Optimism reigns in global leader survey.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Business outlook - By Accenture

Global business leaders seem to be smelling the roses, at least for their own operations. Three-quarters of senior executives in North America, Europe and Asia believe their companies and industries will grow in 2006, according to the results of an online survey released by Accenture.

The annual survey--which identifies the business outlook and major concerns of more than 900 "C-suite" executives in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada and China--also found that 78 percent of companies will be hiring in the next few months, either to fill crucial positions as they are vacated or to actively recruit new employees. In addition, nearly half (46 percent) of the companies expect to increase spending this year.

"The perception among C-suite executives that the global economy is getting stronger should be a hopeful indicator for global business," said Mark Foster, chief executive of Accenture's Products operating group. "As optimism for the global economic climate improves, top executives are more apt to focus on improving their own businesses by spending for programs that might have been curtailed or postponed and by hiring new employees to carry out their growth plans."

Some other highlights of the survey:

* Most senior executives expect their companies to expand in two ways: by building deeper relationships with current customers and by launching new products and services.

* Executives in China are the most optimistic about economic growth. In fact, nearly every Chinese respondent (98 percent) predicted growth for his or her...