NEW YORK; Jan. 24, 2005 – The health of the global economy is seen as the biggest threat to companies’ success in 2005, according to results of a global survey of senior executives released today by Accenture. The purpose of the study, drawn from interviews with nearly 900 senior executives at many of the world’s largest organizations, was to identify and prioritize the issues of greatest concern to senior management, understand how their priorities shift over time, and identify key forces behind those issues.

When asked to select from a list of 10 threats to their companies’ success in 2005, the greatest number of respondents—74 percent—selected "the health of the global economy." "The competition" ranked second, selected by 72 percent of respondents, followed by "my company’s reputation" (64 percent), "inability to attract and retain the best talent" (53 percent) and "low employee morale" (50 percent).

However, there were noticeable differences between respondents in different countries. For instance:

· While terrorism was seen as a major threat in the United States and Spain, selected by 53 percent and 50 percent of respondents in those countries respectively, only 44 percent of respondents overall viewed it as a major threat to their success.

· In Japan, the "inability to develop new products and services" was seen as the greatest threat, selected by 91 percent of respondents there, compared with 63 percent globally and only 40 percent in the United States.

· Concern over the global economy was highest in Italy (88 percent) and France (84 percent) and lowest in Germany (55 percent).

"This survey shows us that concerns about global economic health are still weighing on the minds of executives in 2005, but it is also clear that executives are sharply focused on addressing the fundamentals that drive high performance such as meeting the challenge of competition and attracting and retaining the best talent," said Mark Foster, Group Chief Executive—Products, with responsibility for Accenture’s policy and corporate affairs. "Successfully meeting these challenges will help these companies’ weather difficult economic trends and be poised to excel as economic conditions improve."

The following tables illustrate how the top business threats differ by management role and geography.

Geography	France	Germany	Italy	Japan	Spain	UK	US	Canada
The health of the global economy	84%	55%	88%	75%	74%	68%	72%	83%
The competition	69%	61%	65%	87%	77%	77%	73%	69%
My company’s reputation	73%	47%	79%	89%	81%	55%	50%	55%
Inability to attract and retain the best talent	75%	43%	61%	71%	73%	60%	62%	62%
Low employee morale	65%	45%	58%	77%	77%	48%	46%	48%
Inability to develop new products and services	68%	42%	57%	91%	69%	47%	40%	46%
Inability to focus on our core competencies	59%	37%	45%	77%	59%	39%	42%	51%
Compliance with government regulations	51%	44%	38%	48%	57%	56%	50%	38%
Instability of senior leadership	49%	32%	45%	84%	70%	37%	38%	46%
Terrorism	44%	32%	46%	41%	50%	41%	53%	35%
Other	12%	30%	7%	7%	9%	9%	1%	1%