A U.S. government shutdown looms after lawmakers deadlocked yesterday over a Republican proposal to cut $4 billion as part of a budget measure needed to keep federal agencies running. (Bloomberg)

Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-24/u-s-government-shutdown-looms-as-lawmakers-deadlock-over-budget-proposal.html to view the full article online.

 

Higher-wage industries have been lagging when it comes to private job creation, according to a new report from a worker advocacy group. (MarketWatch)

Visit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/high-wage-industries-trailing-on-new-jobs-2011-02-23 to view the full article online.

 

Money woes have many B-schools looking for ways to avoid layoffs and program disruptions, and they're finding them in the unlikeliest of places. (BusinessWeek)

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/feb2011/bs20110214_474769.htm to view the full article online.

 

Is constant multitasking wearing you down and eroding your effectiveness as a business leader? Here are five steps for recapturing your time, attention and productivity. (Forbes)

Visit http://blogs.forbes.com/work-in-progress/2011/02/22/how-to-quit-multitasking-for-good-in-five-steps/ to view the full article online.

 

Being smart, even being good at your job, is no guarantee of success. So what’s the key ingredient? In my experience – primarily working with and training finance professionals – attitude is more important than aptitude. (Wall Street Journal)

Visit http://blogs.wsj.com/hire-education/2011/02/24/whats-more-important-than-being-smart/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=WSJ_hire_education to view the full article online.

 

Crude oil prices reached $100 a barrel in the United States on Wednesday, the highest price in more than two years, as Middle East oil flows were interrupted this week for the first time since the region’s turmoil began. (The New York Times)

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/business/energy-environment/24oil.html?ref=business to view the full article online.

 

On February 21st, in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Alibaba announced two of its most senior representatives, David Wei, the chief executive, and Elvis Lee, the chief operating officer, would resign to accept responsibility for the company having granted "golden status" a mark of supposed integrity, to 2,236 dealers who it says had subsequently defrauded buyers. (The Economist)

Visit http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/02/online-fraud_scandal_china to view the full article online.

 

Offering a happiness class to future masters of the universe at one of the country's leading business schools does sound a bit touchy-feely. Yet, last fall, 80 of these type-A students signed up for Aaker's graduate-level course called "Designing Happiness" – with another 100 clamoring to get in. (Fast Company)

Visit http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/153/the-business-of-happiness.html to view the full article online.

 

NBMBAA is proud to sponsor the Multicultural Forum on Workplace Diversity, March 22-24 in Minneapolis, MN. Don't miss the largest diversity and inclusion conference in the country, which provides a compelling learning experience fostering business and thought leadership in workplace diversity and inclusion.

Visit http://www.stthomas.edu/mcf/ to view the full article online.

 

When Steve Jobs strode onstage and unveiled the iPad in January of 2010, he should have ended his presentation by firing a starting pistol. The news left nearly every other big computer and consumer-electronics maker racing to get into the tablet market that Jobs' iPad had suddenly created. (Time)

Visit http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2053483,00.html to view the full article online.

 

More consumers are buying smartphones. So more criminals are taking aim at those devices. Criminals still prefer PCs for stealing personal data, bank and credit card account numbers as well as for running frauds. (The New York Times)

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/technology/personaltech/24basics.html?ref=business to view the full article online.

 

Is your website causing you to lose customers? Great design, on-target messaging, compelling calls-to-action, and valuable content are just the baseline for engaging your market online. But can your customers make a buying decision solely using content from your site? (Inc.)

Visit http://www.inc.com/guides/201101/how-to-increase-online-sales-by-increasing-website-conversion-rates.html to view the full article online.

 

Case Study: In sales, the rapport between a prospective buyer and seller can be the deciding factor. Using analytics, Assurant Solutions has tripled its success. (MIT Sloan Management Review)

Visit http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2011/winter/52206/matchmaking-with-math-how-analytics-beats-intuition-to-win-customers/ to view the full article online.

 

As recently as the 1960s, the economy lifted the American middle class, but that stopped because a limit was finally reached. "We have been living off low-hanging fruit for at least three hundred years," Cowen writes. "We have built social and economic institutions on the expectation of a lot of low-hanging fruit, but that fruit is mostly gone." (Slate)

Visit http://www.slate.com/id/2285927/ to view the full article online.

 

When there was easy money to be made in real estate and stocks, mortgage debt seemed like nothing to fear. Now an increasing number of homeowners are wondering if it makes sense to hasten the day they can say goodbye to a big monthly expense while earning the equivalent of a decent, guaranteed return. (CNN/Money)

Visit http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/22/pf/saving/pay_off_mortgage.moneymag/index.htm to view the full article online.

 

The administrator of BP's $20 billion fund to compensate oil spill victims is on the defensive. Claims czar Kenneth Feinberg has paid out nearly $3.5 billion but is facing criticism about the slow pace and low amount of payments. (NPR)

Visit http://www.npr.org/2011/02/24/134009002/on-gulf-coast-frustration-at-bp-claims-process to view the full article online.

 

There are plenty of people – in Washington, in Illinois, Democratic activists around the country – who had a very precise picture in mind of what they hoped the morning after the first round of voting in the Chicago mayor’s race would be like. (Politico)

Visit http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/50033.html to view the full article online.

 

It's common knowledge that helping employees set and reach goals is a critical part of every manager's job. Employees want to see how their work contributes to larger corporate objectives, and setting the right targets makes this connection explicit for them, and for you, as their manager. (Harvard Business Review)

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/making-sure-your-employees-suc.html to view the full article online.

 

Strategic management can be a huge time drain for managers. Why not just ditch the conventional wisdom and go with your intuition in order to innovate once in a while? (Inc.)

Visit http://www.inc.com/articles/201102/john-gerzema-tactics-are-the-new-strategy.html to view the full article online.

 

For many companies, giving away tons of free stuff to celebrities is more rewarding than advertising. (BusinessWeek)

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_09/b4217080977822.htm?chan=magazine+channel_etc. to view the full article online.