When you learn that approximately 95 percent of Entrepreneurs fail in their first five years (in start-up businesses), you can see the importance of increasing those odds. (Entrepreneur)

Junior professionals joining a firm 20 years ago could count on the partners treating them like protégés. Today job turnover, layoffs, and increased bottom-line pressures have taken a hatchet to that "implicit agreement." The answer isn’t to give up on finding a mentor, however — it’s to broaden our search. (Harvard Business Review)

Apple, Nike, Starbucks, Ralph Lauren: They all come to mind when we think of successful brands. These billion-dollar companies grow not just because their products are good (many businesses sell great products), but because the brand has value in the mind of the consumer. (Forbes)

Black women aren't just underrepresented in the highest levels of business leadership. As of this month, they are all but unrepresented. (Fortune)

LinkedIn, the kingpin of business-oriented networking—now officially part of Microsoft—is unveiling a significant desktop redesign. For all that's changed, it may feel familiar: It's a more expansive version of the mobile-browser version of LinkedIn that launched in late 2015, and also brings the desktop incarnation of the service more in line with its apps. (The company first teased this update at a press event last September, and is starting to roll it out to users now.) (Fast Company)

We’ve all been there once before—we arrive at an event, ready to make connections and find our next job or newest client, only to discover we have no plan with which to do this. Sometimes, if you are skilled at being able to scan the room and identifying who would rank among the top three people you would desire to network with works. But, having a systematic approach to doing so is the best option. (Black Enterprise)

A Harvard Business Review study shows that unconscious bias training does not actually change hiring outcomes. And Alphabet, Google’s parent company, still has a stubbornly unequal workforce, despite being the first large tech company to implement these diversity initiatives. (Fortune)

GitHub's Nicole Sanchez has been busy for the last two decades working in the diversity space, more often than not explaining to seemingly deaf ears why it's important for the technology industry to become more equitable. (Fast Company)

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned the UK there is still likely to be "pain" ahead as Theresa May prepares to trigger the UK's departure from the European Union. (BBC)

With the nation’s capital outflows last year estimated at $728 billion by Standard Chartered Plc, and the yuan predicted to continue declining against the dollar in 2017, analysts have been casting forward to what the authorities may do next to stop funds from fleeing. (Bloomberg)

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When I asked the Chinese finance minister, Shi Yaobin, for his reaction to the allegation made by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign that China was "raping" America with its cheap exports I wasn't, if I'm honest, expecting a response. (BBC)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced $18.9 million in funding for eligible 1890 land-grant colleges and universities to obtain or improve agricultural and food sciences facilities and equipment. The 1890 Facilities Grant Program helps the eligible institutions educate the future workforce in the food, agricultural and human sciences job sectors. (United States Department of Agriculture)

Barbara J. Mahone of Birmingham was named the keynote speaker for Walsh College’s 108th commencement ceremony, to be held Jan. 28 at Zion Christian Church in Troy. She will also be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. . . . She is a founding member of the Detroit Chapter of the National Black MBA Association and served as its first chapter president. (Oakland Press Business)

Netflix shares surged as much as 9 percent in late trading after the company posted subscriber numbers that crushed its own guidance. The stock was last seen near $144, about 8 percent higher in extended trade on Wednesday as more than 3 million shares changed hands. (CNBC)

For some financial-services giants, the next big thing is micro, and unbanked customers are the entry point. The latest example is Mastercard, which is getting into microcommerce in Kenya with the launch of a new mobile platform that lets consumers buy goods with cash, mobile money, or bank transfer using their phones. (Fast Company)

We asked readers: How do you make the most of everyone's least favorite work routine? Here's what they had to say. (Entrepreneur)

Despite a plethora of economic and social challenges, African-Americans remain among the most optimistic consumer groups in the nation’s economy. A recent report by the market research firm, Packaged Facts, revealed that nearly half (47 percent) of African-Americans believe they will be better off financially 12 months from now. (Pittsburgh Courier)

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Wednesday defended the central bank’s mission as a nonpartisan institution devoted to fostering a healthy economy free from short-term political pressures. Her remarks come days before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, after he said during the campaign that the Fed and its chief were politically biased in favor of Democrats. (The Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street’s high-flyers in Davos, basking in their firms’ strong fourth-quarter earnings, said they’re confident Donald Trump’s incoming administration will loosen regulatory constraints on financiers -- even if it leaves Barack Obama’s signature Dodd-Frank Act largely intact. (Bloomberg)

If your employer offers you free money for contributing to your retirement plan, take it. Otherwise, you'll be selling yourself short in the long run. (USA TODAY)

On Wednesday, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara filed a lawsuit against J.P. Morgan Chase alleging that the bank had engaged in discriminatory mortgage practices from 2006 through 2009. According to the complaint, the bank is responsible for brokers charging black and Hispanic borrowers higher rates for mortgages than white borrowers with similar credit profiles. (The Atlantic)

Debate has resumed over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after recent comments by U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin that they should be privatized. The two government-sponsored enterprises buy home mortgages, pool them and sell them as mortgage-backed securities in the secondary market, with a share of more than 45% of that market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in government conservatorship since 2008 after a government bailout of $187.5 billion rescued them from the 2007 subprime mortgage finance crisis. (Knowledge@Wharton)

Since November’s election, labor advocates have been bracing themselves for an administration they fear will be kinder to owners than to workers. One of the clearest signs that the Department of Labor is set to switch gears: Andy Puzder, the CEO of fast-food company CKE Restaurants, was nominated as secretary of the Labor Department. Puzder has been an outspoken critic of some of the changes labor advocates are currently trying to implement such as minimum-wage increases and expanded overtime pay, arguing that such regulations hinder businesses and lead them to hire less. But some are hopeful that there’s another way to protect employees, even without the federal government’s help: Instead, they’re looking to the states. (The Atlantic)

If you think that you wouldn't be touched by a Republican overhaul of Obamacare because you get health insurance through your job at a big company, think again. Several of the law's provisions apply to plans offered by large employers, too (with some exceptions for plans that were in place before the law passed in March 2010). (NPR)

"Hidden Figures," the uplifting film about African-American mathematicians at NASA during the 1960s space race, led the North American box office for the second straight week, selling $27.5 million in tickets over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, according to final studio figures Tuesday. (Business Insider)