US tech firms bullish on re-election of Bush

HOBOKEN, N.J. — The Global Technology Confidence Indicators (GTCI) at Stevens Institute of Technology released a post-US Election Survey Report, indexing the confidence of global executives in the aftermath of the re-election of US President George W. Bush, along with the broadening of the Republican majorities in Congress. The GTCI is a research unit of The Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens.

Dr. Derek B. Smith, the Director of the GTCI, explains some of the report’s findings.
“More than half our respondents thought this result was good for technology firms,” he said, “well ahead of our control group, where one in five thought the result was bad for tech firms. Fewer than 10 percent of our GTCI respondents agreed with this last point.”

Only 15 percent of the GTCI respondents thought the re-election of President Bush would make doing business overseas any easier compared with a quarter who thought it would be harder. The control group was evenly split.

“Almost nobody from GTCI thought that the result would lead to a lower level of technology investment,” said Smith, “while a third thought it would lead to higher levels.”

The Global Technology Confidence Index post-election survey is available to Executive Panel members at //www.stevens.edu/gtci/NewsEvents/index.html. This survey represents an initial poll by GTCI to measure Executive Panel opinion on a matter of topical interest in the news. In September, GTCI released its regular quarterly report on business and technology confidence.

Dr. Smith elaborated on those findings:
“Business confidence worldwide fell back sharply by almost a full point to the lowest level for a year,” he said. “Confidence turned down most in Japan and Europe, to a lesser extent in North America, where the index remained higher than in any other region. Elsewhere sentiment strengthened, so the picture is not uniform throughout the world.”

The technology confidence index slipped back a bit from the April value, getting below 100 again. The index had not moved much since May ’03, having dipped a little initially, plateauing in the first quarter, and then falling away slightly along with the business confidence index.

The report detailed an array of other significant findings:

Business Outlook
• In a reversal of last time’s changes, Japan and Europe adjusted downwards sharply while China eased upwards a bit.

Human Capital
• Outlook for technologists remains as encouraging as last time, with half our respondents still anticipating increasing the number of technologists that they will employ over the coming year.

Technology Alignment
• Confidence in the senior management’s common grasp of technology goals and their relationship to business objectives rises to dizzying heights.
• With over a half judging their levels as above average, assessment of technology
investment spends stays steady.

Technology Innovation
• Optimism over technology innovation bounces back after stumbling last time, although not to the remarkably high level recorded in the winter.
• Most respondents are confident that their technological innovation is focused properly on market differentiation.
• Confidence that intellectual property is being adequately leveraged is high and has been steady for the last fifteen months

Strategic Project & Process Management
• Confidence that strategic projects have clear business objectives remains at the high level of six months ago, although there is a reduction in the proportion who are very confident, suggesting the first sign of a possible change in mood.
• In a result which borders on the complacent, those judging their technology performance in product innovation better than average outnumber those self-assessed as below average by 15:1
• A worrying development is that fewer companies than nine months ago have formal or partial plans in place for dealing with terrorist incidents.

Technology Management
• This was a strong result which showed a definite up tick from last time. Those judging their technology management as above par for their sector increased by ten percentage points.

The full GTCI Report 2004, Volume 3, is made available for free to all GTCI Senior
International Executive Members. Report samples and additional information on GTCI can be accessed at www.Stevens.edu/gtci. To obtain a copy of this latest GTCI REPORT or previous GTCI REPORTS please contact the GTCI office at Stevens. All inquiries about the survey, report, and

GTCI partnering opportunities may be addressed to Eric Koomen at 201-216-8546 or ekoomen@stevens.edu.

GTCI is a program of the Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology, located in Hoboken N.J., across the Hudson River overlooking the Manhattan skyline. The Howe School also provides executive educational opportunities within Stevens’ Technogenesis® environment: Stevens Institute of Technology has excelled in bridging academic studies and research with real world implementation for more than 130 years.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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