Participation levels in leading social networks climbed in the last year, and Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, says there was a five-fold increase in online networking for wealthy over 55-year-olds. 

Follow the money to online social networks, as the latest Wealth Survey from the Luxury Institute revealed that 60 percent of wealthy Americans with an average income of $287,000/year and net worth of $2.1 million participate in online social networks, compared to just 27 percent a year ago.

These affluent individuals are most likely members of 2.8 social networks, with roughly 110 connections, and membership in social networks increase with earnings: those earning over $300,000/year average participation in 3.4 social networks.

No phone, email, Internet or visitors. What would occur during your period of solitude?

Last month, Starbucks closed all their U.S. stores for three hours for an employee training session. In our 24/7/365 world, this seems almost unthinkable, especially for an establishment that sells coffee — the fuel that enables us to live with little downtime.

This retail stoppage got me thinking about what life would be like if I were to shut down my operations for three hours. What could I accomplish in that time period without email, phone and visitors? Internet service would have to be suspended too, lest I become tempted to spend the time reading or watching videos.

“Executive recruiting is arguably the most important task in the world of business…”

So begins the endorsement by Wharton School management professor Peter Cappelli for Joseph Daniel McCool’s Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent [April 2008, Davies-Black Publishing], the first book in more than two decades to explore executive recruiters’ unparalleled influence on corporate performance, culture and profits. It has already been recognized as “one of the 30 best business books of 2008” by Soundview Executive Book Summaries.

Executive recruiters control access to the world’s most highly paid corporate management jobs. The results of their work have also influenced simmering public debates and Congressional testimony about executive pay, leadership diversity (or the lack thereof), high profile CEO searches and the very definition of corporate leadership for hiring organizations around the world.

In the pages of his new book, McCool exposes how executive recruiters orchestrate the confidential process that ultimately leads to some of the most consequential decisions ever made by any business, large or small. They are decisions about hiring the senior executives who will mold the strategy that drive shareholder value, knit the fabric of workforce culture and set the course that dictates the customer experience, the corporate brand and financial performance.