|
Sales and Employment Projections Improve
Results For University of Michigan Business School/eePulse Research Study Show Projected Improvement In Sales and Employment With Highest Gains from Women Business Owners
ANN ARBOR, MI (PRWEB) August 22, 2003 -- Women business owners outscored Fortune 1000, NASDAQ firm executives and other leaders in the pace at which they expect to grow both sales and number of employees over the next month in this month's 2003 Leadership Pulse, a research project conducted by the University of Michigan Business School and eePulse, Inc.
Consisting of five, short questions, the Web-based Pulse Survey is sent out to thousands of worldwide executives on a monthly basis to measure the effects of key resources and confidence levels on overall business growth and performance. Samples of Fortune 1000 executives, top NASDAQ firms and women business owners were recently added to the survey.
A review of the trend data shows that all of the groups surveyed expect increased sales and less reductions in staff in the next month. However, the women business owners who responded to the survey scored 71 on "sales" and 34 on "employment" compared to averages of 62 on "sales" and 26 on "employment" for the other leadership groups. The women business owner scores may be higher due to the fact that, overall, these firms are smaller than other organizations or that they have unique growth strategy plans that non-women owned businesses do not have.
In the August Leadership Pulse, participants also were asked about their confidence in the overall economic climate. Data shows that confidence improved in August, with a five point increase since the same question was last asked in June, 2003. Of the survey respondents, 44% were C-core jobs (CEO, CFO, CTO, etc.), 17% were in VP roles, and the remainder were directors, managers or professionals.
Respondents were also asked how problems with ethics, lack of credibility and trust are affecting their business and what they are doing to minimize problems. 27% of total respondents said ethics issues were not a serious problem for them. Of the firms that did report ethics causing problems, the two most frequently cited issues were:
| | - More work from management team in terms of reporting, training and more
- Reduced employee trust and confidence, leading to morale problems and lower productivity
|
The second question asked leaders to share the top three things that cause a firm to stumble, and the leading themes were:
| | - Vision - Not having or communicating a vision properly
- Execution - Not executing, planning or changing a vision or strategy when necessary
- Leadership - Lack of leadership or poor, unethical leadership lacking trust
|
"Our analysis allows us to study the data by looking at both overall means and by analyzing the Within Person Change score, and in every analysis, this month's results show strong anticipated improvement in sales and employment," states Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D., Samuel Zell & Robert Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Michigan Business School Adjunct Associate Professor and eePulse, Inc. CEO.
"As the study progresses and we both add new samples in addition to studying trend data, we hope to share key leadership insights that will help both practicing managers and students who are pursuing business careers."
Individual leaders who wish to be included in the Leadership Pulse study can contact Dr. Welbourne or the research team at eePulse at 734.996.2321. A website is available for those organizations that would like to have up to 50 senior leaders participate in the study.
If a company participates with multiple executives, it will receive a personalized company report each month and be able to compare their company results to those of the overall sample and various public sub-samples.
If interested in expanded participation for an organization, please visit the following web site: www.umbs.leadership.eepulse.com.
About Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies was formed in October 1999. The Institute actively engages the nation's most successful entrepreneurs and offers an outstanding faculty composed of both academic researchers and practitioners in entrepreneurship. The Institute's mission is to focus the capabilities and resources of the University of Michigan Business School to provide education, experience and opportunities in entrepreneurship; serve as a catalyst for new venture development; and contribute important research in the field of entrepreneurship. Members of the Institute's Advisory Board include Samuel Zell, Chairman of Equity Group Investments; Michael Hallman, former COO of Microsoft Corporation; and Eugene Applebaum, Founder of Arbor Drugs.
About eePulse, Inc.
eePulse, Inc. transforms surveys into leadership tools. Using eePulse's proprietary web-based enterprise-wide software suite called Measurecom(tm) (measurement and communication), organizations and leaders immediately improve their performance. Productivity enhancement comes from action taken in response to real-time stakeholder information. Using Pulse Survey and Pulse Reporting engines, data are provided as frequently as weekly so that immediate action can be taken to confront "breaking news." Managers solve problems and pursue opportunities today, improving quality, enhancing customer service, realigning strategy, and improving organizational agility, learning, and performance at all levels. The complete Measurecom product suite includes Pulse surveys, Pulse Reports, Communicate-back tools, Issue tracking, Action planning, Learning modules, Proprietary metrics such as Energy Pulse, Valour Pulse, and Culture Pulse, and ROI reporting.
# # #
|
