A study of business managers reports the following findings: 1. Managers scarcely have time to start on a new task or to sit down before they are interrupted. 2. Only 12 times in the study did the manager succeed in working undisturbed in his office for at least 23 minutes. (Fast Company)
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The percentage of Americans working in manufacturing fell under President Reagan. It also fell under Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama (respectively). Which is to say, the decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. economy is not about who is president or what his policies are. It's the result of long-running, irreversible, historical factors (read: technology and globalization). (NPR)
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Europe’s charge-sheet against Antonis Samaras has lengthened with each turn of the Greek crisis. As leader of the-then opposition New Democracy, his refusal to support the first bail-out was seen as crippling. Later on, when he backed the unity government of Lucas Papademos, Mr. Samaras was evasive about the second rescue. And by forcing early elections this year, he was blamed for opening the door to extremists of all stripes. Would it not be better, some thought, if Greece just left the euro? (The Economist)
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Not the way you think it does, according to a new book about leadership. A review of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, by Gautam Mukunda. (Fortune)
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You consider yourself to be a decent person. You pride yourself on your conscience, and are discerning in what you buy and consume. Yet every day you get dressed, eat breakfast and go to work for a company you think hurts other people and the planet. (Harvard Business Review)
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At Tuesday's presidential debate, audience member Katherine Fenton got up and asked how the candidates planned to fix the fact that women make "only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn." It's a familiar stat that, as some conservatives argued today, is also a bit misleading. When you compare men and women who work similar hours in similar jobs, the gap shrinks significantly. But it doesn't disappear. (The Atlantic)
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Is dicing the workforce into pre-set categories going to encourage working together? If we go that route, we'll have to expand our diversity conferences by several days as we add sessions that address the unique needs of gay Asian people, physically challenged African-American workers, and, lest anyone be forgotten, the grievously under-served gay boomer Pacific Islander demographic. (Harvard Business Review)
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America is full of vast, empty spaces. Europe, by contrast, seems chock-a-block with humanity, its history shaped by a lack of continental elbowroom. Ironically, Europe’s congestion partly reflects the fact that its large cities suck up relatively few people. Although America and the euro zone have similar total populations, America’s 50 largest metropolitan areas are home to 164m people, compared with just 102m in the euro area. This striking disparity has big consequences. (The Economist)
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Three universities are collaborating to launch a three-continent degree program that will take students from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Milan. They’ve formed a partnership to establish the World Bachelor in Business (WBB). Innovative is too bland a word for what I consider an inspiring and unique breakthrough: the reframing of undergraduate business education with far-reaching and profound consequences. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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The National Black MBA Association Western New York Chapter and the Greater Rochester Area Branch of the American Association of University Women will host a welcome reception honoring Dr. dt ogilvie, newly appointed dean of RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, Thursday, October 25 from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Perkins Mansion in Rochester. RSVP by October 21 to attend.
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Below are thoughts on this year’s National Black Conference held in Indianapolis. 1st and 2nd year MBA students came back from the conference this year not only with internship and full-time offers, but stronger corporate connections overall. (Voice of Goizueta)
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Reality show stars come and go. But the winner of season four of "The Apprentice," Dr. Randal Pinkett, has proven to have staying power. Pinkett, who is chairman and CEO of national consulting firm BCT Partners, has just landed two billion-dollar contracts.
 (The Network Journal)
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The first Surface tablet, Microsoft’s dramatic foray into the hardware business, was available for pre-order yesterday. And it will be available for purchase in stores starting Oct. 26. With its release, Microsoft instantly becomes the third major player in the tablet market, a market where it is taking a fundamentally different approach than its rivals, Apple and Google. (Wired)
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Apple's next event looms, and it looks like the iPad will be part of it. What will the Mini have? Here's what CNET anticipates so far. (CNET)
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When Tom Telford helped found a vacation rental management company, Blue Creek Cabins, in 2001, he wanted a quick and easy way to connect with people looking to rent the 20 cabins he and his partner managed in and around the mountains of picturesque Helen, Ga. That is when he heard about a program called AdWords being offered by a new company, Google. (The New York Times)
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Since founding her location-services platform company, Geoloqi, in 2010 with Aaron Pareki, Amber Case has made something of a habit of turning down acquisition offers and letting VC term sheets grow stale waiting on her desk. Her logic: She and Pareki were busy using their meager $350,000 in seed money to gain invaluable experience in building an actual product. (Inc.)
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U.S. unemployment fell to 7.8% in September. But that doesn't mean the other 92.2% of adults are working. The unemployment rate only measures people who have searched for jobs in the last four weeks, while millions of other out-of-work Americans aren't included. (CNN/Money)
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Promising to match competitors' online prices is becoming the trendiest new holiday shopping tactic for big-box chains, but retailing experts say the plans may backfire and send more shoppers scurrying to the Internet. (Wall Street Journal)
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If you've already set a reasonable investing strategy that reflects your risk tolerance and the length of time your money will be invested, then you probably shouldn't be making any changes – at least not dramatic ones. (CNN/Money)
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As employers increasingly rely on defined contribution (DC) plans to support the retirement needs of their workforce, these plans are under renewed scrutiny as the primary provider of adequate retirement income. The 2012 Towers Watson survey of DC plan sponsors examines the main components of 401(k) plans and how they’re successfully combined to support orderly workforce exits. (Towers Watson)
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At the end of Tuesday night's presidential debate, CNN's Candy Crowley asked both candidates a question that has plagued Apple since the beginning of the year. "IPad, the Macs, the iPhones, they are all manufactured in China, and one of the major reasons is labor is so much cheaper there," Crowley said. "How do you convince a great American company to bring that manufacturing back here?" (CNN/Money)
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Can a 150-year-old company be part of the modern economy? Apparently so. Union Pacific (UNP), America's largest railroad, touches all parts of the economy, even globally – 30% to 40% of its shipments originate or terminate outside the U.S. – and it's doing better than many younger firms: Its stock recently hit all-time highs. (Fortune)
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What distinguishes this campaign is the inability of the candidates to agree even on basic facts – from whether Romney would cut taxes on the rich to whether Obama doubled the budget deficit. Says Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, which has been busy this campaign season ferreting out falsehoods: "My observation is that the higher the stakes and the closer the election, the more likely candidates are to start bending and twisting and making stuff up." (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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Every single one of our economists said a dream candidate would kill off a giant perk that millions of Americans love and enjoy: the mortgage-interest tax deduction. If you pay a mortgage on your home, you can write off the interest you pay on that loan. And if you get this benefit, it seems great. A little help from the government to live the American dream of homeownership. (NPR)
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The best employees don't work because they love their company or boss – they do it to advance personal goals. By helping them do so, you create driven, loyal teams that will go the extra mile to help your company succeed. (Fast Company)
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You started modestly in your career and have made it to the management team--congrats. At long last, you are in control of your own destiny, or so it seems at least. But whether your team runs an entire company, a division, a business unit, or functions, you are still subject to oversight and review. (Inc.)
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Status and authority shape our facial expressions, turning even a simple smile into a power play, new research suggests. New experiments, made public this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans, credited lightning-quick social reflexes, ingrained in neural circuits, for determining when we smile. (Wall Street Journal)
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This year, Ava DuVernay took her film, Middle of Nowhere, to the Sundance Film Festival and came back with an award for best director of an American drama, making her the first black woman to receive that honor. Middle of Nowhere begins where many prison movies trail off – visitation day. It tells the story of Ruby, an inmate's wife who struggles to start over after her husband's imprisonment. (NPR)
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