Growing Business Link

Over the years many executives I have talked with have told me that the most valuable advice and counsel they have received has come from the chance to discuss the challenges they face with their peers. Thinking back on my own experiences, I would have to say that I agree with them.

I don't know why this has been the case except that I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I feel comfortable that many of us have the same concerns facing us be they issues having to do with our own product or service, or how we feel about the issues confronting us all as global business citizens. All I know is that we all have opinions and our personal and business experiences have done much to form those opinions.

It is with that in mind that I thought I would make those who are interested aware of another resource that I think would add to your ability to share ideas and information with your peers.

The name of the resource is Growing Business Link and in the interest of full disclosure is a collaboration between The Economist and ExecuNet. If you are interested in learning more about this new community you will find the About Us link on the site useful.

Like everything on the net the site is organic and most importantly, everyone has the opportunity to both participate and add to its knowledge, richness, and exchange of ideas. Cost? Nothing. The only investment required is your inquiring mind and willingness to share a point of view.

The following are some of the features you'll find:

Expert market insight and analysis

Direct access to business leaders and entrepreneurs worldwide who can help you tackle issues that are top-of-mind in high-growth, entrepreneurial organizations, in such areas as finance and operations; sales and marketing; technology; global security and mobility; and human capital management

Entry to by-invitation-only events for top business leaders in the international business community

Quarterly market intelligence surveys and top-line trend summaries of the results

The inside scoop on the hottest job markets for business leaders, and much more

Clearly the more who participate the richer the experience, so feel free to pass the information along.

Chicken Little Doesn't Know Everything

As we are all acutely aware, the stock market has been behaving like something you could only find at Six Flags. Given the hype that we get on a minute by minute basis via CNN or MSNBC or whatever oracle you use to get your news fix, it is a wonder that we have anyone left who can look forward to anything.

Okay, maybe that's going a bit too far. I don't know about you, but no matter how you get your news information these days, it really is pretty tough to stay optimistic. Not that those of us here at ExecuNet have any deeper insights into the future than anyone else, nonetheless, in our own small way, some time ago in an effort to try and help our members and readers get a somewhat different perspective on how all this stuff was likely to impact their professional work lives, we set up a place on the site so that senior executives who were interested in getting a 10,000 foot view of the Executive marketplace could check it out from time to time. Over the years it has proven to track very well against what other indices say is going on.

So, to in some way try to counteract recent headlines, be advised that from where we sit, the sky is not yet falling. Based on our monthly polls of both executives (Executive Employment Outlook) and recruiters (Recruiter Confidence Index) we still appear to be in pretty decent shape.

On the executive side which tends to be more conservative than the recruiting world, nearly half of those who responded (46%) were confident or very confident that the market for executives would improve of the next 6 months. That was up 14% from a year ago, and 8% higher than July. When we asked the recruiters the same question, 69% were confident regarding the executive employment outlook for the next 6 months, and while they were not up quite as much month over month as the execs were, they were still up 2% from the July survey.

The two monthly surveys I am citing here are not the only way in which we attempt to take the economic temperature, but over the years they have turned out to be pretty good indicators and we have no reason to think they will not continue to be, so for now anyway, we are still, as they say, bullish.

Senior Executive Job Market

As time has passed since ExecuNet was founded nearly 20 years ago we have become pretty accustomed to people coming to us with questions about what's cooking in the senior executive market place. The subjects cover the waterfront from wanting to know about the advent of social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, etc. to age discrimination. Often it is the media, but obviously it is a subject of even more intense interest to our members.

While we spent a good deal of time throughout the year trying to respond to the inquiries, it became pretty clear pretty fast that it would be a good idea to at least establish some sort of a more comprehensive data source from which we could track market changes year to year. For the past 15 years that effort has turned into an annual publication which we call The Executive Job Market Intelligence Report.

As it has grown over the years, we continue to get more calls asking for copies or at least wanting to know more about it. Since it is a member benefit, naturally it goes to our members first in hard copy as well as being available to them online. Once that is done, however, we also try to be as responsive as we can within reason and cost to respond to the requests for more information.

It is with that in mind that I thought for those who might have an interest, I could at least make readers aware that in addition to an executive summary of the report which is available online at no cost, that Peter Clayton, executive producer at Total Picture Radio also recently spent some time talking with our President Mark Anderson and myself about both the report and the market in general. It was a fun discussion (Peter always makes it easy) so if it is a subject of interest, it can be heard here, and even if this is not a subject of interest, if you are not familiar with Total Picture Radio, but are interested in pro active career management in general, it is a URL well worth book marking.