IT Stakes Are High in Upcoming Elections

Despite the divisiveness of this year's political campaigns, there's something that both top IT and business leaders overwhelmingly agree on: Elected leaders need to do more to encourage tech innovation, according to a recent survey from the Technology Councils of North America (TECNA), in partnership with the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Startups and high-growth companies especially need more access to capital, findings show, and policies should do more to benefit science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curricula in schools. The survey also sheds light on executives' future plans for staffing and other investments, in addition to their impressions of the current economy. "Businesses want government to take a modest but constructive role—such as opening the door to new sources of capital—so that private tech firms can innovate and succeed," says Tino Mantella, president of TECNA and CEO of the Technology Association of Georgia. "Lawmakers should also note that, although many executives feel confident in their own business' ability to succeed, they are quite concerned about the state of the economy overall." More than 926 business and IT execs took part in the research.