Leading off.

With a booming economy, real estate values soaring, job opportunities aplenty, and--who knows--maybe even a decent year brewing in Riderville, these indeed are heady times in Saskatchewan. To many of us (myself included) who have spent their entire lives here, things seem to be barreling along at an unprecedented clip. And for a publication that has long encouraged its readers to seek things like a positive mindset, strategic alliances, and to embrace and impact change, we find these to be very exciting times.

Even though there are drawbacks--traffic congestion, longer line ups at retailers, ongoing employee searches, and social implications such as affordability for first-time home buyers, the pros far outweigh the cons. Indeed even these shortcomings still allow for other options: leave earlier, shop online, become an employer of choice, use some of your newfound equity to help the kids with a downpayment of their own.

And though it's not become a 'Be-careful-what-you-wish-for' scenario, I couldn't help but think to myself (as I sat through yet another traffic jam) that we have to take better precautions for what lies ahead of us.

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For example, on two successive days recently, two exemplary CEOs announced their impending departures from Saskatchewan-based firms. After a 30-year career culminating in the top spot, IPSCO CEO David Sutherland announced he was leaving the company effective the day before completion of IPSCO's $7.7-billion acquisition by Swedish steelmaker Svenskt Stal AB (SSAB).

Meanwhile, Information Services Corporation (ISC) CEO Mark MacLeod, after fundamentally changing the Crown corporation he was brought in to reorganize, announced his intention to leave the Crown to, in all likelihood, return to the private sector. Although the circumstances are entirely different, the net result is the same: two leaders of the Baby Boomer generation are leaving a void in the heirarchy of Saskatchewan business.

These two resignations illustrate a phenomenon that is going to only get more pronounced with time. As the boomer generation ages, opportunities are going to become more plentiful for middle, and particularly upper, management positions.

That's all well and good for public and Crown corporations that have the necessary infrastructure and corporate governance to ensure that the corporation will go on regardless of who's at the helm. (How well they cope is another issue.) But what about the smaller ventures, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)--the backbone of our economy; who amongst us is looking to the horizon and beyond there?

Paul Martin's Back Page column discusses succession planning. This should be required reading for all SME owners who are contemplating retirement in the next few years. Because the time to start thinking about it was yesterday, as there's not a short-term solution for this phenomenon that's going to smack Saskatchewan upside the head.

After all, you'd hate to be stuck in a traffic jam when you have a business to sell.

Keith Moen, Editor

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