European officials are stepping up contingency planning for a possible Greek exit from the euro zone, even as Europe's leaders struggled to overcome differences on how to resolve the currency bloc's crisis at a summit meeting here. (Wall Street Journal)
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As Washington intensifies its scrutiny of the initial public offering of Facebook, the company’s bankers are facing questions about whether the process – even if perfectly legal – was fair. (The New York Times)
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A new survey comparing college students soon to enter the work force with current workers found that everyone wants an "impact job," and would do a lot to get one. (Fast Company)
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Networking requires strategy, research and social grace. But as competition for jobs remains high, it's easy to fumble. "Remember that you have two ears and one mouth, and use them in proportion," says Bobbi Moss, general manager at Govig & Associates, a Scottsdale, Ariz., recruiter. Networking is about building relationships – not simply selling yourself. (Wall Street Journal)
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t’s the fight of a generation. In this corner, weighing in at 42.5 million people, with a 12.3 percent unemployment rate and $294 billion of combined student loan debt, wearing skinny jeans and headphones: 20 to 29-year-olds. And in this corner, tipping the scale at 36.9 million people, with an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent and a median household networth of $162,000, wearing Crocs and a pair of bifocals: 55 to 64-year-olds.(Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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I believe you can learn about culture, even in the early stages. Here are suggestions about how to structure your inquiry. To get started, be clear what culture to learn about. In a large institution, there may be big differences across departments. Cultures also can be moving targets. Large institutions may change with their environment. In start-ups, expect everything to be different a year later. (Harvard Business Review)
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When Jennifer Michelsen, co-founder of Gunnar Optiks, met with a consumer electronics company in New York, she walked into a room full of men. In her office, she is known as a jokester, but here, "I told some jokes that got no response whatsoever: no emotion, just blank stares," she says. Her co-founder and the company’s president, both men, tried to ease the awkward moments. (Bloomberg./Businessweek)
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The Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing is one of China's most selective business schools. Its foundations were laid in 1985 when the university set up a department of economic management and a center of management science. Today Guanghua has 3,700 students and 110 full-time faculty, about two-thirds of whom have Ph.D.s from the U.S. or Europe. (Fortune)
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While English has long been the de facto language of international business, more multinational companies are now mandating that employees communicate only in English. (CNN International)
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Private student lenders are stepping up their game to compete directly with government loans. For several years, private lenders offered mostly variable-rate loans that students used as gap funding to cover their needs above what they could get on government loans. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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College is the best investment you can make, President Obama told students last month at the University of Colorado. As a metaphor for the benefits of education, that statement is fine. But taken as a claim about the financial returns of a college degree, it poses two problems. (SmartMoney)
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Visit the new site for the 34th Annual Conference & Exposition this September in Indianapolis! And get ready for registration and housing, which opens June 11.
2012 Conference Site

 

Nowadays, you look up a book on a library computer screen, but you usually have to go fetch it on foot. Until recently, we’ve had the same situation with searching the Web. You could look up a Web page using Google and Bing, but you still had to go fetch it. But that’s about to change. (The New York Times)
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Switching off your cellphone during a flight will soon be a thing of the past, according to aviation experts, who are tipping in-flight mobile connectivity to become a standard feature of air travel. (CNN International)
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The SBA brought together government contractors and entrepreneurs for nearly four hours of instruction in how small businesses can go to work for Uncle Sam. Here's what we learned. (Inc.)
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First impressions are always important in business, especially when you're approaching investors to secure funding for your startup. Angel investors and venture capitalists have specific expectations surrounding "the pitch," that charged moment when you try to sell an investor on you and your company. (Entrepreneur)
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As many newspaper owners have found out, it is extremely hard to make money by selling something that someone else is giving away. Postal services around the world have struggled to adapt since the the arrival of e-mail, often because they are tangled up in politics. Congress recently prevented the US Postal Service, which loses $25m a day, from closing some branches and ending Saturday delivery. (The Economist)
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Have Americans lost trust in banks? More folks are keeping valuables at home, whether in room-size vaults or under-bed safes. (SmartMoney)
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There is a fine line between miser and smart spender. As your accounts grow in size and decimal places, there are several key purchases that may increase your quality of life – and even save you some cash in the process! (CNBC)
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In 1900 America had around 500 carmakers; by 1908 it had 200. In 1960 Britain had 16 banks; ten years later it had just six. In both cases, this rapid consolidation came about because of a flurry of mergers. From soft drinks to steelworks, plenty of other industries have seen similar patterns. Mergers happen in waves, so the number of firms collapses suddenly rather than dwindling over time. And the next one may soon crest. (The Economist)
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Facebook Inc. (FB)’s initial public offering has triggered allegations the social network and banks led by Morgan Stanley selectively disclosed crucial information to investors. Securities law experts say it’s not clear the firms did anything wrong. (Bloomberg)
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On "Meet the Press" this past Sunday, Cory Booker, the superhero mayor of Newark, compared Barack Obama's ads criticizing the behavior of Bain Capital under Mitt Romney to a Republican plan for new ads attacking Mr Obama for his association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. "This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides", Mr Booker said. "It’s nauseating to the American public." (The Economist)
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Wow. So here we are again. Washington is spoiling for a fight over the country's debt ceiling – less than a year after a showdown that induced a credit downgrade, rocked the markets and eroded confidence in Congress. (CNN/Money)
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In today's changing work environment, it's important for leaders to provide clarity of direction. If they don’t, fear, frustration, and inefficiency start to creep in. In the same way that a bicycle is wobbly when it's standing still and becomes more stable the faster you pedal, the same is true with personnel issues at work. It's when the organization is standing still that people start to squabble. (Fast Company)
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Our world has rapidly gone from being connected to interconnected to interdependent. When the world is tied together this intimately, everyone's values and behavior matter more than ever, because our actions affect more people than ever and in ways they never have. (CNN)
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Anne Marie Bowler left work one day last week to enjoy dinner with a friend at a sidewalk café "before the sun went down," she says. Recently she ducked out of the office to attend a charity golf outing. And Ms. Bowler also likes to make time for long evening bike rides through Central Park. She could never have done these things at her old job. (Wall Street Journal)
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All the smart kids are selling their old gadgets, why aren’t you? More than 278 million mobile devices lie idle or deactivated in the United States, and nearly half are smartphones, consultants at Compass Intelligence say. Sure, most of those are destined for the recycling heap (You do recycle, right?). As for the others – the phones, tablets, game consoles, high-end digital cameras and other electronic goodies bought this decade – that’s cash sitting neglected in those drawers. (The New York Times)
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