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Steve Jones/ Associate Professor of Finance: "I think the overall feeling is optimistic.
But that's in a longer-term sense. That's not to suggest that there won't be some
tough times ahead in the near term. But I think the general direction, thinking, say
uh, in a one to five year type window is optimistic."
Mark Frohlich/ Associate Professor of Operations Management: "We were delighted this year.
Of course there's been a lot of pessimism and looking at data over the last three or
four years it's been a hard go, not just for manufacturing in Indiana, but I think
across the nation. So when we got the numbers this year, we knew things had turned around.
We saw a little bit of an uptick last year but this year it was really solidified."
Steve Jones: "I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that a lot of the companies, and
in fact the majority of the survey, indicated that their financial strategy now was really
to make new capital investments and peruse growth opportunities based on those new capital
investments. That is different from what we saw in previous years where the priority more
was on selective cost cutting and potentially downsizing in some cases."
Mark Frohlich:"I think what they had to do to survive in 2008, 2009, 2010, focus in on
cutting cost, conserving cash, they really tried to focus in on their customer, customer
service, also companies were trying to either improve existing products or introduce new
products, now what we've seen is almost kind of return to normalcy if you will."
Steve Jones: "In terms of potential job growth, and I think in potential for reallocation
of firms back Indiana from overseas, I think the biggest challenge the state faces in terms
of attracting those jobs or creating those jobs here is in terms of educating workforce.
This is a traditional manufacturing state. There has been a reliable, reasonably well-trained
workforce here. Again, I think that we need to see improvements in that regard going forward.
But I think that again, the workforce does make Indiana attractive. I think the regulatory
environment does make Indiana attractive, relative to other states and the tax environment,
especially makes Indiana attractive in the Midwest."