Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time - This is a great book that really provides an actionable perspective on personal and professional networking. If you are starting, growing or building a business I’d really recommend this text to you. Below are the 6 key points that the author develops very well.

This is a great book - you can get it on Amazon at: Never Eat Alone

• Know where you want to go;
• Identify the people who can help you get there;
• Get with those people and help them succeed;
• Let them reciprocate by helping you do the same;
• Stay in regular contact with those people;
• Enjoy mutual success and a great relationship.

from Fortune Small Business - See Fortune’s exclusive rankings of which states are most favorable to small businesses regarding taxes.

• Here is the Full List Profile for all 50 States.
• WV is noted on a companion list with the 2nd lowest cost of energy in the U.S.
• A short slideshow with more details for the Top 10 States.

From Forbes Knowledge@Wharton - Several of the more prominent myths are discussed and insightful points developed in this discussion. The article share the experiences at the recent 2006 Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference, where a a group entrepreneurs were invited to discuss their backgrounds and business philosophies and offer advice to those interested in taking the plunge. The dozens of speakers and hundreds of attendees at the conference debated the issue as they tried to find an answer.

• Enjoy the complete article

Charleston, WV - As part of an open-book accountability inititaive, WV’s State Auditor Glen Gainer III’s office has posted the salaries of more than 65,000 state employees on its Web site (www.wvsao.gov).

The report lists all state employees’ salaries for 2006, including part-time workers. Here is the link to download the full 2006 WV State Employees Total Compensation Report.

from InformationWeek - I found this study amazing, especially the three reasons mentioned below. Of course compensation has to be competitive within any geographical market - but the issues with restricted opportunities and job dissatisfaction, I feel lie in a responsibility with management.

I’ve heard it said many times, there are no such things as bad employees, only bad managers. It’s every leader’s job to get the right people in the right place and to be a good steward of individuals time and talent. This is an insightful article if you feel your team might be searching in 2007.

Excerpt: “As the economy and job market continue to improve, employee retention poses a greater challenge for HR professionals,” said Gail Griffin, general manager of CareerJournal.com, in a written statement. “The top three reasons people voluntarily leave their organizations are for better compensation elsewhere, career opportunity elsewhere, and dissatisfaction with the potential for career development.”

From StartupJournal.com - This is a great follow-up article regarding the two young 34-year old entrepreneurs who secured a distribution deal with Wal-Mart and WalGreen for their innovative ink-pens (www.penagain.com). Catapulting revenues to over $3.8 million and with re-orders exceeding 400,000 units, it has put the small startup in a challenging state dealing with the growth. Enjoy the complete article. It provides a fantastic perspective on managing high-growth opportunities.

Excerpt: “Hi, this is Tim Banazek,” came the voice on the other line. “You don’t know me, and I know you get calls like this all the time, but I’m a distributor for Walgreen, and I have an order for over 470,000 units of your PenAgain. And I’d need them fast — in time for back-to-school.”

The State Journal has published a great video recap of the major headlines in 2006.

• 2006 News Headline Recap Video.

Additionally the State Journal provides a very good video recap of the Sago Mine Disaster.

• Video Recap of Sago

Here is a short list of Tom Peter’s favorite books from this past year.

• Most notable books by Tom Peters

I’m a big believer that personal growth comes from people you associate with as well as books you read. Tom’s perspective is certainly a very global one - focuses on a wide variety of business and professional topics. This list is well worth the look as his Tom’s daily weblog.

WV Inc Magazine reports on the five distinguished individuals who’s careers have warranted distinctive recognition from Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business Hall of Fame

• Here is the complete article

Full profiles are provided on the following five award winners:

• JAMES L. FARLEY
• DAVID E. HADEN
  
• BASIL IWANYK
• JOSEPH MCGINTY NICHOL
• JOHN RULLI

YouTube has made it easier than ever to see all of this year’s high-priced SuperBowl ad spots and rank them your way!

See them online at http://www.youtube.com/superbowl