Worldwide Business Leaders Rate President Bushs Leadership in 2003

Michigan Business School/eePulse, Inc. Study Shows Faith in U.S. Leadership

ANN ARBOR, Mich (PRWEB) January 9, 2004 --In the 2003 year-end review of the December Leadership Pulse conducted by the Michigan Business School and eePulse, Inc., a real-time learning and research project to help todays leaders manage growth and change, top-level businesspeople were asked to rate the performance of the United States most senior leader, President George W. Bush. The results indicate that 13% of the respondents rate President Bushs performance in 2003 as excellent" while 11% rate it as unacceptable".

The overall data indicate the following:

• 55% of respondents rated President Bushs performance as a leader in 2003 as either good, very good, or excellent,

• 15% rated his performance as fair, and

• 30% rated his performance as either poor, very poor, or unacceptable.

Even with the economic downturn, war and worldwide events of the past year, these results indicate that the majority of high-level business leaders have faith in President Bushs leadership and look forward to better times in 2004," states Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D., adjunct professor at the University of Michigan, founder of the Leadership Pulse study and eePulse, Inc. CEO. It seems that the leaders who rated President Bushs leadership more negatively were concerned with the outcomes of his leadership from a global perspective while those providing positive ratings talked about his overall leadership style and personal charisma."

Over 900 senior leaders from Fortune 1000 to smaller, entrepreneurial firms participated in the December Leadership Pulse survey and consisted of 52% in C-core jobs (e.g. CEO, CFO, CIO, etc.), 19% Vice Presidents, 20% at the Director or Senior Manager level, and the remainder in management or professional non-managerial jobs. Of the respondents, 14% reported being in organizations with over $250m in sales, and 53% reported leading organizations with less than $5m in annual sales.

Representative comments from respondents providing the two extreme positive and negative scores include the following:

Excellent Rating:
President Bush has done an excellent job, under extremely trying conditions, to provide protection to our nation while doing things necessary to turn the economy around"
The most honorable man is doing all he can to protect all of us and our children and grandchildren"
President Bush has done more to restore dignity and honor to the top position in our national than any other person"

Unacceptable Rating:
Our country is now seen as very one sided, arrogant and having a whats good for us is good for everyone else attitude"
Bush has destroyed years worth of global goodwill"
In my opinion he is a liar and a fool, has put the world at greater risk of violence, transferred wealth from the poor to affluent, and put the country in debt, damaged education, health services, and the environment"

Persons requesting more detailed analyses of these data or individual managers who wish to be included in the Leadership Pulse study can contact Dr. Welbourne 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 monthly benchmark data at no charge. If interested in individual participation or expanded participation for benchmark reports, please visit either www.eepulse.com (see Leadership Pulse) for more information or sign up at 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 nations most successful entrepreneurs and offers an outstanding faculty composed of both academic researchers and practitioners in entrepreneurship. The Institutes 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 Institutes 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 eePulses 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.

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