I was out of the office for two weeks earlier this spring. Before I left, I performed all the usual tasks: I tidied up my desk, wrapped up a few stories and set up an out-of-office email message. The note said I would be out for two weeks and would NOT (yes, I used all caps) have regular access to email. I also provided an alternate contact for the duration of my absence. But I quickly learned that my attempt to truly unplug was futile. (The Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...

 

Shortly after a devastating tornado ripped through Moore, Okla. on Monday afternoon, Robyn Rojas posted a photo on Facebook of a pile of rubble that was once her home. The student advisor at the University of Oklahoma then added one comment, "This is a nightmare." The next morning, her coworker Jacque Sexton Braun saw the post and within five minutes set up an online fundraising campaign on GoFundMe.com to raise money to help pregnant Rojaf and her husband Ivan pay for new clothes, toothbrushes, everything before their first child arrives in July. (CNN/Money)
Learn More...

 

This year, Washington's political class hasn't merely given up on trying to fix U.S. unemployment; it's given up on even discussing the subject. This is shameful, and not simply because the jobless rate is still two or so percentage points higher nationwide than it should be, or because the long-term unemployed have been left out to dry. No, it's shameful because many communities across the country are still simply being ravaged by the lack of work. (The Atlantic)
Learn More...

 

---

One Month Left to Save: Register Now for NBMBAA's 35th Annual Conference and Expo
Join us September 10-14 in Houston for our 35th Annual Conference and Expo, "Courageous Leadership: Owning Your Own Success." Register today to take advantage of early bird pricing, get first crack at hotel rooms and set yourself up for an unforgettable networking, career building and professional development experience.
Register Now

---

 

A well-timed burst of business – followed by a well-earned rest – can do wonders for your productivity. Here's how to put one foot in front of the other to get it done. (Fast Company)
Learn More...

 

After working five years as a regional director at a large health insurer in Oakland, Calif., Daniel Eddleman felt ready to move up the ladder. So he found a mentor within the company who agreed with Mr. Eddleman that his performance and leadership ability merited the promotion. But he'd need to work on a few soft skills to clinch the job. (The Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...

 

The famously busy mayor – and founder of social video discovery site #Waywire – meets with Fast Company's Ellen McGirt to discuss why nothing beats a real-world hangout. Yes, even the perfect tweet. (Fast Company)
Learn More...

 

The 2012 Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, released in mid-April, revealed some great news: Minority entrepreneurship increased 65% between 1996 and 2012, with minorities accounting for 38% of new entrepreneurs last year. This statistic was just one of many positive signs I've seen recently: The 2013 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report noted that today, women of color own 2.7 million firms, a number representing 31% of all women-owned firms. (Huffington Post)
Learn More...

 

It was a blunt and unsettling message for a country whose opaque banks have sucked in hundreds of billions of euros from abroad and whose national motto – "We want to remain what we are" – is a credo of dogged resistance to change. (The New York Times)
Learn More...

 

On May 23rd in the Colombian city of Cali the presidents of four Latin American countries – Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru – will sign an agreement removing tariffs on 90% of their merchandise trade. They will also agree on a timetable of no more than seven years for eliminating tariffs on the remaining 10%. They have already removed visa requirements for each other’s citizens and will proclaim their aspiration to move swiftly towards setting up a common market. (The Economist)
Learn More...

 

For those who just graduated from business school, landed their first jobs and are already thinking of job-hopping, you may want to reconsider, says University of Virginia Darden School of Business Dean Robert Bruner. (Bloomberg/Buisnessweek)
Learn More...

 

Media discussions of "college" or "college costs" tend to get very confused because media people overwhelmingly attended (and expect their children to attend) highly selective institutions of higher education. The big gap is between people who went to very selective private schools (Yale! Princeton!) and those who went to very selective public schools (Michigan! UVA!) while the large majority of Americans who go to much less selective institutions tends to get ignored. (Slate)
Learn More...

 

Former Atlanta Falcons running back Warrick Dunn is one of 27 players in National Football League history to have rushed for 10,000 yards in their career. As of May 13, he can add another achievement: graduating from the executive MBA program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
Learn More...

 

The National Black MBA Association provides financial support to students pursuing careers in business, academia and related professions. Since inception, more than $5 million have been awarded to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. Our mission is to identify and increase the pool of Black talent for business, public, private and non-profit sectors. The program is supported by donations from our corporate and educational partners and members. Scholarship awards range from $1,000 to $20,000 however award amounts are contingent upon funding for the current year. The application period runs from May 15 to June 30.
Learn More...

 

Cheryl Washington, Vice President and Senior Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, was recently recognized on the "Top 50 Wirehouse Women in 2013" list which published in the February edition of REP. magazine. Cheryl has worked as a financial advisor since 2004, following 14 years with several Fortune 500 companies and global management positions in marketing, finance and technology. Cheryl earned her MBA from Indiana University and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Learn More...

 

You know that awful moment, while watching television, when you suddenly remember you left something on the stove? I know it well because I’m terrible at remembering things I need to do in, say, four or five minutes. But with a timer app on my phone, I could avoid burning dinner and keep track of any number of other events at the same time. (The New York Times)
Learn More...

 

Not since the 1990s – if ever – have Internet users gone crazy over an email service the way they have for Mailbox for the iPhone. Some seemed more than happy to wait weeks in a virtual waiting list, one generated by the startup so its servers could handle the influx. ("I'm number 299,901!" opined one would-be user on Facebook.) Now just four months later, 36-year-old founder Gentry Underwood and his 15-strong team hope to replicate their initial success with this week's release of Mailbox for iPad. (Fortune)
Learn More...

 

Most of our ventures onto the Web still begin with a search – a fact readily exploited by spammers and swindlers who rely on excessive use of keywords, link exchanging and other manipulation techniques to push their content higher in the list of search results, hoping you will click on them. (The New York Times)
Learn More...

 

My neighbor Adam is a so-called Millennial. That means, according to those who follow pop culture today, that he is between the ages of 19 and 30. (He's 21.) Adam will be entering his senior year of college in September at Penn State. He was born the same year that Bill Clinton was elected president. He never knew Michael Keaton as Batman and he's never heard of Murphy Brown. He grew up watching Rugrats on Nickelodeon and Arthur on PBS. He has always had a cell phone and can't imagine a world without the Internet. Growing up, he only had to deal with 150 Pokemon characters (compared to 600 today). (Inc.)
Learn More...

 

From a pet relocation service, a wine lifestyle marketer, to a scrap metal regenerator, America's urban core is home to a variety of fast-growing companies. Here's the top 100, as ranked by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. (Fortune)
Learn More...

 

The business world has been watching this emerging generation with trepidation, and a lot of people haven’t been sure who would be the winners, and who would be the losers. Can Gen-Y, much less the new Generation Z (1995-2010), survive as entrepreneurs, and do they have the passion and commitment it takes to run a startup and attract investors? (Business Insider)
Learn More...

 

Prudential Financial, Inc. has revealed the results of its 2013-2014 "African American Financial Experience" study, which found that competing priorities and fewer investment products constrict African Americans’ ability to build a legacy of wealth. The biennial study also found that the African American community remains optimistic and continues to demonstrate financial progress, confidence and growing affluence, despite mounting debt and little contact with the financial services industry. (Business Wire)
Learn More...

 

After the meltdown five years ago, it was generally understood that indulging in debt was a bad thing. All the companies, banks, and households that had overextended themselves during the credit bubble would need a long time to fix their balance sheets, with the Great Deleveraging jolting the financial system for years. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
Learn More...

 

Reports of the death of suburbia have been exaggerated. After a five-year slump spurred by the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble, record gasoline prices and deepening poverty, the nation’s largest suburbs showed increasing signs of life in 2012. More than half of the 20 municipalities with the fastest-growing populations between 2010 and 2012 were suburbs, according to U.S. census data compiled by Bloomberg. (Bloomberg)
Learn More...

 

If you have a savings account you probably already know this: Your money there is losing value to inflation. Yields are so low that returns are not even keeping up with the cost of living. I've been watching some of my own savings dwindle. And that prompted me to take up a challenge: I'm taking $5,000 from personal savings and putting it to work. I'm not a financial whiz, pundit or any kind of guru. (NPR)
Learn More...

 

Last week I read an academic journal article that gave me the willies. It wasn’t a scary medical article. It was about personal finance. The article, which had the catchy title "Influence of Motivated Reasoning on Saving and Spending Decisions," described four experiments with a consistent result: subjects with multiple bank accounts spent more and saved less than those with only one account. (Mint)
Learn More...

 

Ever since Amazon's Price App appeared on the retail scene some 18 months ago, pundits have prophesized the demise of big-box retailers. There's no question that Amazon's innovation went right for the jugular of any volume- and price-focused retailer selling commodity goods like consumer electronics and household wares. Indeed, retailers from Best Buy and Target to Bed Bath & Beyond, PetSmart, and Toys R Us are in danger of becoming mere showrooms for Amazon and its ilk. But innovative retailers are responding to this threat by turning "showrooming" to their own advantage. (Harvard Business Review)
Learn More...

 

A growing number of companies are packing their workers into ever smaller workspaces. They're ditching offices and cubicles in favor of a more open office plan. Some companies say they're creating a hipper, more collaborative work environment. But there may be an even more important strategy in play: cost-cutting. (Marketplace)
Learn More...

 

One thing became clear this week on Capitol Hill: It is better to be a tax dodger than a tax collector. Armed with a blistering report that said Apple had avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes, senators this week had choice words for the company’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, when he appeared before the Senate’s Permanent Committee on Investigations on Tuesday. (The New York Times)
Learn More...

 

Detroit’s bond payments are "crushing" the city by hindering spending on public safety and are among the first liabilities that need to be addressed, emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr said. "The debt service that the city can’t bear is crushing it under its weight," Orr said at a luncheon in New York for the bankruptcy and reorganization group of the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish philanthropic organization. "First order of business is to get a hold of our balance-sheet issues." (Bloomberg)
Learn More...

 

If your company is already well established and has smart management, it is likely that it will become a hybrid in the next ten years, blending its legacy business with a new business model that is rising to threaten it. Take Walmart, for example. After suffering several years of Amazon's online hegemony, Walmart responded with a hybrid approach. Merchandise ordered online can now be drop-shipped for same-day pickup at local stores. (Harvard Business Review)
Learn More...

 

The iconic, 111-year-old retailer ditched nearly everything former CEO Ron Johnson attempted during his short stint in charge. Good call? (Fast Company)
Learn More...

 

What can you say to coworkers who give you a hassle about taking time off for a family problem? The department where I work is under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines and, in the five years I've been here, I've done my share of the workload and then some. Now, however, I'm faced with having to move my widowed father, who lives halfway across the country and has Alzheimer's, into a nursing home. (Fortune)
Learn More...

 

You might not think of yourself as a risk-taker. Think again. Recent studies using new experimental tools are upending the old belief that a person's appetite for risk is mostly inborn and unchanging. In fact, the reasons people take crazy gambles are far more complex. People who are cautious in some contexts may embrace risk in others, depending on factors such as their familiarity with the setting and their emotions at the time. The findings are exploding old stereotypes – that women are innately more cautious than men, for example, or that teenagers are inevitably risk-seekers. (The Wall Street Journal)
Learn More...