High-potential managers are considered a company’s crown jewels, capable of steering the business in the future. Those rising stars may be less content than their employers believe, however. Amid a hot hiring market, high potentials have more job options than ever before. They also face greater risks than ordinary staffers do by quitting. (The Wall Street Journal)

I just spent six weeks with an app that watched over my spending like a hawk with an MBA. I figured I needed it. I’m a personal finance reporter without a budget. Am I overspending this week? I don’t know. How much do I blow on alcohol? No idea. Should I be saving more? Good question. Silicon Valley keeps building software to help people like me keep their spending under control. Banks are getting in on it, too. (Bloomberg)

Half of American adults had their personal information exposed to hackers last year alone. In a recent attack at the federal Office of Personnel Management, hackers stole the most sensitive personal data for 21.5 million people. Answer the questions below to learn which parts of your identity may have been stolen in some of the major hacking attacks over the last two years and what you can do about it. (The New York Times)

The Hershey Company has been making chocolate for more than 100 years. Headquartered in a town in Pennsylvania named after its founder, Milton Hershey, the company has more than 22,000 employees around the world. While top brands such as Reese's, Twizzlers and Kit Kat remain the central focus of the company, it also manufactures products that appeal to health-conscious consumers, such as sugar-free Jolly Ranchers and gluten-free Almond Joy. (Costmopolitan)

Starting a new job can be a nerve-wracking experience. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself making the kind of mistakes that will not only annoy your co-workers, but could have you ostracized from the company before you even get your business cards. Avoid these top new hire mistakes to ensure your new job will have longevity. (Fast Company)

The flourishing digital economy is providing a boost to MBA jobs in sectors from fashion and banking to healthcare and global media. Business schools have reported growing demand from companies for talent to lead digital growth, including GlaxoSmithKline, Deloitte, LVMH, American Express and Apple. (BusinessBecause)

Technology companies say they should hire more women and minorities. Pinterest Inc. finally put a number on it. The image-sharing site today said it has put in place specific diversity goals for 2016, including increasing the hiring rate for full time engineering roles to 30% women and 8% underrepresented minorities. For non-engineering roles, it aims to hire 12% of workers from underrepresented minorities. (The Wall Street Journal)

For many female execs, one secret to success is informally tapping the knowledge of the women around them. From nannies and day care to easy recipes and tips for managing family needs from the road, women like Mills and Levy quietly share suggestions and tricks with others trying to balance motherhood with the corporate climb. (Fortune)

Berkeley-Haas School is piloting a program to train Brazilian entrepreneurs to bring new ideas and technologies to market. It is the latest push by elite US schools into emerging markets, which are fostering start-up movements, but which often lack credible training programs. (BusinessBecause)

The slump that hit China's property market this year could hit the country's banks according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's, in the latest warning to the world's second largest economy. While the housing market in China has started to see some recovery of late, with data released at the start of the month showing house prices rose at their fastest pace in 18 months, weakness seen earlier in the year could have "negative knock-on effects" for domestic Chinese lenders, S&P warned. (CNBC)

Business schools and universities are boosting life sciences start-ups and partnering big pharma groups including AstraZeneca to help ventures become high-flyers in the booming biotechnology sector. Spanish business school IESE hosted biotech innovators this week as part of EIT Health, the European healthcare initiative aiming to incubate 80 start-ups by 2016, and engage a million students by 2018. (BusinessBecause)

A common piece of advice for potential business school applicants is to not bother if you don’t make it into a top-ranked school. While that might be true if you’re seeking a $150,000 plus salary right after graduation, it’s still a pretty fantastic job market for those with an MBA. Even students at less prestigious schools are being recruited more aggressively, according to a report (PDF) by the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance. (Quartz)

I was born and raised in Memphis – North Memphis (Smoky City/New Chicago) to be exact. So my life story is a quintessential tale of starting from the bottom and being blessed to have been surrounded by caring souls who believed in me and rooted for my success like it was their own. In my current role at ALAC, I am responsible for leading teams to implement technology solutions that support the fundraising goals of the organization. Prior to joining ALSAC, I worked in information technology, strategic business development, business analysis and marketing at several companies in Memphis and Phoenix, Arizona.

Rates Increase August 17! 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.

Registration rates increase August 17, so register today!

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Jet.com, a well-funded new shopping site, opened to the public last week and celebrated the debut by sending reporters a big box of swag. I got a T-shirt with a company logo, fuzzy socks, stickers and $1,400 in oversize, fake $100 bills. Jet is a discount site, so I suspect the funny money was meant to illustrate the cash I’d save by shopping there. (The New York Times)

We feel guilty that we're constantly plugged in. We sense that our smartphones are making us less focused, that constantly checking our email and Twitter is making us less productive, and more disconnected from our real lives. But what do we really know about how our devices are affecting us? We have plenty of anecdotes, but the science of how always-on technology impacts human behavior is still in its infancy. (Fast Company)

In an old furniture factory in San Francisco’s Mission District, you’ll find the headquarters of budding financial tech startup Earnest. Founded by Harvard MBA Louis Beryl and finance vet Benjamin Hutchinson in 2013, Earnest aims to disrupt the student loan financing market, a business that has already seen Stanford and Wharton MBA startups establish a lead in the field with SoFi and CommonBond, respectively. (Fortune)

The entrepreneurial community (Inc.com very much included) loves a story of tremendous growth. We hail the founder who built a giant business in record time, celebrate the quick and lucrative exit, and offer each other tips on how to get more business, bigger clients, new market opportunities. And that's as it should be. Ambitious entrepreneurs looking to build world-changing businesses or massive bank accounts should get the applause and advice they need to tackle such audacious tasks. (Inc.)

When Jacob Riis published his study of New York tenement life in 1890, he called it How the Other Half Lives, as if people really needed to know. More than a century later, many of us are still suffering from the same type of myopia, at least according to a recent study by psychologists in the U.K and New Zealand and reported in The Washington Post Tuesday. (Money Magazine)

When Sara Horowitz founded the Freelancers Union in 1995, there was already evidence that the structure of people's work lives was changing. Publishing and media jobs had started to move to more project-based work. Horowitz, a union organizer and labor lawyer by training, assumed that other industries would follow. As an expert in labor unions, she thought "it was really important to start thinking about how people [can] come together" to change laws and public policy, so that freelancers can obtain job-related "benefits – and community." (The Atlantic)

A few years ago, I came across a blog post by a writer named Emma Johnson who declared, in no uncertain terms, that "You. Cannot. Afford. To. Be. A. Full-time. Stay-at-home mom. You just can’t." I like strong opinions because they make me think and help me clarify my own feelings, and this statement certainly did that. I have actually been thinking about it ever since, and I’m convinced Ms. Johnson missed a very important part of the equation. (The New York Times)

Lately, it seems that every new study about social mobility further corrodes the story Americans tell themselves about meritocracy; each one provides more evidence that comfortable lives are reserved for the winners of what sociologists call the birth lottery. But, recently, there have been suggestions that the birth lottery’s outcomes can be manipulated even after the fluttering ping-pong balls of inequality have been drawn. (The Atlantic)

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In cities such as San Francisco and New York, letter carriers have been showing up on people’s doorsteps as early as 3 a.m. bearing unusual cargo: milk, eggs, and other perishable items. The U.S. Postal Service has been delivering groceries to customers of Amazon.com in selected areas since October 2014. "It’s just leveraging our infrastructure," says Megan Brennan, who was sworn in as America’s 74th postmaster general in March, becoming the first woman to hold the job in the institution’s 240-year history. "We’re on people’s doorstep six days a week, seven days a week in some cases. It’s just a logical progression." (Bloomberg)

A new research report from the Society of Digital Agencies finds that in the past year there has been a dramatic spike in the number of companies who no longer work with outside marketing agencies – 27 percent, up from 13 percent in the previous year. This continues a trend The Association of National Advertisers first reported in 2013. But these companies aren’t getting rid of marketing – they’re just bringing it in-house. (Harvard Business Review)

When I worked as a consultant, I was perennially guilty of "the great unveil" in presentations – that tendency to want to save key findings for the last moment and then reveal them, expecting a satisfying moment of awe. My team and I would work tirelessly to drive to the right answer to an organization’s problem. We’d craft an intricate presentation, perfecting it right up until minutes or hours before a client meeting, and then we’d triumphantly enter the room with a thick stack of hard copy PowerPoint slides, often still warm from the printer. (Harvard Business Review)

The quirky interview question has become a proven method for some companies’ recruiting strategy: e.g. Google’s puzzles designed to weed through some 2 million applicants per year. Yet while the curveball query, "Who would win a fight between Spider-Man and Batman?" can throw the candidate off their carefully scripted answers and force them to react spontaneously, it can also serve to make only the most verbally adept applicants shine, disregarding other potential talent, according to Tim Toterhi, HR professional and author of Job Hunting For Introverts. (Fast Company)