6%	13.3%

	2.1	42	48	51	141
Global financial instability	0.8	9.5%	10.8%	11.5%	31.8%

	2.1	29	28	37	94
Federal budget deficit	0.8	6.5%	6.3%	8.3%	21.2%

	2.1	7	11	11	29
Environmental regulation	0.8	1.6%	2.5%	2.5%	6.5%

	2.1	18	47	32	97
National employment outlook	0.7	4.1%	10.6%	7.2%	21.8%

	2.2	20	14	34	68
Credit markets/interest rates	0.9	4.5%	3.2%	7.7%	15.3%

	2.2	4	18	12	34
Foreign competition	0.7	0.9%	4.1%	2.7%	7.7%

	2.3	14	25	33	72
State or local government budget deficits	0.8	3.2%	5.6%	7.4%	16.2%

	2.3	5	9	12	26
Currency risk	0.8	1.1%	2.0%	2.7%	5.9%

	2.4	2	11	13	26
Global political instability	0.6	0.5%	2.5%	2.9%	5.9%

	2.0	11	5	12	28
Other:	0.9	2.5%	1.1%	2.7%	6.3%

6 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

3. What are the top three external concerns facing your corporation? Reverse scale & weighted by the number of respondents (Higher number = greater weighted importance)

	Mean	SD	Total

Consumer demand	1.1	1.3	443

Federal government agenda/policies	0.8	1.1	443

Price pressure from competitors	0.8	1.1	443

Global financial instability	0.6	1.0	443

National employment outlook	0.4	0.8	443

Federal budget deficit	0.4	0.9	443

State or local government budget deficits	0.3	0.7	443

Cost of fuel	0.3	0.7	443

Credit markets/interest rates	0.3	0.7	443

Cost of non-fuel commodities	0.2	0.7	443

Financial regulation	0.2	0.7	443

Foreign competition	0.1	0.5	443

Environmental regulation	0.1	0.5	443

Currency risk	0.1	0.4	443

Global political instability	0.1	0.4	443

Other:	0.1	0.5	443

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

3. What are the top three external concerns facing your corporation? - Other specified

Banking/Finance/Insurance	claims inflation	
Communications/Media	FCC regulations and USF support	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Gov wants more and pay less	
Manufacturing	Bank runs in Europe	
Manufacturing	banking regulations	
Manufacturing	EU crisis	
Manufacturing	raw material availability & cost	
Mining/Construction	A lethargic, very broken, Congress of the United States	
Mining/Construction	skilled work force in trades	
Other	Congressional inaction	
Other	COS Price pressure	
Other	cost of petrochemicals	
Other	Housing growth	
Other	Immigration	
Other	merchandise cost	
Other	Qualified job applicants	
Other	State govt tax laws	
Retail/Wholesale	Manufacturing output	
Retail/Wholesale	market changes due to internet	
Retail/Wholesale	regional employment	
Service/Consulting	ability to find and hire qualified personnel	
Service/Consulting	Competition	
Service/Consulting	Price of Oil/Natural Gas	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Customer uncertainty causing them to delay purchases	
Transportation/Energy	Governmental regulations	
Unspecified Industry	lack of candor regarding mkt conditions	
Unspecified Industry	No protection of intellectual property on behalf of US government	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

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

(N=444)

	Mean & SD	1st	2nd	3rd	Total	
	1.5	170	79	38	287
Ability to maintain margins	0.7	38.3%	17.8%	8.6%	64.6%

	1.9	22	26	17	65
Balance sheet weakness	0.8	5.0%	5.9%	3.8%	14.6%

	1.9	62	39	54	155
Ability to forecast results	0.9	14.0%	8.8%	12.2%	34.9%

Attracting and retaining qualified	2.0	50	60	43	153
employees	0.8	11.3%	13.5%	9.7%	34.5%

	2.0	21	35	20	76
Supply chain risk	0.7	4.7%	7.9%	4.5%	17.1%

	2.2	37	54	62	153
Cost of health care	0.8	8.3%	12.2%	14.0%	34.5%

	2.2	24	41	46	111
Working capital management	0.8	5.4%	9.2%	10.4%	25.0%

	2.2	7	6	12	25
Protection of intellectual property	0.9	1.6%	1.4%	2.7%	5.6%

	2.3	27	45	62	134
Maintaining morale/productivity	0.8	6.1%	10.1%	14.0%	30.2%

	2.3	4	13	13	30
Data security	0.7	0.9%	2.9%	2.9%	6.8%

	2.3	5	8	13	26
Pension obligations	0.8	1.1%	1.8%	2.9%	5.9%

	2.5	6	27	43	76
Managing IT systems	0.6	1.4%	6.1%	9.7%	17.1%

	2.5	1	5	8	14
Counterparty risk	0.7	0.2%	1.1%	1.8%	3.2%

	2.1	10	8	14	32
Other:	0.9	2.3%	1.8%	3.2%	7.2%

9 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

4. What are the top three internal, company-specific concerns for your corporation? Reverse scale & weighted by the number of respondents (Higher number = greater weighted importance)

	Mean	SD	Total

Ability to maintain margins	1.6	1.3	443

Ability to forecast results	0.7	1.1	443

Attracting and retaining qualified employees	0.7	1.1	443

Cost of health care	0.6	1.0	443

Working capital management	0.5	0.9	443

Maintaining morale/productivity	0.5	0.9	443

Supply chain risk	0.3	0.8	443

Balance sheet weakness	0.3	0.8	443

Managing IT systems	0.3	0.6	443

Pension obligations	0.1	0.4	443

Protection of intellectual property	0.1	0.5	443

Data security	0.1	0.5	443

Counterparty risk	0.0	0.3	443

Other:	0.1	0.5	443

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

4. What are the top three internal, company-specific concerns your corporation faces? - Other specified

Banking/Finance/Insurance	Collaboration between business units to drive synergies	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Cost of Regulation	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Customer retention	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	integration	
Communications/Media	Keep network working	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Banking/Credit management	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Corporate Management Team	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Paying for IT systems	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	SLOW Government Reform	
Manufacturing	Ability to grow	
Manufacturing	Capacity to meet demand	
Manufacturing	Growing the business	
Manufacturing	Inventory control	
Manufacturing	Making decisions	
Manufacturing	organic sales growth	
Manufacturing	Product Dev	
Manufacturing	SALES	
Manufacturing	Speed at deleving new software	
Manufacturing	tax on foreign earnings limiting cash back to US	
Mining/Construction	No other concerns	
Other	Aging management	
Other	Collecting Accounts Receivable	
Other	Federal grant support	
Other	Leadership	
Other	Maintain morale/productivity	
Other	New products introduction risk	
Other	Revenue generation	
Other	Strength of Housing Market	
Retail/Wholesale	Gaining new business	
Service/Consulting	product development	
Service/Consulting	revenues	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Inability to close sales despite willing customers	
Unspecified Industry	colaboration	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

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]

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

Earnings	9.5	30.9	6.2 - 12.9	5	-95	300	326

Revenue	8.3	22.3	6.0 - 10.5	6	-90	200	367

Health care costs	8.2	7.2	7.4 - 8.9	8	-50	40	350

Technology spending	7.1	21.4	4.4 - 9.8	5	-75	100	235

Capital spending	6.7	40.0	2.3 - 11.0	2	-90	300	325

Marketing/advertising spending	5.9	17.9	3.7 - 8.1	2	-20	200	261

Cash on the balance sheet	5.0	33.9	1.1 - 8.8	2	-95	300	298

Dividends	5.0	19.7	-1.2 - 11.1	1.5	-90	50	40

Number of domestic full-time employees	4.6	20.9	2.3 - 6.9	2	-80	300	324

Number of domestic temporary employees	4.1	32.9	-0.6 - 8.7	0	-80	400	191

Number of offshore outsourced employees	3.7	22.5	-0.6 - 7.9	0	-95	200	107

Research and development spending	3.6	9.9	2.0 - 5.1	0.5	-33	50	160

Wages/Salaries	3.3	7.8	2.5 - 4.1	3	-20	100	360

Productivity (output per hour worked)	3.3	6.5	2.4 - 4.1	2	-15	50	221

Share repurchases	3.2	13.4	0.4 - 6.0	0	-30	100	90

Prices of your products	1.8	4.7	1.3 - 2.4	2	-20	20	280

12 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months for:   [Unweighted - Sorted]

(N=444)

	Mean & SD	Positive	Zero	Negative	Total
	  	1	0	-1	  	
	0.9	323	12	15	350
Health care costs	0.4	92.3%	3.4%	4.3%	100.0%

	0.8	313	27	20	360
Wages/Salaries	0.5	86.9%	7.5%	5.6%	100.0%

	0.6	290	15	62	367
Revenue	0.8	79.0%	4.1%	16.9%	100.0%

	0.6	154	49	18	221
Productivity (output per hour worked)	0.6	69.7%	22.2%	8.1%	100.0%

	0.6	165	42	29	236
Technology spending	0.7	69.9%	17.8%	12.3%	100.0%

	0.5	240	26	65	331
Earnings	0.8	72.5%	7.9%	19.6%	100.0%

	0.5	188	52	40	280
Prices of your products	0.7	67.1%	18.6%	14.3%	100.0%

	0.5	151	82	29	262
Marketing/advertising spending	0.7	57.6%	31.3%	11.1%	100.0%

	0.4	21	17	3	41
Dividends	0.6	51.2%	41.5%	7.3%	100.0%

	0.4	201	64	59	324
Number of domestic full-time employees	0.8	62.0%	19.8%	18.2%	100.0%

	0.4	80	66	16	162
Research and development spending	0.7	49.4%	40.7%	9.9%	100.0%

	0.3	185	57	86	328
Capital spending	0.9	56.4%	17.4%	26.2%	100.0%

Number of domestic temporary	0.3	72	102	17	191
employees	0.6	37.7%	53.4%	8.9%	100.0%

	0.3	168	49	83	300
Cash on the balance sheet	0.9	56.0%	16.3%	27.7%	100.0%

Number of offshore outsourced	0.2	29	74	4	107
employees	0.5	27.1%	69.2%	3.7%	100.0%

	0.1	15	73	2	90
Share repurchases	0.4	16.7%	81.1%	2.2%	100.0%

13 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?  [All Companies - Winsorized - Revenue Weighted - Sorted] 

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum

Earnings	11.7	24.0	11.2 - 12.1	8	-86.5	109.4

Dividends	8.4	12.8	8.0 - 8.8	5	-47.5	50

Technology spending	8.0	15.3	7.6 - 8.3	5	-37.3	50.6

Revenue	6.3	10.7	6.1 - 6.5	6	-35.4	52

Capital spending	4.9	24.9	4.4 - 5.3	2	-88.4	103.5

Share repurchases	3.7	8.0	3.4 - 3.9	0	-23	29.5

Marketing/advertising spending	3.3	7.2	3.1 - 3.5	1	-20	42.7

Cash on the balance sheet	3.2	22.0	2.8 - 3.6	3	-81.3	93.9

Research and development spending	3.1	6.3	3.0 - 3.3	1	-27.2	31.8

Prices of your products	1.8	3.7	1.7 - 1.9	2	-7.4	11

14 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?  [All Companies - Winsorized - Employee Weighted - Sorted]

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum

Health care costs	7.0	5.3	6.9 - 7.1	7	-5.8	22.2

Number of offshore outsourced employees	3.8	8.6	3.6 - 4.1	0	-40.4	47.6

Productivity (output per hour worked)	3.2	3.7	3.1 - 3.3	3	-9.5	16

Wages/Salaries	2.6	2.7	2.6 - 2.7	3	-11.8	18.6

Number of domestic full-time employees	2.5	8.4	2.3 - 2.7	1	-36.2	45.5

Number of domestic temporary employees	0.6	11.5	0.3 - 0.9	0	-60.4	68.5

15 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

5. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?  [Public Companies - Winsorized - Revenue Weighted] 

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum

Earnings	10.9	13.4	10.6 - 11.3	10	-86.5	50

Cash on the balance sheet	8.8	21.8	8.1 - 9.5	5	-81.3	93.9

Revenue	7.0	10.6	6.7 - 7.3	5	-20	52

Dividends	5.5	7.2	5.2 - 5.7	4	0	50

Share repurchases	3.9	8.6	3.6 - 4.2	0	-23	29.5

16 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

6a. How much cash and marketable securities does your firm hold (as a percentage of total assets)?

	Mean	SD	Median	Total

Today	17.0	19.6	10	397

One Year Ago	16.4	19.7	10	393

17 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

6b.  Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	No	169	51.7 %	± 4.5 %
	Yes	158	48.3 %	± 4.5 %
	Total	327	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 117 
	Response Percent = 73.6 %

18 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - No - Why not? (Check all that apply)

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Need cash as liquidity buffer (e.g., in case credit markets tighten)	76	45.0 %	± 7.6 %
	Lack excess cash to deploy	71	42.0 %	± 7.5 %
	Holding cash until economic uncertainty declines	54	32.0 %	± 7.1 %
	Have few attractive investment opportunities	32	18.9 %	± 6.0 %
	Want to avoid repatriation tax on cash held overseas	6	3.6 %	± 2.8 %
	Other	9	5.3 %	± 3.4 %
	Total	248

	Number of Cases =169
	Number of Responses =248
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 1.5
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response =168
	Response Percent = 99.4 %

19 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - No - Why not? - Other specified

Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	want to have 60 days coh	
Manufacturing	Just made major acquisition	
Manufacturing	Market Caps too high	
Other	Cash reserves are kept too low for prudent investing	
Other	No need to deploy cash reserves	
Retail/Wholesale	Need for debt service	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Cash flow from operations precludes dipping into reserves.	
Transportation/Energy	Bank covenants	
Unspecified Industry	Future investment	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - Yes - On what would accumulated cash reserves be deployed? (Check all that apply)

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Capital spending or investment	95	60.1 %	± 7.7 %
	Acquisitions	64	40.5 %	± 7.7 %
	Pay down debt/line of credit	42	26.6 %	± 7.0 %
	Increase hiring	40	25.3 %	± 6.9 %
	Marketing and advertising	32	20.3 %	± 6.3 %
	Dividends or share repurchases	30	19.0 %	± 6.2 %
	Increase employee benefits/pay	30	19.0 %	± 6.2 %
	Research and development	28	17.7 %	± 6.0 %
	Purchase inventory	20	12.7 %	± 5.2 %
	Pension plan funding	14	8.9 %	± 4.5 %
	Allow more lenient payment terms by customers	11	7.0 %	± 4.0 %
	Lending	8	5.1 %	± 3.5 %
	Other	7	4.4 %	± 3.2 %
	Total	421

	Number of Cases =158
	Number of Responses =421
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 2.7
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response =156
	Response Percent = 98.7 %

21 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

6b. Is it likely that your firm will begin to deploy its cash reserves during the next 12 months? - Yes - On what would accumulated cash reserves be deployed? - Other specified

Banking/Finance/Insurance	cover operating losses	
Manufacturing	Operating expense	
Manufacturing	RAW MATERIALS	
Mining/Construction	Equity investment in conventional multi-family housing	
Other	Distribution to Owner	
Other	Offsetting losses in other Parent Company Holdings	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	funding operations	

22 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

7. Is a percentage of your firm's budget being invested in pursuit of major innovations - projects that, if successful, would have a significant impact on your business?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Yes	169	38.5 %	± 4.5 %
	No	270	61.5 %	± 4.6 %
	Total	439	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 5 
	Response Percent = 98.9 %

23 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

7b. What percentage of your firm's budget is being invested in pursuit of major innovations?

	Minimum = 0.3

	Maximum = 80

	Mean = 14.5

	Median = 10

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased) = 15.4

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 12.2 - 16.9

	99 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 11.4 - 17.7

Quartiles

	 1 = 5
	 2 = 10
	 3 = 20

Valid Cases = 158 
Missing Cases = 11 
Response Percent = 93.5%

24 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

7c. How much of the innovation work your firm is doing is:

	Mean	SD	Median	Total

Transformational/high-risk, potential high reward?	23.7	28.5	10	162

Moderate-risk, potential moderate reward?	44.2	33.2	40	163

Low-risk/incremental	32.3	33.2	25	163

25 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

8a. How big a risk factor is business corruption (fraud, bribery, other ethical violations) in the country where you are located?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	5=Very significant factor	7	1.6 %	± 1.2 %
	4=	28	6.3 %	± 2.3 %
	3=	50	11.3 %	± 3.0 %
	2=	94	21.2 %	± 3.8 %
	1=Not a significant factor	264	59.6 %	± 4.6 %
	Total	443	100.0 %

	Mean = 1.7
	SD = 1.0

	Missing Cases = 1 
	Response Percent = 99.8 %

26 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

8b. To the extent that corruption exists, what would you say are its major effects? (Check all that apply)

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Increases the price of goods/services	213	48.0 %	± 4.7 %
	Limits competition	125	28.2 %	± 4.2 %
	Hinders the expansion process	109	24.5 %	± 4.0 %
	Reduces the quality of goods/services	104	23.4 %	± 4.0 %
	Reduces tax revenues collected by the government	96	21.6 %	± 3.9 %
	Speeds the expansion process	11	2.5 %	± 1.5 %
	Other	19	4.3 %	± 1.9 %
	Total	677

	Number of Cases =444
	Number of Responses =677
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 1.5
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response =327
	Response Percent = 73.6 %

27 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

8b. To the extent that corruption exists, what would you say are its major effects? - Other specified

Banking/Finance/Insurance	increase regulations and rules	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	n/a	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Negatively impacts the culture	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	severe damage to reputation	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Increase in gov't. regulation thus increasing compliance costs.	
Manufacturing	NOT APPLICABLE	
Manufacturing	not applicable	
Mining/Construction	curtails investor and small business confidence	
Other	bad press	
Other	Bad Public Relations	
Other	Creates a false market and thus uncertainty	
Other	Lower retrun to stock holders	
Other	Not a significant factor; concern for compliance only.	
Retail/Wholesale	Increases cost of administrative resources to address potential fraud prevention	
	and detection	
Retail/Wholesale	N/A	
Service/Consulting	reduces trust and confidence	
Transportation/Energy	brand image	
Transportation/Energy	Creates adminstrative burden	

28 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

9. Physical assets and workforce utilization

(N=444)

			Optimally	Somewhat	Highly	
	Mean & SD	Maxed out	utilized	underutilized	underutilized	Total
	  	4	3	2	1	  	
9a. At what capacity are your
firm’s physical assets being	2.6	51	182	176	29	438
used?	0.8	11.6%	41.6%	40.2%	6.6%	100.0%

9b. At what capacity is your	3.0	119	171	122	9	421
firm’s workforce being used?	0.8	28.3%	40.6%	29.0%	2.1%	100.0%

29 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10. Weighted average cost of capital and 'hurdle rate'

	Mean	SD	Median	Total

10a.  What do you estimate is your firm's overall weighted average cost of capital (WACC)? (e.g., 11.
2%)	9.3	5.5	9	379

10b.  What is your firm's 'hurdle rate' (the rate of return that an investment must beat in order to be
adopted)?	13.5	7.3	12	362

30 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10c. For projects that are novel or highly uncertain due to being highly innovative, do you increase the required hurdle rate?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Yes	155	59.8 %	± 6.0 %
	No	104	40.2 %	± 6.0 %
	Total	259	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 0 
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

31 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10c. How do you decide how high to set the hurdle rate for projects that are novel or highly innovative?

Banking/Finance/Insurance	Always have added an additional 5% for risky projects to allow for a cushion.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Charge an additional risk margin.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Consensus of the executive committee, drawn on past hurdle rate experiences.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Depends on estimated payback period and length of time actual revenues/	
	expenses can be measured	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Generally to 2 to 3% as an additional risk premium	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	guesstimate	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Judgement factor applied by principals	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	level of risk	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	past experience, experience of colleagues	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Reinforce the exigence to 15%	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Risk adjusted.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Subjective	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	varies based on opportunity.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	We don't. We look at quality, compliance, competitive initiatives as must do's,	
	within a budgetary context.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	we perform a risk assessment, and assign a higher rate in relation to the added risk	
Communications/Media	Available resources, time factor, contract requirments	
Communications/Media	Judgment at the time.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	As a non-profit,that highly innovative idea may really serves the community and	
	choose to REDUCE the hurdle rate to break even.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Judgement, comparison to expectations of venture capital investors' portfolios	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	ROI needs to be 5 years	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	subjectily	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Subjective risk adjusted cost of capital	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	We lower the multiple of EBITDA we are willing to pay for shares in acquisitions	
	and denovo projects.	
Manufacturing	Ability to open new channels or markets for out-size revenue growth.	
Manufacturing	Actual rate usually much more attractive than any contemplated hurdle rate.	
Manufacturing	add additional risk in the cost base.	
Manufacturing	Adjust for risk.	
Manufacturing	Becomes more of a subjective decision	
Manufacturing	COUNTRY RISK	
Manufacturing	Depends on risk, higher risk, higher return required	
Manufacturing	Depends on size of investment	
Manufacturing	Depends on the potential return and the risk associated with the project	
Manufacturing	Each project is reviewed individually.	
Manufacturing	Gut Feel	
Manufacturing	higher the risk of success the higher the hurdle rate	
Manufacturing	Highly uncertain carries a one-half cost of captial premium.  Highly novel or	
	innovative does not necessarily carry any premium.	
Manufacturing	Hurdle on low end if project considered strategic or if innovative, high growth	
	potential we are willing to take a controlled risk.  Otherwise project must	
	compete internally with high hurdle rate	
Manufacturing	just added 5%	
Manufacturing	Level of risk and location	
Manufacturing	Market based return	
Manufacturing	Must beat the cost of the incremental capital	
Manufacturing	Premium sufficient to double NPV	
Manufacturing	Proportioned by risk profile	
Manufacturing	Relative to perceived chance of succes	
Manufacturing	Risk assessment completed and creating a range of possible outcomes (best case,	
	worst case, likely case), then combining to determine reasonable outcome.	
	Determine if this is within the acceptable return required.	
Manufacturing	subjective	
Manufacturing	subjective	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10c. How do you decide how high to set the hurdle rate for projects that are novel or highly innovative?

Manufacturing	There is no mathematical formula.  Simply an understanding that high risk must	
	offer high rewards.  Is dependent on number of other investment options as well	
	and their individual risk profiles.	
Manufacturing	Unscientifically.  Novel projects have indeterminate outcomes, so we come to a	
	consensus on expected returns.  If the return is positive (and we have long time	
	horizon) we will go forward.	
Manufacturing	Use same rate as other projects	
Manufacturing	We establish a quicker payback period and calculate the hurdle rate as a result of	
	that requirement.	
Mining/Construction	its all judgment and negotiated at the time.	
Mining/Construction	Long-term internal discussion.  Not scientific!	
Mining/Construction	Process where analysis is done at certain spending or result oriented points in	
	time.	
Mining/Construction	Set higher discount rates.	
Mining/Construction	We only have one ongoing project that would be considered innovative.	
Mining/Construction	Weigh the risk and return to determin the hurdle rate.	
Other	amount of investment involved, and timeframe for recovery	
Other	Based on transparency and quality of likely demand.	
Other	By formula	
Other	Case-by-case	
Other	Compare risk to reward.	
Other	Depends on how much cash is involved, how long the project and the rate of	
	return.	
Other	Expected sales and margin generated compared to development cost.	
Other	identify a risk weighted spread over base hurdle rate	
Other	If the project is outside of our standard business and business processes, we	
	increase the hurdle rate.	
Other	Level of risk.	
Other	Our largest hurdle in adopting highly innovative strategies are uninnovative	
	internal senior management not seeing the vision of high tech solutions (mobil	
	apps for example if they do not own tablet devices themselves)	
Other	We don't use hurdle rate adjustments to account for project risk.	
Other	We look at complexity of exectuion and the degree of control we have over critical	
	elements to successful / acceptable results.	
Other	When we can view some risks, as new constructions.	
Retail/Wholesale	Additional research	
Retail/Wholesale	Based on perceived risk	
Retail/Wholesale	Depends on risk level	
Retail/Wholesale	factor of risk	
Retail/Wholesale	Gut	
Retail/Wholesale	ROI above near term cost of resources	
Retail/Wholesale	The length of time it takes to create free cash flow.	
Service/Consulting	available excess cash	
Service/Consulting	balance it against the risk involved	
Service/Consulting	By calculating a risk premium.	
Service/Consulting	Management judgement.  Must support strategic objectives.	
Service/Consulting	Market Studies on equity returns	
Service/Consulting	Nature of investment, market and customer segement the investment is in.	
Service/Consulting	plus 1 std deviation from mean return	
Service/Consulting	Prioritize against strategic objectives.	
Service/Consulting	We add 5% for each quartile of added risk	
Service/Consulting	We put a risk premium of 150% to all R&D type projects	
Service/Consulting	we're not that sophisticated.	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	30	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	anticipated market; direction of technology curve	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Bank rate plus 10% return plus 15% for risk and the risk element may be	
	increased / decreased as required.	

33 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10c. How do you decide how high to set the hurdle rate for projects that are novel or highly innovative?

Tech [Software/Biotech]	tracking idea from the git-go	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Use risk adjusted method	
Transportation/Energy	Prior experience with similar projects.	
Transportation/Energy	Rate depends on the risk to the company of undertaking the project	
Transportation/Energy	risk adjusted scale of potential outcomes	
Transportation/Energy	Sense of risk involved.	

34 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10d. Suppose that last week you approved a project that just meets your hurdle rate. We are trying to get a sense of what changes in economy-wide interest rates might stop or delay this project.

(N=444)

	Mean & SD	No	Maybe	Yes	Total
	  	-1	0	+1	  	
Would a 1% increase in interest rates	-0.6	269	123	14	406
cause you to delay or stop the project?	0.6	66.3%	30.3%	3.4%	100.0%

Would a 2% increase in interest rates	-0.3	172	164	70	406
cause you to delay or stop the project?	0.7	42.4%	40.4%	17.2%	100.0%

35 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10d. What changes in economy-wide interest rates might stop or delay this project? - Comments

Banking/Finance/Insurance	again, varies by opportunity.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	I build in 5-10% of total estimated cost as contingency factor to relect uncertainty	
	about prcies and interest rates, among other things.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	In todays low rate environment, a 1% increase in interest rates is huge.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Potential upside great enough that we'd probably still push forward	
Communications/Media	No debt. We do not use leverage for investments	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Company has low debt.  Higher interest rates may help increase returns on idle	
	cash.  Need to consider the long run interest rate outlook not just the short term.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Debt represents such a small percentage of the balance sheet and currently at fixed	
	rates.  Reserves could be used for a new venture.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Minimal debt tied to short term rates	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Once approved, we move forward unless project specific conditions change.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Too risky at this point.	
Manufacturing	Borrowing is still too tight, equity is required on our situation	
Manufacturing	Depends if the Project is necessary to meet stategic goals.	
Manufacturing	Depends on factors driving rate increase and how that impacts the project	
Manufacturing	Depends on timing and long term benefits.	
Manufacturing	funding is primarily from venture capital firms	
Manufacturing	hurdle rate set high enough to absorb minor inflation, interest changes	
Manufacturing	Look more toward the long term potential or impact rather than the short term	
	payback based on interest rates.	
Manufacturing	Only fixed debt.  Also, most projects are at a return within one year, so long-term	
	will not effect company too much in the short term.	
Manufacturing	Our company does not use this in our evaluations. Specific projects are quite	
	small.	
Manufacturing	Our projects are typically part of longer term strategies and financing is	
	fortunately not the major factor.	
Manufacturing	small increases are permitable and factored in, however, big increases are not, so	
	the rate of increase is measured.	
Manufacturing	Still lots of low hanging fruit to pick	
Manufacturing	The direct interest rates we're subject to are fixed and hedged against increases.	
	Overall rate increases may cause inflation but even our sales contracts allow for	
	price increases if raw material inputs increase.	
Manufacturing	Threshold would be 5% change and have no effective ways to mitigate costs to	
	improve returns.	
Manufacturing	We fund our projects through cash flow.	
Manufacturing	We have good cash flow and long-term financing - if a project is approved it	
	would be wrong to stop it mid-implementation.  Our projects are typically not	
	highly interest rate sensitive but tend to be internal cost or organic growth related	
	outside of North America.	
Mining/Construction	All project are internally financed	
Mining/Construction	Depends on whether cost increases to the project could be pushed through in	
	increased pricing to the consumer.	
Mining/Construction	i'm just guessing. lots of factors that would go into the decision.	
Mining/Construction	Limiting our projects to internal funding.  Interest rate increase affects	
	investement return on cash - opportunity cost of investement.	
Mining/Construction	We are very interest rate sensitive relative to long-term commercial mortgage rates	
Other	Interest rates are not a significant percentage of revenue generated by new	
	projects.	
Other	Most of our financing is fixed. The impact to cash flow/net income would	
	eventually reach the point that it is not worth the risk in most asset acquisitions.	
Other	We would delay and watch inflation for 6months to 1 year to see what happens.	
Other	When we go, we go for the long term customer benefit as well as return.	
Retail/Wholesale	Depends on the contribution of the project to the core business (does it provide	
	benefit to the whole business that is beyond the project as a stand-alone)	
Retail/Wholesale	Depends on the nature of the project (discretionary vs. non-discretionary).	
	Maintenance and environmental would likely go ahead.	

36 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10d. What changes in economy-wide interest rates might stop or delay this project? - Comments

Retail/Wholesale	Our cost of additional borrowing is at an all time low, 1.99%.	
Retail/Wholesale	Our hurdle rate is so high that a 1 or 2 percent increase in cost of interest wouldn't	
	materially affect the outcome.	
Retail/Wholesale	Very few projects are right at hurdle rates	
Retail/Wholesale	We are a net lender, increases in interest rates increases the capital for investment	
	and returns.	
Retail/Wholesale	We are more tuned to overall growth in our econ. sector in the regions we serve	
	than we are to the COC	
Service/Consulting	Depends on money invested and depends in length of the project or product	
	lifecycle	
Service/Consulting	Estimating the ability to increase prices above the projected prices scenario might	
	offset the interest rate increases.	
Service/Consulting	We are naturally hedged with interest rates.  It is a alrge component of our income	
	and we have a large amount of debt.	
Service/Consulting	We don't rely on borrowing for projects.	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	depends on what the new technology will do for us.	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	We develop and sell software - a small increase in the interest rate is no big deal	
	compared to the selling risk we face.	
Transportation/Energy	I veiw substantial inflation as very likely in the U.S.  Such inflation will be	
	detrimental to my business	
Unspecified Industry	Each project would be re-assessed on an individual basis	

37 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

We are trying to get a feel for whether firms pursue all projects that beat the hurdle rate. Among projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement – do you pursue all these projects?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Yes, pursue all	119	33.2 %	± 4.9 %
	No, do not pursue all	239	66.8 %	± 4.9 %
	Total	358	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 0 
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

38 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10e. Why not pursue all the projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement?

Banking/Finance/Insurance	As a mutual insurance company our mandate is not to produce shareholder	
	returns, but to provide low cost insurance products to our policyholder owners.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	besides proper management attention we want to create highly successful	
	environments so therefore we do not want to juggle too many balls at one time so	
	that our staff is properly focused	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Capital constraints	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	constrained by management availability.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	depends on the project, long-term viability and risk associated at time project	
	arises.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	do not want to lose focus on the better projects	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	don't always have the necessary funds	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	It is not a realistic view that management capacity is unlimited.  We would	
	prioritize the projects based on return, risk to execute, and risk of success	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Limited appetite to use corporate resources, i.e., save for worst case scenario	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	limited capacity	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Limited management bandwidth. Poorer quality of project implementation and	
	execution.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Limited time available for management to oversee	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Need to prioritize projects	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	No enough time	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Resource allocation	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	resource competition	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Resource limitations and overall size constraints	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	See response to 9b. We're maxed out even at the senior manager level.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	Too risky, and some projects are likely to pay off better than others.	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	very conservative one project t a time plus maintain business	
Banking/Finance/Insurance	We do not have enough capital or personnel resources to do all projects that beat	
	the hurdle rate.	
Communications/Media	Capacity to integrate and distraction from main priorities	
Communications/Media	Cash and/or financing constraints	
Communications/Media	Cauteous track	
Communications/Media	Not enough capital to go around - both financial and human - to cover all good	
	opportunities	
Communications/Media	Waiting for even better opportunities.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Management of concurrent projects, particularly complex projects, often leads to	
	poor implementation and shareholder discontent	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Need to manage overall project portfolio risk.  Also there are important	
	judgemental items that need consideration not contained in hurdle rate / rate of	
	return calculations.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Only projects that fit our mission in care for individual with disabilities.1.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Prioritization of the projects must occur and mgmt oversight and deligence is	
	required with such slim potential of over hurdle the project would likely not move	
	forward	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Some simply have a risk level that even with a higher hurdle rate we are unwilling	
	to pursue.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	The cumulative impact of new projects is not easy to assess. If overall	
	performance falls short of expectations after multiple new projects are underway/	
	done, how does one figure out what went wrong?	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	Value of delivery will reduced if there are multiple projects going on.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	We don't have the infrastructure (both personnel and physical assets) to pursue	
	all projects.	
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	We pick the most impactful to our customers and the ones we can realistically can	
	get done over the next year or two	
Manufacturing	A slight margin today doesn't apply outstanding risks to the economic factors we	
	cannot control. Maybe after the election.	
Manufacturing	Availability of resources to manage and implement	

39 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10e. Why not pursue all the projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement?

Manufacturing	Borrowing capacity limitations	
Manufacturing	capital budget limitations.	
Manufacturing	Capital Limitations	
Manufacturing	Capital Limitations	
Manufacturing	Capital Limits	
Manufacturing	Capital Rationing	
Manufacturing	Cash constraints	
Manufacturing	conservative management - time involved for limited personnel	
Manufacturing	conserve cash pick and chose most advantageous projects	
Manufacturing	consumption of other resources (management, etc.)	
Manufacturing	Credit limitations.	
Manufacturing	DUE TO MANAGEMENT TIME CONSTRAINTS.	
Manufacturing	focus - cannot conceive of a situation where we have the management time and	
	expertise to pursue all of our ideas.	
Manufacturing	Focus is critical; too many projects can affect performance and success rates on	
	key projects	
Manufacturing	Human and Capital resource constraints	
Manufacturing	intangible items must be considered	
Manufacturing	it has to serve multi-purposes and fit in better than previous diversification efforts	
Manufacturing	Lack of capital.	
Manufacturing	Lack of capital.	
Manufacturing	lack of human resources to pursue	
Manufacturing	Limit to resources available; softness of ROI statements	
Manufacturing	Limited capital	
Manufacturing	Limited funds	
Manufacturing	Limited investment capital. Projects may not all fall within target investment	
	areas.	
Manufacturing	Limited resources to take on project	
Manufacturing	limited resources so allocate to highest returns	
Manufacturing	limited resources...human and capital.	
Manufacturing	Limits to human resources to manage the projects	
Manufacturing	Management is limited, of course.  We focus on urgent needs and the best	
	strategic opportunities.	
Manufacturing	management time	
Manufacturing	Need to prioritize and focus resources on critical customer driven projects to	
	immediately meet market demand	
Manufacturing	Need to priortize to keep pressure on the organization	
Manufacturing	Not enough capital budget	
Manufacturing	Only those projects that meet our mission statement and company goals/focus.	
Manufacturing	Operational risk	
Manufacturing	other factors to consider, might only go after the largest payback, and wait on	
	others, human capital constraints are preventing the implementation of too many	
	projects at once.	
Manufacturing	Overall growth risk is monitored closely.  We're a family-owned company that is	
	not going to leverage the balance sheet dramatically on a financial model that	
	promises an acceptable return.  We also have a diversifed portfolio of growth	
	markets and will limit over-exposure to any one market.  Granted, its difficult to	
	say no (and not be greedy) to high potential short term projects.	
Manufacturing	Overall risk increases because more resources are committed.  So really, hurdle	
	rate increases as more resources are committed.	
Manufacturing	Prioritization of investment needs against delivery of free cash flow targets	
Manufacturing	Prioritize the best to ensure adequate focus and oversight from the mgt team	
Manufacturing	Resources, focus	
Manufacturing	Select the best ones only.	

40 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10e. Why not pursue all the projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement?

Manufacturing	Some are not strategically relevant enough to pursue at this time, or the risk	
	factors are high enough that we decide to wait and see how markets or customer	
	attitudes affect our analysis.	
Manufacturing	strategic focus	
Manufacturing	Stretching resources to thin.  Consideration of meeting production demands while	
	introducing new products or processes and giving due attention to both.	
Manufacturing	There is a level of avialability capital to deploy and it must get allocated to	
	prioity projects.	
Manufacturing	Time & manpower	
Manufacturing	To fund all possible projects, shareholder reaction would be adverse.  We need to	
	keep within the stated spend that we have given as guidance.  We have also stated	
	that we would not draw on the short term facility, and would need to in order to	
	approve and completed all projects.	
Manufacturing	We generally use a fixed budget of $$ and prioritize projects not all that meet the	
	threshold of $$ that we have to spend	
Manufacturing	We have more projects than we can afford, they are broken out by strategic,	
	growth or maintain.  Strategic are funded first then growth etc, until available	
	investment dollars are gone.	
Manufacturing	We rank and chose the highest and most stretgic	
Manufacturing	You have to determine what constraints the the positive hurdle may cause in the	
	operation.	
Mining/Construction	capital capacity	
Mining/Construction	It is difficult to deploy new capital when the capital returns on existing assets is	
	lower than average.	
Mining/Construction	Limited amounts of capital. Only pursue projects with best return rates, or	
	acceptable return rates with limited (lower) risk profiles.	
Mining/Construction	Limited capital	
Mining/Construction	Limiting funding to internal sources.  No debt at this time.	
Mining/Construction	manpower and money goes to the greatest return all things being equal.	
Mining/Construction	must fit our strategic plan	
Mining/Construction	some just not within our business expertise.	
Mining/Construction	Uncertainty about the impacts of future tax policy, health care costs and	
	government policies toward construction set aside and minority programs impacts	
	the amount we are willing to invest.	
Mining/Construction	You lose effectiveness if you're pursuing too many items at once, even if	
	theorectically there is time available.  You end up with mixed messages to the	
	staff.	
Other	At this point we are not will to risk all assets/leverage available.We are working	
	mainly with current cash flow and leaving operating lines of credit paid off but	
	available if needed.	
Other	Balance sheet issues restricting ability to invest	
Other	Cash conservation, and the lack of complete confidence in proposals; divisions	
	compete for scarce resources (cash), and therefore sometimes inflate the proposed	
	results in order to win approval in a tight market.	
Other	Choose how to allocate resources and stay within parameters..avoid over reaching	
Other	Competitive advantage/disadvantage or shifting away from our core market	
Other	Corporate decision, not entirely decided at the division level.	
Other	Cost-benefit analysis may delay or table it.	
Other	Internal Resource constraints.	
Other	Keep a capital cushion and force priority on highest potential projects, not just all	
	that meet the hurdle rate.	
Other	Lack of financing capacity	
Other	lack of internal resources	
Other	Lack of management time and expertise.  Leads to lack of focus.	
Other	Lack of personnel	
Other	lack of resources	

41 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10e. Why not pursue all the projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement?

Other	lest lose focus	
Other	limitation on strategic resources to manage all of the projects yet still see the	
	forest for the trees	
Other	Limited capital to allocate.	
Other	limited cash available	
Other	Limited resources (investment cash) available. We would look to third party	
	sources (JV or adding limited partners to a deal that appears attractive).	
Other	Must align with strategy	
Other	Not enough manpower	
Other	Our internal workforce is currently maxed out; so we cannot do ALL potential	
	projects.	
Other	Project has to be considered in relation to overall assets being deployed and	
	liquidity.	
Other	Some do not fit our core business	
Other	Staff is already maxed out and we can only do so much at the same time and do it	
	well.	
Other	The long-term partnership and mission must be a good fit even if the hurdle rate is	
	achieved.	
Other	The risk must provide sustainable returns for the long term.	
Other	Too expensive	
Other	Uncertainty of economy, especially leading up to an election regardless of who is	
	running.	
Other	Very selective	
Other	We can not do them all well.  We focus in areas that fit our capabilities or	
	capabilities we can reasonably acquire.  We try NOT to compete with 'giants',	
	either.	
Other	weak balance sheet	
Retail/Wholesale	availability of cash / credit.	
Retail/Wholesale	Bank convenants limit the amount of investments / capex that we can make in any	
	given quarter / year.	
Retail/Wholesale	Capacity of the organization to handle; downtime impact on customers;	
	perception of capital markets	
Retail/Wholesale	Depends on risk factors	
Retail/Wholesale	Depends on the amount of payroll needed to support the project.  New hiring	
	would reduce the effort to implement.	
Retail/Wholesale	focus	
Retail/Wholesale	lack of capital & personnel to execute	
Retail/Wholesale	lack of resources	
Retail/Wholesale	Limit capital to use teh shotgun approach	
Retail/Wholesale	Limited available capital (financial and human). We would only pursue those	
	projects presenting the greatest returns	
Retail/Wholesale	Low risk projects only	
Retail/Wholesale	Must allocate capital	
Retail/Wholesale	MUST BE A GOOD FIT WITH OUR CULTURE	
Retail/Wholesale	Must consider Board input.	
Retail/Wholesale	Need to keep reserves available as better opportunities may arise	
Retail/Wholesale	Resources typically are maxed out	
Retail/Wholesale	Some are too new	
Retail/Wholesale	still wanting to maintain a strong cash position in the current economy.	
Retail/Wholesale	They have to be aligned with the overall corporate strategy	
Retail/Wholesale	Too many opportunities for current working capital available in the IT industry	
Retail/Wholesale	We are not staffed to pursue all projects that exceed our hurdle rate and this	
	would inject more risk than we are willing to accept.	
Retail/Wholesale	We are not willing to hire more employees or temp employees for projects. We	
	take on the projects our staff can handle. Also, all projects have intrinsic values,	
	unquantifiable pros/cons, which impact selection.	

42 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

10e. Why not pursue all the projects that you could fund if you wanted to, and that you have the management time and expertise to implement?

Service/Consulting	At this stage, we choose the top projects, not just those that beat the hurdle rate.	
Service/Consulting	Capacity of the workforce plays a roll in the final decision.	
Service/Consulting	Capital allocations do not allow	
Service/Consulting	Depends on funds available.   Also depends on the company or LOB's ability to	
	deliver and optimally execute the new project	
Service/Consulting	Failure rate increases with number of open projects	
Service/Consulting	Hurdle rate is not the only relevant factor, competitive landscape and change in	
	macro economic factors for demand of our services	
Service/Consulting	Just not enough capital to pursue all	
Service/Consulting	Limited ability to manage.	
Service/Consulting	market uncertainty	
Service/Consulting	Need synergies with the business	
Service/Consulting	Need to focus on critical few rather than trivial many.	
Service/Consulting	Not all proposed projects fit within our stragegic alignment.	
Service/Consulting	not wise	
Service/Consulting	Other constrainst typically exist, like ability to implement.	
Service/Consulting	Some cash reserves are rquired thus total investable capital does not equal  total	
	cash and available credit. We can't fund all projects.	
Service/Consulting	Some of the assumptions for the return are based on poor business judgement for	
	what will happen in the future.	
Service/Consulting	time to manage correctly	
Service/Consulting	we often have too many projects on the table anyway	
Service/Consulting	We still have limited resources with repsect to where we can spend our time and	
	focus.  we nee do focus on the things that will improve our market share and give	
	us a competetive advantage.  We can't go after everything.	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Capacity to complete projects is limited	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Do not have enough qualified people to execute the plan without risking daily	
	operations	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Do not have the capacity to do the work, successfully manage it and capably sell	
	it. Have to go slower as a result.	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	manage priorities, maintain focus	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	not enough mgmt bandwidth	
Tech [Software/Biotech]	Regulatory risk	
Transportation/Energy	Allocation of and constraint on capital.	
Transportation/Energy	Allocation of capital.	
Transportation/Energy	Available capital	
Transportation/Energy	Depends on Priorities	
Transportation/Energy	INSUFFICIENT CAPITAL	
Transportation/Energy	limited cash	
Transportation/Energy	no - limited resources to implement	
Transportation/Energy	NO TIME	
Transportation/Energy	not enough resources	
Transportation/Energy	Projects need a champion who is excited to be successful	
Transportation/Energy	risk, resource needs	
Transportation/Energy	We are carefully watching our debt to equity ratio.	
Transportation/Energy	We area mid sized private company and we are trying to manage orderly growth.	
	Thus just becasue a project has positive yield above a hurdle rate does not give it	
	the green light.  Many other factor come into play.	
Unspecified Industry	Generally insufficient resources.	

43 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

11. On May 15, 2012 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 1.8%. Please complete the following:

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500
return will be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be less than:	0.8	6.7	0.1 - 1.4	2	-50	30	381

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500
return will be: Expected return:	6.3	5.2	5.8 - 6.8	6	-5	70	391

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500
return will be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be greater than:	10.4	9.5	9.4 - 11.3	9	1	100	381

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return
will be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be less than:	-2.7	8.8	-3.6 - -1.8	0	-40	50	380

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return
will be: Expected return:	4.4	4.8	4.0 - 4.9	4	-20	60	391

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return
will be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be greater than:	9.1	7.3	8.4 - 9.9	8	-4	90	381

44 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Revenue Weighted: 11. On May 15, 2012 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 1.8%. Please complete the following:

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will
be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be less than:	1.0	5.2	0.9 - 1.1	2	-12.4	14

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will
be: Expected return:	6.2	3.2	6.2 - 6.3	6	-3.8	16.4

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will
be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be greater than:	10.0	5.2	9.9 - 10.1	9	1	29

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:
There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be less than:	-3.5	8.1	-3.7 - -3.4	0	-19.8	14.5

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:
Expected return:	4.3	4.0	4.3 - 4.4	5	-4.9	13.8

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:
There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be greater than:	9.4	6.0	9.3 - 9.5	8	-4	23.5

45 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Employee Weighted: 11. On May 15, 2012 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 1.8%. Please complete the following:

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return
will be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be less than:	0.8	5.5	0.7 - 0.9	2	-12.4	14

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return
will be: Expected return:	6.4	3.4	6.3 - 6.4	6	-3.8	16.4

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return
will be: There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be greater than:	10.2	5.6	10.1 - 10.3	9	1	29

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:
There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be less than:	-3.2	8.1	-3.4 - -3.1	0	-19.8	14.5

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:
Expected return:	4.6	4.2	4.5 - 4.7	5	-4.9	13.8

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P 500 return will be:
There is a 1-in-10 chance it will be greater than:	9.7	6.3	9.6 - 9.8	8	-4	23.5

46 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Manufacturing capacity utilized

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

% of capacity utilized in first quarter 2012	72.5	18.7	68.9 - 76.2	75	5	100	102

% of capacity utilization planned for the remainder of 2012	74.8	17.3	71.4 - 78.1	75	5	100	102

47 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Manufacturing capacity utilized (Revenue Weighted)

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

% of capacity utilized in first quarter 2012	76.2	13.9	73.5 - 78.9	80	5	100	102

% of capacity utilization planned for the remainder of 2012	77.8	13.3	75.2 - 80.4	80	5	100	102

48 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Industry

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Manufacturing	109	24.9 %	± 4.0 %
	Other	70	16.0 %	± 3.4 %
	Retail/Wholesale	56	12.8 %	± 3.1 %
	Banking/Finance/Insurance	46	10.5 %	± 2.8 %
	Service/Consulting	40	9.1 %	± 2.7 %
	Transportation/Energy	31	7.1 %	± 2.4 %
	Healthcare/Pharmaceutical	28	6.4 %	± 2.3 %
	Tech [Software/Biotech]	23	5.3 %	± 2.1 %
	Mining/Construction	21	4.8 %	± 2.0 %
	Communications/Media	14	3.2 %	± 1.6 %
	Total	438	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 6 
	Response Percent = 98.6 %

49 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Industry (Other specified)

Affordable Senior/Handicapped Housing	
Ag	
Agricultural post harvest services	
Agriculture	
Agriculture	
Agriculture	
Agriculture	
Arts	
business imaging supplies	
Chemical Distribution	
Community Development	
Consultancy	
distributor	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education/Certification of Skills	
education	
Electric Cooperative	
Energy utility	
Environmental services	
Food services	
General Aviation Svcs	
Higher Education	
Higher Education	
Higher Education	
Higher education	
Hospitality	
Hospitality	
hospitality	
Industrial Distribution	
Leasing	
leisure	
Local Government	
Manufacturing and distribution	
medical products mfr	
medical publishing	
mfg, also service in the field	
NFP	
Non Profit Corporation	
Non-Profit	
non-profit	
nor for profit	
Not -For-Profit	
Not for profit	
Oil refining	
Oilfield service contractor	
Physician Group Practice	
Publishing	
Publishing	
Real Estate	
Real Estate	

50 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Industry (Other specified)

Real Estate	
Real Estate	
Real Estate Development/Management	
Real Estate Development/Operations	
Real estate	
Real estate	
Real estate	
Rental /service	
Telecommunications	
Telecommunications products	
textile rental	
timber	

51 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Sales Revenue

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Less than $25 million	103	23.4 %	± 3.9 %
	$25-$99 million	122	27.7 %	± 4.2 %
	$100-$499 million	111	25.2 %	± 4.0 %
	$500-$999 million	32	7.3 %	± 2.4 %
	$1-$4.9 billion	46	10.4 %	± 2.8 %
	$5-$9.9 billion	8	1.8 %	± 1.2 %
	More than $10 billion	19	4.3 %	± 1.9 %
	Total	441	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 3 
	Response Percent = 99.3 %

52 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Weighted Sales Revenue (Millions)

	Minimum = 25

	Maximum = 11000

	Mean = 1075.8

	Median = 62

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased) = 2468.5

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 845.4 - 1306.2

	99 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 773.1 - 1378.5

	Skewness = 3.1

	Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic For Normality = 8.1

Quartiles

	 1 = 62
	 2 = 62
	 3 = 300

Valid Cases = 441 
Missing Cases = 3 
Response Percent = 99.3%

53 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Number of Employees

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Fewer than 100	112	30.2 %	± 4.1 %
	100-499	111	29.9 %	± 4.0 %
	500-999	41	11.1 %	± 2.7 %
	1,000-2,499	32	8.6 %	± 2.4 %
	2,500-4,999	30	8.1 %	± 2.3 %
	5,000-9,999	17	4.6 %	± 1.8 %
	Over 10,000	28	7.5 %	± 2.3 %
	Total	371	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 73 
	Response Percent = 83.6 %

54 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Weighted Number of Employees

	Minimum = 100

	Maximum = 12000

	Mean = 1906.3

	Median = 300

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased) = 3366.8

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 1563.7 - 2248.9

	99 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 1456.2 - 2356.4

	Skewness = 2.2

	Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic For Normality = 6.7

Quartiles

	 1 = 100
	 2 = 300
	 3 = 1750

Valid Cases = 371 
Missing Cases = 73 
Response Percent = 83.6%

55 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Where are you personally located?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Midwest U.S.	127	28.8 %	± 4.2 %
	Northeast U.S.	95	21.5 %	± 3.8 %
	South Central U.S.	65	14.7 %	± 3.3 %
	South Atlantic U.S.	57	12.9 %	± 3.1 %
	Pacific US	55	12.5 %	± 3.1 %
	Mountain U.S.	15	3.4 %	± 1.7 %
	Central/Latin America (including Mexico)	7	1.6 %	± 1.2 %
	Europe	6	1.4 %	± 1.1 %
	Other	6	1.4 %	± 1.1 %
	Asia	6	1.4 %	± 1.1 %
	Canada	2	0.5 %	± 0.6 %
	Total	441	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 3 
	Response Percent = 99.3 %

56 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Where are you personally located? - Other specified

California	
Mid Atlantic	
North America	
South Eastern U.S.	
Vietnam	
worldwide	

57 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Ownership

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Private	283	70.4 %	± 4.5 %
	Public, NYSE	47	11.7 %	± 2.9 %
	Nonprofit	37	9.2 %	± 2.6 %
	Public, NASDAQ/AMEX	24	6.0 %	± 2.1 %
	Government	11	2.7 %	± 1.5 %
	Total	402	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 42 
	Response Percent = 90.5 %

58 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

Foreign Sales

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	0%	201	45.8 %	± 4.7 %
	1-24%	158	36.0 %	± 4.5 %
	25-50%	41	9.3 %	± 2.7 %
	More than 50%	39	8.9 %	± 2.6 %
	Total	439	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 5 
	Response Percent = 98.9 %

59 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

In what region of the world are most of your foreign sales?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Europe	84	42.4 %	± 6.1 %
	Asia/Pacific Basin	46	23.2 %	± 5.1 %
	US/Canada	38	19.2 %	± 4.7 %
	Latin America (including Mexico)	27	13.6 %	± 4.1 %
	Africa	3	1.5 %	± 1.4 %
	Total	198	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 40 
	Response Percent = 83.2 %

60 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

What is your company's credit rating? 

	 	Number	Percent	Cumulative
	AAA	33	10.2 %	10.2 %
	AA+	32	9.9 %	20.1 %
	AA	30	9.3 %	29.3 %
	AA-	9	2.8 %	32.1 %
	A+	21	6.5 %	38.6 %
	A	27	8.3 %	46.9 %
	A-	20	6.2 %	53.1 %
	BBB+	36	11.1 %	64.2 %
	BBB	25	7.7 %	71.9 %
	BBB-	15	4.6 %	76.5 %
	BB+	13	4.0 %	80.6 %
	BB	13	4.0 %	84.6 %
	BB-	6	1.9 %	86.4 %
	B+	7	2.2 %	88.6 %
	B	11	3.4 %	92.0 %
	B-	9	2.8 %	94.8 %
	CCC	11	3.4 %	98.1 %
	CC	4	1.2 %	99.4 %
	D	2	0.6 %	100.0 %
	Total	324	100.0 %	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 0 
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

61 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

What is your company's credit rating? 

N=324		Total		Credit Rating	
		 		Actual	Estimate	
		 		A	B	
						
Total		324		127	197	
		100.0%		39.2%	60.8%	
						
AAA		33		17	16	
		10.2%		13.4%	8.1%	
						
AA+		32		11	21	
		9.9%		8.7%	10.7%	
						
AA		30		10	20	
		9.3%		7.9%	10.2%	
						
AA-		9		2	7	
		2.8%		1.6%	3.6%	
						
A+		21		7	14	
		6.5%		5.5%	7.1%	
						
A		27		12	15	
		8.3%		9.4%	7.6%	
						
A-		20		6	14	
		6.2%		4.7%	7.1%	
						
BBB+		36		16	20	
		11.1%		12.6%	10.2%	
						
BBB		25		14	11	
		7.7%		11.0%	5.6%	
						
BBB-		15		9	6	
		4.6%		7.1%	3.0%	
						
BB+		13		3	10	
		4.0%		2.4%	5.1%	
						
BB		13		4	9	
		4.0%		3.1%	4.6%	
						
BB-		6		2	4	
		1.9%		1.6%	2.0%	
						
B+		7		3	4	
		2.2%		2.4%	2.0%	
						
B		11		6	5	
		3.4%		4.7%	2.5%	

Significance Tests Between Columns:   Lower case: p<.05   Upper case: p<.01

62 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2012

What is your company's credit rating? 

N=324		Total		Credit Rating	
		 		Actual	Estimate	
		 		A	B	
						
B-		9		3	6	
		2.8%		2.4%	3.0%	
						
CCC		11		2	9	
		3.4%		1.6%	4.6%	
						
CC		4		0	4	
		1.2%		0.0%	2.0%	
						
D		2		0	2	
		0.6%		0.0%	1.0%	

Significance Tests Between Columns:   Lower case: p<.05   Upper case: p<.01