The National Black MBA Association® Annual Conference and Exposition is one of the largest professional development and job search events. Each year, the event attracts more than 9,000 attendees. Sessions are held on topics including: career, education, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and leadership.

The NBMBAA® Annual Conference offers a myriad of opportunities designed to meet your professional development, branding, recruiting, retention and corporate citizenship goals. We will be finalizing the events in the coming months! Don't miss out become a member today!

Visit http://www.nbmbaaconference.org/ to view the full article online.

 

Feeling hurried? Swamped? Overwhelmed? Lucky you. It is, in many ways, a privilege to feel busy in America.
Elizabeth Kolbert's New Yorker essay "No Time," is built around an old essay and a new book about the future of busy-ness and leisure. The old essay, by the economist John Maynard Keynes, predicted that by the mid-21st century, citizens of advanced economies would scarcely have to work, thanks to technological advancements. The new book, Brigid Schulte's Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, responds to Keynes some 90 years later by explaining just how poorly his prediction has panned out. Instead of having an abundance of time, we are more starved for leisure than ever.

Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-myth-that-americans-are-busier-than-ever/371350/ to view the full article online.

 

There's this thing people say all the time in New York and other expensive cities: If I could move somewhere cheaper, and keep my income the same, I'd be much better off.
Alas, in places where the cost of living is lower, pay tends to be lower as well.
So what you really want to know is this: How much do workers make in different cities? And how far does that money go in each city?

Visit http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/05/20/313131559/how-far-your-paycheck-goes-in-356-u-s-cities to view the full article online.

 

In an effort to lend a hand to rookie marketers and new heads of marketing, here are the six big lessons I wish I knew before I built a marketing department from the ground up—the ones that will save you a lot of time, frustration and money.

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234045 to view the full article online.

 

Accurate financial statements are critical to operate any company successfully. By themselves, though, they do not provide all of the needed information to run a business effectively. Often, by the time problems show up in the financial statements, the damage is done.
Consider a business that makes and ships widgets. Suppose widget shipments start to go out late. Will this problem show up in the financial statements? Eventually, it will. The income statement will show a decline in sales. Unfortunately, by that time, the customers will have left. It will be too late to get them back.

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233118 to view the full article online.

 

When you're just starting your career, you need all the help you can get managing your time. Even when you're working hard, you could be wasting a tremendous amount of time either by trying to multitask or by focusing too much on minute details.

Visit http://www.inc.com/richard-feloni/20-time-management-lessons-everyone-should-learn.html to view the full article online.

 

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was here in St Petersburg, sharing a platform with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This annual forum in Mr Putin's favoured home city of St Petersburg was being seen as a Eurasian alternative to the famous Davos Global Economic Forum.
It's true that even last year there may have been nervousness at the country's near 20% share of the EU energy supply, but Russia was still seen as a key growth market for European goods, services and investments.
But now events in Crimea and Ukraine have turned the business climate upside down.

Visit http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27522093 to view the full article online.

 

Business activity in the eurozone kept up a steady pace of growth in May, a survey has indicated, despite the pace of expansion slowing slightly.
The latest Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) from research firm Markit dipped to 53.9, down from 54.0 in April. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.
However, the data suggested that the fortunes of businesses in France and Germany continue to diverge.

Visit http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27520523 to view the full article online.

 

Imagine the melancholy that descended upon small-market business schools after they discovered Yale had constructed a replica of the starship Enterprise for its students. Or the soul-crushing realization that Kellogg MBAs would enjoy "dramatic vistas" of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline as they glided through the "open spaces" of a new abode. As if these images weren’t painful enough for our struggling institutions of higher business education, Harvard Business School has been practicing capitalism at its typically elite level—working to amass a $1 billion endowment.

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-21/a-modest-proposal-luxury-tax-for-business-schools#r=bus-lst to view the full article online.

 

Congratulations to Black Hills State University, of Spearfish, S.D., SolBridge International School of Business, in Daejeon, South Korea, and the BI Norwegian Business School, with campuses across Norway. Those schools and 14 others received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, according to an announcement issued on May 12.

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-20/the-number-of-accredited-business-schools-grows-dramatically-every-year#r=hpt-lst to view the full article online.

 

Thank You for Making Our 1st NBMBAA® Regional Symposium a Success! Join us for our 2nd event in Chicago, July 17th

Visit http://www.nbmbaa.org/events/regSymposiums.aspx to view the full article online.

 

Just five minutes and a genius business idea can help you to win big. Three people will have five minutes each to sell their business idea to a mixed panel of venture capitalists, academic instructors and successful entrepreneurs. Applicants must be a member of the National Black MBA Association. The winner will receive $10,000. Registration is now open. Deadline is Tuesday, July 15, 2014.

Visit http://nbmbaawhiteboardchallenge2014.istart.org/ to view the full article online.

 

Do you know who can see what you are posting on Facebook, including your photos, birthday and personal cellphone number?
Chances are that you don’t.
Responding to business pressures and longstanding concerns that its privacy settings are too complicated, Facebook announced on Thursday that it was giving a privacy checkup to every one of its 1.28 billion users.

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/technology/facebook-offers-privacy-checkup-to-all-1-28-billion-users.html?ref=business&_r=0 to view the full article online.

 

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. It takes a special breed.
"What separates entrepreneurs from the others is the ability to take risk," said Raj Peter Bhakta, the founder of WhistlePig whiskey, when Entrepreneur.com visited his farm in Shoreham, Vt., in March. "As you learn from your failures, you are better able to calculate what risks to take and when to really hold on."

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/234059 to view the full article online.

 

The success of your business depends on the quality of your employees. Small businesses, especially, know that one bad hire can ruin their entire team's productivity. That’s why entrepreneurs obsess over hiring.

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234096 to view the full article online.

 

If you're telling your employees to "innovate strategically," you had better have a good handle on the complex relationship between innovation and strategy. Otherwise, you're better off using other buzzwords.
Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, writes in Harvard Business Review about four of the most important nuances of how innovation relates to strategy. "By definition, strategy is about allocating resources today to secure a better tomorrow," he writes. "Innovation is about commercializing creativity. If a firm is not making money with an idea, there is no innovation."

Visit http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/why-you-need-to-understand-the-relationship-between-strategy-and-innovation.html to view the full article online.

 

It was how that debt was disproportionately distributed to America’s most economically fragile communities. Why are nearly 10 million people still out of work today? Was it because in September 2008, the U.S. government failed to bail out the insolvent investment bank Lehmann Brothers? Was it because the two U.S. housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed too many mortgages securitized by Lehman and other Wall Street firms to low-income borrowers in the run up to the housing and financial crises? Or does blame rest with the Federal Reserve’s too-easy-money policies in the wake of the brief dotcom recession in the early 2000s?

Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/house-of-debt/371282/ to view the full article online.

 

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits jumped last week, but remained at a low level that suggests hiring should remain steady.
Applications rose 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The increase comes after applications fell to their lowest level since May 2007 two weeks ago.
The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped 1,000 to 322,500. The average reached a seven-year low of 312,000 last month. Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the low levels suggest companies are cutting few jobs.

Visit http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=314855533 to view the full article online.

 

Consumers face trouble due to lack of financial knowledge. A recent survey by MagnifyMoney shows that 35% of Americans overdraft and 42.4% are saddled by credit card debt. The survey, which was conducted by SSI for MagnifyMoney, showed
35% of consumers have gone into overdraft in the last year.
42.4% carry credit card debt, with an average balance of $10,902.
75.7% pay an interest rate higher than 15%, despite interest rates close to 0%.
73.4% of people with savings keep their money in traditional bank accounts that pay close to 0% interest.

Visit http://www.blackenterprise.com/money/study-consumers-saddled-by-credit-card-debt-and-overdraft-fees/ to view the full article online.

 

If you’re in a retirement plan, chances are good that some of your assets are in a target-date fund. Chances are even better that you’re hurting your returns.
The growth of target-date funds has been explosive. Two in every five 401(k) participants held target-date funds in 2012, double their share in 2006, according to the latest Investment Company Institute data. More than half of 20-somethings with 401(k)s own them.

Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/the-retirement-fund-people-set-forget-and-regret.html to view the full article online.

 

Our culture is obsessed with self-improvement, personal productivity, and professional development. It’s an enormous fad and, for the most part, an enormous waste of time. Precious time. Time you could and should be spending actually developing your career and grooming yourself to achieve great things.
Listen carefully and I’ll let you in on a little secret. Personal improvement and professional development doesn’t come from classes, books, blogs, TED videos, or feel-good inspirational stories, quotes, parables and platitude. It comes from experience.

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234075 to view the full article online.

 

On a Wednesday morning here in March, the owner of a California business explained that his company had enjoyed years of success selling products directly to consumers through TV — until the formula stopped working. "People aren’t watching TV the way they used to," he said. "We’re Blockbuster."
One by one, the 20 business owners in the room identified themselves and their companies and talked about their struggles. As they spoke, the meeting took on the feel of a 12-step program, one aimed at helping the businesses take the next step.

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/business/smallbusiness/aileron-helps-business-owners-put-companies-on-track.html?ref=smallbusiness to view the full article online.

 

Change is one of the few certainties an entrepreneur can count on in business. It comes in many different forms--from hiring a new employee to moving to a new office to merging with another company. I've encountered all of these and more in my own company. For an entrepreneur, even a minor change can seem quite complicated and foreboding. And it may have big consequences.

Visit http://www.inc.com/geil-browning/8-things-great-leaders-say-in-times-of-tumultuous-change.html to view the full article online.