FMI Publishes its 2014 NRCI Fourth Quarter Report

Under the categories of uncertainty, security and optimism, FMI asked panelists about some knowns and unknowns from the last quarter of 2014. A few commented on the political nature of the questions, not immediately seeing FMI's tie-in with the purpose of its Index, that is, to gauge industry executives’ outlook on business prospects and issues at a given time. No doubt, many of the items included in their questions were political in nature, because either they were caused by national and international politics or possibly they could be solved by political actions. More often, the clash between causes and solutions has created a growing uncertainty in the past few years. This did not go unnoticed by FMI's panelists, but there is a strong sense that NRCI panelists have grown tired of these issues and have more real business problems to address. In brief, FMI found that the NRCI panelists were more optimistic as a group than concerned about security and uncertainty. For instance, the growing concern for finding skilled talent to perform a growing backlog of work topped the uncertainty of political bipolarization. Data security and general cyber security topped the potential for terrorism and runaway infectious diseases.