During 1997 The Business Forum held many meetings on 401(k) Plans and just one meeting on benefits for senior executives and key employees. Guess which one packed in these days of shortage of highly qualified professionals to help organizations take advantage of the expanding economy? What we are finding, as National Health appears to be progressing stealth-like across the landscape, one little bite at a time, is that recruiting and retaining key personnel has transformed the way benefits packages are written for these people. Business owners and executives in larger organizations are also looking to non-qualified benefits programs as the key to their future security. Few people would argue that the initiatives needed today in our automated and just-in-time economy, means that retaining and satisfying key members of your organization is far more important today than it ever was.

When a major coffee shop chain is offering stock options to part-timers, the playing field has changed. Losing one key player could throw the delicately balanced way we operate our businesses these days into mayhem. Benefit Plans are what boots were to Napoleon's soldiers. The task of developing non-qualified benefit plans has become so complicated, we thought a series of discussions with accredited experts on the procedure could only help our members and supporters. See where your organization stands in today's new paradigm of executive compensation. You might be just be very surprised.