"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- attributed to Mark Twain

It’s been a 100 issues since we came out with our first edition of BusinessToday, way back in November 1998. Just like the sultanate, life at BusinessToday too has been evolving through the years, yesterday’s ideas, content and design never just good enough for today. From a time when the price of a barrel of oil was just US$9 to its current levels of US$62, from hotel managers rejoicing if occupancy rates hit 70 per cent on rare occasions to a situation where there are no rooms available for love or money in any of Muscat’s top hotels – the economy is in fast gear. Roads, one of the first and foremost indicators of a country’s progress, are being widened where they already exist and being built in others where a graded road
didn’t exist six years ago. Sohar has gone from being a sleepy town you passed on the way to Dubai to becoming a hub of frenetic industrial activity in the last couple of years.
The changes are too many to give a complete account of. One constant though that remains through it all, is that BusinessToday is here to stay and be at your desk by the first of every month to tell you what you need to know about business realities.
A fresh look at businessmen for the new year led us to do an issue on executive lifestyle. There is a lot more that makes an executive than just his work. How he spends his time outside work, his interests, whether he believes that being physically fit is as important as being mentally agile at work, whether he makes it a point to be present at every basketball game his son plays and so on. One, when it’s the top man you are talking about, how he treats himself is probably indicative of how he treats his emplo-yees. Two, even if you are the trainee down the line, appreciating life beyond work as long as you keep delivering the results will probably get you noticed by the top management.
Someone once told me, work doesn’t end – life does. Not the most
profound statement ever, but certainly one that struck a nerve when I heard it and I still haven’t forgotten it, two years later. Absolutely nothing can make up for lost time – no matter how hard you try. So get out there and have a little fun in 2007.

Mohana Prabhakar
Managing editor