Cyprus plans to launch a state investment fund to raise billions of euros required to qualify for a 10bn-euro (£8.5bn) international bailout. The new package of measures is still under discussion to reach a target of 5.8bn euros demanded by the EU and IMF, and may include a revised bank levy. (BBC News)
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Wall Street is heavily invested in bank debt across the European Union. If banks begin falling as a result of the Cyprus 'bailout,' investors in the U.S. will feel the loss. (Fortune)
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Cyprus has about as many residents as the Bronx. All Cypriot banks combined are smaller than the 30th-largest U.S. bank. So why is the country's financial system front-page news today? The answer, in large part, comes down to two words: Deposit insurance. (NPR)
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Every year, there is the same debate about whether March Madness hurts office productivity. While some experts say the office pools and chatter around the NCAA's basketball tournament is a morale booster, just as many insist that it's a productivity drain. (AOL Jobs)
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When Jim Donald took the helm at Extended Stay America a year ago, he sensed fear. Many employees at the national hotel chain, which had recently emerged from bankruptcy, were still stuck in survival mode. Worried about losing their jobs, they avoided decisions that might cost the company money, such as making property repairs or appeasing a disgruntled guest with a free night's stay. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Banning telecommuting is not about keeping employees chained to their desks. It's about encouraging staffers to go out and talk to others. (Fortune)
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John Coletta quit as chief financial officer of Real Goods Solar Inc. in late August – just five months after he arrived. He announced his departure to his boss and other company board members in an email. Mr. Coletta says he felt guilty leaving so soon to take the same position at Quiznos. But the restaurant chain, which needed him to start in mid-September, offered a chance "to go from a good fit to a great fit," he adds. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Ursula Burns, who started as an intern at Xerox Corp., eventually rose through the ranks to become the first African-American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. During a talk at Catalyst’s annual awards conference on Tuesday, the 54-year-old CEO recounted how her mother, who raised Burns in New York City public housing, loved to give out advice. (WSJ Management at Work)
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Iceland, a country with a $13 billion economy, had six dollar billionaires before the financial crisis struck in 2008. Now it has none. Five of the men – including former West Ham soccer team owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson and Baugur Group hf founder Jon Asgeir Johannesson – have lost all, or most of, their fortunes after building empires on loans from banks that used the island’s investment bubble to stretch their assets to 10 times the size of gross domestic product. (Bloomberg)
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Caterpillar has a well-earned reputation as a global technology leader, having done a masterful job diversifying from its main construction equipment business into mining equipment, heavy-duty engines, electric power generation, and locomotives. Yet when it comes to performance in China, the world’s largest market for its products and services, Caterpillar (CAT) seems to be floundering. Although it opened a Beijing office in 1978, the company’s current market share in China is only about 7 percent, behind such local competitors as Sany and global players such as Komatsu. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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A full-tuition scholarship to a top-rated MBA program might seem like a pipe dream, but for nearly 800 students this year it was anything but. What follows is a list of Bloomberg Businessweek's 20 highest-ranked business schools that awarded the most full-tuition scholarships as a portion of total enrollment. Leading the pack is Washington University in St. Louis, where more than one of five MBAs at the Olin Business School got a full-tuition deal worth nearly $100,000. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan plans to launch team-based interviews as part of its MBA admissions process for 2014. The interviews, unlike traditional one-on-one or group interviews, will bring together several applicants to give the admissions team a chance to evaluate them on how they interact. Ross is the second major business school to experiment with this approach. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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A growing number of liberal-arts colleges are supplementing their glossy brochures touting ivy-covered libraries and great-books seminars with more pecuniary pitches: Buy seven semesters, get one free. Apply today, get $2,500 cash back. Free classes after four years. (The Wall Street Journal)
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As recently as a few years ago, broken monitors and televisions like those piled in the warehouse were being recycled profitably. But flat-screen technology has made those monitors and televisions obsolete, decimating the demand for the recycled tube glass used in them and creating what industry experts call a "glass tsunami" as stockpiles of the useless material accumulate across the country. (The New York Times)
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"We just thought a lot of people would come up and say, 'I'm going to pay with my phone,'" says chief digital officer Adam Brotman. "We didn't realize a lot of customers were going to come up and say, 'I'm going to pay with Square.'" (Fast Company)
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Management consultants would have you believe that making a ham sandwich requires a PhD. But building a successful business can actually be boiled down to 3 pretty basic concepts. (Fast Company)
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The San Francisco-based business was enjoying "slow but steady growth", says founder Bayard Winthrop. Come December and the company thought it was a little overstocked for the holiday season, but nothing was amiss. Then American Giant got the type of positive publicity many companies can only dream off. Orders rocketed, and the firm was sent into emergency mode. (BBC News)
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After visiting Argentina and seeing the impact of poverty on some of its children, Blake Mycoskie was inspired to create a philanthropic "for-profit business that was sustainable and not reliant on donations." The result was Toms Shoes, which promised that for every pair of shoes it sold, it would give away another pair to a child in need. (The New York Times)
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The first day of spring typically signals the high season for open houses and home sales. The season seems to have arrived early in some places where homebuying is already frenzied, and in many markets, the pendulum has swung from an excess of homes on the market a few years ago to a shortage. (NPR)
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As we're all too aware by now, it's been a raw decade for young Americans. The job market still has a giant, recession-shaped crater in it. A college degree is more expensive yet more essential than ever. Wages are stagnant. (The Atlantic)
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With financial institutions making a push into online-only checking and savings accounts, some industry insiders say this could be a defining year for Internet banking. But does it make sense for customers to adopt a purely web-based model? (MarketWatch)
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I used to be afraid to haggle. I didn't want to insult anyone by asking for a lower price. And I was afraid that if I did ask, I would get shot down and end up feeling foolish. I think what really held me back from haggling, though, was my belief that I would be perceived as a cheapskate. (Kiplinger's)
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Company directors say they pay CEOs based on performance. Now the numbers show they mean it. More than half of the compensation awarded to 51 CEOs last year was tied to their companies' financial or stock-market performance, according to a preliminary review of proxy statements by consulting firm Hay Group and The Wall Street Journal. In most cases, the companies must hit specified targets for the CEO to receive the promised money or equity. (The Wall Street Journal)
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If you’ve been following the media industry over the past year, you probably don’t need anyone to tell you the waves of disruption continue to increase in both height and frequency. The news that widespread cutbacks have caused dissatisfied readers to flee shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. But while those waves have swamped some traditional players, other parts of the industry have been able to ride the tide, and non-traditional sources continue to play a growing role in how people get their news – although whether that is good or bad is still open for debate. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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Companies like Box, TaskRabbit, NASA, and The Huffington Post have such huge missions that there's no easy way to put it on a to-do list. So how do founders and leaders at these places stay motivated? Read on for advice from Aaron Levie, Leah Busque, Arianna Huffington, and more. (Fast Company)
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These stories of no-holds-barred competition, contempt, and all-out conflict shaped the modern business world. Here's what you can learn from them. (Fortune)
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Having been the founder and CEO of USA Networks for more than two decades, I was quite used to leading from the front, as many CEO’s do. We know we have to set the vision, establish values, set strategy, build a team and achieve results. Like many of the CEO’s I grew up with, I was quite used to leading from the front. (Inc.)
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Young children – even toddlers – are spending more and more time with digital technology. What will it mean for their development? (The Atlantic)
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