When asked if their company had experimented with alternatives to travel in 2008, percentage of business travelers who said they had tried video conferencing, according to a survey by Orbitz: 50
Percentage of business travelers who say they don't feel video conferencing is currently or would be as productive as an in-person meeting: 85
Source: Orbitz.
For those employed workers who will not be job hunting in 2009, percentage who said that happiness at their current position is their No. 1 motivation to stay put, according to a poll commissioned by SnagAJob.com: 65
Of those who plan on looking for a new job, percentage who said their greatest motivation is fear of layoffs: 19
Among salaried workers who plan to be on the hunt, percentage who said they are most motivated by layoffs: 30
Source: SnagAJob.com.
Percentage of Americans who report adjusting their driving habits in significant ways in response to surging gas prices early last year, according to a Gallup Poll: 64
Percentage who have reverted to their old habits as prices at the pump have plunged: 12
Source: Gallup.
When car shopping, percentage of women surveyed who negotiated the lease or purchase themselves, according a survey commissioned by Automall Network: 55
Percentage who felt they'd gotten the dealer's best price: 49
Percentage who felt they'd been treated unfairly as a female: 53
Percentage of all women surveyed who said they would prefer to use a professional service to conduct the negotiations, as they felt it would save them money: 81
Source: Automall Network.
Percentage of Americans who admit the economic downturn is heaping more stress on their family, according to a survey by Country Financial: 75
Percentage who say it has sparked more arguments with their spouse or children: 33
Source: Country Financial.
Ranks of Washington, D.C., London and New York on the list of the top global cities for foreign investors' real estate dollars, according to a survey of members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) conducted by The James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison: 1, 2, 3
Number of the investors' top 10 global cities that are located in the U.S.: 5
Ranks of the U.S., Brazil, China, the U.K. and India on the list of countries voted by AFIRE as providing the best opportunity for capital appreciation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Source: AFIRE.
Percentage of American workers who feel that Barack Obama's presidency will be good for the job market, according to a survey by Adecco: 67
Source: Adecco.
Percentage of working Americans who "agree" (52 percent strongly/28 percent somewhat) that technology gives their company/organization a competitive advantage in their industry, according to an Ipsos poll: 80
Percentage of workers who say that "technology is critical to their individual productivity at work" as well as their creativity: 78
Percentage of employees who "strongly agree" that their employer gives them excellent training on all the latest innovations in their industry: 41
Source: Ipsos Reid Public Affairs.
Percentage of corporate executives who believe that having minorities in senior executive positions is particularly important to providing new ideas and innovation and to better reflect the diversity of customers, according to a survey commissioned by The Executive Leadership Council and conducted by Harris Interactive: 75
Percentage of executives who attribute the serious challenges faced by African-American women in their climb up the corporate ladder to weaker, less strategic networks available to them: 31
Percentage who attribute the challenges to inaccurate perceptions of African-American women's capabilities in climbing the corporate ladder: 24
Source: Harris Interactive.
Percentage of technology decision-makers from around the world who believe that "poor application performance" results in significant financial losses for their organizations, according to the results of a study on information technology application performance conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Compuware: 64
Percentage of respondents who state that end users complain of poor application performance even when monitoring tools say everything is on target: 47
Percentage of the time that problems are not discovered until end users call the service desk: 64
Source: Compuware Corp.
Idle Thought
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." -- Albert Einstein
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)