Controllers expect slow growth and higher profits.

A survey of the Institute of Management Accountants controllers council conducted in September found the financial executives in a cautiously optimistic mood. Although 65% of the controllers polled did not expect an economic upturn in 1993, 62% looked for one in 1994. However, 85% of respondents anticipating a 1994 business upturn expected it to be minor.

Even though most controllers did not anticipate increased growth in 1993, most expected improved performance for their own companies. As the chart below shows, a majority anticipated higher sales for 1993 and half the respondents looked for increased profits. In projecting 1993 cash flow, 45% expected an increase over 1992.

A majority (53%) of the controllers believed employment levels at their companies would be unchanged through the first quarter of 1994. Another 29% expected an increase in employment and the remaining 18% looked for cutbacks.

Michele Zulka, secretary-treasurer of Albuquerque Underground, Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico, said the lethargic economy has disguised significant recoveries in some industries, which may account for many controllers' optimistic outlooks for their own companies. "For example, the construction industry as a whole has been improving, but our own business area, heavy construction, has shown tremendous growth," she said. "We definitely are going to have higher sales and earnings this year, continuing, I would say, for the next three to four years." Zulka noted that President Clinton's decision to release federal road-building funds that had been allocated but not spent during the Reagan administration is filtering down to state and local governments.