Opinion: Executives' production peaks after three years on job

Percentage of respondents who believe executives are most productive at one to two years: 33

Coming of age

Percentage of executives (with an average age of 50) who say they are concerned they will be discriminated against on the basis of their age, according to a survey by ExecuNet: 74

Percentage who believe their age has disqualified them as a candidate for opportunities in the past: 58

Branding with advergames

Percentage of the top food brands targeting children through television advertising that also use branded Web sites to market to children online, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation: 85

Percentage of those Web sites that use “advergames” (online games in which a company’s product or brand characters are featured): 73

Percentage of Web sites that use viral marketing (encouraging children to contact their peers about a specific product or brand): 64

Cutting edge

Percentage of companies worldwide that will increase spending on innovation in 2006, according to a survey of senior management conducted by The Boston Consulting Group: 72

Percentage of companies that consider innovation their No. 1 strategic priority: 40

Rank of Apple, Google and 3M as the most innovative companies, according to executives polled: 1, 2, 3

Top secret

Percentage of executives who reported having no visibility into how many e-mail messages containing confidential or private information were leaving their organization each month, according to a study conducted by The Insight Advantage: 94

Percentage of participants who reported having information leaks or who admitted to no visibility into leaks that occurred within their organization last year: 80

Of those, the percentage who were afraid to know how many leaks they had: 17

Healthy spending

Amount of money Americans spent on snack food in 2005, with a greater portion of their cash outlay going to healthier products, according to a report from Packaged Facts: $61.4 billion

Estimated loss of revenue in sales of cookies and bakery snacks from 2001 to 2005: $334 million

Estimated increase in revenue in the sales of yogurt snacks: $721 million

Housing headaches

Percentage of urban and suburban adults in the top 25 media markets who say high property taxes and rising energy costs could cause them to sell their homes, according to a study by the National Association of Realtors: 60

Percentage who say they are worried about rising home interest rates: 40

Percentage who say they are worried that they or members of their family may have their home repossessed: 30

New residents, new money

Average amount of money new residents spend for goods directly attributable to their relocation, according to a study by Moving Targets: $7,100

During the first 24 months after a move, the estimated percentage of new residents who will try new products and services from local businesses: 80

Percentage of new movers who are actively searching for a business to which they can be loyal: 80

Recruitment tools

Rank of giving employees the opportunity to add to their skills, supportive supervisors, daily flexibility and control over schedules as the things companies say are their most important engagement tool, according to a survey by Work & Family Connection: 1, 2, 3, 4

Idle Thought

“Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.”

—Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher

John MacIntyre is an author and former city magazine editor. His Figuratively Speaking column, launched in 1989, is published in more than 40 newspapers and magazines.