Corporate Board Member
Diligent Institute

Director Confidence Index

A monthly pulse survey of U.S.-based Directors

Launched in the third quarter of 2020, the Director Confidence Index is America’s first monthly pulse survey of public company board members on their perspective of the economy and how policies and current events are affecting the companies they oversee. Every quarter, Corporate Board Member and Diligent partner to ask thousands of public company directors the same three questions regarding their confidence in the current business environment, their outlook for the economy 12 months from now, and their projections for their board company’s revenue, profit, capex and cash/debt ratio for the year ahead. Supplementing those three questions are questions on current events, as they pertain to corporate strategy and governance.

Participation in the poll is reserved exclusively for directors of publicly traded companies, across all sectors and market capitalizations.

The survey fields during the last week of the month and only remains open for 48 hours, thus making for a very timely assessment of sentiment. The data is then compiled and analyzed to establish trends and calculate the Index’s weighted averages. The results are released the following Thursday on BoardMember.com, with exclusive comments and insights from hundreds of participating directors. Unless otherwise explicitly agreed upon by the respondent, all responses are kept confidential to allow board members to share their perspective in a respectful, truthful, unbiased and collegial setting.

For more information about the Index and the different research programs we run, please contact our Research team at [email protected]

Latest Confidence Index Posts

Confidence Index chart

Director Optimism Soars In Post-Election Survey

A special post-election poll of public company board members in the U.S. finds the majority of corporate directors optimistic about the business landscape in 2025, with 95 percent saying the outcome of the presidential election influenced their outlook.

Read More »