North America’s technology sector is back on track after a bumpy period that saw many casualties from the so-called “tech wreck,” a survey of CEOs has found.
A recent poll of executives from North America’s fastest- growing companies indicates they believe the downturn was part of a healthy process that served to weed out the less viable companies from the stronger corporations.
Sixty-two per cent of CEOs likened the tech sector’s woes over the past two years to a short-term pain en route to long-term economic gains over the next 12 to 18 months.
“Despite a radically changed technology marketplace, the majority of CEOs surveyed are very optimistic about the future of their companies and the technology industry,” says Garry Foster, national director of technology, media and telecommunications with Deloitte & Touche.
The company surveyed CEOs whose companies were listed on the 2001 Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 – a ranking of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. and Canada.
“The worst of the crunch that hit the technology sector and the economy as a whole has passed and these firms are ready to resume their rapid rates of growth,” Foster says.
Just over 60 per cent of the CEOs said they are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ confident that their companies will maintain the high levels of growth they have experienced over the past five years. Fast 500 companies’ revenue growth rates over five years (1996-2000) ranged from 824 per cent to 115,874 per cent.
