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Eight in 10 respondents (78 percent) say the NAFTA region will receive more focus through 2007, with the U.S. most often cited (65 percent) as the area of more focus for 2007, followed by China (45 percent) and India (42 percent). When the U.S. is removed from the list, China is chosen as the most strategically important region (25 percent), with Western Europe a distant second (15 percent). The BRIC bloc — Brazil, Russia, India and China — scored among the 35 percent of CEOs who choose these countries as strategically most important, with 62 percent saying the BRIC bloc will receive more focus through 2007.
The majority (57 percent) describe emerging markets as an opportunity, with the greatest number (38 percent) indicating that their intentions in entering emerging markets through 2007 involve expansion of local marketing and sales activities. Indeed, 54 percent of CEOs say their reason for focusing on a particular area is to sell products and services, versus choosing markets as locations for operations or manufacturing plants (26 percent).
CEOs are three times as likely to say the impact of the global trade environment on their business is positive rather than negative. U.S.-based CEOs are far more likely than those outside the U.S. to think the impact is neutral rather than favorable.
With 41 percent of CEOs indicating they have moved some operations offshore, most rate their experience as successful, and very few have repatriated operations or are considering doing so.
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