Bullish on themselves

Most chief executives of Massachusetts companies aren't expecting the state or national economies to go better than sideways in the coming year.

But most say they are highly bullish on their own company's prospects. They also tend to be a lot more optimistic, it appears, than the people who work for them and buy their products. That's according to a Globe 100 survey of chief executives that, for the first time this year, also registered for comparison's sake the views of more than 1,000 Boston.com visitors taking the same survey.

Neither sample is scientifically precise. But they hint at what might be called an optimism gap between the corner office and the cubicle farm.

Among the top people running public companies in Massachusetts, 65 percent predict that US economic conditions will be the same a year from now. Only 21 percent of chief executives expect a better economy.

Still, 80 percent predict that their own company's profits will increase, and 67 percent predict that they will increase hiring in the coming year. In contrast, less than 60 percent of rank-and-file survey takers expect their own employer's profits to rise this year, and less still expect to see hiring increase. Rank-and-filers are also far more likely to worry that the economy will worsen, profits will fall, and Democratic Governor Deval Patrick and the new state employer health insurance requirements will hurt business .

"The results say a good deal about the mental toughness a chief executive needs to have to be a successful leader these days," says Ed Cafasso, managing director of MS&L Boston, the public relations and marketing firm that helped develop and conduct the Globe Internet-based survey. "They are barely lukewarm about the trajectory of the state and national economies, but they are convincingly positive about the business measures over which they exercise greater control -- workforce, revenue, and profits. So, the question becomes: Are they being optimistic because their reputation rides on the outcome? Or is it because they truly believe good things will happen?"

NStar chief executive Thomas J. May is optimistic. The Boston utility chief "is feeling a little bit better about the economic climate" than he did a year ago, with local companies hiring and the state's technology economy reviving. Of Patrick, May says: "The governor's been a steady hand on the wheel. We've seen him reaching out to individual CEOs, making the rounds, and letting them know he wants them to stay here and grow here," including successfully lobbying Marlborough energy company Evergreen Solar Inc. to build a new factory here instead of in Oregon.

But Sal Perisano Jr., chief executive of iParty Corp. , a Dedham party supplies retail chain, says he is "a little worried about how the continued high gas prices are affecting the consumer. The other thing that's happening is this whole mess with mortgages and people being caught with higher interest rates. Absent those two things, and what they mean for consumer spending, I'd be a little more bullish."

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.