Table of Contents

1a. Are you more or less optimistic about your country's economy compared to last quarter?	1
1b. Rate your optimism about your country'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
3a. During the past quarter, which items have been the most pressing concerns for your company's top management team?	5
3a. During the past quarter, which items have been the most pressing concerns for your company's top management team? -
Other specified	6
3b. Other than your answers to 3a, please write any new challenges or emerging risks that your firm anticipates in the next
year.	7
4. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months?
[Unweighted - Winsorized]	11
4. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months for:
[Unweighted - Sorted]	12
4. 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
4. 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
4. 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
Q5a.  Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your company faces, how would you rank the current level of
uncertainty facing your firm?	16
Q5a.  Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your company faces, how would you rank the current level of
uncertainty facing your firm? (DK excluded - Shows average scores)	17
Q5b.  Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental
policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to?	18
Q5b.  Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental
policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to? (DK excluded - Shows average scores)	19
Q5b.    Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental
policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to? (DK excluded - Additional analysis)	20
Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or
economic conditions?	21
Q7.  About which if any of the following items is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's
plans for expansion and new projects?	34
Q7.  About which if any of the following items is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's
plans for expansion and new projects?  OTHERS	35
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TRADE POLICY	36
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TAX POLICY	38
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  REGULATORY
POLICY	41
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  HEALTH CARE
POLICY	44
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  IMMIGRATION
POLICY	47
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  INTEREST RATES	49
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  ECONOMIC
GROWTH	50
Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  OTHER	53
Q7b.  About which if any of the following specific trade and tax policies is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.)
holding back your company's plans for expansion and new projects? Select up to three	54
Q7b.  About which if any of the following specific trade and tax policies is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.)
holding back your company's plans for expansion and new projects?  OTHERS	55
Q8a.  What is the hurdle rate that your company uses to evaluate investment projects?	56
Q8b.  Does your company pursue all projects that are expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?	57
Q8c.  What prevents you from pursuing all projects that are expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?	58
Q8c.  What prevents you from pursuing all projects that are expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?  OTHERS	59
j. Weighted Average Cost of Capital	60
k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?	61
k2.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) LESS than your cost of capital?	69
On May 22, 2017 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 2.25%. Please complete the following:  (Winsorized)	71
Return on assets (ROA=operating earnings/assets)  (Winsorized)	72
Manufacturing capacity utilized  (Winsorized)	73
Industry	74
Industry (Other specified)	75
Sales Revenue	76
Statistics - Sales Revenue (Millions)	77
Number of Employees	78
Statistics - Number of Employees	79
Where are you personally located?	80
NC Only - What are the effects of HB2 on the 2017 economic prospects of firms in your industry?	82
NC Only / Excludes DK - What are the effects of HB2 on the 2017 economic prospects of firms in your industry?	83
Ownership	84
Foreign Sales	85
In what region of the world are most of your foreign sales?	86
What is your company's credit rating? 	87
Your job title (e.g., CFO, Asst. Treasurer, etc):	90
Other job title:	91

 1 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

1a. Are you more or less optimistic about your country's economy compared to last quarter?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	1=More optimistic	148	41.8 %	± 5.1 %
	0=No change	123	34.7 %	± 5.0 %
	-1=Less optimistic	83	23.4 %	± 4.4 %
	Total	354	100.0 %

	Mean = 0.18
	SD = 0.79

	Missing Cases = 3
	Response Percent = 99.2 %

2 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

1b. Rate your optimism about your country's economy on a scale from 0-100, with 0 being the least optimistic and 100 being the most optimistic.

	Minimum = 10

	Maximum = 100

	Mean = 67.41

	Median = 70

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased Estimate) = 15.15

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 65.74 - 69.08

Quartiles

	 1 = 60
	 2 = 70
	 3 = 76.50

Valid Cases = 317
Missing Cases = 40
Response Percent =  88.8%

3 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

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	177	49.6 %	± 5.2 %
	0=No change	106	29.7 %	± 4.8 %
	-1=Less optimistic	74	20.7 %	± 4.2 %
	Total	357	100.0 %

	Mean = 0.29
	SD = 0.79

	Missing Cases = 0
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

4 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

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 = 5

	Maximum = 100

	Mean = 69.15

	Median = 75

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased Estimate) = 19.00

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 67.05 - 71.24

Quartiles

	 1 = 56.25
	 2 = 75
	 3 = 80

Valid Cases = 317
Missing Cases = 40
Response Percent =  88.8%

5 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

3a. During the past quarter, which items have been the most pressing concerns for your company's top management team?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Difficulty attracting / retaining qualified employees	146	41.0 %	± 5.1 %
	Government policies	129	36.2 %	± 5.0 %
	Cost of benefits	128	36.0 %	± 5.0 %
	Economic uncertainty	113	31.7 %	± 4.9 %
	Data security	111	31.2 %	± 4.8 %
	Regulatory requirements	108	30.3 %	± 4.8 %
	Employee productivity	72	20.2 %	± 4.2 %
	Weak demand for your products/services	70	19.7 %	± 4.2 %
	Corporate tax code	57	16.0 %	± 3.8 %
	Rising wages and salaries	53	14.9 %	± 3.7 %
	Access to capital	42	11.8 %	± 3.4 %
	Employee morale	42	11.8 %	± 3.4 %
	Geopolitical / health crises	29	8.1 %	± 2.9 %
	Rising input or commodity costs	27	7.6 %	± 2.8 %
	Cost of borrowing	23	6.5 %	± 2.6 %
	Other	23	6.5 %	± 2.6 %
	Currency risk	15	4.2 %	± 2.1 %
	Inflation	7	2.0 %	± 1.5 %
	Deflation	3	0.8 %	± 1.0 %
	Total	1198

	Number of Cases = 356
	Number of Responses = 1198
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 3.4
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response = 356
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

6 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

3a. During the past quarter, which items have been the most pressing concerns for your company's top management team? - Other specified

Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	level of US Stock Trading	
	Activity	
Energy	presidential	
	appointments picking	
	winners (Big Oil, Coal,	
	poluters, etc.) who don't	
	put Country firs	
Healthcare/Pharm	Healthcare bill	
Healthcare/Pharm	new product launch	
Healthcare/Pharm	Pricing pressures	
Manufacturing	Acquisitions	
Manufacturing	Contract labor rising costs	
Manufacturing	Marketing	
Manufacturing	Presidential Miscues	
Manufacturing	Reduction in customer	
	demand	
Manufacturing	System Conversion	
Manufacturing	Tax incentive changes in	
	China for our products.	
	China is our third largest	
	sales demographic,.	
Other	Annual DoD Budget	
Other	health ins	
Other	inability to raise prices /	
	deteriorating margins	
Other	Labor Shortage	
Other	lack of cohesive	
	leadership/divided country	
Other	New Sales	
Other	None of the above.	
Retail/Wholesale	Bricks and mortar problems	
Services, Consulting	Mentally Ill US President	
Services, Consulting	Sales	
Services, Consulting	Trump	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Product Development	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

3b. Other than your answers to 3a, please write any new challenges or emerging risks that your firm anticipates in the next year. 

Agr, Forestry, Fishing	World trade	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Competition	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Complying with Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Current political environment.  Lot's of talk, no action.	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Domestic political uncertainty and impact on capital markets	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Finding experienced, qualified account managers to service our customers. We are an	
	insurance agency and there is not enough young people entering the industry for	
	service and sales positions.	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Finding quality credit risks	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Geo-political issues	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Interest Rate Risk, Stalemate in Washington DC	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	No	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	None	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	none	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	North korea	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Our greatest challenge in keeping up with and proactively exceeding the speed of	
	change in the technology adaptations in our banking industry.	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Political environment	
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Regulators C & D order	
Communication/Media	Attracting new clients.	
Communication/Media	retraction of venture capital	
Communication/Media	terrorism	
Energy	Cost of Health Care	
Energy	Domestic competition	
Energy	New Presidential advisors' self-interests influencing policy that negatively effects the-	
	greater-good of the USofA.	
Energy	same as above	
Energy	Technology changes in the industry.	
Healthcare/Pharm	Changes in healthcare put forth by Trump administration & effect on healthcare industry	
	and the millions employed in that industry, not to mention the negative impact on the	
	health of a major portion	
Healthcare/Pharm	Dealing with healthcare-costs, uncertaiity	
Healthcare/Pharm	Government oversight	
Healthcare/Pharm	Government program change not meeting expectations on taxes, regulations and the	
	economy overall. If some level of reform are not executed there will be a large	
	economic backlash.	
Healthcare/Pharm	Growing our programs and having the talent we need to attract to a rural area.	
Healthcare/Pharm	None	
Healthcare/Pharm	None	
Healthcare/Pharm	Political uncertainty regarding key legislation which needs to be passed (Healthcare,	
	Dodd-Frank repeal, Tax reform,  the Federal Budget)	
Healthcare/Pharm	Speed of competition	
Healthcare/Pharm	Start-up company so everything is at risk, attain funding, launch production and	
	generate sales	
Healthcare/Pharm	Terrorism and wanton killings of innocent people.	
Healthcare/Pharm	The amount of disposable income for clients is a challenge.  People have or seem to	
	have lower expectations on the economy in future quarters.They are limiting their	
	spending on items.	
Healthcare/Pharm	Those capture it.	
Healthcare/Pharm	Uncertainty of Federal changes to health care regulations and tax code changes.	
Manufacturing	availability of workers	
Manufacturing	competition from suppliers	
Manufacturing	Congressional turmoil and stalemate	
Manufacturing	Continued competitive intensity in a slow growth world.	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

3b. Other than your answers to 3a, please write any new challenges or emerging risks that your firm anticipates in the next year. 

Manufacturing	Data security	
Manufacturing	Donald Trump..donald Trump..Donald Trump...Massive uncertainty about what he will	
	do next....	
Manufacturing	Economic impact on demand for our products	
Manufacturing	Employee turnover, particularly at high / executive level	
Manufacturing	Foreign competition	
Manufacturing	GAAP changes and impact on reported revenue/op	
Manufacturing	Gridlock in Congress inhibiting healthcare and tax reform	
Manufacturing	Immigration policy impact on household formation	
Manufacturing	Import tax on items we buy from Asia.	
Manufacturing	Increased costs of dealing internationally.	
Manufacturing	Insurance costs on all fronts are becoming bigger and bigger % of fixed overhead.	
	Cyber insurance, environmental insurance, liability insurances, litigation has become a	
	intermural sport in CA.	
Manufacturing	Issues with import taxes due to changes that could be made by our fearless	
	presidential leader!	
Manufacturing	Labor market getting very tight-hard to find good people.	
Manufacturing	Liberals blocking President Trump's AHC and tax iniatives.	
Manufacturing	Management transition and market focus.	
Manufacturing	None	
Manufacturing	Off shore dumping of products continues	
Manufacturing	Political and regulatory uncertainty	
Manufacturing	Political floundering, obnoxious partisan rhetoric, indecisiveness, and incompetence	
	in the government is extremely disconcerting!	
Manufacturing	potential slowdown in commercial construction	
Manufacturing	Pressure on customers from private equity firms.	
Manufacturing	Prospecting for new Customers	
Manufacturing	Reduction of technological research programs due to increased immigration restrictions	
Manufacturing	Regulatory requirements for the shipment of dangerous goods is an emerging risk for	
	us.	
Manufacturing	Regulatory uncertainty	
Manufacturing	Revenue Recognition accounting standard	
Manufacturing	specifically, cost of healthcare provided employees	
Manufacturing	The healthcare bill passed by congress could cause costs to begin rising at the	
	previous +-8% each year.  The ACA effectively stopped this annual healthcare inflation.	
Manufacturing	The risk of economic protectionism rhetoric in developed countries is increasingly	
	becoming more concerning, coupled with the uncertainty regarding the potential	
	outcomes of renegotiated trade agreeme	
Manufacturing	Uncertainty around cost of employee benefits, particularly healthcare	
Mining/Construction	Governments continue to take longer to process permits review plans or do inspections.	
	They are unmotivated to be efficient and this continues to crush small business and	
	benefits large business.	
Mining/Construction	Growth that cannot be performed by the work force skills available	
Mining/Construction	Health care	
Mining/Construction	North Korea	
Mining/Construction	political uncertainties impacting offshore business	
Mining/Construction	uncertainty regarding employee health benefits and their cost	
Other	Anticipated lower investment returns due to current full valuations and unclear growth	
	prospects.	
Other	decrease in college attendance due to new administration which would decrease the	
	need for student housing	
Other	Executive side of US	
Other	Growth and the ability to complete work with existing staff levels	
Other	How will new health care affect my operational budget?	

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Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

3b. Other than your answers to 3a, please write any new challenges or emerging risks that your firm anticipates in the next year. 

Other	I am in debtor's prison and see no emerging from it.	
Other	increased competition for acquisitions in a low rate environment	
Other	New health care law	
Other	Other companies not cutting back on basic services to maintain the upkeep of their	
	buildings.	
Other	Retiring of senior employees with institutional knowledge.	
Other	Rising inequality, immigration uncertanties	
Other	Rising input / commodity costs.	
Other	State tax proposal on gross sales,	
Other	Strong Dollar encourages exports which negatively impacts our business	
Other	The 'Liberal' problem is becoming more serious, as they are trying to take down this	
	President. We, Americans, need to stand together united, but liberals are trying to	
	undermine our country everyday.	
Other	The increasingly unpredictable and erratic actions of the President and both the	
	uncertainties and the risks that result.	
Other	The International presence of the US Gov't is unpredictable and creates lack of	
	confidence our international policy. At the same time, China is taking a proactive	
	approach instead of us.	
Other	The Labor shortage in Rochester Minnesota and perhaps all of Minnesota is pressing	
	current staff to work far more hours than usual. Employee morale is down and turnover	
	could accelerate next year.	
Other	The lack of leadership out of the White House is appalling.  The lack of backbone in	
	Congress is distressing as they pander , along with the insensitivity to all but the	
	'insiders' and the 'haves'	
Other	The proposed Trump budget reduces payments to the poor and student loans, which	
	we predict will take more cash out of our customers hands.  Also, federal research is	
	proposed to be cut.	
Other	The trump administration is a trainwreck, and as a result it is clear that business	
	decision makers in the US are distracted by the uncertainty of U.S. policy and the self-	
	dealing of the new admin.	
Other	Top line growth	
Other	transfer of wealth to a younger generation	
Other	We are a non-profit, so changes to the charitable deduction could affect us in a big way.	
Other	We specifically offer a product that will lose it's luster as technology takes over	
Other	World security/safety issues.	
Pub Admin	Health insurance costs increasing at a rate that we cannot sustain current benefits	
Pub Admin	Wildly unpredictable and incompetent president.	
Retail/Wholesale	Combination of a conversion to SAP and a change in our distribution model using a 3PL.	
Retail/Wholesale	Compliance with lending covenants	
Retail/Wholesale	Impact of interest rates on housing market	
Retail/Wholesale	Industry consolidations	
Retail/Wholesale	Lack of cooperation in Washington. Congress not helping president	
Retail/Wholesale	Political uncertainty vis a vis offshoring	
Retail/Wholesale	Product supply	
Retail/Wholesale	uncertain tax and government policy.	
Retail/Wholesale	wage inflation	
Services, Consulting	Ability to retain core clients	
Services, Consulting	Attracting qualified New employees	
Services, Consulting	Building competition.	
Services, Consulting	Completing the process to get my corporation incorporated	
Services, Consulting	Concerned about Europe and the future of the Euro	
Services, Consulting	congress gridlock	
Services, Consulting	Democrats promoting political uncertainty	
Services, Consulting	Developing volatility in trade realtionships.	

10 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

3b. Other than your answers to 3a, please write any new challenges or emerging risks that your firm anticipates in the next year. 

Services, Consulting	Digital Disruption	
Services, Consulting	Employee compensation increase.	
Services, Consulting	Employee turn over.	
Services, Consulting	engaging and maintaining clients	
Services, Consulting	Government policies are an important factor for us as well.	
Services, Consulting	Governments immigration polices	
Services, Consulting	NA	
Services, Consulting	None	
Services, Consulting	None	
Services, Consulting	None	
Services, Consulting	not sure	
Services, Consulting	Payout of retiring partners.	
Services, Consulting	Political fall out from a Presidential regime that is about to crumble and has no idea	
	what they are doing.	
Services, Consulting	Possible new laws under Trump Administration	
Services, Consulting	Progress on tax reform is crucial to continued capital investment from our clients.	
Services, Consulting	Talent and wage inflation	
Services, Consulting	The economic future direction is totally dependent upon the Administration's success	
	in policy and legislative implementation. So far, not so great; but it's too soon to draw	
	longer term inferences.	
Services, Consulting	The very wide political split in the US.	
Services, Consulting	TRUMP	
Services, Consulting	Trump total unpredictability	
Services, Consulting	Uncertainty about US economic policy and budge.	
Services, Consulting	Work ethics of the work force	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Changes in government policy may impact market for product / services.	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	changing marketplace	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Cost of providing heathcare, data intrusion	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Just in time resourcing, Cash Flow	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Managing growth	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	N/A	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Non-defense spending	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Roll out of new product; completing round b funding	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Tax risks for software sales.	
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Volitility caused by uncertainty due to policy tweets and fake news.	
Transp, Public Util	Merger / shareholder activism threats	
Transp, Public Util	Privatization of air traffic controllers	
Transp, Public Util	We need for the President and the US Congress to highly prioritize Infrastructure	
	investments to drive US economic growth.	
Unspecified Industry	Unpredictability and irrationality of Trump administraton	
Unspecified Industry	US Government uncertainty.	

11 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

4. Relative to the previous 12 months, what will be your company's PERCENTAGE CHANGE during the next 12 months? [Unweighted - Winsorized] 

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

Health care costs	8.23	6.54	7.50 - 8.96	7	-9.26	27.05	309

Earnings	8.15	16.96	6.22 - 10.08	5	-36.50	57.61	297

Revenue	7.95	15.06	6.29 - 9.62	5	-44.90	68.34	314

Technology spending	5.70	10.63	4.43 - 6.97	3	-26.20	39.94	270

Wages/Salaries	4.25	4.67	3.73 - 4.77	3	-13	23.32	312

Number of domestic full-time employees	3.96	12.01	2.55 - 5.36	2	-49.60	62.22	281

Capital spending	3.88	19.49	1.57 - 6.19	2	-60.20	76.24	273

Marketing/advertising spending	3.76	8.81	2.68 - 4.84	2	-29.40	39.30	256

Research and development spending	2.74	6.73	1.85 - 3.62	0	-17.50	24.79	222

Prices of your products	2.47	4.54	1.93 - 3.02	2	-10.90	16.69	266

12 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

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

(N=357)

	Mean & SD	Positive	Zero	Negative	Total
	  	1	0	-1	  	
	0.89	285	21	6	312
Wages/Salaries	0.37	91.35%	6.73%	1.92%	100.00%

	0.89	278	27	4	309
Health care costs	0.36	89.97%	8.74%	1.29%	100.00%

	0.70	261	13	40	314
Revenue	0.68	83.12%	4.14%	12.74%	100.00%

	0.62	183	72	15	270
Technology spending	0.59	67.78%	26.67%	5.56%	100.00%

	0.57	218	30	49	297
Earnings	0.76	73.40%	10.10%	16.50%	100.00%

	0.53	158	91	17	266
Prices of your products	0.62	59.40%	34.21%	6.39%	100.00%

	0.47	139	99	18	256
Marketing/advertising spending	0.63	54.30%	38.67%	7.03%	100.00%

	0.42	168	62	51	281
Number of domestic full-time employees	0.78	59.79%	22.06%	18.15%	100.00%

	0.35	143	82	48	273
Capital spending	0.76	52.38%	30.04%	17.58%	100.00%

	0.33	83	130	9	222
Research and development spending	0.55	37.39%	58.56%	4.05%	100.00%

13 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

4. 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	Total

Earnings	7.22	11.09	5.94 - 8.49	5	-36.50	57.61	291

Revenue	6.20	8.72	5.22 - 7.18	5	-44.90	68.34	304

Technology spending	4.14	9.31	3.05 - 5.24	2	-26.20	39.94	277

Prices of your products	2.53	4.24	2.02 - 3.03	2	-10.90	16.69	273

Research and development spending	2.28	4.85	1.67 - 2.90	0	-17.50	24.79	238

Capital spending	2.24	13.09	0.74 - 3.74	3	-60.20	76.24	293

Marketing/advertising spending	1.77	3.65	1.32 - 2.21	0	-29.40	39.30	255

14 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

4. 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	Total

Health care costs	7.83	6.64	6.97 - 8.70	7	-9.26	27.05	228

Wages/Salaries	4.07	4.09	3.54 - 4.60	3	-13	23.32	226

Number of domestic full-time employees	3.84	11.35	2.29 - 5.38	2	-49.60	62.22	208

15 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

4. 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	8.17	9.52	6.70 - 9.64	7.38	-5	57.61

Revenue	6.40	9.60	4.95 - 7.85	5	-10	50

16 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q5a.  Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your company faces, how would you rank the current level of uncertainty facing your firm?

	Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that
	your company faces, how would you rank the current
	level of uncertainty facing your firm?	Number	Percent	95% CI
	below average	22	6.3 %	± 2.5 %
	average	201	57.4 %	± 5.2 %
	above average	125	35.7 %	± 5.0 %
	DK	2	0.6 %	± 0.8 %
	Total	350	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 7
	Response Percent = 98.0 %

17 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q5a.  Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your company faces, how would you rank the current level of uncertainty facing your firm? (DK excluded - Shows average scores)

	Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that
	your company faces, how would you rank the current
	level of uncertainty facing your firm?	Number	Percent	95% CI
	-1=below average	22	6.3 %	± 2.5 %
	0=average	201	57.8 %	± 5.2 %
	1=above average	125	35.9 %	± 5.0 %
	Total	348	100.0 %

	Mean = 0.30

	Missing Cases = 9
	Response Percent = 97.5 %

18 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q5b.  Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to? 

N=147		

Total		Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your
company faces, how would you rank the current level of
uncertainty facing your firm?	
		 		below average	above average	
						
Total		147		22	125	
		100.0%		15.0%	85.0%	
						
Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to (select one)	
						
proceed more		25		8	17	
aggressively		17.1%		36.4%	13.7%	
						
proceed at a normal		37		8	29	
pace		25.3%		36.4%	23.4%	
						
proceed at a slower		47		2	45	
pace		32.2%		9.1%	36.3%	
						
delay expansion /		23		3	20	
new projects		15.8%		13.6%	16.1%	
						
cancel expansion /		2		0	2	
new projects		1.4%		0.0%	1.6%	
						
Don't know, does not		12		1	11	
apply		8.2%		4.5%	8.9%	

19 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q5b.  Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to? (DK excluded - Shows average scores)

N=147		

Total		Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your
company faces, how would you rank the current level of
uncertainty facing your firm?	
		 		below average	above average	
		 		1	3	
						
Total		147		22	125	
		100.0%		15.0%	85.0%	
						
Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to (select one)	
						
-1=proceed more		25		8	17	
aggressively		18.7%		38.1%	15.0%	
						
0=proceed at a		37		8	29	
normal pace		27.6%		38.1%	25.7%	
						
1=proceed at a		47		2	45	
slower pace		35.1%		9.5%	39.8%	
						
2=delay expansion /		23		3	20	
new projects		17.2%		14.3%	17.7%	
						
3=cancel expansion /		2		0	2	
new projects		1.5%		0.0%	1.8%	
						
Mean		0.55		0.00	0.65	

20 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q5b.    Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to? (DK excluded - Additional analysis)

N=147		

Total		Compared to the typical amount of uncertainty that your
company faces, how would you rank the current level of
uncertainty facing your firm?	
		 		below average	above average	
						
Total		147		22	125	
		100.0%		15.0%	85.0%	
						
Compared to an average or normal amount of uncertainty, has the current amount of uncertainty about governmental policies and/or economic conditions led your firm to (select one)	
						
proceed more		25		8	17	
aggressively		18.7%		38.1%	15.0%	
						
proceed at a normal		37		8	29	
pace		27.6%		38.1%	25.7%	
						
proceed at a slower
pace /delay
expansion / new		

70		

5	

65	
projects		52.2%		23.8%	57.5%	
						
cancel expansion /		2		0	2	
new projects		1.5%		0.0%	1.8%	

21 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Agr, Forestry, Fishing	Active involvement in policy.  Adjust to the uncertainty or just keep	
	running the business	
		
Agr, Forestry, Fishing	Use outside legal counsel for labor policy/practices and mitigating risk.	
	Lock-in interest rates by converting short term to long term debt.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Adhere to and incur costs associated with regulatory requirements.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Be aware but continue to work on the tasks and goals that you can	
	influance or control.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Be cautious and stay true to your primary values and practices that have	
	worked well in the past.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Be conservative in regards to expansion andhiring	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Be flexible and stay short term thinking	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	be vigilant	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Conduct scenario planning and be ready to be flexible.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Conservatism	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Contingency/scenario planning, government and regulatory	
	communication	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Determine customer problems and find creative solutions to solve them	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	effectively managing our major cost - people resources - don't hire too	
	fast	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Erring on the side of conservatism	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	find a niche	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Focus on things within your control - service your clients.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Focus on your business	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Go slowly	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Have a good enough understanding of your organization and your	
	markets that you can make quick course corrections if necessary	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Ignore Washington and double focus on customer.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	It depends on the industry	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	keep focused on what you can control yourself.	

22 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Limit new products and services	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	moderate plans and develop contingency steps	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Monitor the risk and mitigate as you can but don't stop with indecision	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	more review and analysis before embarking on new products	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Narrow your focus to your core competencies.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Prepare in advance for the potential outcome.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Review short and long term debt	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	ROI analysis, scenario analysis, ROTCE analysis	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Slow and steady pace. Monitor changes but be quick to react.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Stay conservative.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Stay focused	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Stay liquid, hold off on large, costly projects	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Stay the course on core businesses.  Proceed cautiously with new	
	business ideas. Continue to focus on technological improvements in	
	operations and customer service.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Stronger Risk Analysis	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Take a 'don't be the farm' approach.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Tighten spending. Search for new revenue opportunities.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Use of subject matter experts and consultants	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Watch costs	
		
Communication/Media	assume not going to control everything. try to accelerate less risky paths	
	but have multi faceted plan.	
		
Communication/Media	retain high amount of liquid assets	
		
Communication/Media	Slow to hire.  Stay on budget. Invest in new business opportunities.	
		
Energy	Add revenue stream(s)within framework of company's infrastructurem	
		
Energy	Execute on the opportunities and think long term, but staying strong in	
	cash	

23 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Energy	Find alternative sales channels for products currently supported by	
	government regulation	
		
Energy	hedge more, spend less	
		
Energy	Increasing degree of accuracy in forecasts	
		
Energy	Keeping adequate cash reserves and shortening the procurement cycle	
	to keep inventory turns high	
		
Energy	Looking at the long term goals and strategies.	
		
Energy	scenario analysis; preparedness	
		
Energy	The uncertainty this time is whether conditions improve	
		
Energy	Unless the change is concrete or certain, then you must plan with the	
	laws and policies in place currently.	
		
Energy	wait and see, but invest based on long-term prudent business practices	
		
Energy	we've pulled back and waited for the economic indications to change	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Attention to detail & flexibility	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Be cautious.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Caution.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	caution	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Control costs, grow revenue	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Do the best to remain flexible	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Engage with the government stakeholders as directly and often as	
	possible	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	focus on improving core business - efficiency, for ex. Look for ways to	
	spread the risk (new markets, for ex)	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Gather data from financial, industry & academic resources; analyze & then	
	make best possible decisions	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Have multiple scenario's and action plan's. Stay on top of trends with	
	accurate and timely (weekly) Key Performance Indicators	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Having multiple strategies to address uncertainties and a decision	
	process evaluating likelihood of the various scenarios.	

24 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Invest in great talent, invest in new technology that gives us an edge	
	over others.  Cut those who are not productive.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Keep to the basics and focus on your core business functions.  New	
	ideas and innovations will be slowed to going into production or	
	deferred.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	limit high levels of cash flow out.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	move forward with caution	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Move swiftly, don't overanalyze, don't worry about issues outside ones	
	control	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Stash cash to a 360 day reserve. Trend major services to pull from the	
	market if reimbursement collapses.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	stay within your budget	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Steady as she goes...	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Stick to the basics; run the company in an efficient manner and use	
	sound business practices.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	take calculated risks	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Wait out what the policies are going to be coming out of Washington	
		
Manufacturing	Accumulate cash, pay back debt. Wait for certainty. Proceed cautiously	
		
Manufacturing	Active involvement in advocacy work in DC.  Scenario planning under	
	different environments.	
		
Manufacturing	Avoid over-leveraging	
		
Manufacturing	Be very cautious about spending and hiring	
		
Manufacturing	Best practice for us is to diversify our product mix, and take strides to	
	develop new marketable items.	
		
Manufacturing	Cash is King	
		
Manufacturing	Cash is king.  Keep employees informed.	
		
Manufacturing	Caution feels appropriate. Washington always difficult to predict, but	
	volatility of new President taking uncertainty to a new level.	
		
Manufacturing	Closely monitor changes and proactively plan for changes	
		
Manufacturing	conservative approach	

25 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Manufacturing	Continue to focus on customer needs and relationships.  No matter	
	what -customer dialogue about your issues is #1 best practice.  Size up	
	all platforms for potential cash conversion improvement.	
		
Manufacturing	Control spending both on expense items as well as capital acquisitions.	
	Ensure that debt is not out of hand.  Focus on productivity and efficient	
	operations.	
		
Manufacturing	Cost and productivity management.   aligned incentives.   Focus to	
	advance competitive position.    Customer services and relationships	
		
Manufacturing	delay until we have more certainty	
		
Manufacturing	Do not undertake any new projects, conserve cash and look after	
	customer base more diligently	
		
Manufacturing	Do your job properly daily	
		
Manufacturing	don't ignore long term needs	
		
Manufacturing	Double check every project and take calculated risks that can be	
	changed or unwound in short order	
		
Manufacturing	flexibility and nimbleness	
		
Manufacturing	Focus on core competencies, and invest wisely.  Do not burden the	
	company with fixed costs that can be avoided.	
		
Manufacturing	Focus on leveraging the core strengths of the business	
		
Manufacturing	Focus on long-term goals. Open and frequent communication. Stay the	
	course. Improve relationships with customers.	
		
Manufacturing	Focus on what your company does best.	
		
Manufacturing	focus on what you can do	
		
Manufacturing	Focused market strategies and operations improvement and excellence.	
		
Manufacturing	Further develop capability to flex cost structure to match changing	
	conditions	
		
Manufacturing	Govt policies are not major factors.  Marketplace is primary.	
		
Manufacturing	Hold the line.	
		
Manufacturing	Increase understanding of options available.	
		
Manufacturing	It depends on how the company is directly impacted.  Our company is	
	not anticipated to be directly impacted by any of the current regulatory	
	uncertainty.	

26 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Manufacturing	Learn all you can and use the assets available such as banks and trade	
	associations	
		
Manufacturing	Listen carefully and be part of the conversation	
		
Manufacturing	Maintain as much flexibility/optionality as possible	
		
Manufacturing	Maintain flexibility	
		
Manufacturing	Maintaining contingencies across different markets that are not public	
	spend dependent	
		
Manufacturing	Manage risk from uncertainty with conservative policies	
		
Manufacturing	match internal costs to market reality	
		
Manufacturing	Minimize any speculative growth investments or hiring.  Tight cost	
	control.	
		
Manufacturing	NA	
		
Manufacturing	Plow ahead	
		
Manufacturing	Proceed cautiously	
		
Manufacturing	Pull back, go slowly, proceed with caution, be flexible enough to change	
	quickly.	
		
Manufacturing	Stay close to your customer and understand the drivers of their decision	
	making process.  Stay nimble and recalibrate areas of investment and	
	reconfirm ROI.  Don't let sunk costs cloud your decision.	
		
Manufacturing	Stay the course	
		
Manufacturing	Stay the course. Doing the right thing for customers and the regulation	
	will be what it will be.	
		
Manufacturing	Stick to what you know best and do it very well.  Focus on long-term	
	metrics such as return on capital to ensure success over the longer term.	
		
Manufacturing	This information is proprietary so unfortunately I can't disclose	
		
Manufacturing	Uncertainty creates opportunity and risk, so the best practice will	
	generally be to assess the risk-reward and continue to take appropriate	
	risks.	
		
Manufacturing	Understand the sensitivity for each of your core segments to changing	
	government policy and/or economic conditions.  Acquire businesses	
	that are less sensitive to government policy and elastic demand.	

27 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Manufacturing	understand leading market indicators and adjust spending accordingly	
	on a timely basis	
		
Mining/Construction	Add the price of the risk perceived to the product.	
		
Mining/Construction	Add to liquidity position	
		
Mining/Construction	Best time to move forward.  Uncertainity from FAKE News does not	
	create uncertainity in business.  Uncertainity from US Media is marginal	
	at best at all times as they are more a sensationalist TV show	
		
Mining/Construction	Build a fortress balance sheet, operate as lean as possible, and	
	become risk averse.	
		
Mining/Construction	Focus on what matters	
		
Mining/Construction	Keep Cash reserves high. Don't hire. Do not take on Debt	
		
Mining/Construction	minimize spending and diversify to limit exposure.	
		
Mining/Construction	Spread risk among as many different projects as possible	
		
Mining/Construction	Stay focus and take care of your people and customers	
		
Mining/Construction	try to influence upcoming policy decisions	
		
Mining/Construction	Wish I knew	
		
Other	act conservatively until a clear path emerges	
		
Other	Aggressive conservatism	
		
Other	be cautious,  look at long term trends,	
		
Other	Caution	
		
Other	cautious capital spending; slower staffing	
		
Other	Companies need to have reliable economic indicators to gauge where	
	they are in the economic marketplace. We have had much success with	
	developing our own leading, coincidental and lacking indicators.	
		
Other	Consider downside scenarios	
		
Other	Cut on spending, increase reserves.	
		
Other	Don't make large bets....	
		
Other	Focus on Cost reduction, affordability and limit new spending.	

28 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Other	focus on what you can control ; govt policies and economic conditions	
	are not something you can control	
		
Other	Hedging.	
		
Other	Help customers with country risk assessments, and provide them ways	
	to manage their risk by using Master Data and our Global Data	
	capabilities	
		
Other	Hunker down with current strategy.  Work with group on other options,	
	looking at extremes and working backwards.	
		
Other	Innovate new ways to excel in the changing context.	
		
Other	keep challenging yourself, keep looking for new opportunities, continue	
	to improve processes and productivity	
		
Other	lower your risk factors	
		
Other	Maintaining or reducing costs related to your business.	
		
Other	Maximize revenue, tight expense control, long-term capital expense	
	planning	
		
Other	Not sure	
		
Other	Opportunity for growth when we are the best at what we do	
		
Other	Pay more attention to various controllable costs and hiring of FT staff.	
		
Other	Remember mission but require a higher degree of certainly before	
	embarking on new or expanding existing programs and initiatives.	
		
Other	Scenario planning, scalability, cash flow, financing and community	
	relationships.	
		
Other	Stay the course	
		
Other	stay the course	
		
Other	Steady course.	
		
Other	strong leadership response	
		
Other	Take a deep breath and analyze the 'big picture' and assess risk long	
	term.	
		
Other	Take a long term approach.	

29 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Other	Take care of employees!  The current climate is very volatile, and	
	companies are firing people because they don't seem to know how to	
	manage through uncertainty.  Firing doesn't solve problems	
		
Other	Taking tolerable risk with sufficient safety caution to stay alert in the	
	market, keep up with major players and competitors, and move ahead.	
		
Other	Two choices: hunker down and ride it out, or move forward in creative	
	ways.  We use both depending on the project/line item	
		
Other	Uncertainty is not about government policies, but more importantly	
	about staff shortages. The question that needs to be answered ..'when	
	should risk down-sizing Operations to match our labor force'.	
		
Pub Admin	Budget conservatively	
		
Pub Admin	Don't market to sensitive sectors	
		
Pub Admin	move slowly and carefully into new things while taking excellent care of	
	customers. Increase customer service performance	
		
Pub Admin	Plan for all possible scenarios as far in advance as possible and be	
	prepared to act as quickly as possible.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Always be assessing ways to cut back your expenses and continue to	
	work to expand and improve your existing product lines	
		
Retail/Wholesale	build cash and accelerate debt payoff.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Conservative investment and spending	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Focus on profitable sales	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Have the business goal in mind and keep working towards it, adjusting	
	along the way when the economics are unclear. Imperative to be able to	
	pivot quickly	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Hold	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Our company is cautious on its inventory levels and marketing spending.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	planning, communication (frequent), realistic outlook	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Predicting the future	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Proceed with caution if those uncertainties could translate to higher	
	risk.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Scrutinize plans for spend.	

30 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Select the course of action that makes the most sense for stakeholders	
	while trying to leave flexibility for the possible outcomes of policy	
	changes.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Stay conservative on budgets/forecasts, along with being conservative	
	on new investments or increased spending.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	stay focused on our core structure	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Take a conservative approach and plan for the worst possible outcome.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	wait until enough data is available to make a reasonable decision	
		
Retail/Wholesale	We don't spend on expansion or capex or hire additional employees	
	until there is greater certainty.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	We make decisions based on current policies. We do not try to guess	
	what will happen.	
		
Services, Consulting	Act upon metrics sooner rather than wait and see approach.	
		
Services, Consulting	Adopt next generation of digital assets. Inorganic growth to accelerate	
	revenue.	
		
Services, Consulting	Being conservative in your decisin making processes.  Figure income	
	low and expenses high.	
		
Services, Consulting	Being very conservative in your approach	
		
Services, Consulting	caution	
		
Services, Consulting	Communication and education	
		
Services, Consulting	Conservation of capital and reduction in expenses	
		
Services, Consulting	cooperation among producers	
		
Services, Consulting	Cost mabagement and strategic capital allocation	
		
Services, Consulting	Create a environment that values cash and reduces risk and investment	
	until issues are resolved	
		
Services, Consulting	Develop a strategy/plan, have contingencies but stick to the strategy/	
	plan.	
		
Services, Consulting	Diversification, agility and responsiveness. Using predictive analytics	
	but also being prepared to change course if warranted. Efficiencies and	
	versatility	
		
Services, Consulting	DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR COMPANY	

31 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Services, Consulting	Don't guess	
		
Services, Consulting	Educate about impact of Government policies to proceed cautiously	
		
Services, Consulting	expand marketing efforts	
		
Services, Consulting	Focus on bottom line vs top line and invest back into the company	
		
Services, Consulting	Focus on execution of key strategies	
		
Services, Consulting	Focus on stable demand services	
		
Services, Consulting	Focus on the basics	
		
Services, Consulting	For us, it is wait and see.	
		
Services, Consulting	Increase marketing to obtain new business to offset losses elsewhere.	
	Look to expand in foreign markets.	
		
Services, Consulting	Keep cost to a minimum and look for other financial resources.	
		
Services, Consulting	Keep focusing on growing revenues and trying to reach higher revenue	
	pricing	
		
Services, Consulting	Maintain flexibility, write contracts cancellable with 60-days advance	
	notice, and partner with strategic vendors/suppliers.	
		
Services, Consulting	maintain focus on serving the clients as best we can	
		
Services, Consulting	maintain status quo of no new investment	
		
Services, Consulting	Manager for internal stability and new, equally stable customers. Grow	
	market share aggressively.	
		
Services, Consulting	Must use the best risk analysis that is available.  This would likely be a	
	more conservative position.	
		
Services, Consulting	plan for change	
		
Services, Consulting	Plan for the worst-case scenario	
		
Services, Consulting	plan for the future- increase cash reserves	
		
Services, Consulting	Positive change is coming- capitalize on it	
		
Services, Consulting	Protect cash flow.	
		
Services, Consulting	reducing speculative investment, maintain strong balance sheet,	
		
Services, Consulting	slow and steady	

32 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Services, Consulting	Staying focused on core competencies and delivering value	
		
Services, Consulting	steady conservative policies that have led the company through the last	
	8 miserable years.	
		
Services, Consulting	Stick to strategy.	
		
Services, Consulting	Stockpile cash so that you can survive an economic downturn.	
		
Services, Consulting	Take a second look and or get a second opinion on spending. Validate	
	government policies related to your business.	
		
Services, Consulting	Wait and see	
		
Services, Consulting	Wait for signals before investing	
		
Services, Consulting	We need to be cautious to manage our employment levels judiciously	
	and be prepared to respond appropriately when the uncertainty	
	conditions become clearer.	
		
Services, Consulting	Weight the risk more carefully and maintain continous improvement	
	strageties	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Careful Spending. Avoid risky ventures. Focus on getting more revenue	
	from current product lines, and existing clients.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Develop a model that projects the outcomes for various policy changes	
	and conditions.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Develop channels to gather information, gauge temperature around	
	pending legislation, prepare alternatives in as much detail as possible.	
	Prepare the organization to pivot to viable alternatives.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Follow the news carefully	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	hold cash for emergency	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	In Chaos there is both danger and opportunity.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Keep expenses under control, focus on key investments only and exploit	
	every revenue opportunity (faster if possible)	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Monitor cash flow and manage customer accounts receivables.  Reduce	
	travel expenses and cap employee numbers.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Multiple scenarios and flexibility in changing courseTi	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	prepare, stay informed, have back up	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Proactively plan and be flexible	

33 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q6.  What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?

IN	What are the best practices for running a company when uncertainty is
high about governmental policies and/or economic conditions?	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Understand the marketplace today and how quickly it is moving.  Start	
	the changes early and modify if assumptions change.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	We view it as an opportunity - we try to be aggressive in times of	
	uncertainty, figuring that those that are reluctant will stay on the	
	sidelines and lessen our competition.	
		
Transp, Public Util	1) Judicious capital spending. Pick the projects with the best ROI, 2)	
	Devote some time and resources to influencing government policies/	
	decisions.3)Good spending control/managerial accounting.	
		
Transp, Public Util	Care	
		
Transp, Public Util	Do not become paralyzed with fear about the uncertainty	
		
Transp, Public Util	Keep informed and have plans for however it goes	
		
Transp, Public Util	Stick with your strengths, don't watch TV.	
		
Unspecified Industry	Conserve cash	
		
Unspecified Industry	Focus on adding value in everything we do and change things that don't.	

34 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 Q7.  About which if any of the following items is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's plans for expansion and new projects?

	About which if any of the following items is
	uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.)
	holding back your company's plans for expansion and
	new projects?	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Health Care policy	117	32.8 %	± 4.9 %
	Regulatory policy	116	32.5 %	± 4.9 %
	Economic growth	105	29.4 %	± 4.8 %
	Tax policy	99	27.7 %	± 4.7 %
	Trade policy	49	13.7 %	± 3.6 %
	Interest rates	40	11.2 %	± 3.3 %
	Immigration Policy	38	10.6 %	± 3.2 %
	Other	27	7.6 %	± 2.8 %
	Total	591

	Number of Cases = 357
	Number of Responses = 591
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 1.7
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response = 316
	Response Percent = 88.5 %

35 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  About which if any of the following items is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's plans for expansion and new projects?  OTHERS

IN	About which if any of the following items is uncertainty (about policy
details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's plans for expansion
and new projects?  OTHERS	
		
Agr, Forestry, Fishing	Access to capital	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Insurtech	
		
Communication/Media	none	
		
Energy	reversal of government policies.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	CMS Reimbursement	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	oversight	
		
Manufacturing	Long term federal deficits and outlook on capital returns	
		
Manufacturing	No public policy issues.	
		
Manufacturing	none	
		
Manufacturing	None directly right now.	
		
Other	Available Workforce	
		
Other	Labor Force	
		
Other	Labor requirements	
		
Other	Legislative action on programs	
		
Other	None	
		
Other	none of these	
		
Pub Admin	Government funding	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Infrastructure spending	
		
Services, Consulting	Government spending	
		
Services, Consulting	None of these	
		
Services, Consulting	public educati0n spending	

36 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TRADE POLICY

IN	Trade policy	
		
Transp, Public Util	Cautious about increase staff numbers	
		
Manufacturing	Creates uncertainty with our international partners.  Reducing pricing to	
	cope with strong dollar.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Cut back on products for Chinese investors	
		
Manufacturing	Delay investment in US or OUS facilities until long-term solution is	
	more clear	
		
Unspecified Industry	Didn't pursue international expansion	
		
Manufacturing	expanding into Mexico	
		
Manufacturing	Expansion. N	
		
Manufacturing	expansion plans in various parts of the world due to trade uncertainty	
		
Mining/Construction	Hand holding with foreign partners	
		
Retail/Wholesale	High level of communications with import resources	
		
Agr, Forestry, Fishing	Impact of export business	
		
Manufacturing	import tax on items we buy from Asia	
		
Manufacturing	Improved domestic production actually resulting in increased capex	
	investments	
		
Services, Consulting	less mfg investment	
		
Manufacturing	Limiting expansion in Mexican operations	
		
Services, Consulting	Look to foreign expansion	
		
Manufacturing	Mexico plans on hold	
		
Retail/Wholesale	New policy expectations	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	None	
		
Manufacturing	Potential for BATand/or uncompetitive tariff structures that could impact	
	trade flows or strength of the US dollar; hard to assess strategic choices	
	in this situation	
		
Other	Potential impact on International sales	
		
Services, Consulting	Proceeding as planned, but with caution.	
		
Manufacturing	sold division	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Still waiting for decisions to be made on aluminum tariffs to see if we	
	need to find new source of supply	

37 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TRADE POLICY

IN	Trade policy	
		
Services, Consulting	Trump is killing us	
		
Other	uncertainty about its development	
		
Manufacturing	We were actively pursuing new business in Canada--with NAFTA on the	
	line, now what?	
		
Manufacturing	Were looking to increase outsourcing of certain products -- slowed	
	plans.	

38 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TAX POLICY

IN	Tax policy	
		
Services, Consulting	Be conservative	
		
Retail/Wholesale	buy vs lease equipment	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	capital repatriation	
		
Other	Charitable Deduction changes could drastically affect our business	
	model	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Conservative capital spending (impacts nearly all capex decisions)	
		
Retail/Wholesale	delay capital expenditures	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	delay capital projects, hoping new reules will allow expensing	
		
Services, Consulting	Delay Captial projects & new hires	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	delay on plans for capital spending	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Delaying decisions on global Tax structure	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Difficulty with transfer pricing	
		
Retail/Wholesale	estate planning, worldwide tax planning	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Expanding slower, lower wage increases	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	held back transformation to different entity	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Higher hurdle rate for investment	
		
Other	hired a more seasoned CPA firm	
		
Manufacturing	Holding back on capex investment	
		
Services, Consulting	Holding off / pursing sale of business	
		
Other	holding off on long-term plans	
		
Other	holding pattern on investment/expansion	
		
Services, Consulting	if current proposals will be approved- please yes	
		
Manufacturing	Infrastructure modernization	
		
Energy	investment in Mexico	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Limited capital investments	
		
Manufacturing	Limiting dividends	
		
Services, Consulting	lobbied the new administration	

39 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TAX POLICY

IN	Tax policy	
		
Energy	may require reorganization	
		
Other	Monitoring	
		
Manufacturing	More conservative growth and investment	
		
Other	Moving corp office for billing only to another state,	
		
Pub Admin	need significant reduction in corporate and personal tax rates	
		
Retail/Wholesale	New policy expectations	
		
Other	No change, steady course.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	None	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Not as aggressive on investments in infrastructure to support client	
	growth	
		
Retail/Wholesale	NOT DEFINITIVE PLAN, TOO MUCH POLITICKING IMPACTING LOCAL,	
	NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL	
		
Services, Consulting	Not hired	
		
Other	Potential loss of 1031 Exchange with new tax policy uncertain	
		
Other	rate	
		
Manufacturing	Reduced spending.	
		
Manufacturing	Reduced Working Capital	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Reorganize to  transfer revenue streams out of the US	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	review tax benefits for clients	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Tax policies will affect out clients willingness to invest for future growth	
		
Transp, Public Util	Tax structure and change for  small business	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Too soon to know what to do	
		
Services, Consulting	Trump proposal will never fly	
		
Manufacturing	Uncertainty in trade-offs for lower tax rate including bonus depreciation	
	and mandatory repatriation impacting capital investment choices	
		
Mining/Construction	Wait and see, working closely with accounting team	
		
Services, Consulting	Waiting	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	We are not spending more on capital	

40 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  TAX POLICY

IN	Tax policy	
		
Retail/Wholesale	We believe a simplified and perhaps more favorable tax environment	
	would increase economic activity.  Without certainty, we defer spending	
	on non-essential capex.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	We have issues with international taxation, for certain countries we are	
	adding a surcharge to our pricing to cover the additional international	
	tax withholdings.	
		
Other	We haven't taken specific action yet, just trying to get our donations to	
	the level we budgeted for.  We are tracking under.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	What are the limitations going to be.	

41 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  REGULATORY POLICY

IN	Regulatory policy	
		
Energy	accelerated acquisition due to better regulatory environment	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Adjust to new landscape	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Attitude toward aging population & employment	
		
Energy	Back of purchase of competitor	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Banking is a heavily regulated industry and we encountered a greater	
	demand for resources that keep us from hiring for other needs.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	capital planning	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Cease & Desist Order	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Changing products and sources of distribution of products	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	compliance issues	
		
Manufacturing	creating new products	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	currently 50 state rules for insurance hoping for 1 national set of rules	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	dealing with increased burden	
		
Manufacturing	Delay decisions	
		
Energy	Delay in infrastructure projects due to regulatory delays	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	delayed expansion	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	DLOL Regulations	
		
Services, Consulting	DOL Fiduciary Rule	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Elimination of services	
		
Manufacturing	Expanding sales force	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Expanding slower, lower wage increases	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	fight over medicare and medicaid	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Go slow on any new product	
		
Manufacturing	Have to plan for higher level of regulations from prior administration	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Health Care legislation potential changes	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	hired further compliance personnel	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	hiring freeze	

42 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  REGULATORY POLICY

IN	Regulatory policy	
		
Services, Consulting	hold steady until more clear	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Increased Lobbyist and Research Outreach	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	lack of action on regs scheduled for 2019	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Lending is more muted than otherwise would be	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Less investment	
		
Other	Limits on smaller, regional banks lending ability	
		
Services, Consulting	lobbied the new administration	
		
Energy	Located alternative sales channels	
		
Manufacturing	Looking for ways to avoid triggering additional regulation.  OSHA is a	
	real issue.	
		
Manufacturing	Lower investment in US Govt Mkt	
		
Services, Consulting	Monitor and react	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	monitor impact of changes on product launch	
		
Other	Monitoring	
		
Retail/Wholesale	NEEDS MORE CUTTING, THROW THE NAYSAYERS OUT AND CUT	
	BUREAUCRACY THAT IS HOLDING UP IMPLEMENTATION OR FUDGING	
	NUMBERS	
		
Services, Consulting	new capital reuirements on banks are requiring outside PE funding for	
	projects	
		
Other	New Data regulations overseas are creating challenges for a more	
	transparent and open data insight	
		
Other	No 24/7 Waiver care expansion allowed by Department of Human	
	Services.	
		
Services, Consulting	no action taken	
		
Services, Consulting	none	
		
Services, Consulting	Not hired	
		
Other	Not hiring	
		
Services, Consulting	not investing capital for new projects	
		
Pub Admin	Not moving as fast on certain projects until some of the uncertainty is	
	reduced.	

43 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  REGULATORY POLICY

IN	Regulatory policy	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Not sure how import taxes will impact us so not looking at as many	
	sources	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Obama's added female wage information for DOL is useless without	
	context.	
		
Services, Consulting	Ovaerall uncertainty	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Pending global merger	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Personal identity information in EU	
		
Services, Consulting	PLAN FOR LEGISLATIVE INIATIVES	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	product development has been put on hold due to DOL fiduciary reg	
		
Manufacturing	Pushing the sale of current dangerous goods shipping solutions and the	
	development of new products are slow-going when regulatory changes	
	are currently being written.	
		
Manufacturing	Review of policies and procedures impacted by new regulations	
		
Other	Sadly, none	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	slower expansion	
		
Energy	slowing spending	
		
Transp, Public Util	Some capital plans/projects are delayed until certainty is reached on	
	policies	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	The government over-reach has slowed us down, hoping for relief	
		
Services, Consulting	Trump is all over the map	
		
Services, Consulting	Uncertain position with foreign country relations.	
		
Other	uncertainty about its development	
		
Manufacturing	uncertainty causing our customers to withhold investments, thus	
	resulting in our reduction of capex and hiring	
		
Energy	wait to see what regulations will be finalized	
		
Other	waiting to see what's blowing in the wind	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	We have slowed down our expansion	
		
Energy	will brief on legislative reg changes this evening through middle of next	
	week	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	will rules actually be loosened, if not then plans will be scaled back	

44 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  HEALTH CARE POLICY

IN	Health Care policy	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	2018 benefits changes	
		
Retail/Wholesale	add full or part timer employee	
		
Manufacturing	Adding additional staff	
		
Services, Consulting	Aggresively looking at coverages that will protect the company and	
	employees	
		
Other	budgeting as usual and hoping ACA doesn't change and medical bens	
	are not taxable	
		
Other	carefully evaluate new policies	
		
Manufacturing	Choosing Health Insurance plan very difficult	
		
Services, Consulting	Consulting service offerings	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	cost	
		
Services, Consulting	Couldn't afforf to hire	
		
Other	coverage mandates	
		
Manufacturing	Decrease quality of coverage becasue of cost.	
		
Services, Consulting	Delay new hires	
		
Manufacturing	Delay staffing additions	
		
Services, Consulting	delayed hiring	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	delayed introduction of new products	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Difficulty with LT budgeting	
		
Other	Employer reporting forms	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Expanding slower, lower wage increases	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	extend current policy for as long as possible  18 months	
		
Manufacturing	Future of ACA related reforms	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Governmental treatment of Medicare, Medicaid + attitude of	
	government toward the baby boomer generation who has lost savings	
	as a result of the Great Recession	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	has affected sales opportunities	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Health Care legislation potential changes	

45 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  HEALTH CARE POLICY

IN	Health Care policy	
		
Other	held back on setting up employee health insurance	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Hiring reduction	
		
Energy	Holding back hiring	
		
Services, Consulting	if changes will be approved- please yes	
		
Retail/Wholesale	increase co-pays, deductibles and employee contributions	
		
Other	Increase in costs and employee demands for increasing benefits.	
		
Manufacturing	increased employee contribution toward health insurance - employees	
	covered increase for current year premiums	
		
Manufacturing	Increases employee cost sharing	
		
Services, Consulting	labbied the new administration	
		
Unspecified Industry	Link benefits strategy to human capital strategy	
		
Services, Consulting	Looking for less expensive opportunities	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	May change policies	
		
Energy	may impact employees, so wait & see attitude will respond later	
		
Manufacturing	Minimal changes to benefits	
		
Services, Consulting	Monitor.  The ACA has been extremely beneficial so it going away will	
	harm us.  California changes on the face of it will be very beneficial.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	monitor impact of legislation on product launch	
		
Manufacturing	Movement toward High Deductible HSA type plans	
		
Pub Admin	need affordable options for medical and control of pharmacy cost	
	increases	
		
Services, Consulting	no changein coverage	
		
Manufacturing	no design changes for healthcare pending future outcome of ACA	
		
Other	Not being able to budget appropriately	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Obama care	
		
Manufacturing	Our health care costs are through the roof and outlook is grim for next	
	year.	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Out of healthcare causes direct budget impact on total personnel costs.	

46 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  HEALTH CARE POLICY

IN	Health Care policy	
		
Energy	Partial self insurance	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Plan cost	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Product development	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Re-evaluation of current benefits plans and companies	
		
Other	reduce other spending	
		
Manufacturing	reduced hiring of full time employees	
		
Manufacturing	Reducing benefits of health care offered.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Reimbursements and market forces will determine our budget.	
		
Mining/Construction	Review with brokers	
		
Manufacturing	Riising rates reduces Working Capital	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Self insurance6.25	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Shop around for the best rates	
		
Services, Consulting	shopping around but to no avail as there are only so many companies	
	to choose from.	
		
Communication/Media	Slow to hire new staff.	
		
Services, Consulting	unable to project costs, resulting spending holds	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Uncertainity of future healthcare	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	uncertainity of government payments	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Uncertainty and change creates additional consulting opportunities for	
	us	
		
Other	uncertainty about its implications	
		
Mining/Construction	wait and see, set funds aside in case of increased expenses	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	waiting to see how the new health care law irons out	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	We are reducing benefits due to the higher healthcare costs	
		
Retail/Wholesale	We have passed on the increase in costs to employees for past 2 years	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	We will be exploring alternative plans and funding by company	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Who is covered and the cost	

47 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  IMMIGRATION POLICY

IN	Immigration policy	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Access to qualified tech workers	
		
Manufacturing	Capital spending is modestly less aggressive	
		
Other	encourage legislators to be more open to immigrants	
		
Mining/Construction	Explore hiring options to encourage non-citizens to apply	
		
Manufacturing	government visa regulations	
		
Mining/Construction	Had to withdraw from some projects. Ecause this labor force was not	
	available	
		
Other	Haven't changed anything at this point,	
		
Services, Consulting	hiring	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	hold back on hiring graduates	
		
Other	Hurts our many int'l students	
		
Services, Consulting	Immigration restrictions & Visa policies	
		
Other	Less customers for our products, & Less workers for our vendors	
		
Manufacturing	limited engineering talent	
		
Manufacturing	Modify succession planning where immigrants were considered	
	successors	
		
Manufacturing	need more workers	
		
Pub Admin	no refuges that are not 100% safe.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	None	
		
Services, Consulting	none	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	On ern over H1 visa hiring and employee turnover.	
		
Services, Consulting	Outreach to immigrant populations	
		
Mining/Construction	policies to retain current workers	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	potential impact on revenues	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	recruiting staff, especially the J-1 visa status	
		
Manufacturing	Reducing # of expatriates	
		
Other	refrain from plant expansion and acquistions due to limited labor	
	availability	

48 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  IMMIGRATION POLICY

IN	Immigration policy	
		
Unspecified Industry	Slowed hiring of immigrations	
		
Communication/Media	slowed hiring and number of projects.	
		
Services, Consulting	The indirect costs are hidden and. in most cases,  uncontrollable for	
	private enterprise.	

49 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  INTEREST RATES

IN	Interest rates	
		
Manufacturing	Be cognizant of leverage -- use interest rate hedge products to limit	
	exposure	
		
Other	borrow less	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Borrowing	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	continous monitoring what is appearing to become a flat yield curve	
		
Services, Consulting	feds are anti trump	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	it has been great paying less for loans outstanding.  this will affect our	
	bottom line if interest rates rise	
		
Communication/Media	Keep borrowing to a minimum	
		
Services, Consulting	LDI in DB plans	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Limiting exposure to interest sensitive liabilities	
		
Other	No clear picture on the strategy of the govt long term is an issue for	
	investments.	
		
Energy	perform more important cap ex projects sooner than later.	
		
Services, Consulting	Plan not to borrow as much and use reserves if necessary.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Raised mortgage rates as general rates go up.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Reducing interest rate sensitivity	
		
Services, Consulting	Reviewing lines of credit etc.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	risk	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Scaled back lending activity	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	structure credit markets accordingly	
		
Other	We constantly move our funds to higher yield accounts when possible.	
		
Services, Consulting	won't borrow	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Working to internally generate working capital	

50 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  ECONOMIC GROWTH

IN	Economic growth	
		
Retail/Wholesale	1-2% GDP growth is weak. Need 4% to lift all companies.	
		
Unspecified Industry	Accelerated spending	
		
Other	Annual Govt funding cycle has been limited to Continuing Resolutions -	
	no growth, no new programs	
		
Services, Consulting	Asset valuations are getting stretched in equities	
		
Services, Consulting	Attempting to expand our customer base beyond our historical target	
	comapnies	
		
Manufacturing	Be cognizant of leverage -- ability to pay down debt	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Become more aggresive in selling effort in order to overcome customers'	
	economic uncertainty.	
		
Manufacturing	Buffered with other customers	
		
Manufacturing	CAPITAL SPENDING	
		
Manufacturing	Capital spending is modestly less aggressive	
		
Manufacturing	capital spend slower	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Cautious about hiring and expansion	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Congress not helping president	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	continue to wait on increasing housing supply	
		
Manufacturing	Continued slow growth US and Europe economies is minimizing faster	
	growth in emerging regions	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Creating more prospective leads	
		
Services, Consulting	Current regime has no clue on economic growth.	
		
Manufacturing	Cutback on investment in people, marketing and capital.	
		
Other	Delay in M&A activity	
		
Retail/Wholesale	demand more risky to assess	
		
Manufacturing	Evaluating acquisitions and expansion into adjacent markets	
		
Services, Consulting	have postponed hiring more staff	
		
Other	High investor net income expectations limit growth opportunities n	
	certain geographical markets we have considered	

51 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  ECONOMIC GROWTH

IN	Economic growth	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Holding off on spending initiatives until sales growth projections come	
	true.	
		
Services, Consulting	Identify new markets	
		
Manufacturing	impact on comsumer demand	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Increased govt spending has a positive impact on our top line growth	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Increased marketing	
		
Manufacturing	Industrial Production soft globally - reducing capex spend and hiring	
		
Services, Consulting	Investing in capital equipment	
		
Communication/Media	investing in sales force to combat overall minimal growth	
		
Manufacturing	Lack thereof has reduced employment.	
		
Services, Consulting	Limited growth of personnel ranks	
		
Services, Consulting	Looking at acquistion and merger.	
		
Manufacturing	Lower investment in Biz Jet market	
		
Services, Consulting	More emphasis on maximizing sales... new and existing	
		
Retail/Wholesale	MUST GET PAST THIS SOCIALISTIC 1.9% LEVEL AND BACK INTO THE 3-5%	
	RANGE.	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Needs for products or service	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Not as aggressive on investments in infrastructure to support client	
	growth	
		
Manufacturing	not pursuing acquisitions for growth.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Not seeking to add outside of core businesses	
		
Communication/Media	Operate conservatively	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Our business is dependent on economic stability due to our clients	
	spending decisions	
		
Other	Placed a hold on expansion	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	preparing for growth due to aging population	
		
Energy	price of oil	
		
Other	question medicare changes	

52 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  ECONOMIC GROWTH

IN	Economic growth	
		
Services, Consulting	Reduce current spending	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Reduced headcount	
		
Energy	Reduced M&A	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Refocus on more domestic manufacturing	
		
Manufacturing	restructured manufacturing footprint (downsized)	
		
Services, Consulting	Slow growth plans	
		
Manufacturing	slower capital expenditures	
		
Energy	slowing spending	
		
Services, Consulting	stopped hiring	
		
Other	Tighter hiring controls, shorter new employee training periods.	
		
Manufacturing	tightly controlling investments in capital equipment	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Uncertainity of current economic climate is tempering consumer	
	spending	
		
Mining/Construction	Unwilling to expand our geographic footprint	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	waiting for growth	
		
Services, Consulting	we are countercyclical, so we have to plan for headwinds.	
		
Other	We are firing employees.  It's easier that coming up with a good idea.	
	Short term foolishness seems to prevail	
		
Other	We aren't able to increase prices as much as we should to cover costs,	
	affecting bottom line	
		
Services, Consulting	We expect growth to collapse under federal policies.  While the great	
	recession was very beneficial to us we do not know whether that was	
	just unique and we may be harmed.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Where is the economy going.	
		
Manufacturing	Will growth be there to justify expansion into new product lines.	

53 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q7.  Please list a specific action or lack of action your firm has taken because of uncertainty about this item?  OTHER

IN	Other	
		
Services, Consulting	Activity in Russia has stopped because of current government relations.	
		
Services, Consulting	broader marketing	
		
Other	Have not changed employee statuses, but would if FLSA goes into effect	
		
Pub Admin	Increased lobbying	
		
Manufacturing	Internal focus and leadership.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Investigate and invest in insurtech areas	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Marketplace changes	
		
Retail/Wholesale	No h	
		
Services, Consulting	None	
		
Other	None	
		
Manufacturing	Outlook for growth in GDP.  Deflation vs inflation.	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Product losses.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	See above.  We are engaging with Congress and CMS	
		
Services, Consulting	significantly cut staff	
		
Other	The ability to find qualified employees	
		
Mining/Construction	This is an assumption question and shows your trying to make a	
	political statement	
		
Other	We need additional 40 Full time employees and the problem is growing.	
		
Other	With low unemployment, need to be more creative in attracting new /	
	retaining existing staff.  Incentives, better explanation of benefits, etc.	

54 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 Q7b.  About which if any of the following specific trade and tax policies is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's plans for expansion and new projects? Select up to three

	About which if any of the following specific trade and
	tax policies is uncertainty (about policy details or
	timing, etc.) holding back your company's plans for
	expansion and new projects? Select up to three	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Trade Deals (e.g., NAFTA)	37	27.6 %	± 7.7 %
	Income Tax Rate for C-corporations	36	26.9 %	± 7.6 %
	Income Tax Rate for pass-through businesses	36	26.9 %	± 7.6 %
	Border Tax	34	25.4 %	± 7.5 %
	Individual Tax Rates	31	23.1 %	± 7.2 %
	Tariffs	30	22.4 %	± 7.2 %
	Expensing vs. Deductibility of Investment	23	17.2 %	± 6.5 %
	R&D tax incentives	16	11.9 %	± 5.6 %
	Debt Interest Deductibility	15	11.2 %	± 5.4 %
	Repatriation Tax Rules	15	11.2 %	± 5.4 %
	Other	6	4.5 %	± 3.6 %
	Estate Tax	5	3.7 %	± 3.3 %
	Total	284

	Number of Cases = 134
	Number of Responses = 284
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 2.1
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response = 119
	Response Percent = 88.8 %

55 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 Q7b.  About which if any of the following specific trade and tax policies is uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your company's plans for expansion and new projects?  OTHERS

IN	About which if any of the following specific trade and tax policies is
uncertainty (about policy details or timing, etc.) holding back your
company's plans for expansion and new projects? OTHERS	
		
Other	1031 Exchange	
		
Other	BREXIT may impact us as we have operations in the UK.	
		
Other	Minimum wage raises in states like NY	
		
Retail/Wholesale	All of these	
		
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	Sales tax	
		
Transp, Public Util	Tax credits	

56 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Q8a.  What is the hurdle rate that your company uses to evaluate investment projects?

What is the hurdle rate that your company uses to evaluate investment projects? (The “hurdle rate” is typically the minimum
rate of return a project is required to earn in order for a company to pursue the project.)

	Minimum = 3

	Maximum = 100

	Mean = 13.60

	Median = 12

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased Estimate) = 9.67

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 12.51 - 14.68

Quartiles

	 1 = 10
	 2 = 12
	 3 = 15

Valid Cases = 306
Missing Cases = 51
Response Percent =  85.7%

57 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 Q8b.  Does your company pursue all projects that are expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?

	Does your company pursue all projects that are
	expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?
	(e.g., if your overall hurdle rate is 15%, among projects
	with similar risk to your company’s overall risk, would
	you pursue all projects that are expected to return 16%
	or higher?)	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Yes	71	20.6 %	± 4.2 %
	No	232	67.2 %	± 5.0 %
	Don't Know	42	12.2 %	± 3.4 %
	Total	345	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 12
	Response Percent = 96.6 %

58 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 Q8c.  What prevents you from pursuing all projects that are expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?

	What prevents you from pursuing all projects that are
	expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Shortage of management time and expertise	118	50.9 %	± 6.5 %
	Project is not consistent with company's core strategy	96	41.4 %	± 6.4 %
	The risk of the project is too high	90	38.8 %	± 6.3 %
	Shortage of funding	87	37.5 %	± 6.3 %
	There is too much uncertainty about some projects	78	33.6 %	± 6.1 %
	Shortage of employees	74	31.9 %	± 6.0 %
	Some projects only appear to be attractive due to optimistic
	   projections but may not be successful	66	28.4 %	± 5.9 %
	Pressure to cut expenses	30	12.9 %	± 4.4 %
	Shortage of production capacity	26	11.2 %	± 4.1 %
	Better projects might come along in the future	22	9.5 %	± 3.8 %
	Other	22	9.5 %	± 3.8 %
	Project might reduce earnings per share	5	2.2 %	± 1.9 %
	Total	714

	Number of Cases = 232
	Number of Responses = 714
	Average Number Of Responses Per Case = 3.1
	Number Of Cases With At Least One Response = 228
	Response Percent = 98.3 %

59 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 Q8c.  What prevents you from pursuing all projects that are expected to earn a return higher than the hurdle rate?  OTHERS

IN	What prevents you from pursuing all projects that are expected to earn a
return higher than the hurdle rate?  OTHER	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	Parent company approval (final say)	
		
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	We do not want to be distracted by on-core projects	
		
Energy	Prioritization with other more important projects	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Balance between the need to provide short term results along with	
	longer term investments	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Break even project that servie the community are OK,  we are a	
	community hospital.	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	changes going on in company	
		
Healthcare/Pharm	Ever changing consumer demand & Gov regulations	
		
Manufacturing	Activism's influence on capital allocation	
		
Manufacturing	Conservative investment stance	
		
Manufacturing	Extneded payback period	
		
Manufacturing	Lack of management direction	
		
Manufacturing	uncertainty regarding future demand	
		
Other	Contract Type - FFP	
		
Other	Future needs and projects	
		
Other	general conservative nature of executive management	
		
Other	Government Regulations	
		
Other	Projects chosen according to value provided not necessarily for a return.	
		
Pub Admin	we are a municipality	
		
Retail/Wholesale	shortage of physical space	
		
Retail/Wholesale	Too many years to recover investment	
		
Transp, Public Util	Cost of the project is too high	

60 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

j. Weighted Average Cost of Capital

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

What is your company's overall weighted average
cost of capital (WACC) for 2017?	10.55	9.84	9.23 - 11.88	9.80	3	100	212

What cost of debt do you use in your WACC
calculation?	7.10	13.80	5.32 - 8.88	4.50	0	100	230

Cost of equity?	11.79	12.07	10.19 - 13.40	10	0	100	217

Approximately what proportion of debt financing
do you use in your WACC calculation?	36.36	33.43	32.01 - 40.71	27	0	100	227

61 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Agr, Forestry, Fishing	12.0	9.5	Achieve higher returns and due to no	
			return replacement capital	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	8.0	3.5	10	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	5.0	1.8	As a financial institution, we operate on	
			very slim margins	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	15.0	11.0	Because we look to invest in high return	
			projects	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	13.5	12.0	Conservative view reflects imprecision in	
			a number of variables.	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	20.0	1.0	costs more to close	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	10.0	7.0	Expect cost of capital to increase	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	10.0	9.0	I have trouble with this since the firm is a	
			Bank	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	10.0	6.0	It's equal to our cost of equity, which	
			ensures we keep our eye towards making	
			a good return to our shareholders.	
			There's enough projects to ensure we	
			execute on those that exceed 10%.	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	15.0	6.0	Looking to dedicate personnel resources	
			to most productive opportunities.  Don't	
			have sufficient personnel to pursue all	
			projects	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	15.0	7.0	need greater returns if I am to expand	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	15.0	6.0	Risk adjustment	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	20.0	8.0	Risk associated with projects/M&A	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	5.0	1.5	to provide some margin of error for	
			inevitable project shortcomings.	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	12.0	7.0	Uncertainty	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	4.0	1.0	We have sufficient capital to finance	
			most projects.	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	20.0	9.0	We're a smaller company that takes on	
			projects in proportion to our size.	

62 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	8.0	5.0	We want projects to exceed our equity	
			costs, not overall cost of capital	
				
Communication/Media	16.0	5.0	Certain projects are selected for strategic	
			reasons that may result in the hurdle	
			rated being greater that the cost of	
			capital.	
				
Communication/Media	12.0	10.0	Large number of competing projects	
				
Energy	25.0	10.0	15%	
				
Energy	10.0	5.4	allowed ROE from utility regulators	
				
Energy	20.0	10.5	commodity price risk	
				
Energy	15.0	10.0	In this private setting, with no debt load,	
			the 'cost of capital' is not directly tied to	
			hurdle rate.  There are enough projects	
			out there with high returns, that 15% is a	
			reasonable number.	
				
Energy	15.0	10.0	Most of new investment is made with	
			equity	
				
Energy	20.0	10.0	Really?  You are finance people, right?	
				
Energy	12.0	6.5	Risk premium compared to existing	
			portfolio	
				
Energy	25.0	15.0	to accommodate for assumption errors	
			and market changes	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	10.0	4.5	10	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	15.0	13.0	Being a small company we need to be	
			able to turn positive cash flow on all	
			projects above our hurdle rate in order to	
			re-invest	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	10.0	5.0	Desire to improve total net assets of	
			organization	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	15.0	11.0	need to be profitable....finance 101	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	10.0	1.0	Start-up; no debt, raising capital with no	
			intent to incur debt based on funding	
			model	

63 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	9.0	6.5	To provide a risk premium	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	25.0	8.0	We are mostly funded by the owners with	
			the exception of real estate, where we	
			use high leverage.	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	80.0	10.0	We generally want to get back almost all	
			of our investment into a project.	
			Sometimes we want a 100% ROI on a	
			project in order for it to get approved. The	
			ROI may be over 2+ years	
				
Manufacturing	25.0	14.0	25%	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	4.0	8.0	
				
Manufacturing	8.0	1.4	As a small company with limited	
			resources, seek significantly greater	
			returns on projects.	
				
Manufacturing	20.0	8.5	Availability of Competing/Alternative	
			projects and investment constraints	
				
Manufacturing	11.0	7.4	Because we try to create value rather than	
			destroy it.  WACC is fairly known, but	
			investments have many forms of risk.  An	
			excessive premium is needed given the	
			fundamental flaws in the calculations.	
				
Manufacturing	12.0	9.0	Compensating for risk and trying to create	
			'excess' returns	
				
Manufacturing	10.0	2.5	Cost of capital is very low and does not	
			meet the expectations of return expected	
			by our parent companies	
				
Manufacturing	25.0	13.0	debt financing limits	
				
Manufacturing	6.0	2.0	Expect a better return than could be	
			obtained by investing idle capital in stock	
			market investments.	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	4.0	Has to have positive cash flow and	
			realization of regular revenue	
				
Manufacturing	25.0	15.0	Improve free cash flow to retire debt	

64 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Manufacturing	18.0	17.3	Minor difference.  I see rates moving up	
			beyond our 3% in the current model.	
			Moving rates to 5% basically equates the	
			cost of capital equal to hurdle rate.	
				
Manufacturing	10.0	4.8	Need to drive improved cash flow and	
			earnings.	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	10.0	owners want some 'slop' in the	
			calculation	
				
Manufacturing	10.0	3.9	Return on top of WACC is how we evaluate	
			it, as we don't use cost of equity in WACC	
				
Manufacturing	10.0	7.0	Risk	
				
Manufacturing	25.0	7.6	risk	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	11.0	Risk adjusted hurdle rate	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	12.0	Risk in projects	
				
Manufacturing	20.0	10.0	Risk of failure and excessive optimism	
				
Manufacturing	10.0	7.0	Risk profile.	
				
Manufacturing	12.0	8.0	Secure best project IRR	
				
Manufacturing	11.0	10.5	They are approximately the same and we	
			adjust for specific risk, plus adjust	
			upward for many specific projects to	
			accommodate risk not properly	
			incorporated in projections.	
				
Manufacturing	33.0	16.7	We have an adequate number of projects	
			to exhaust our internal capabilities for	
			capital projects.	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	10.0	We have no debt	
				
Manufacturing	12.0	5.0	we use a range depending on the project	
			relationship to core business	
				
Manufacturing	15.0	12.0	we would likely have to borrow add'l	
			funds to do further investments.  the	
			return has to make sense and at least	
			cover the cost of capital.	
				
Manufacturing	8.0	7.2	You need to factor in setbacks.	

65 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Mining/Construction	13.0	5.0	10	
				
Mining/Construction	10.0	5.0	For risk in performing the work	
				
Mining/Construction	15.0	6.8	If the hurdle rate is greater than the	
			amount of the project's capital	
			investment, the project would generate	
			positive returns after covering the	
			financing cost of the investment capital.	
				
Mining/Construction	15.0	12.0	Margin of error for risk beta due to	
			government policy shifting and harm	
			caused to foreign partner relationships	
				
Mining/Construction	15.0	8.4	Market	
				
Mining/Construction	30.0	10.0	There are increased risks of taking on	
			new projects.  Example: the policy	
			uncertainties affecting hiring construction	
			workers, employee health care, etc. We	
			have no debt at all.	
				
Other	15.0	6.2	Borrowing from myself.	
				
Other	33.0	5.0	n/a	
				
Other	15.0	8.3	note: cost of debt above is after tax rate;	
			debt ratio above is debt/equity ratio.   we	
			risk adjust our WACC to achieve hurdle	
			rate	
				
Other	18.0	6.1	Overall risk of projects. Approximately 1 in	
			5 will loose money.	
				
Other	25.0	9.0	Premium for uncertainty.	
				
Other	10.0	9.0	Risk factors, including contract type,	
			stability of funding, etc.	
				
Other	12.0	7.5	to reflect expectation of higher borrowing	
			costs over time as opposed to the low	
			rate environment we are in now and we	
			want to ensure to the extent est are	
			missed we still exceed coc	
				
Other	9.0	8.5	Uncertainty about assumptions	

66 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Other	12.0	10.0	We add an approximate 200bp spread to	
			growth projects to account for incremental	
			project risk and execution risk	
				
Other	10.0	2.0	We are capitalized by our employees.	
				
Other	17.0	8.1	We are that good! Sorry NDA would be	
			needed to discuss further	
				
Other	10.0	7.5	We want increasing margins and	
			profitability	
				
Pub Admin	10.0	2.0	expect to make money	
				
Retail/Wholesale	15.0	8.0	10	
				
Retail/Wholesale	20.0	10.8	Account for risk; provide for contingency	
				
Retail/Wholesale	15.0	8.0	higher sensitivity to cost of equity capital	
				
Retail/Wholesale	20.0	5.0	If your wrong and the capital is gone you	
			either have to personally put money in or	
			earn enough to recover it. Both are risky	
			and the hurdle rate reflects the risk.	
				
Retail/Wholesale	15.0	8.0	Political and regulatory risk	
				
Retail/Wholesale	7.0	4.6	The cost of retained earnings is only an	
			opportunity cost. There are no dividends	
			with my company. Debt is very cheap now.	
				
Services, Consulting	15.0	12.0	25	
				
Services, Consulting	10.0	6.0	always calculated it in this manner.	
				
Services, Consulting	10.0	5.0	BEST USE OF TIME AND TALENT	
				
Services, Consulting	12.0	8.0	capital stack & risk profile	
				
Services, Consulting	30.0	17.0	Corp Finance 101 - A return on investment	
			projects that is lower than the WACC will	
			destroy shareholder wealth.  A higher	
			return will create wealth.	
				
Services, Consulting	15.0	8.0	cost of capital heavily weighted on debt	
				
Services, Consulting	10.2	7.2	Looking at uncertainty and only looking at	
			high quality investments.	

67 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Services, Consulting	14.0	11.0	NA	
				
Services, Consulting	10.0	6.0	Need higher returns to keep up with	
			industry changes in Tech needs etc.	
				
Services, Consulting	18.0	12.0	Our owners expect a high long term gain,	
			in addition to annual returns.	
				
Services, Consulting	10.0	8.0	Risk	
				
Services, Consulting	15.0	10.0	ROI	
				
Services, Consulting	10.0	5.0	Survival	
				
Services, Consulting	9.0	4.0	The hurdle rate is conservative t account	
			for costs/revenue uncertainty.	
				
Services, Consulting	8.0	5.5	To ensure positive ROI	
				
Services, Consulting	15.0	8.0	To only pursue the stars among the	
			potential projects....	
				
Services, Consulting	15.0	1.0	Truly not applicable to my business.	
				
Services, Consulting	25.0	8.5	uncertainy	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	15.0	14.0	Investments need to be accretive to	
			equity position.	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	30.0	3.0	Limited by experienced management and	
			engineering employees	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	10.0	2.0	more costs mot related to interest rate	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	15.0	9.3	Need to justify the soft costs -	
			management & Board time and attention.	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	30.0	15.0	Prioritization of resources  in small cap	
			stock with 50% volitility.	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	15.0	8.0	Risk return	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	10.0	5.0	We don't invest outside of our core	
			business. There are limited opportunities	
			within this line of business for	
			investment. Few viable purchase	
			opportunities. Working on Partnerships	
			only.	

68 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k1.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) GREATER than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) greater than your
cost of capital?	
				
Transp, Public Util	12.0	10.0	Not the greatest business for investment.	
			Other options probably and clearly better.	
				
Transp, Public Util	12.0	5.6	To take into account risk	
				
Transp, Public Util	9.0	6.4	We have little debt now but may borrow	
			for certain projects, thereby adding to the	
			overall WACC. Our hurdle rate is also only	
			a guide as we are gov't owned and may	
			consider motives other than profit.	

69 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k2.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) LESS than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) less than your cost of
capital?	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	5.0	40.0	Effective personal income tax rate.	
				
Bank/Fin/Insur/Real Est	15.0	25.0	the capital costs are fixed and do not	
			increase each year.  since these are sunk	
			costs i look at the incremental increase in	
			revenue as flowing down with no capital	
			costs.	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	8.0	16.0	Investor's requirements.	
				
Healthcare/Pharm	15.0	20.0	We do not issue new equity capital very	
			often.	
				
Manufacturing	10.0	20.0	Board requires above a maximum return.	
			So we use a much higher rate	
				
Manufacturing	14.6	15.4	It's pretty close in our case and financial	
			return is not top evaluation of a new	
			project.  Ability to execute/implement and	
			availability of human capital are much	
			more important these days.	
				
Manufacturing	11.0	11.8	risk	
				
Mining/Construction	10.0	12.5	Focus more on debt cost.  Equity cost is	
			based on theoretical calculations.	
				
Other	2.0	10.0	Do not know if my book is being read or	
			not and how the ideas and ideals are	
			being measured.	
				
Pub Admin	5.0	10.0	Will the program be sustainable? Can we	
			do it successfully? Does it fit with our	
			mission?	
				
Services, Consulting	95.0	100.0	Because with improved skills I can create	
			a better capital outlook through future	
			investments	
				
Services, Consulting	7.0	11.0	it depends	
				
Services, Consulting	5.0	10.8	No Comment	
				
Services, Consulting	15.0	17.4	We are privately held, with no debt. We	
			must look at our hurdle rate as an	
			opportunity rate, and not compare it to	
			our equity return.	

70 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 k2.  Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate investment projects) LESS than your cost of capital?

IN	What is the
hurdle rate
that your
company
uses to evaluate	What is
your
company's
overall
weighted average	

Why is your hurdle rate (to evaluate
investment projects) less than your cost of
capital?	
				
Tech [Soft/Hard/Bio]	8.0	10.0	Our investment projects are relatively	
			small and are simply financed out of	
			existing working capital so there is no	
			real opportunity cost to factor in.	

71 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

On May 22, 2017 the annual yield on 10-yr treasury bonds was 2.25%. Please complete the following:  (Winsorized)

	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:	1.58	3.78	1.17 - 1.99	2	-8.22	10.91	326

Over the next 10 years, I expect the average annual
S&P 500 return will be: Expected return:	6.10	2.39	5.84 - 6.36	6	1.17	11.37	332

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:	9.52	4.25	9.06 - 9.99	10	2	20.51	322

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:	-1.43	7.44	-2.24 - -0.62	1	-18.40	14.27	324

Over the next year, I expect the average annual S&P
500 return will be: Expected return:	5.65	3.51	5.27 - 6.03	5	-2.31	13.45	328

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:	10.20	5.08	9.64 - 10.76	10	0	22.18	319

72 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Return on assets (ROA=operating earnings/assets)  (Winsorized)

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

% Approximate ROA in 2016	7.41	7.67	6.49 - 8.32	6.40	-12.20	28	271

% Expected ROA in 2017	8.77	7.75	7.84 - 9.69	7	-9.80	29.10	271

73 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Manufacturing capacity utilized  (Winsorized)

	Mean	SD	95% CI	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Total

% of capacity utilized in first half of 2017	72.06	13.98	68.72 - 75.41	75	43.68	98.42	67

% of capacity utilization planned for the second
half of 2017	75.70	14.58	72.20 - 79.19	80	44.91	103.91	67

74 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Industry

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Manufac- turing	69	19.5 %	± 4.1 %
	Service Consult- ing	60	16.9 %	± 3.9 %
	Bank/Fin Insur Real Estate	49	13.8 %	± 3.6 %
	Health- care Pharm	27	7.6 %	± 2.8 %
	Retail/Whole- sale	27	7.6 %	± 2.8 %
	Tech Soft- Hardware Bio	21	5.9 %	± 2.5 %
	Energy	15	4.2 %	± 2.1 %
	Mining Construc- tion	12	3.4 %	± 1.9 %
	Trans- portation Pub. Util	8	2.3 %	± 1.5 %
	Agr, Pub Admin	8	2.3 %	± 1.5 %
	Commun- ications Media	6	1.7 %	± 1.3 %
	Other Industry	52	14.7 %	± 3.7 %
	Total	354	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 3
	Response Percent = 99.2 %

75 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Industry (Other specified)

Accounting	
adult beverages	
Aerospace & Defense	
Aerospace/Defense	
Apparel Manufacturer (CMT)	
commodity chemicals	
Construction	
consulting	
country club	
Data & Information	
Data Analytics & benchmarks	
Education	
Education	
Education	
Education	
education	
education	
education	
elementary education	
entertainment	
Foundation	
government	
Group Home Care for Disabled	
Higher Ed	
Home builder, Developer	
Hospitality	
Hospitality	
Hotels & hotel management	
Janitorial	
launderer	
leisure	
Local Government	
media	
multi industry	
Non Profit	
non-profit religious	
Nonprofit - charity	
Nonprofit Foundation	
nonprofit	
nonprofit	
Not-for profit	
not for profit (services)	
print distribution	
Real Estate	
Religious/Charitable	
School district	
social services	
student rental property	
Telecommunications	
Textile Rental	
training	
Travel/Hospitality	

76 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Sales Revenue

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Less than $25 million	137	38.9 %	± 5.1 %
	$25-99 million	81	23.0 %	± 4.4 %
	$100-499 million	53	15.1 %	± 3.7 %
	$500-999 million	19	5.4 %	± 2.3 %
	$1-4.9 billion	28	8.0 %	± 2.8 %
	$5-9.9 billion	20	5.7 %	± 2.4 %
	More than $10 billion	14	4.0 %	± 2.0 %
	Total	352	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 5
	Response Percent = 98.6 %

77 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Statistics - Sales Revenue (Millions)

	Minimum = 25

	Maximum = 11000

	Mean = 1211.92

	Median = 62

	Variance (Unbiased Estimate) = 7321514.66

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased Estimate) = 2705.83

	Standard Error Of The Mean  = 144.22

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 929.25 - 1494.60

	99 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 840.55 - 1583.29

	Skewness = 2.57

	Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic For Normality = 7.56

Quartiles

	 1 = 25
	 2 = 62
	 3 = 300

Valid Cases = 352
Missing Cases = 5
Response Percent =  98.6%

78 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Number of Employees

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Fewer than 100	101	38.3 %	± 4.7 %
	100-499	72	27.3 %	± 4.2 %
	500-999	17	6.4 %	± 2.2 %
	1,000-2,499	28	10.6 %	± 2.8 %
	2,500-4,999	10	3.8 %	± 1.7 %
	5,000-9,999	10	3.8 %	± 1.7 %
	Over 10,000	26	9.8 %	± 2.7 %
	Total	264	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 93
	Response Percent = 73.9 %

79 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Statistics - Number of Employees

	Minimum = 100

	Maximum = 12000

	Mean = 1961.93

	Median = 300

	Variance (Unbiased Estimate) = 13436292.45

	Standard Deviation (Unbiased Estimate) = 3665.55

	Standard Error Of The Mean  = 225.60

	95 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 1519.76 - 2404.11

	99 Percent Confidence Interval Around The Mean = 1381.01 - 2542.85

	Skewness = 2.09

	Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic For Normality = 5.69

Quartiles

	 1 = 100
	 2 = 300
	 3 = 1750

Valid Cases = 264
Missing Cases = 93
Response Percent =  73.9%

80 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Where are you personally located?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Midwest U.S.	93	26.3 %	± 4.6 %
	Northeast U.S.	74	21.0 %	± 4.2 %
	South Central U.S.	67	19.0 %	± 4.1 %
	Pacific US	51	14.4 %	± 3.6 %
	South Atlantic U.S. (Not NC)	29	8.2 %	± 2.8 %
	Mountain U.S.	25	7.1 %	± 2.7 %
	North Carolina	14	4.0 %	± 2.0 %
	Total	353	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 4
	Response Percent = 98.9 %

81 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Where are you personally located? - Other specified

--- No Response ---

82 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 NC Only - What are the effects of HB2 on the 2017 economic prospects of firms in your industry?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Very negative	0	0.0 %	± 0.0 %
	Negative	4	28.6 %	± 27.1 %
	Neutral	7	50.0 %	± 30.0 %
	Positive	1	7.1 %	± 15.5 %
	Very postive	0	0.0 %	± 0.0 %
	DK	2	14.3 %	± 21.0 %
	Total	14	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 0
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

83 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

 NC Only / Excludes DK - What are the effects of HB2 on the 2017 economic prospects of firms in your industry?

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	-2=Very Negative	0	0.0 %	± 0.0 %
	-1=-Negative	4	33.3 %	± 27.6 %
	0=Neutral	7	58.3 %	± 30.6 %
	1=Positive	1	8.3 %	± 15.8 %
	2=Very Positive	0	0.0 %	± 0.0 %
	Total	12	100.0 %

	Mean = -0.25

	Missing Cases = 2
	Response Percent = 85.7 %

84 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Ownership

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Private	218	68.3 %	± 5.1 %
	Public, NYSE	41	12.9 %	± 3.3 %
	Nonprofit	34	10.7 %	± 3.1 %
	Public, Nasdaq/AMEX	16	5.0 %	± 2.2 %
	Govern-ment	10	3.1 %	± 1.7 %
	Total	319	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 38
	Response Percent = 89.4 %

85 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Foreign Sales

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	0%	175	49.7 %	± 5.2 %
	1-24%	130	36.9 %	± 5.0 %
	25-50%	27	7.7 %	± 2.8 %
	More than 50%	20	5.7 %	± 2.4 %
	Total	352	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 5
	Response Percent = 98.6 %

86 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

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

	 	Number	Percent	95% CI
	Europe	65	40.9 %	± 7.2 %
	Canada	42	26.4 %	± 6.3 %
	Asia/Pacific Basin	27	17.0 %	± 5.4 %
	Latin America	24	15.1 %	± 5.1 %
	Africa	1	0.6 %	± 1.1 %
	Total	159	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 18
	Response Percent = 89.8 %

87 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

What is your company's credit rating? 

	 	Number	Percent	Cumulative
	AAA	32	13.0 %	13.0 %
	AA+	22	8.9 %	21.9 %
	AA	26	10.5 %	32.4 %
	AA-	10	4.0 %	36.4 %
	A+	14	5.7 %	42.1 %
	A	25	10.1 %	52.2 %
	A-	14	5.7 %	57.9 %
	BBB+	22	8.9 %	66.8 %
	BBB	19	7.7 %	74.5 %
	BBB-	10	4.0 %	78.5 %
	BB+	8	3.2 %	81.8 %
	BB	13	5.3 %	87.0 %
	BB-	5	2.0 %	89.1 %
	B+	5	2.0 %	91.1 %
	B	6	2.4 %	93.5 %
	B-	7	2.8 %	96.4 %
	CCC	5	2.0 %	98.4 %
	CC	0	0.0 %	98.4 %
	D	4	1.6 %	100.0 %
	Total	247	100.0 %	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 0
	Response Percent = 100.0 %

88 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

What is your company's credit rating? 

N=247		Total		Credit Rating	
		 		Actual	Estimate	
		 		A	B	
						
Total		247		99	148	
		100.0%		40.1%	59.9%	
						
AAA		32		17	15	
		13.0%		17.2%	10.1%	
						
AA+		22		8	14	
		8.9%		8.1%	9.5%	
						
AA		26		11	15	
		10.5%		11.1%	10.1%	
						
AA-		10		3	7	
		4.0%		3.0%	4.7%	
						
A+		14		5	9	
		5.7%		5.1%	6.1%	
						
A		25		8	17	
		10.1%		8.1%	11.5%	
						
A-		14		6	8	
		5.7%		6.1%	5.4%	
						
BBB+		22		10	12	
		8.9%		10.1%	8.1%	
						
BBB		19		6	13	
		7.7%		6.1%	8.8%	
						
BBB-		10		4	6	
		4.0%		4.0%	4.1%	
						
BB+		8		5	3	
		3.2%		5.1%	2.0%	
						
BB		13		5	8	
		5.3%		5.1%	5.4%	
						
BB-		5		0	5	
		2.0%		0.0%	3.4%	
						
B+		5		3	2	
		2.0%		3.0%	1.4%	
						
B		6		4	2	
		2.4%		4.0%	1.4%	

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

89 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

What is your company's credit rating? 

N=247		Total		Credit Rating	
		 		Actual	Estimate	
		 		A	B	
						
B-		7		2	5	
		2.8%		2.0%	3.4%	
						
CCC		5		2	3	
		2.0%		2.0%	2.0%	
						
CC		0		0	0	
		0.0%		0.0%	0.0%	
						
D		4		0	4	
		1.6%		0.0%	2.7%	

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

90 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Your job title (e.g., CFO, Asst. Treasurer, etc):

	 	Number	Percent
	CFO	188	53.9 %
	Other	48	13.8 %
	Controller	40	11.5 %
	CEO	39	11.2 %
	VP of Finance	27	7.7 %
	Treasurer	7	2.0 %
	Total	349	100.0 %

	Missing Cases = 8
	Response Percent = 97.8 %

91 

Duke CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey - U.S. - Second Quarter, 2017

Other job title:

Global ERP Senior PM	
Md Investments	
Ex VP	
Managing Director	
Principal	
President Asia	
Senior Accountant	
President	
Sr. Managing Director	
Utilities Financial Manager	
CFO Consultant	
Owner	
VP of Corporate Strategy	
Proprietor	
President	
VP	
SVP Business Development	
Strategic advisor	
Program Director	
& Chairman	
Managing Director/ President	
Manager, Global GL Controls	
VP Risk Management	
director	
Owner	
Managing director	
Owner	
Ceif Credit Officer	
Trustee	
Managing Partner	
Senior Manager	
Owner/Principal	
Audit Manager	
COO	
VP of Transformation	
Board	
Consultant	
Associate Professor of Finance	
FVP	
VP Finance	
Much of the requested financial and investment info is proprietary. I answered those permissible	
Retired but consulting	
Area Senior Vice President	
EVP business development	
Managing Director	
Director of Supply Chain Management	
President