Early Bird Registration Rates End TUESDAY! Register Now for The National Black MBA Association® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition 

Celebrating 45 years of Black professional development and executive leadership, The National Black MBA Association® (NBMBAA®), the nation's premier organization for Black business professionals, today announced early bird registration is open for  the upcoming NBMBAA® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL where more than 9,000 attendees are anticipated to convene for networking, leadership development, and career opportunities.

Early Bird Registration Discounts are still available, but only if you register by Tuesday, June 30, so don't delay! Take advantage of the lowest rates for this can't-miss event.

 

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Wall Street’s freshest recruits are making more than ever – and doing less to earn it. Almost half of newly minted business school grads are pulling in $125,000 a year or more from banks, private-equity firms, hedge funds and consulting jobs, according to a study of financiers out on Tuesday. Fully 43% of MBAs will make $125,000 – up from just 9% of MBAs who graduated in 2013. (MarketWatch)

We all want to work smarter, and science and data have proved that timing plays an important role in scheduling different types of tasks at work, from getting a response to your email to asking for a raise. Grab your calendar, and pencil in the best times to get these seven things done. (Fast Company)

For many years – almost as long as he could remember &ndashl; Ian* owned and ran a successful pub in his small town in Ireland. Ian was well-known around town. He had lots of friends, many of whom he saw when they came to eat and drink, and he was happy. Eventually, Ian decided to sell his establishment. Between his savings and the sale, he made enough money to continue to live comfortably. He was ready to relax and enjoy all his hard work. (Harvard Business Review)

As organizations run leaner and flatter, your ability to move up can stall much earlier in your career because, simply put, there’s no place to go. This is true whether you work for a corporation, nonprofit, or public agency. So what should you do when you reach that plateau and you’re only midway through your career? First, take stock. Do you enjoy and learn from your colleagues? Are you still energized by the mission of the organization? If the answer is no, it may be time to move on. But if the answer is yes, consider ways to grow on the plateau. (Harvard Business Review)

For the past 18 years, Tom Gimbel, a recruiter in Chicago, has helped thousands of people find jobs in accounting, finance and human resources. Lately, the process has been slowing down as candidates go through more interviews, more screenings, more tests. "What’s really dragged it down quite a bit is technology," said Mr. Gimbel, the founder and chief executive of the LaSalle Network. "So many companies are using technology portals and databases with their people." They may be getting better hires out of the process, but they are definitely moving more slowly, he said. (The Wall Street Journal)

How do you tell someone who doesn’t report to you that they really need to shape up? I have a great job except for one totally unreliable colleague who has often left others to pick up the slack when he flaked out on us. At the same time, he’s brilliant and really nice (we all like him), so people tend to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least so far. (Fortune)

Greece and its international creditors remain in deadlock over its debt crisis despite a series of top-level meetings. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras failed to reach a deal with Greece's lenders, then a meeting of European finance ministers broke up without progress. The Athens government faces default if it fails to make a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) IMF debt repayment by Tuesday. (BBC News)

As Greece struggles to reach a deal that keeps it in the euro, the currency bloc already has turned to the bigger question of how to fix the flaws that brought it so close to dissolution. In a detailed road map released Monday, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, proposed more "sustainable fiscal and economic policies" to prevent crises, and better shock absorbers for when crises and recessions inevitably strike. (The Wall Street Journal)

Business school is a profitable decision but less so as students approach their 30s. An analysis of data collected by Bloomberg suggests that getting a master’s in business results in a pay bump that increases the older a graduate is – until she hits 30. As part of its ranking of full-time MBA programs, Bloomberg surveyed more than 10,000 people who expected to graduate business school in 2014. The ages and starting compensation for people who had jobs lined up when they graduated, plotted in the chart below, show that in one's mid-20s, paychecks bump up for every year of age. (Bloomberg)

America’s H-1B visa system for degree-holding foreign citizens is "broken," the country is losing top MBA talent to other nations, and the cap on visas needs to be eliminated or jacked way up. But politicians have hijacked the H-1B, corporations have abused it, and reform is unlikely anytime soon. So say officials at America’s top business schools. (Poets & Quants)

Just five minutes and a genius business idea can help you to win big. Gone are the days of conventional business plan competitions. For this activity, three NBMBAA members will have five minutes each to sell their business idea to a mixed panel of venture capitalists, academic instructors and successful entrepreneurs – using only a digital board and pen. The winner will receive $10,000. The time is now to bring your best business idea to the table. Just submit your a 60-second pitch video to register. Visit our Innovation Whiteboard Challenge page to see samples and get all the details. Deadline is July 21, so don't miss your chance to participate!

The National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) hosted its 45th Anniversary Celebration at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on Friday June 12 with more than 500 attendees from across the country. The organization, founded in 1970 on the campus of the University of Chicago, has been the intellectual home for African American professionals and hosts one of the largest annual expositions and career fairs in the U.S. with nearly 10,000 attendees. (ChicagoNow)

Reserve your seat. Last chance to save more than 20% off of registration is June 30 for the National Black MBA Association ® (NBMBAA ®) 37th Annual Conference and Exposition. The professional development and executive leadership conference engages more than 9,000 business professionals and nearly 450 corporations annually for networking, on-site corporate recruitment, leadership development, and career opportunities. The conference boasts an on-site exhibit hall with 300 companies with products or services targeting business professionals. (Yahoo! Finance via Businesswire)

When Ron Johnson was pitching his idea for an e-commerce delivery company to venture capitalists last year, one of the sticking points was his vision for how to treat employees. Mr. Johnson’s company, called Enjoy, sends experts to deliver and set up tech products in homes and offices. But rather than requiring people to work as independent contractors, a practice championed by most so-called on-demand companies, including the ride-hailing app Uber, Mr. Johnson wanted to actually employ the people who would be working for him. (The New York Times)

When Fabian Elliott strolled Downtown streets during his 15-minute commute from the South Loop to his marketing job at Google, one thing kept bothering him. "I'd see more homeless people that looked like me than I saw people that looked like me in the office," Elliott said. Struggling with the glaring lack of diversity in corporate workplaces is a common problem for young African American professionals, but Elliott was prepared to tackle the issue systematically. (DNA Info)

Last December, Nur-E Farhana Rahman sat in an Uber car in New York City, tears streaming down her face. Her months-long project to raise $30,000 on Kickstarter, to expand production at her jewelry company, was about to end in failure. Rahman had thought she was prepared to crowdfund: After she and her mother started Knotty Gal, which handmakes knotted neck­laces and other accessories, she intensively researched successful campaigns and planned her own. (Inc.)

Innovation is as old as business itself but the scale of invention of new models and the disruption by entrepreneurs of existing industries is salient today. The rise of digital technology, coupled with weaker economic growth in emerging markets and globalization, have combined to prompt an enhanced focus on innovation. After years of cutting costs and slashing investment after the global financial crisis, companies are realizing that they must create, scale and sustain new businesses. (BusinessBecause)

It’s been a while since Daymond John lost his shirt on a business deal, even though he started his first company by giving shirts away. Back when the Fubu founder was just getting his fashion line off the ground, John built brand awareness by having rappers wear Fubu clothing in music videos. Now, as a big-fish investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, John uses everything he’s learned from more than two decades of business building to size up other companies as potential investment opportunities. The fashion mogul from Queens explains how he spotted three of his favorite deals. (Inc.)

Ryan Dravitz and a roommate shared a spacious apartment in Denver, paying $1,200 a month for 1,200 square feet in a high-rise building a mile from the center of downtown. Then, in 2012, the rental market exploded. The roommate moved out, and Dravitz, 26, moved into a house with four others. His old apartment is now renting for $2,000. (Bloomberg)

The recession, while painful for everyone, was especially disastrous for black Americans. Now a report from the ACLU says that black families will continue to suffer the effects of this disproportionately for decades to come: By 2031, white household wealth will be 31 percent below what it would’ve been had the recession never happened, according to the report. For black households, wealth will be 40 percent lower, which will leave black families about $98,000 poorer than if the recession hadn’t taken place. (The Atlantic)

Fresh, delicious dinners delivered to your doorstep at a reasonable price – it’s a tantalizing idea and one that more startups are looking to make a reality. Most ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook meal deliveries range in the $10-to-$15 price-per-serving range, which you may consider either outrageously expensive or a good deal depending on your dining and shopping habits. Either way, it’s a fair bet that you’ll pay a premium for the convenience of having a high-quality meal planned out and the ingredients brought to you. (MarketWatch)

Chances are you have debt – and lots of it. The average amount owed per consumer is $17,205, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s most recent consumer credit report. That doesn’t even include real-estate loans – just credit-card balances, auto loans, student loans and other personal loans. What’s your strategy for paying it down? (Kiplinger's)

This spring, Shirley Bloomfield spent a week at a Delaware beach house, taking long walks along the shore with her husband and their golden retriever, Cassie, and roasting marshmallows in the rental home’s fireplace when the weather grew chilly. But the couple was there to work. Ms. Bloomfield, the chief executive of the NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, a trade association for rural telecommunications providers, wanted a break from the bustle of Washington, D.C., but had a full slate of work already on her schedule. So she decided to try what she called a "workcation," logging in remotely from a vacation destination. (The Wall Street Journal)

A cyber-invasion brought Sony Pictures to its knees and terrified corporate America. The story of what really happened – and why Sony should have seen it coming. A special three-part investigation by Fortune. (Fortune)

For two years, Marti Wolf was human resources director at MailChimp. As of March, she got a new title, chief culture officer, and the new HR director reports to her. In other words, HR got demoted. The American human resources department has been struggling to define its identity for some time. The issue has become urgent. "If there is one word to describe the state of human capital departments today, that word might be 'paralysis,'" a 2012 McKinsey report said. "There cannot be a [human resources] leader alive who doesn’t sense the urgency and the size of the challenges facing the function." (Bloomberg)

If you’re the kind of boss who fails to make genuine connections with your direct reports, take heed: 91% of employees say communication issues can drag executives down, according to results from our new Interact/Harris Poll, which was conducted online with roughly 1,000 U.S. workers. In the survey, employees called out the kind of management offenses that point to a striking lack of emotional intelligence among business leaders, including micromanaging, bullying, narcissism, indecisiveness, and more. (Harvard Business Review)

We've learned that emotional intelligence (EQ) is a crucial skill for both leaders and employees. But several studies point to just how important EQ can be to success, even trumping IQ and experience. Research by the respected Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in the U.S. found that the primary causes of executive derailment involve deficiencies in emotional competence. (Fast Company)

One of the big questions in business is this: Are great leaders born that way, or do they practice a set of habits that anyone can learn and practice? The current thinking is that leadership is a set of habits that can be learned by anyone. The more consistent you are in living and applying these habits, the better leader you will become. There are plenty of possible habits you can adopt to become a great leader, but here are 9 that will get you far along your own personal leadership journey.

The reality on carry-on baggage: Airlines are promising something they can’t deliver. Passengers are told they each get to put one bag in the overhead bin. But the math doesn’t work anymore. Boeing Co. says big bins on its 737-900, available to airlines since 2002, can accommodate 125 roll-aboard bags, for example. But the airplane has about 180 seats. (The Wall Street Journal)