As Europe works to prop up Spain’s wobbling banks, its leaders still face a problem that plagues the Continent’s increasingly vulnerable financial institutions – a longstanding addiction to the borrowed money that provides the day-to-day financing they need to survive. (The New York Times)
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Whether around the Capitol or around the water cooler, you gotta take care of the people that help you out. Let a lobbyist show you how to get in good and develop lasting influence. (Fast Company)
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Most of the evidence to date suggests that the job market recovery, as far as MBAs are concerned, is limping along with the rest of the economy. New research by the MBA Career Services Council (CSC) doesn’t do much to change that impression. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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Whether you're being interviewed to be an intern or a CEO, you're going to run into a few notoriously tricky questions – here's a road map of what you'll be asked, and how to craft impressive answers to even the toughest questions. (Fast Company)
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The Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament is, in my opinion, one of the best business books ever published. One passage, in particular, contains a world of business wisdom: "As a man believes so is he." (23:7) In the past, I've written in this blog about the beliefs that make people more successful. However, I've observed that there are five other beliefs that consistently make people less successful. (Inc.)
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Crafting a good résumé for a job search is difficult enough. Doing so in later life – when issues like age discrimination potentially come into play—is tougher yet. To get a better idea of how job seekers age 50-plus should approach this task, we spoke with Don Weintraub, managing director of performance improvement and career services at ExecuNet, a business and career network for senior-level executives. (Wall Street Journal)
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In 2009, two rising stars at Texas Instruments Inc. considered becoming line managers at the big computer-chip maker, with profit-and-loss responsibility for one of its operations. Such jobs are steppingstones to senior management. But Mariquita Gordon, then an information-technology manager, feared she lacked financial expertise, and Rekha Kumar, then an engineering manager, worried that a demanding travel schedule would disrupt the lives of her two children. (Wall Street Journal)
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While Europe burns, a flamboyant American entrepreneur is building a thriving franchise in the misbegotten sector that's famously menacing the world economy: Banking. The proud contrarian is Vernon Hill, whose London venture, Metro Bank, is such a smash that he's just raised $200 million in fresh capital in a private placement. (Fortune)
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A couple years ago, Spain hatched a plan to help its small, regional banks. The banks, called cajas, had made lots of bad loans during Spain's real estate bubble. The plan: Merge the bad cajas with the good ones, in order to make the losses more manageable and bring down overhead. (NPR)
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When it comes to a master’s degree in business administration, the United States boasts 5 of the world’s top 10 business schools. But schools on the other side of the Atlantic are giving American schools a run for their money, quite literally. For those seeking a truly global experience in a lustrous program – without shelling out quite as big a fortune – Europe has become an MBA mecca. 
(IEEE Spectrum)
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Bill Vogel, the superintendent of schools in this suburb of Orlando, has always been vigilant about preparing his district for the state tests. All students take practice tests in math, reading and writing in September and December. (The New York Times)
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Registration and housing is now open for the 34th Annual NBMBAA Conference & Exposition, September 25-29 in Indianapolis. Take advantage of early bird discounts and first choice on sessions and hotels by registering today!
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How do you know a telecommunications executive is misleading you? When he’s trying to invent a new phrase. "Overbuilds," for example, is how cable and telephone incumbents refer to new attempts to provide Internet infrastructure that might compete with what they’ve already built. "Spectrum crunch" is another artistic license that wireless companies have adopted, to spread a sense of doom about what might happen if they don’t get their way on spectrum allocation. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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A pair of immigrant brothers has built a $40 million business selling iPhones, Hummer parts, and other coveted foreign goods to merch-starved Russians. And the company is headquartered in Skokie, Illinois, of all places. (Fast Company)
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Should you work for a big company first, or stay as far away from them as possible? The premise: I think the average would-be entrepreneur should spend a few years working for a big company. Read the debate and weigh in. (Inc.)
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Why is the recovery from this recession different from recoveries from past recessions? In the previous two recessions, it took 32 months for nonfarm employment to reattain its June 1990 peak, and 48 months for it to reattain its January 2001 peak. Assuming the economy keeps adding nonfarm employment at the current rate, it will have taken 88 months to reattain its January 2008 peak. (The New York Times)
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The much-vaunted recovery began to show signs of slowing a few months ago. Even so, the revelation on June 1st that employment grew by just 69,000 in May, a 12-month low, suggested a more serious deceleration than anyone had imagined. The stock market plunged, giving up all its gains since January. Online punters slashed the odds that Barack Obama would be re-elected to a little over 50%. (The Economist)
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Do you fear asking for a raise? Are you anxious about ever finding financial security? Do you worry you’ll have to endure work you dislike, just to survive? First of all, you’re not alone. Second, there’s a 12-step program to help you confront your fears. (Really!) (Wall Street Journal)
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Americans are digging themselves out of mortgage debt. Home equity in the first quarter rose to the highest level since 2008 as homeowners taking advantage of record-low borrowing costs to refinance their loans brought cash to the table to pay down principal. The gain in percentage terms was the biggest jump in more than 60 years, according to an analysis by Bloomberg of Federal Reserve data. (Bloomberg)
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In all the hullabaloo and consternation about J.P. Morgan's oversized bets, we have glossed over the elephant in the room: executive pay at banks is in need of a major makeover. (CNN/Money)
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Is the era of attaching a cause to all of our purchases really the best way for companies to prove they care about the world? Or would it would be better to go back to a time when companies just created foundations to give their money away? (Fast Company)
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If you think only farmers care about the farm bill currently being considered by Congress, you're very, very mistaken. The measure will not only set policy and spending for the nation's farms for years to come, but it will also affect dozens of other seemingly unrelated programs – all at a cost of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. (NPR)
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We hear lots about companies laboring over their mission statements, which often end up being encased behind glass, hung on walls and getting steadily ignored like a porcelain doll on the mantle. Fortunately for believers in mission statements, this is not always the case. (Fast Company)
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People have always lied and cheated. And businesspeople may have lied and cheated more than most: in a survey of American graduate students, 56% of those pursuing an MBA admitted to having cheated in the previous year, compared with 47% of other students. Cynics will not be surprised that people in ties sometimes tell lies – remember Enron? Plenty of executives have overstated their educational qualifications: Scott Thompson recently lost his job as boss of Yahoo! for it. (The Economist)
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A few years ago, DisneyWorld executives were wondering what most captured the attention of toddlers and infants at their theme park and hotels in Orlando, Florida. So they hired me and a cultural anthropologist to observe them as they passed by all the costumed cast members, animated creatures, twirling rides, sweet-smelling snacks, and colorful toys. But after a couple of hours of close observation, we realized that what most captured the young children's attention wasn't Disney-conjured magic. Instead it was their parents' cell phones, especially when the parents were using them. (Harvard Business Review)
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It's been nine months since Occupy Wall Street first launched its campaign, but if the wealthy 1 percent is feeling any strain, it's doing a very good job of hiding it. Sales of high fashion, luxury cars and other fancy baubles are booming. (SmartMoney)
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