Charles and Cheryl Saul are reaping a timely windfall: an extra $500 a month thanks to cheap gasoline. The couple, both 56 and from Emmaus, Pennsylvania, drive a lot so filling the tank didn’t leave much room for fun. Now they’re splurging after years of staycations, minor-league baseball games and free concerts. In October, they visited Disney World, their priciest vacation in ages. They’re also planning to renovate, meaning more trips to Home Depot Inc. (Bloomberg)

The MBA degree has traditionally provided a lucrative return on investment for managers but the salary boost a business education provides is now on the wane. Despite stronger economic growth in the US and some parts of Europe, the average boost to earnings from an MBA has fallen by nearly a third from the pre-crisis peak. (Business Because)

The ailment is hazardous to both your health and your career, says a B-school prof. Eating lunch at your desk while also checking emails and talking on the phone is one symptom. So is doing something else while on conference calls, or even while brushing your teeth. We all find ourselves multitasking now and then, but what about habitually interrupting someone who is talking, or always getting frustrated in a checkout line or in traffic, even when it’s moving along smoothly? When microwaving something for 30 seconds, do you feel the urge to find something else to do while you wait? (Fortune)

We hear about the benefits of asking for help over and over again. That it isn't a sign of weakness. That we should actually do it more often, because we severely underestimate how willing other people are to help us out. And contrary to our fears, research indicates that asking for help makes us seem smarter! I have to agree. But to be honest, merely asking doesn't cut it. If you really want to get help, it's how you ask that counts. (Inc.)

When people want to get more done at work, they double down on the time they put into their jobs. They adopt a new productivity approach, stay at the office late, work weekends, revamp to-do lists, and try to cram more into every day. But what if the secret to performing better at work, and feeling more satisfied, isn’t to put more effort and energy into work but less? Instead of working harder and longer, what if you better integrated the four domains of your life – work, home, community, and self? (Harvard Business Review)

Somewhere along the line, everyone's had a bad boss. Someone who's disrespectful or takes credit for their work. Someone who yells or gives them the silent treatment. Someone who focuses on their weaknesses or insults them. But what's truly abusive, toxic behavior, and what's merely irritating? Researchers at the University of Louisville, in a paper recently published online by the journal Human Resource Development Review, have tried to answer that question. (The Washington Post)

Some companies are having a hard time selling people on a career in sales. As the U.S. economy gains momentum, companies selling technology and other services to corporate customers are struggling to fill potentially lucrative sales jobs. Sales reps who peddle technical and scientific products earned a median annual wage of $74,970 in 2012, more than twice the median for all workers, according to the Labor Department. A competitive hiring market for science and tech workers is part of the reason, but employers also say young workers are uninterested in sales – a field they perceive as risky and defined by competition. (The Wall Street Journal)

Metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago and Atlanta offer companies a diverse pool of talent, However, it can be a challenge for companies to sort through the "showcases", the large number of events that have popped up around diversifying tech, to reach the organizations that actually develop diverse tech talent. Here are five organizations building and nurturing the tech pipeline outside of Silicon Valley. (Inc.)

Europe’s most powerful policy makers dismiss the idea, investors fear it, and it would almost certainly face fierce resistance from within the Continent’s richer countries. Yet talk of slashing the government debt loads of European countries, starting with Greece, is back. (The New York Times)

On a Tuesday night at a Nairobi tech incubator, Michael Kimani preaches the virtues of crypto currencies to a small gathering of tech-savvy Kenyans. The startups at the meeting are already busy building businesses – to disrupt Kenya’s large remittances market; or create Kenya's first bitcoin exchange; or establish a crypto-wallet app as the on-campus currency of nearby Kenyatta University. (Fast Company)

The UK economy is growing at its fastest rate since before the financial crisis, but sustaining growth will be dependent on business working more closely with universities and business schools, according to the CBI, Britain’s employers’ organization. Business schools place much value in their career connections. PwC, KPMG and Rolls-Royce have all developed closer ties with leading educators in a bid to hire new talent. (BusinessBecause)

Mostly gone are the days when managers and executives could merely give orders to employees, shop-foreman style, and expect to get the intended results. They need finesse and tact. They need empathy. They need people skills, the ability to demonstrate a fluency in multicultural and multigenerational communication that often isn't the core focus of MBA programs. (Crain's Detroit Business)

It is that time of year when we celebrate the rich history and culture of African Americans. During February, we will celebrate Black History Month by reflecting on the NBMBAA's history. During the next four weeks, we will highlight the monumental milestones that have been achieved by the association over the last 45 years. We'd like to begin by thanking our trailblazers for their foresight in establishing such a dynamic association. See some of their profiles on our Black History Month page.

"Utterly determined," are the first words that come to mind for Black Enterprise President and CEO, Earl "Butch" Graves Jr. when describing the late black media pioneer John H. Johnson. "He was very dignified, sophisticated, and had the respect of black and white America. He was the godfather of African American media and gave rise to what you see today." (Black Enterprise)

Whether you’re working from home full-time, living life as a road warrior, or simply working the occasional day away from the office, you’ll be most effective if you have the right digital infrastructure for remote work. What needs to be in that toolkit depends on the kind of work you do, your personal working style and your family life: a single software developer may be able to work quietly from her living room with just her laptop, while a business development professional with young kids will need a private room with a closed door for remote sales calls. (Harvard Business Review)

Silicon Valley’s economy may be booming, but according to a new report, in recent years, the region has also "lost its spine" – that spine being the middle class. In its new Silicon Valley Index, the research organization Joint Venture Silicon Valley delivered a glowing report of the Valley’s economy in 2014, from its high rate of job growth to the cushy venture capital environment to the rush of patent activity. The region is strong economically, the report argues, and will be for "the foreseeable future." (Wired)

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs are those who are capable of inventing not just new products and services, but entirely new business models as well. While 2015 is only just underway, it's pretty clear that one longtime business model, providing in-home services, is taking advantage of technology to evolve and deepen its reach. It isn't necessarily revolutionary, but its use in certain industries is. (Inc.)

In reflecting on the Super Bowl halftime show as entrepreneurs, we should take every opportunity to learn what we can from titans like Missy Elliot, who made a surprise appearance with headliner Katy Perry. Elliot was quite the talk of the Super Bowl halftime show, and when the proverbial Missy beat dropped, so did the jaws of millions. Why? Well, the reasons have a few educational nuggets for business owners and enterprising professionals. (Black Enterprise)

There are hundreds of programs that seek to improve the outcomes of people who live in concentrated poverty. But as Harris and thousands of other mothers like her have demonstrated over the past half century, one of the most effective strategies for lifting families out of poverty is to plunk them down in a completely new neighborhood far away from their past lives. (The Atlantic)

Tumbling oil prices were supposed to boost growth in a host of major oil-importing economies. It isn’t necessarily working out that way. Some governments have moved already to shore up their revenues by raising gasoline taxes or cutting fuel subsidies. At the same time, falling oil costs have pumped up deflation fears across Europe and Japan, adding to the risk that consumers and businesses will hold back on spending and investment, dragging on growth. (The Wall Street Journal)

When Scott Parker wanted his six offspring to know more about the value of money, he decided to do something that many parents would consider radical: show them exactly what he earned. One day, he stopped by his local Wells Fargo branch in Encinitas, Calif., and asked to withdraw his entire monthly salary in cash. In singles. It took 24 hours for the tellers to round up that many bills, so he returned the next day and took away the $100 stacks in a canvas bag. (The New York Times)

Have you been using the same credit card for many years, blissfully ignoring advertisements for new credit cards? Perhaps your current card is so great that it's a keeper, but maybe you are ignoring its faults. The credit card industry is extremely competitive, and card issuers are constantly offering new products with new features, better rewards, and lower interest rates and fees. So before you spend another year with your old credit card account, think of these six reasons you might want to cancel your current card, and find something new. (Daily Finance)

Manager or leader: How you define these terms is the Rorschach test of our times. There’s no formula for what constitutes an effective boss. For some, good bosses get their hands dirty in the trenches. Others respond to a visionary who holds them accountable for achieving audacious goals. Who doesn’t appreciate someone who shields their people from the distractions and naysayers? (Poets & Quants)

You’ve probably heard about Slack’s exponential growth. And you may have read about how the internal-communication platform – now just two years old – is already used by more than 30,000 teams and valued at over $1 billion. But have you visited its Twitter Wall of Love? These tweets are real, and they're the stuff of founders’ dreams. And yet Slack hasn’t run any big integrated marketing campaigns – they don't have an elaborate email strategy or buy million-dollar billboards. (Fast Company)

Radio Shack's finances, unstable for years, have finally collapsed. On Monday Bloomberg News reported that the company is preparing to close its doors for good, in a bankruptcy deal by which Sprint would take over half the stores and close the rest. While the negotiations could still break down or the terms could change, the end game seems to have arrived. (Bloomberg)

The people clamoring for tough, new regulations for Internet service—everyone from net neutrality activists and a few blue-chip companies to President Obama and John Oliver— got pretty much everything they wanted in the proposals outlined by the head of the Federal Communications Commission. The framework described by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, if enacted, would ban throttling, blocking, and paid prioritization by Internet service providers; reclassify broadband as a telecommunications utility, and bring mobile networks into the same rules. (Bloomberg)

It's an effort by Detroit's new mayor, Mike Duggan, and the city council to get citizens to help with the maintenance of Detroit's many abandoned properties, which number in the tens of thousands. The lots are a stark, aching reminder of the middle-class that Detroit's car industry once supported – before outsourcing led to job cuts, and those middle-class strivers fled the city by the hundreds of thousands, emptying out whole neighborhoods. (BBC News)

Everyone aspires to have purpose or meaning in their career but how do you actually do that? What practical steps can you take today or this month to make sure you’re not just toiling away at your desk but you’re doing something you genuinely care about? (Harvard Business Review)

Eighty seven percent of human resource leaders say that staff working periodically from home has boosted employee satisfaction so much that nearly 7 out of 10 hiring managers use workplace flexibility programs as a recruiting and retention tool, according to research and HR membership service Workplace Trends and CareerArc, a global recruitment and outplacement firm. Nearly a third (29%) spent over $40,000 implementing a flex-time program last year, and more than half say they’ll invest more in those initiatives this year. Unfortunately, flex time isn’t working as well for employees, according to the 2015 Workplace Flexibility Study, which surveyed 1,087 professionals, both employed and unemployed, in addition to 116 HR professionals, nationwide. (Fast Company)

It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You want to become an early riser. You know that waking up early is one of the best ways to be more productive. You know that many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs are early risers. Yet no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to stop hitting snooze. You don’t have to let productivity slip through your hands forever. Here’s how to finally wake up earlier. (Fast Company)