What will 2012 bring? With the past few years of economic turmoil and dysfunction in Washington it is difficult for many of us to have a lot of confidence in a turnaround. Still, I do sense a lot of optimism from our clients, friends and business partners, and there have been several recent announcements of new businesses moving into the area and some positive economic trends.
At the last meeting of our local Vistage CEO group we
discussed the past year and began our planning and strategy for 2012. It was encouraging to hear from all of the members that they did well in 2011 and that they were all looking forward to even better results in 2012. I thought I would share some of the group’s comments and outlooks with the goal of inspiring you to explore new opportunities and take the steps to be a contributor in the recovery of our local economy.
Our Vistage group is comprised of members from small businesses to larger publicly traded companies across a diverse group of industries. The companies represented are all local organizations that are well established and involved in the local community. In almost every case the CEO’s reported that business was up in 2011 and in some cases they had the best business year ever.
In our group the manufacturing organizations all did very well. We have representative organizations in electronics, machinery and metal and all of these companies were busy developing new products, streamlining operations and working new opportunities.
The healthcare and mining organizations reported record years and these organizations invested in new equipment, office space and personnel. There was a similar trend in the media organization and the auto industry.
The companies involved in professional services all had growth years with new opportunities in existing clients and a growing client base of new clients and new companies. The staffing company reported strong growth compare to the last couple of years, and based upon their industry contacts, the same trends are being seen by their peers around the country.
When the discussion turned to goals and outlooks for 2012 the general consensus was for continued growth and optimism based upon strong pipeline forecasts of new business and expanding opportunities. Many of the organizations in our group are planning on acquiring new systems, space and equipment and most of them are hiring now. Another interesting trend is that many of the organizations are expanding regionally and finding new business outside of northern Nevada.
We are seeing these same growth trends in the organizations that we support and partner with. We just completed an annual client survey and most of the businesses that we talked to have seen similar growth in 2011 and are forecasting significant growth in 2012.
Of course there are many businesses that are still struggling and several industry segments that are recovering more slowly. However, with so many organizations realizing the economic recovery it feels like 2012 will be a good year for the region.
