CEO Stories with Nick Araco and Tom Stewart, Achieve Next

The company, whose offerings include peer-to-peer networks, benchmarking, and human capital solutions, surveyed more than 200 companies, and found a strong feeling of optimism about where business is headed. Three out of four companies expected strong business performance for the remainder of the year, and more than half of that group expected revenues to climb at least 10 percent.

STILL FIGHTING FOR TALENT

Businesses are worried about both hanging onto the talent they have and finding new talent to sustain growth. Hanging onto and upskilling current employees is as big a concern as finding new employees. And in both cases, it comes down to more than money: benefits (including work-from-home flexibility), culture, and mission all play a role. For women, the flexibility of working from home was seen as the No. 1 priority.

NO SHORTAGE OF CAPITAL

There seems to be no shortage of capital or appetite for making deals; the lack is in the availability of deals to be made. One group put the amount of capital available for deals among smaller- and mid-sized enterprises at one trillion, six hundred billion dollars. Among the CFOs surveyed, one in five ranked finding an acquisition target by yearend as a top priority. Covid, too, remains top-of-mind for businesses, who realize it could still cast a cloud over their sunny predictions.