C-Level IT Execs Believe Industry in for More Than a Year of Downturn: Survey

A survey of C-level technology executives revealed Oct. 20 that a substantial majority believe that the industry is currently being hit—and will continue to be hit—especially hard by the downturn in the U.S. macroeconomy and that it is not a short-term situation.

DLA Piper, an international law firm that does venture capital and intellectual property work in the tech sector, released results of the survey a day ahead of its annual tech summit in East Palo Alto, Calif.

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"Like just about anything else, people looked at this survey as the glass as either being half-full or half-empty," DLA Piper's Peter Astiz, coordinator of the survey, told me. "Responses varied on the perspective of the individual, and that's to be expected."

DLA Piper distributed the survey questions in late September and early October 2008 to senior executives at a broad cross-section of technology and venture capital companies.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents identified themselves as a CEO, president or managing director.  Forty-four percent work for companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, and 28 percent work for companies with 5,000 to 10,000 employees.

The current financial crisis is not the only major driver in some of the responses in the survey, Astiz said.

"Increasing regulation, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act]—which are very costly to enterprises—and the stagnation in IPO activity are also factors to be reckoned with," Astiz said.