Social-media companies, take note: LinkedIn Corp.'s swift rise on its first day of trading Thursday proves that U.S. investors are hungry for similar stories. The professional-networking site's shares opened at $83 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 84% from its initial public offering price of $45. (Wall Street Journal)
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The majority (57%) of work interruptions now involve either using collaboration and social tools like email, social networks, text messaging and IM, or switching windows among disparate standalone tools and applications. In fact, 45% of employees work only 15 minutes or less without getting interrupted, and 53% waste at least one hour a day due to all types of distractions. (Fast Company)
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White men's already dominant control of the boards that oversee the nation's largest corporations widened during the last six years, according to a new report issued by the Alliance for Board Diversity. (Huffington Post)
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If there's one thing that's different in the post-recession job market it's this: "Submitting your résumé and cover letter is not going to get you a job." (CNN/Money)
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Now evidence is emerging that the damage wrought by the sour economy is more widespread than just a few careers led astray or postponed. Even for college graduates – the people who were most protected from the slings and arrows of recession – the outlook is rather bleak. (New York Times)
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Japan's economy shrank in the first quarter, veering back into recession as factory production and consumer spending wilted in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Real gross domestic product – a measure of the value of all goods and services produced domestically – contracted at an annualized rate of 3.7 percent in the January-March period, the Cabinet Office said Thursday. (NPR)
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Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, allegedly sexually assaulted a maid in a $3,000-a-night Midtown Manhattan hotel suite this weekend. Then, police arrested him in the first-class cabin of a Paris-bound flight. How can a socialist public servant afford such a luxurious life? (Slate)
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Every year, admissions officials from top MBA programs across the country gather in a St. Louis hotel to dole out millions in funds from the single largest MBA scholarship fund in the world, the Consortium for Graduate Management. (CNN/Money)
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Over the past decade, college students have had every reason to borrow for college and little reason not to. College costs exceeded inflation by as much as six percentage points a year, bringing the average annual price of a private-school education to $37,000. (Kiplinger's)
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Registration is now open for the NBMBAA 33rd Annual Conference and Exposition, October 4-8 in Atlanta, Ga. Register now and take advantage of early bird discounts. Join NBMBAA and save even more as a member!
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Most of the interesting news at the Android keynote didn't involve short-term stuff – it was about a plan for Android that's in some ways even more wildly ambitious than Apple's own wildly ambitious plans for iOS. Google announced that it intends to help hardware makers develop add-ons that will work with any Android device, including game controllers, keyboards and even surprises like the exercise bike it demoed onstage. (Time)
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Much has been written about the importance of entrepreneurship -- particularly high-growth entrepreneurship -- in reviving our national economy. Numerous reports show that young entrepreneurial companies are disproportionately responsible for job creation. (Huffington Post)
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Before the age of 30, Felicia Joy was a high-powered executive in Corporate America making $167,000 a year. For most, that would signal success; but Joy, who was public relations specialist for the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety in 2003, wasn’t quite fulfilled. (Black Enterprise)
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The near-collapse of the world’s banking system two-and-a-half years ago has prompted a fundamental reassessment of the industry. Perhaps the biggest casualty of the crisis has been the idea that financial markets are inherently self-correcting and best left to their own devices. (The Economist)
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"They want to celebrate, they want bonuses, they want presents, it's Friday afternoon they want pizza parties and things like that. So there's this constant sense of number one. Everything should always be a celebration, but nobody should ever really be penalized if things go badly." (CNN/Money)
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If you think paying $4 for a gallon of gas is ridiculous and long for the days when gas cost a quarter, consider this: 93 years ago you could pay just 25 cents and drive away in your Oldsmobile or Studebaker with a gallon of gas. However, adjusted for inflation Americans were paying the equivalent of $3.70 in 2011 dollars, and their income levels were hardly on par with today's average salaries. (U.S. News and World Report)
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These days, plenty of people are holding down more than one job. But deciding how much to reveal to a full-time employer about a part-time gig can be tricky. (Fortune)
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Mark Zuckerberg's second-in-command provides "adult supervision" at the company, trying to keep growth at an optimum level. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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This week, Derwent Capital Markets, a London investment firm, launched a $40 million hedge fund that will use Twitter to guide its investments. The world's first social media-based hedge fund will monitor a selection of tweets in real-time to feel out market sentiment before placing its bets. (The Atlantic)
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While policy makers in Washington and financial centers like New York and London and plain old policy wonks worry about when and even if the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling will be raised, a lot of U.S. voters apparently couldn't care less or are hostile to the idea. (NPR)
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Although most executives acknowledge the need to explore new businesses and markets, they almost always bow to the more-pressing claims of the core business, especially when times are hard. (Harvard Business Review)
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With no desire to leave their homes, a growing number of older Americans are banding together to create retirement communities in their existing neighborhoods. Better yet, many are finding governments and non-profits willing to provide many of the same services retirement homes charge thousands for. (SmartMoney)
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