In the wake of the recent economic crisis, CEOs of publicly held companies are focused on succession planning, corporate reputation and brand, and restoring investor confidence, according to the sixth annual NYSE Euronext CEO Report, titled “Back to Business.”

The study finds that approximately two-thirds of U.S. companies have formal succession plans for the CEO role compared to 14 percent of European companies. While three of four CEOs feel they do enough to protect their companies’ reputations, those surveyed believe the most important characteristics that would have a positive impact on their company’s reputation are honesty, integrity, ethics, transparency and leadership by example.

The new NYSE Euronext CEO Report is based on interviews conducted with 325 CEOs from companies listed on NYSE Euronext exchanges covering a wide range of industries and geographies during March 2010. With 44 percent of respondents based outside the United States, the survey is designed to capture insights from CEOs around the world on how the past economic challenges may impact their current and future business plans. The survey was conducted on behalf of NYSE Euronext by Opinion Research Corporation, an independent market research and consulting firm.

“CEOs globally realize that sound business practices, planning and governance best serve the corporation and shareholders,” said Duncan L. Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer, NYSE Euronext. “Setting forth core values and embedding these within the corporate culture is essential to ensuring formidable and sustainable organizations.”

CEOs surveyed also point specifically to the transparency of their own internal policies and procedures as a means to increase shareholder confidence and trust. Most CEOs feel insufficient transparency about risk taking (67 percent), insufficient board oversight (65 percent), and executive compensation (55 percent) are currently among the top concerns of shareholders. As a result, a large majority of CEOs say their companies have improved transparency related to their companies’ risk policies and procedures, as well as strengthened their board’s risk oversight.

“A strong reputation built on acknowledged behaviors and corporate practices is a key ingredient to building a deep reservoir of good will among shareholders that will serve a company well,” said Jeffrey T. Resnick, global managing director of Opinion Research Corporation. “Reputation is about actions not public relations. As Warren Buffet has said, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.’ This is advice that a shareholder has to love.”

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