Aims to help African Americans live well, earn more, and be successful in business by offering advice and information about careers and business trends.

Expanding Minds and Opportunities: Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning for Student Success presents an impressive and significant body of work that comprises almost 70 reports, research studies, essays, articles, and commentaries by more than 100 authors representing a range of researchers, educators, policy makers, and professionals in the field, as well as thought leaders and opinion influencers. Collectively, these writings boldly state that there is now a solid base of research and best practices clearly showing that quality afterschool and summer learning programs-including 21st Century Community Learning Centers-make a positive difference for students, families, schools, and communities.

Create meaningful connections to achieve success The Knock Method® is a five-step framework for intentionally and genuinely connecting with others for mutual benefit as you develop your career. Whether you’re working to get to the next level at your current job, seeking a new job or career, or just kicking off your career, this book will help you build confidence to reach out and open doors. It provides a networking guide to build long-lasting relationships that will strengthen your collective network and help you bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be. You’ll be inspired; learn how much high-quality relationships matter, not only for your career but for your health and for your community; get easy steps to follow; and gain practical tools that will help you take The Knock Method off the page and into your career relationships to make a collective impact and drive change.

Competencies historically have been vital for skill building, and competency-based approaches have demonstrated their impact on business performance and organizational effectiveness in today’s marketplace. However, this has been discussed exclusively in chapters and books as separate propositions. It is essential to understand the two as linked together, building upon the other, merging individual and organizational perspectives of competencies development. Building Competencies for Organizational Success: Emerging Research and Opportunities presents a narrowly focused discussion of competency-based approaches and performance management and examines how these concepts align with business processes and procedures, management systems, and business objectives. It brings to light a new era of business performance management that complements the collaborative working of individuals and organizations to achieve business desires and addresses such topics as competent organization, knowledge management, and performance management systems. This book helps leaders, managers, executives, consultants, practitioners, academicians, researchers, and students with the understanding of how to utilize intellectual assets as well as how to develop a better future and outcomes for business and people management.

This book finally gives innovators an alternative to the painful writing of business plans. Not only an alternative but also a more effective, faster and easier way to convince investors and decision-makers: the Opportunity Case is a more user-friendly way of analyzing and presenting a project, which has been quickly adopted by many multinational corporations, public sector organizations as well as start-ups. It also addresses a central problem in existing businesses: many people have good ideas but very few of these innovations are actually implemented. The content of this book proposes the first practical process that has been demonstrated to boost innovation by up to 56%. "Winning Opportunities" presents the IpOp Model that outlines in a very concrete and down-to-earth way, the core process of innovation that successful entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs use, even unconsciously. The model acts as a simple hands-on guide for innovators who want to increase their chances of success. This structured and user-friendly roadmap helps innovators turn an idea into a tangible opportunity, outline measurable deliverables, learn how to address all the key issues critical to the success of their project, and identify early in the process whether an opportunity is worth pursuing. To illustrate its concepts, a large number of real-life examples are included as inspiration to the reader. Nespresso's strategy is used throughout the book to demonstrate each key step of the IpOp Model. It is the first time in print one can read about the strategy that shaped the fascinating success story of Nespresso, a $3 billion business with double-digit annual growth. Both Nespresso and the IpOp Model were developed in Switzerland, which was recently ranked No. 1 in innovation worldwide. Besides helping start-up initiators, the IpOp Model, as best practice for innovation, improves and complements the existing selection of innovation processes used by large organizations (staged gate, six sigma, etc.). Since learning is easier when emotions are included in the process, each chapter is preceded by a joke illustrating its serious content. The author, Prof. Raphael H Cohen took advantage of his 30+ years experience as serial entrepreneur, active CEO and business angel to write this book to encapsulate some of the key messages he has been teaching in top business schools and corporate environments since 2001. He is a keynote speaker and an expert in both professional agility and "weapons of mass innovation." Besides his responsibility as academic director of MBA programs, he provides executive education, mentoring, consulting and management services for senior executives, bankers, directors and entrepreneurs. He serves on the board of directors of several companies, including a Swiss bank, and is a regular contributor to several business publications. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics in 1982"

Americans believe economic opportunity is as fundamental a right as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. More concerned about a level playing field for all, they worry less about the growing income and wealth disparity in our country. Creating an Opportunity Society examines economic opportunity in the United States and explores how to create more of it, particularly for those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill propose a concrete agenda for increasing opportunity that is cost effective, consistent with American values, and focuses on improving the lives of the young and the disadvantaged. They emphasize individual responsibility as an indispensable basis for successful policies and programs. The authors recommend a three-pronged approach to create more opportunity in America: • Increase education for children and youth at the preschool, K–12, and postsecondary levels • Encourage and support work among adults • Reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births while increasing the share of children reared by their married parents With concern for the federal deficit in mind, Haskins and Sawhill argue for reallocating existing resources, especially from the affluent elderly to disadvantaged children and their families. The authors are optimistic that a judicious use of the nation's resources can level the playing field and produce more opportunity for all. Creating an Opportunity Society offers the most complete summary available of the facts and the factors that contribute to economic opportunity. It looks at the poor, the middle class, and the rich, providing deep background data on how each group has fared in recent decades. Unfortunately, only the rich have made substantial progress, making this book a timely guide forward for anyone interested in what we can do as a society to improve the prospects for our less-advantaged families and fellow citizens.

A completely updated and revised edition of a bestselling book that has helped tens of thousands of people learn how to network effectively, Success Runs in Our Race is more important than ever in this fluctuating economy. With scores of anecdotes taken from interviews with successful African Americans -- from Keith Clinkscales, founder and former CEO of Vanguarde Media, to Oprah Winfrey -- Fraser shows how to network for information, for influence, and for resources. Readers will learn, among other things, how to cultivate valuable listening skills, which conferences blacks are most likely to attend when looking to build their business network, and how to effectively circulate a résumé. More than a guide for personal achievement, this is an information-packed bible of networking that also seeks to inspire a social movement and a rebirth of the "Underground Railroad," in which successful African Americans share the lessons of self-determination and empowerment with those still struggling to scale the ladder of success.