Seventy-five percent of middle-market executives — those representing firms with between $100 million and $3 billion in annual revenue — say that they will need additional capital to remain competitive when faced with disruption in their industry, according to a new survey released today by CapitalOne.
Fifteen percent of executives said that disruption in their industry had already had a material impact on their finances, and 32 percent said they expected such an impact within the next year. While more than two-thirds of executives across all industry said they had a banking relationship that could provide advice and support in the event of a disruptive event, 32 percent said they did not.
Banks remained a preferred source of funding for middle-market firms, the survey found; executives said that to meet their capital needs, they would consider seeking asset-based loans (38 percent) or asset securitization (36 percent). The survey also showed an appetite for alternative capital sources — 40 percent said they would consider a peer-to-peer loan, and 28 percent said they would consider crowdfunding.
Across all industries, a majority of executives said that they generally view disruption as an opportunity, and 60 percent said they were actively pursuing a disruptive strategy. Despite that, just one in six said they felt “quite or extremely prepared” to deal with a disruptive event. Executives agreed that big data analytics were likely to have the greatest chance of disrupting their business, followed by new mobile applications and capabilities.
