05/27/2025

A Cure for CEO Pessimism

Recent surveys paint a gloomy picture of leaders' expectations

Optimism. Remember that?

According to various surveys, leaders were overflowing with it six months ago. A CEO survey conducted by Fortune and Deloitte shortly after the November elections found a surge in positive feelings about the economy in general and their own company’s good fortunes.

Now, not so much. The spring iteration of the Fortune/Deloitte survey [PDF], released May 15, found that optimism cratered between the polls: The proportion of CEOs optimistic about their firm’s performance dropped from 84 to 60 percent. Pessimism, meanwhile, has skyrocketed, from 18 percent to 58 percent.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.