Eric Holder Jr., the nation's first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and 5 1/2 years of fights with Republicans in Congress. (NPR)
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Federal officials issued a string of warnings Wednesday about the human toll the rampaging Ebola crisis could take. "I’ve never seen a public health situation with this much need for immediacy," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a congressional seminar on Capitol Hill. "One of our staff described, on the street, seeing babies left by parents who were afraid of infecting them." (Businessweek)
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In a new book out this week chock full of Google-flavored business wisdom, How Google Works, Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt and former Senior Vice President of Products Jonathan Rosenberg share nine insightful rules for emailing (or gmailing!) like a professional. (Fortune)
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Not happy at work? You're not alone. One survey found that a whopping 74% of workers want to leave their jobs. But before you walk away, make a list of changes that would make you happier. It might come in handy. According to recent research, it’s common for workers to ask their employers to make changes to accommodate their individual needs. With a little negotiation, you could design the job you want. (Fast Company)
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Sometimes, productivity science seems like an organized conspiracy to justify laziness. Clicking through photos of cute small animals at work? That's not silly procrastination, Hiroshima University researchers said. Looking at adorable pictures of kittens rolling helplessly in balls of yarn heightens our focus, and the "tenderness elicited by cute images" improves our motor function on the computer. (The Atlantic)
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Saying "No excuses!" is a popular way to show you won't dodge responsibility. But when something beyond your control goes wrong, you may need to explain. So how do you make a legitimate excuse without sounding lame? Certain types of excuses, used sparingly, can avert career damage, research shows. But hitting the right note requires some nuanced skills. For instance, it helps to give specific, truthful reasons for a mishap and show empathy for anyone who was harmed. Surprisingly, making an excuse in advance – when you think you just might perform poorly – can also lead others to be more forgiving. (The Wall Street Journal)
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As an employer, or manager, you already have your hands full trying to keep employees engaged and motivated. Inevitably you will also have the task of firing employees. No matter the reason – they're not right for the job, they're unethical, or you don't have the money to pay their salary – there will come a time when you have to deliver the bad news. It is always an unpleasant experience. (Entrepreneur)
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Google’s leaders say they are unhappy about the firm’s poor gender diversity, and about the severe underrepresentation of blacks and Hispanics among its work force. And so they are undertaking a long-term effort to improve these numbers, the centerpiece of which is a series of workshops aimed at making Google’s culture more accepting of diversity. (The New York Times)
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Studies show that companies with women in top roles earn higher returns, share prices, and organizational-health scores than those with all-male leadership. Yet despite mounting evidence that executive diversity is associated with better performance, the glass ceiling has stayed mostly intact: worldwide, women still hold less than a quarter of senior management positions, and solutions such as boardroom quotas have so far failed to change the overall number of female executives. While business leaders debate measures to address gender inequality, they might consider its relationship to that all-important marketplace metric: economic growth. (The Atlantic)
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The Ebola outbreak is having a devastating effect on the economies of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, crippling major industries and forcing people out of work. The three nations hardest hit by the virus are among the poorest on the African continent. Combined, their GDP is less than 3 percent of Nigeria's, the regional economic powerhouse. (NPR)
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What does it mean to be Nigerian? That's the question on the lips of many in Africa's most populous country as new national identity cards are being rolled out. But this is an I.D. with a difference. The card, which fits into a wallet and comes with a credit-card style chip, can also be used to make electronic payments. (CNN International)
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Sure a lot of people speak Mandarin – also known as Putonghua, China’s official language – but it’s still not enough, say education officials. About 30 percent of China’s 1.3 billion population, 400 million people, can’t communicate in Mandarin, according to Li Weihong, director of the State Language Commission, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Sept. 21. Include only those who speak the official dialect fluently, and the number shrinks further. (Businessweek)
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We've known for a long time that inequality and systemic educational barriers are holding back many young African-Americans. President Obama has led an initiative to help close the opportunity gap for young black men. But what about the girls? For young women of color, progress has been painfully slow, says a new report from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Women's Law Center. (NPR)
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The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School posted a 1.2% increase in applications to its MBA program this year, a bright spot of admissions news after some years of declines. The profile for the class that started this fall and will graduate in 2016, published online, reported that 6,111 people applied for admission to the full-time M.B.A. program, compared with 6,036 for the fall 2013 entering class. (The Wall Street Journal)
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African American focused online shopping mall PurchaseBlack.com is the 2014 Innovation Whiteboard Challenge champion. PurchaseBlack.com competed against 9 other national semi-finalists in a preliminary round, where three finalists presented before an audience of executives, directors, and America’s preeminent African American business professionals. (BlackNews.com)
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Talented MBA candidates from more than 30 of the nation's leading business schools competed for $50,000 in scholarships in the 2014 National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Student Case Competition, sponsored by Chrysler Group LLC. The NBMBAA/Chrysler Group National Student Case Competition is an annual event designed to give high-powered student teams an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and problem-solving skills in a formal competition. (PR Newswire)
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It’s the ultimate first world problem. You go to the Apple store, drop $400 for an iPhone 6 and then discover it doesn’t fit in your pocket. Gasp! In the past, such problems were limited to hipsters with curly mustaches, whose jeans were so skinny they might actually be cellophane wrap. But now mere mortals with normal pants and purses are in despair. (The New York Times)
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Blackberry has launched a distinctive handset featuring a square screen and a keyboard that offers both physical keys and touch-enabled gesture controls. It said work-focused users in particular should benefit from the Blackberry Passport's innovations. Sales of the company's handsets – which are powered by its own operating system – have been in decline. (BBC News)
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Like any good tech startup, Uber is in a dogfight everywhere it turns. Like few tech startups, everywhere it turns it’s ready for confrontation. Yet Uber has at least one initiative in which it’s making love, not war. Ten months ago the startup introduced a modest program to help its drivers finance car purchases. (Fortune)
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After his contract expired in 2012, Mr. Carson found it difficult to continue an entrepreneurial approach within the confines of a large public company, and he decided to move on. What happened next surprised him: He began to realize how much of his identity was wrapped up in being a business owner. (The New York Times)
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One of the outcomes of the 2008 global financial crisis was the "funding gap". Banks were less willing to provide loans and investors moved capital into more stable platforms. In general, the market tolerated less risk. In this new environment, raising capital became the greatest challenge for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). They needed new platforms. Enter crowdfunding. (Entrepreneur)
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The majority of entrepreneurs set out to create a company with $10,000 or less. That's according to a recent Intuit survey of 500 small businesses across the country. The survey results also revealed that three quarters of those business owners relied on their own savings to get started. Meanwhile, most of them didn't initially feel like they had enough financial know how to use that money smartly. (Inc.)
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Parents are dispensing allowances in bitcoins so their kids learn to be digital citizens. Marijuana smokers are buying buds from bitcoin-enabled vending machines. Consumers in emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia are starting to use bitcoin to hedge against currency volatility. (Bloomberg)
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Why do so few workers have a pension plan these days? Blame the shareholders, says a new paper. Adam Cobb, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, suggests that shareholders have gained greater influence in firms while employees’ power has waned. And in their hunt for big returns, shareholders – particularly financial investors that purchase large stakes – play an important role in the shrinking pool of pensions. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Walmart is introducing a mobile checking account for its customers that will eliminate the overdraft and bounced-check fees traditionally charged by banks. It is Walmart's biggest push into the financial services sector and its target is customers that have limited access to traditional banking. (Daily Finance)
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Before they can drive off the lot, many subprime borrowers like Ms. Bolender must have their car outfitted with a so-called starter interrupt device, which allows lenders to remotely disable the ignition. Using the GPS technology on the devices, the lenders can also track the cars’ location and movements. (The New York Times)
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Unlike about 10 million other people, Paul Roberts isn't upgrading his iPhone. He's sticking to his two-and-a-half year old iPhone 4S as long as possible. It's not just that he's avoiding the fistfights and long lines. Roberts, 53, is the author of a new book, "The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification," that makes the case that buying a new phone is part of a broad and serious American affliction. (Bloomberg)
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Want to get your credit card issuer to waive a late fee or drop your interest rate? All you have to do is ask, a survey released Thursday by CreditCards.com found. Nearly nine in 10 cardholders have successfully had a late payment fee waived after asking their credit card company to do so. (Money)
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The master of management program, a familiar offering in Europe, is catching on in Canada. Unlike the MBA, which requires several years of work experience, the master of management caters to those from non-business academic backgrounds and no job history. (The Globe and Mail)
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In a quarter of a century, most business students will never enter a classroom. The faculty lectures, the MBA student discussions and the homework assignments will occur instead over the Internet, where each part of the educational experience can be played as many times as it takes to fully absorb or satisfy, as if it were a Seinfeld rerun. (USA Today)
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Americans might think they know how bad inequality is, but it turns out they actually have no idea. A new study conducted at Harvard Business School found that Americans believe CEOs make roughly 30 times what the average worker makes in the U.S., when in actuality they are making more than 350 times the average worker. "Americans drastically underestimated the gap in actual incomes between CEOs and unskilled workers," the study says. (The Washington Post)
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A new report by Credit Suisse reveals that despite an increase in female business leaders, women executives remain in support roles – keeping the bulk of corporate power in male hands. (Fortune)
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The Treasury Department is trying to prevent U.S. corporations from relocating abroad to cut their tax bills by eliminating some of the incentives. But some tax experts say there is only so much the government can do. (NPR)
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The 25 largest U.S. public pensions face about $2 trillion in unfunded liabilities, showing that investment returns can’t keep up with ballooning obligations, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The 25 biggest systems by assets averaged a 7.45 percent return from 2004 to 2013, close to the expected 7.65 percent rate. (Bloomberg)
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More boards are heeding activist demands to bring on more members with industry experience – and get rid of some without it. Industry veterans can better monitor the chief executive and cope with competitors, governance specialists say. (The Wall Street Journal)
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The economy’s slow but steady improvement should be good news. But employers may find a cloud lurking behind the sunny forecast: They are at risk of losing some of their most valuable talent – and they may not even realize it. These aren’t the usual suspects. Instead of the 50-something Baby Boomers and the Millennials in their late 20s and early 30s, I’m talking about Generation X, demography’s long-neglected "middle child." (Harvard Business Review)
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British billionaire Richard Branson has long been a business revolutionary, but his latest venture is raising a few eyebrows. The Virgin Group founder has introduced a "No Vacation Policy" policy. Staff can take time off whenever they want, for as long as they want. They don't need managers to sign-off on it, and there's no tracking involved. (NPR)
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Few non-profits are immune to the negative effects of unreliable volunteers. The problem is well documented: The Corporation for National and Community Service reports that one out of three volunteers don’t return the next year. That costs both time and money. (The Atlantic)
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