Just off the press: the best practices in marketing places as reported by a recent survey* of corporate executives and site selectors:

1. What others say about your community is more important than what you say about yourself - In other words, gather testimonials of your community’s CEOs on why they like doing business in your region.
2. Executives now consider “internet/website” to be the most effective marketing tool – Looking at many websites, just this information alone should convince you to invest in one of the main way your audience wants to interact with you.
3. Websites: Executives want substance, not style – Especially up-to-date statistics (incentives calculator, demographic information, buildings & sites)
4. Face-to-Face meetings still matter – Economic development is, like any business, a relationships business (even if some still use the used car salesman approach…). Indeed, second only to “internet/website”, executives rank the “planned visits to corporate executives” as the most effective marketing technique – referring to substance above, you need to have something valuable to say when you meet them.

*Development Counselor International inc.

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The One Habit of Highly Successful People: Critical Thinking

I know many got very rich in listing the “how to” of highly successful people (and here successful for me means happy, fulfilled not necessarily money or position in life). And it’s true – it takes an ensemble of factors to create the whole picture. But if you look at the heart of it, the one factor that enables all the rest, you have to admit that you are what you think. Read More

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We could say that everything has been said and written about Abraham Lincoln but this recent book called: “A Team of Rivals – The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin is interesting because of her perspective on the choice of President Lincoln in surrounding himself with bright men who had lost the Republican nomination to him and greatly despised him. It is not about Lincoln being the greatest man on earth (as sometimes he is depicted) but more on his keen ability to understand human behaviour and motivation. An inspiration to improve our leadership capabilities.

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Monthly Quote

"Imagine that you had a car and that was the only car you’d have for your entire lifetime. Of course, you’d care for it well, changing oil more frequently than necessary, driving carefully, etc. Now consider that you have one mind and one body. Prepare them for life, care for them. You can enhance your mind over time. A person’s main asset is themselves, so preserve and enhance yourself"

Warren Buffet