'Mood...' is a snapshot of board views

The Herald's Mood of the Boardroom survey, conducted in association with Business New Zealand, has been an ambitious initiative.

We set out to capture the views of business chiefs from the CEOs of key corporates to the highly influential heads of advisory firms on major issues relating to the election.

Ninety chief executives and company chairs engaged in the exercise, which was conducted between August 24 and September 4.

They included representatives from Deloitte/Management Magazine's Top 200 list, the Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Business Roundtable.

The research was augmented by including chief executives from major national and local government trading enterprises and professional firms.

Business NZ surveyed its membership mid-year in order to release results at its August 23 Election Year conference. It received 1081 responses from its primarily small-to-medium-size enterprise members.

But the Herald decided to delay surveying the "big end of town" until National had released its tax package.

The delay enabled us to also capture reaction to Labour's unexpected spendup: the student loans package and its decision to expand the Working for Families scheme.

Our CEOs were more reticent than in previous surveys, citing a greater personal risk in making public comments during an election campaign.

But the chief executive response rate reached 40 per cent, which was a satisfactory result.