Article at a glance:

The McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives , November 2004

Our year-end survey shows that the confidence of executives around the world has fallen significantly during the year. A vast majority of them say that competition is intensifying rapidly and that they feel its impact most strongly in pricing. Some 16,500 executives—9 percent of them CEOs—from 148 countries took part in this McKinsey Quarterly survey. A summary of the results offers the views of the respondents on their economic prospects and hiring plans as well as the recent US election.

The take-away

Executives are markedly less confident than they were at the start of 2004, but more than a third still plan to hire during the next half year. Although they are dubious about the prospects for trade liberalization in the wake of the US election, many are still seeking growth by entering new markets. The survey also included several questions on strategy, including what factors are most influential when companies invest in the emerging world and how they divide their focus between short- and long-term strategies.