It turns out the most critical problem Dale Carnegie attempted to deal with – management of people in a business context – has certainly not been eradicated. Nearly half of all employees describe themselves as only partially engaged with their jobs, according to a study conducted in May of 1,500 employees nationwide by DCT and the metrics firm MSW Research, which is based in Lake Success, New York. Fewer than one-third of employees describe themselves as fully engaged with their work. (Inc.)
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For many CEOs, the economic roller coaster of the past few years has reached a lull. And instead of opting for another go on this particular amusement park ride, many have been eyeing the exits. (Fortune)
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Is update mania giving way to upgrade fatigue? In light of Apple's unexpected announcement Tuesday that it's releasing a fourth version of the full-size iPad in November – just eight months after debuting the third – retail analysts are questioning if the quickening pace of upgrades will finally begin to backfire with consumers. (SmartMoney)
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When you're getting something new going, the difference between success and failure is often a matter of time: how long you give it before you give up. Efforts that begin with high hopes inevitably hit a disappointing sag. It's Kanter's Law: "Everything can look like a failure in the middle." (Harvard Business Review)
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Wondering if the job you have now is "the one" – or just another stop on the way to something more fulfilling? Check out this list to know whether it's time to settle in or keep moving. (Fast Company)
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Trading places isn't just for reality shows anymore. Now C-suite executives, seeking fresh ideas, are switching jobs with counterparts, both at other companies and inside their own. (Fortune)
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Why do some people achieve their goals while others fail? I believe it's because successful people manage to overcome five barriers that, in many cases, guarantee failure. Here are those barriers and how to overcome them. (Inc.)
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A startling new report finds freshly graduated college women will likely face this hurdle when entering the work world: they're worth less than equally educated men. The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns. (NPR)
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EU commissioners have postponed plans to impose quotas for women on company boards. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding was pushing for a vote on Tuesday to make it mandatory for companies to keep 40 percent of seats for women. (BBC News)
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Britain emerged from recession in the third quarter, recording stronger than expected growth of 1% as the London Olympics gave a boost to activity in the service sector. (CNN/Money)
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Chaos in the Greek parliament following a row over the country's revised bailout plan brought fresh gloom to the eurozone as figures showed the currency union moving closer to recession. The Greek finance minister was forced to drop claims that he had secured a two-year extension for debt repayments and an agreement with creditors over €13.5bn (£10.9bn) of proposed austerity measures when he addressed MPs on Wednesday. (The Guardian)
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If you're a male applicant to the Harvard Business School and about to be interviewed by admissions, you should wear a well-fitting black, grey or navy blue suit with a non-distracting shirt and tie. Deodorant is a must but cologne is a no-no. (Fortune)
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One of Milton Cofield’s goals in the classroom is to help his students relate the material he’s teaching to the real world. Cofield, the executive director of the undergraduate program at Tepper, says a typical lecture could include the "PowerPoints and lecturing that people hate," but he mixes up his lessons with the occasional dramatic reading from a Shakespeare play. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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The National Black MBA Association is dedicated to develop partnerships that result in the creation of intellectual and economic wealth in the black community. Support the organization with your donation and help to create the next generation of leaders through our scholarship and Leaders of Tomorrow programs.
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How would you like to move into a stunning mansion on a bluff overlooking the sea – in Somalia? Or would you like the chance to own a new Ferrari – that has to be refueled every three miles? Would you take a job that pays $1 million a year – cutting football fields with toenail clippers? That’s the sort of choice Microsoft is asking you to make with the spectacularly designed, wildly controversial Surface tablet. (The New York Times)
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In trying to position its long awaited iPad Mini, Apple managed to avoid employing the overused expression, "less is more." Instead, it offers a more perplexing value proposition: Less is the same. Apple on its website says about its iPad Mini, "There's less of it, but no less to it." (Information Week)
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By now we’ve gotten used to the disruption that the rise of the social Web has created in the media industry, where it has upended traditional business models and allowed creators of content to connect directly with their audience. But that same wave of socially driven disruption is now moving through the rest of the economy, too – particularly in services that can be easily socialized, such as the hotel business, the taxi industry, or the education market. As that wave progresses, we’re seeing such companies as Airbnb, Uber, and Coursera run into more and more regulatory hurdles, but the writing is already on the wall: Service businesses that don’t use social features to lower barriers and increase efficiency will likely not survive long. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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Less than two years after starting a wholesale and retail footwear business, Kyle Berner saw his entrepreneurial dreams come to a screeching halt. The April 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a delayed shipment of about 10,000 pairs of flip-flops he was planning to package and ship to customers ahead of the busy summer season. (Wall Street Journal)
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They aren't in poverty, but they are just a step away from falling into its clutches. More than 30 million Americans are living just above the poverty line. These near poor, often defined as having incomes of up to 1.5 times the poverty threshold, were supporting a family of four on no more than $34,500 last year. (CNN/Money)
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In a campaign season often lacking in specifics, the two candidates have even managed to cover a lot of ground. If you’re an auto worker, Medicare recipient or small business owner, you’ve heard your concerns addressed head on. (Even if you didn’t necessarily like the answers.) But there were a number of pocket-book issues the candidates never gave much airtime to. (MarketWatch)
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Surely you've heard of crowd funding sites like Kickstarter that have helped thousands of filmmakers, musicians and painters leverage Facebook and Twitter to raise money for creative projects. But crowd funding isn't just for hipsters anymore; it's moving into all kinds of other spheres, from startups to research to personal causes. (NPR)
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Monday was the 25th anniversary of Black Monday – the day the Dow Jones industrial average fell 508 points, or 22.6% (the equivalent of a 3,000-point drop today) – I wondered how well (or badly) you would have done if you had bought stocks on the Friday before the crash and held them over all these years.(Kiplinger's)
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Microsoft, the company that defined the PC, is still enormously profitable – but not as profitable as it once was. This week, Microsoft will try to regroup. It is rolling out the largest upgrade of its Windows software in more than a decade. All of this is meant to help the company break into the exploding market for mobile. While the company still commands a formidable computing empire, it is now under attack. (NPR)
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Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender by assets, was accused by the federal government in a $1 billion fraud lawsuit of selling defective residential mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that later defaulted. (Bloomberg)
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Consider the 44 men who have been president. How many would you say have left an indelible mark? Historians may know what James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson did, but most Americans only remember the guy who came between them: Abraham Lincoln. (NPR)
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The partisan rift over taxes has blocked a deficit reduction deal for two years and has spilled into the 2012 campaigns. Yet as Republicans and Democrats continue to brawl, business leaders are stepping up pressure on Washington to reach a deal, even if it calls for more revenue – including higher tax bills for themselves. (The New York Times)
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"Whip your thoroughbreds." That's the phrase I kept hearing from Jack Welch-era high potential managers hurtling up GE's global hierarchies. Brutally simple and simply brutal, this Welchian aphorism disproportionately drove top management behavior. The company found it got far greater value working its best people harder than by pushing its multitudes of "better than average" managers to work smarter. (Harvard Business Review)
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If you want employees who are passionate, productive – and do whatever it takes for your company – pay them what they ask for. Employees spend a major part of their lives at work. They should be there because they love their jobs and not because they get paid to come in. (Inc.)
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As flu season approaches, people soon will wake up to a tricky calculation: Should you drag yourself into work feeling awful? Or can you get away with staying home to heal? Staying in bed poses a risk of falling behind or being seen as a slacker. But showing up sick, and grossing out or infecting colleagues, can be worse, and a growing number of employers are setting policies to discourage it. (Wall Street Journal)
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