Got a business idea and up for a challenge? If so, register to compete in NBMBAA's Innovation Whiteboard Challenge®. The Innovation Whiteboard Challenge gives you the chance to pitch your great business idea with just a marker and a whiteboard. Take the chance and sell the concept you've been thinking off to a panel of distinguished judges at the 34th Annual Conference and Exposition in Indianapolis this September. 

 

President Obama's speech to the National Urban League conference in New Orleans on Wednesday night coincides with a debate over the role of government in helping small businesses succeed. Some black Americans say they have an especially hard time when it comes to owning and operating their own businesses. (NPR)
Learn More...

 

Temporary work was once considered a leading indicator for the job market – a harbinger of improved prospects for people seeking permanent positions. But in this recovery, staffing agencies say fewer employers are taking temps onboard as permanent workers. (NPR)
Learn More...

 

A powerful new voice for financial reform emerged this week – Sarah Bloom Raskin, a governor of the Federal Reserve System. In a speech on Tuesday, she laid out a clear and compelling vision for why the financial system should focus on providing old-fashioned but essential intermediation between savers and borrowers in the nonfinancial sector. (The New York Times)
Learn More...

 

Despite hitting all of her career goals, Shannon Brightman wasn't completely satisfied with work. The tenured professor and chairperson of the biology department at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., wanted to challenge herself in a different way. Ms. Brightman had always been interested in finance – particularly financial planning and equity research. (Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...

 

Winston Leung came into my office a tense and frustrated fellow. He knew he needed to do things differently but he didn't want to change who he was. He was visibly relieved to hear that the goal of our work together was just that – to adjust the 'do' not the 'who'. (Harvard Business Review)
Learn More...

 

For nearly two decades, Ernst & Young executive Beth Brooke navigated the office like it was a minefield, dodging water-cooler chatter for fear that someone might corner her with a personal question. Her colleagues whispered that she was a "loner," she said, scarred from her divorce or perhaps just reclusive by nature. (Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...

 

Nearly 1 billion people are malnourished, and a child dies of hunger every 11 seconds. By 2050, farmers would have to double crop production to meet the demand. (Los Angeles Times)
Learn More...

 

Barclays has privately distanced itself from its bankers' donations to Mitt Romney, the US Republican presidential candidate, after its executives were accused in parliament of fundraising for political candidates instead of working to rebuild the public's trust in the wake of the Libor-setting scandal. (The Guardian UK)
Learn More...

 

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers will do whatever is needed to preserve the euro, suggesting they may intervene in bond markets as surging yields in Spain and Italy threaten the existence of the 17-nation currency bloc. (Bloomberg)
Learn More...

 

Elite M.B.A. programs like to tout their rising minority enrollments, but are B-school students all that diverse? The answer: It depends. While many top programs boast that ethnic or racial minorities comprise a quarter or more of their student bodies, most of that population is Asian-American, a group that is statistically overrepresented at business schools when compared with their proportion of the U.S. population at large. (Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...

 

When Devi Vallabhaneni was accepted to Harvard Business School in the third round, she had no reason to think she wouldn’t sail through the MBA program. After all, she was a quant – a facile-with-numbers CPA who had spent four years working for Arthur Andersen in Chicago, Singapore, and Hong Kong. (Poets & Quants)
Learn More...

 

Retired brigadier general Tom Kolditz spent the last 12 years running the leadership program he developed at West Point. His next challenge is to make over the men and women of Yale. So are leaders born, or made? Fast Company gets the definitive answer. (Fast Company)
Learn More...

 

Register now and don't miss early bird discounts for the NBMBAA® 34th Annual Conference & Exposition, September 25-29 in Indianapolis. Visit the Conference website for our new Pre-Conference Planning Guide and get all the information on why Conference is for you, what you get for your registration, costs, hotels, programs and more!
Register Now!
Visit the 2012 Conference Site

 

The National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) -Austin Chapter will host its annual Leadership Empowerment Institute (LEI) Conference on Friday, July 27, from 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. at the AT&T Executive Education & Conference Center at The University of Texas, Austin. Author and esteemed Corporate Business Executive, Keith Wyche, will offer the keynote address promoting "The Power of Presence and Sharing the Vision for Leadership." (MarketWatch)
Learn More...

 

Here's the good news. If you are one of the athletes, officials, accredited media or accredited hangers on for the London 2012 Olympic Games then you'll likely have a wonderful Internet experience. The London Olympic Games organisers have spared no expense in ensuring that the British tax payer picks up the tab for BT's gargantuan venue network. Whether it works as the world's TV networks and media attempt to capture, stream and upload 'the' shot of whomever wins the 100 meters sprint final remains to be seen. (ZDNet)
Learn More...

 

As Twitter grows its ad business and user base, downtime for the site can mean business lost for publishers, marketers and self-promoters. (CNet)
Learn More...

 

Simon Smith, our European Head of Digital, has a mantra--"Everything is digital." He also believes that "Digital is the most misunderstood word in business today." In 2011 we surveyed more than 800 companies about their digital strategy. Some 16% described their company as "digitally inactive." And of those who had a digital strategy, two-thirds confessed to implementing it in a fragmented way. (Fast Company)
Learn More...

 

Here's how Barber Osgerby beat a thousand other companies to become the official designer of the 2012 Olympic torch. (Inc.)
Learn More...

 

Kickstarter can be a blessing to artists and entrepreneurs – sometimes too much of a blessing. Earlier this year, a slew of crowd-funded projects received money that was an order of magnitude more than requested. Such windfalls can turn a dream into a nightmare. (Wired)
Learn More...

 

It isn't the just big manufacturers, oil companies and railroad operators that are struggling to hire skilled workers. The "Help Wanted" sign is also a regular fixture at small firms such as Group One Safety & Security in Stuart, Fla., despite the high national unemployment rate, which was 8.2% in June. (Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...

 

The recovery is slow because you're not spending enough money. At least, that's what economists say. On Friday, the government will release its second-quarter report on gross domestic product and economists surveyed by CNNMoney are predicting a 1.4% annual rate of growth. (CNN/Money)
Learn More...

 

Research shows that people who practice so-called burst saving are far more likely to sock away enough money for a comfortable retirement than those who don't. (Money/CNN)
Learn More...

 

My wife and I thought about moving out of the city to cut our expenses. Then we ran the numbers and realized it made no sense. If you want to save money these days, you have to move into the city. Crazy, but true. (SmartMoney)
Learn More...

 

No one wants to be a One Percenter anymore. Including the One Percent. A new study shows that the vast majority of people earning more than $250,000 a year say they are not in the One Percent. Many of them actually are One Percenters, since the cut-off for the One Percent is $343,000 a year in income. (CNBC)
Learn More...

 

As young Americans move to cities, retailers that grew up in the suburbs are following them. And unlike previous efforts, they are doing it the cities’ way. With little room to expand in the suburbs, retailers, including Office Depot, Wal-Mart and Target, are betting that opening small city stores will help their growth. (The New York Times)
Learn More...

 

Hostess Brands – the owner of such iconic lunchbox snacks as the "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling," the 150-calorie food-science marvel called the Twinkie that drove Woody Harrelson mad in Zombieland – is in federal bankruptcy court. Again. It's the second time in a decade – which is why bankruptcy wags say the company is in "Chapter 22" rather than merely Chapter 11. Loaded down, astonishingly, with nearly $1 billion in debt, privately held Hostess faces oblivion if its creditors, owners, and unions can't agree on how to restructure. (Fortune)
Learn More...

 

It's useful to start with what the Treasury Department says they've been doing regarding the financial system since they took office. What they'd tell you is that they've been doing two things. One is trying to create the kind of healthy well-capitalized banking system that's crucial for broader macroeconomic health. The second is trying to create the kind of well-regulated banking system that's less likely to blow up in the future. (Slate)
Learn More...

 

Amid all the name-calling in America’s presidential campaign, a serious subject has begun to emerge: what role should government play? Earlier this month Barack Obama caused a stir when he said that entrepreneurs were not solely responsible for their success, but relied on the roads, bridges and other infrastructure which society constructs and which make commerce possible: "If you’ve got a business...you didn’t build that." Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has told voters looking for state handouts to vote for the other guy. (The Economist)
Learn More...

 

Today's business world is so competitive that those who reach the very top must focus "all-in" or lose out to their rivals, much in the same way as Olympic hopefuls. (Fortune)
Learn More...

 

Have you ever had something happen that took all the wind out of your sails? What did you do? Did you respond right away, or did you crater and quit?" Those questions are top of mind today as we get ready to watch the start of the Olympics in London. (Upstart Business Journal)
Learn More...

 

I'm one of the 40% of American women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who are the breadwinners for their families – that is, we earn more than our husbands. Like millions of my sisters, this puts me smack in the middle of a distinctively modern dilemma: how to handle the tensions of a marriage between an alpha woman and a beta man. (Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...