Top News
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday struck down rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010 meant to protect the openness of the Internet. What does this ruling – and the principles of Net neutrality that it affects – mean to the average Internet user? While the legal arguments may seem complicated and arcane, the reality is that this court decision has the potential to alter the future of the Internet as we know it. (CNET)
Visit http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57617242-94/why-you-should-care-about-net-neutrality-faq/ to view the full article online.
Happy New Year! Here’s your challenge. You – yes, you – right here, right now, have a chance, nothing more, a slim reed of a chance, at a year that counts. So I’d be willing to bet you’ve been cutting back on the sugar and vowing to get to Inbox Zero. 2014 is the year you will finally floss! And make junior vice president assistant director! But wait. Before you get carried away by your Evernote file of Paleo recipes and your elaborate new system of Outlook sub-folders – you have a bigger opportunity here. Being the person you were put here to become. (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/how-to-have-a-year-that-counts/ to view the full article online.
In some ways, it is actually more expensive to be poor than not poor. If you can’t afford the first month’s rent and security deposit you need in order to rent an apartment, you may get stuck in an overpriced residential motel. If you don’t have a kitchen or even a refrigerator and microwave, you will find yourself falling back on convenience store food, which – in addition to its nutritional deficits – is also alarmingly overpriced. (The Atlantic)
Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/it-is-expensive-to-be-poor/282979/ to view the full article online.
Career
"If you love what you do, it’s not ‘work,’" David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chief executive of the private equity giant Carlyle Group, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday. It is a refrain he has repeated many times over the years, although it may never have been more appropriate than it is now, as Wall Street firms make a show of re-evaluating the grueling hours long endured by their junior employees. (The New York Times)
Visit http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/wall-street-work-habits-show-generation-gap/?ref=business to view the full article online.
Diversity in the Workplace
Sheryl Sandberg has called it one of the most important documents ever to come out of Silicon Valley. It’s been viewed more than 5 million times on the web. But when Reed Hastings and I (along with some colleagues) wrote a PowerPoint deck explaining how we shaped the culture and motivated performance at Netflix, where Hastings is CEO and I was chief talent officer from 1998 to 2012, we had no idea it would go viral. (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://hbr.org/2014/01/how-netflix-reinvented-hr/ar/1 to view the full article online.
Apple Inc., facing behind-the-scenes pressure from some shareholders to add more female directors and executives, has taken a step to address the criticism and diversify its board. The world’s most valuable company recently added language to a board committee charter vowing to diversify its board. The move follows objections from shareholders Trillium Asset Management LLC and the Sustainability Group, who said they’re disappointed that the iPhone maker has only one woman on its eight-member board, and one incoming female member of the executive team that reports to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. (Bloomberg)
Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-06/apple-facing-criticism-about-diversity-changes-bylaws.html to view the full article online.
International
Anyone who’s spent time in another culture will be aware that the norms and assumptions around conducting meetings are a minefield. But while you can easily accept that in theory, you may have to blow yourself up to really get the point. My big lesson in how not to conduct a multicultural meeting came, ironically enough, when I was supposed to be coaching a top executive at French car manufacturer Peugeot Citroën and his wife in preparation for the cultural adjustments they’d need to make in their upcoming move to Wuhan, China. (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/cultural-coaching-knowing-when-to-shut-up/ to view the full article online.
Smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd.’s slide from innovator to also-ran epitomizes the challenges facing the Canadian dollar as the North American country looks to exports to fuel growth. "Now Canada buys more iPhones than it sells BlackBerries," James Kwok, the London-based head of currency management at Amundi Asset Management, which oversees the equivalent of $1 trillion, said in a Jan. 7 phone interview. "A lot of structural changes have been happening in Canada over the last few years, which has made Canada’s trade balance structurally weaker." (Bloomberg)
Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/blackberry-deficit-draws-amundi-bet-poloz-on-hold-currencies.html to view the full article online.
Education
This year’s competition will challenge teams to analyze the Common Core Standards initiative ( http://www.corestandards.org/) and its impact on developing a domestic workforce that is talented, diverse, and prepared to compete in a global marketplace. Registered teams will receive the full case on January 21, 2014. Team submissions will be due February 28, 2014.
Learn More...
So you want an MBA? But you can’t afford to take two years off and invest upwards of a quarter of a million on tuition, books, living expenses, and lost wages? Boy, do I have a proposition for you! Now, it’s a little unconventional. And it’ll require a load of self-discipline on your part. When it’s over, you’ll have an Ivy League education on your resume. And it won’t cost you a cent! (Poets & Quants)
Visit http://poetsandquants.com/2013/12/17/the-mooc-revolution-how-to-earn-an-elite-mba-for-free/ to view the full article online.
Technology
The recent disclosure that a large trove of customer information , and now also from Neiman Marcus, points to growing vulnerabilities in cybersecurity. And experts say the problem is becoming more difficult to combat. Avivah Litan, a security analyst at Gartner, says she's hearing from sources at retailers that the holiday-season data breaches were not limited to the 70 million-plus Target customers and untold number of Neiman Marcus shoppers. (NPR)
Visit http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/13/262228600/security-experts-say-retail-data-breaches-tougher-to-fight to view the full article online.
Entrepreneurship
Anyone would be inspired by the story of Nick Woodman, the CEO of GoPro, a $2.5B company that makes wearable HD video cameras. The highlights: In the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, Woodman blows $4M of VC money on a failed venture called funBugs.com, an ultimately ill-conceived loyalty, sweepstakes, and entertainment website. In 2002, unsure of what to do with his life, he takes off to surf in Indonesia and Australia. He wants to capture live-action shots from his surfboard. The only cost-effective way to do this is by strapping a disposable camera to his wrist with rubber bands. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t work well. (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/whats-your-1-billion-idea/ to view the full article online.
One of the most difficult concepts that I have to discuss when advising aspiring startups is that a great idea can still be a lousy business. A wannabe founder will describe a product or service that all of their friends swear is going to be a game changer, only to be confused (and occasionally indignant) when challenged with a series of questions that they hadn’t considered before. (Fast Company)
Visit http://www.fastcompany.com/3024802/bottom-line/is-your-great-idea-a-terrible-business to view the full article online.
The Economy
The stars seem to be aligning in the housing market. Home prices have been rising for many months, and the federal government is providing immense support to bolster the mortgage market. The big banks that make home loans are strong enough to provide credit to borrowers, as seen in the fourth-quarter results reported Tuesday by JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Yet despite the confluence of promising signs, little in the vast system that provides Americans with mortgages has returned to normal since the 2008 financial crisis, leaving a large swath of people virtually shut out of the market. (The New York Times)
Visit http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/as-refinancing-wanes-banks-remain-wary-of-new-loans/ to view the full article online.
Corporate America
Many executives today worry that skill shortages threaten their organization’s ability to grow and innovate. A recent survey I designed for one manufacturing sector found that almost 60% of managers responding thought skill shortages were already hurting their firm’s productivity and quality. These numbers have been supported in other studies. (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/is-the-aging-workforce-really-creating-your-skill-shortages/ to view the full article online.
T-Mobile US Inc.’s pricing strategy is a potential roadblock for any Sprint Corp. takeover attempt because U.S. regulators want to preserve a maverick wireless company that offers subscribers lower rates. T-Mobile is using cheaper plans to gain customers from larger rivals, helping create the kind of competition the Justice Department sought more than two years ago when it sued to keep the company from being gobbled up by AT&T Inc., the industry No. 2 behind Verizon Wireless. (Bloomberg)
Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/t-mobile-pricing-seen-as-obstacle-for-any-sprint-merger.html to view the full article online.
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