Alcoa Plans to Close Plants and Trim Work Force

The aluminum maker said it would cut 13,500 jobs, 13 percent of its total work force, as well as slash spending and output to cope with the global economic slowdown.

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Jobless Crash New York's Benefit System

When tens of thousands of newly laid off workers rushed to file for benefits in New York, the state's system crashed. State labor department officials say the problem started Monday when phone banks at the state's toll-free claims center shut down. Then, the online filing system crashed.

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Peer pressure pushes people to go green

A growing body of research shows the most effective way to get people to go green is not through do-good appeals, but rather peer pressure. Sarah Gardner reports on the latest research findings.

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ITunes to Change Pricing Strategy

Apple unveiled significant pricing and copyright changes to its iTunes Store, moves by the dominant online music seller that could spur similar action across the industry.

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Creative Capitalism

A new book takes on Bill Gates’s idea that corporations should do more to help solve society’s problems, writes Leslie Lenkowsky in the Wall Street Journal (1/2/09). The book, “Creative Capitalism,” is actually an edited collection of blog posts by “a distinguished group of economists, journalists and executives of nonprofit organizations,” edited by [...]

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Portraiture Now

Photographs and commentary by Martin Schoeller and Steve Pyke.

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Frugal Families Aggravate Nation's Economic Woes

As layoffs and store closures grip the U.S., families embracing frugality are also a major reason the downturn may not soon end.

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Helping Small Firms Is Key to Recovery

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The shape of things to come

05 JAN 2008 from the Guardian | Read the full story»

A self-confessed 'pretty unlikely early adopter', the digital guru Clay Shirky still proved to be uncannily prescient about the impact of the web - which is why Tom Teodorczuk is getting his media forecast for 2009.

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Perseverance Answers Vegans' Prayers

06 JAN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

How I got to here in 10 words or less: Stuck with it until it worked. (Subscription required)

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The Big Books Bailout

04 JAN 2008 from Julian Gough | Read the full story»

"As we all know, lax writing practices earlier this decade led to irresponsible writing and irresponsible reading. This simply put too many families into books they could not finish. We are seeing the impact on readers and neighborhoods, with 5 million readers now behind on their reading. Some are just walking away from novels they should never have been reading in the first place. What began as a sub-prime reading problem has spread to other, less-risky readers, and contributed to excess inventories."

Hat tip: boingboing

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Test for Dwindling Retail Jobs Spawns a Culture of Cheating

07 JAN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Many retailers have largely automated the hiring process with online personality tests... The system cuts the time store managers must spend in interviewing applicants. But the test also is creating a culture of cheating and raising questions for applicants about its fairness -- even as it becomes a critical determinant of who gets a job and who doesn't in a stressful era of rising unemployment. (Subscription required)

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Dumbest Moments in Business 2008

06 JAN 2008 from Fortune | Read the full story»

We don't know whether to laugh or cry. Our annual list of the year's most laughable moves proves that, even in moments of crisis, stupidity lives on.

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The End of the Financial World as We Know It

03 JAN 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

AMERICANS enter the New Year in a strange new role: financial lunatics. We’ve been viewed by the wider world with mistrust and suspicion on other matters, but on the subject of money even our harshest critics have been inclined to believe that we knew what we were doing. They watched our investment bankers and emulated them: for a long time now half the planet’s college graduates seemed to want nothing more out of life than a job on Wall Street. This is one reason the collapse of our financial system has inspired not merely a national but a global crisis of confidence. Good God, the world seems to be saying, if they don’t know what they are doing with money, who does? (Subscription required)

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Key of IKEA

Bill Agee of IKEA says innovation begins with a culture of courtesy and a sense of community. An exclusive Q&A interview by Tim Manners.

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We Don't Need No Stinkin' Web Sites

Even in the Digital Age, many small businesses may not need to invest the time and money it takes to launch and maintain a full-blown site.

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Recession survival strategies

Right now, you need to be thinking about how you will emerge and thrive from the recession ahead of your competition. But how? To point you in the right direction, here's Max McKeown's advice on dealing with the financial crisis.

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What Can The Book Business Learn From iTunes?

This week the media is a-squabble over the death rattles coming from the book publishing industry. Yes, it's in dire condition. But a new business model might bring readers back. Call it the Free Lunch model.

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Jobless Ask: Take First Offer Or Wait For Better?

Unemployed workers face a tough decision: Should they settle for a lower salary, and get work now, or hold out for a job commensurate with their skills? Employment counselors say some folks are still too proud to take a pay cut, but as weeks drag into months, they may have to settle for less. (Audio)

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Companies Seek PC Alternatives

To cut costs and go green, businesses are toying with PC substitutes such as small devices that tap virtual desktop software.

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Leader's Seven Essential Behaviors

According to Ram Charam and Larry Bossidy's book Execution, the leader's seven essential behaviors are: Know your people and your business Insist on realism Set clear goals and priorities Follow through Reward the doers Expand people's capabilities Know yourself....

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Eating green saves workplace green

Having a salad instead of a cheeseburger for lunch is a choice some companies want their employees to make. To promote healthy living and save money, companies are subsidizing the costs of more nutritious meals.

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Recruiting Talent to Ailing Firms

05 JAN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

How W.R. Grace Altered Hiring, Retention Practices While in Chapter 11. (Subscription required)

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One Gender's Crash

04 JAN 2008 from the Washington Post | Read the full story»

The experience of the past year suggests that we desperately need to bring more women into leadership positions. (Subscription required)

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Is Silicon Valley Losing Its Mojo?

Short-term thinking and increasing risk aversion have stifled the tech center's spirit. But innovators still lurk there, if you look for them.

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Puttin’ Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing

Amid a relentless string of layoffs and pay-freeze announcements, book publishers are clamping down on some of the business’s most glittery and cozy traditions. (Subscription required)

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McDonald's Supersized Retirement Plan

The fast-food giant is persuading more African American workers to enroll in 401(k)s. Can McDonald's keep talent by helping families save?

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Web Passes Papers as a News Source

Almost twice as many people get most of their news online as did a year ago. (Subscription required)

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Expertise and passion

It's more important that you be passionate about what you do all day than it is to be passionate about the product that is being sold.

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Cheer up

Entrepreneur Sir David Tang on the risks of pessimism

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Ask the Innovation Guru

"How can business schools restructure to incorporate design thinking into their curricula?" asks reader Mike. BusinessWeek's Bruce Nussbaum responds. (Video )

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As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

29 DEC 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces... (Subscription required)

Hat tip: Dan Pink

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Ad Agencies Fashion Their Own Horn, and Toot It

30 DEC 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

A blog about Michelle Obama's clothes shows how agencies are moving from promoting to creating brands. (Subscription required)

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Former Bankers Turn to a Creative Plan B

26 DEC 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

With Wall Street hemorrhaging jobs, some bankers and lawyers are trying their hands at comedy, filmmaking and writing. (Subscription required)

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An Idea That Even Scrooge Would Like: DailyLit's Sponsorship Model

24 DEC 2008 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

Book serialization has come into vogue again, 170 years after Charles Dickens popularized it with "The Pickwick Papers" and "Oliver Twist." Funny enough, it's the 19th-century author who is championing the form in 2008: His "A Christmas Carol" is one of more than 1,000 titles available through DailyLit, a digital serial book publisher that shares books with nearly 150,000 subscribers in short, customized installments via email and RSS feed. And now it's opening its virtual pages to advertisers. (Subscription required)

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2009: Nowhere to go but up

As 2008 comes to a close and stocks mark their worst year ever, 2009 will be the start of a very slow and very painful recovery.

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Dell Elevates Insiders in Strategy Change

The replacement of two top executives could suggest that founder and CEO Michael Dell is rethinking his plan to revive the company with outside talent. (Subscription required)

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GM gets $4B loan, Chrysler waits

General Motors got the first $4 billion of a series of emergency loans from the U.S. Treasury Wednesday, but fellow struggling automaker Chrysler was still waiting as the new year rapidly approached.

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What the GMAC bailout means for GM

GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors, received a $6 billion bailout from the Treasury Department. Now General Motors is offering 5-year, no-interest loans to prospective car buyers with low credit scores in hopes of boosting sales. But as Bob Moon reports, the government bailout could cause trouble for General Motors down the road.

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After the Collapse of 2008, Guarded Hope

After the U.S. stock market's third-worst year in more than a century, many investors are hoping for a turnaround in 2009. But considering the pain that has continued for more than a year, they are reluctant to bet on it. (Subscription required)

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Many workers see minimum-wage hike

Many of America's least-paid workers got a raise today as the minimum wage went up in about a dozen states. But some observers say the changes will hurt more than they will help.

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China 2009: The Confidence Deficit

Stock markets fell some 65% in 2008. Growth is down, unemployment is up. Will Beijing try to buy its way out of its problems with more exports?

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Will Social Media Tools Be Monetized In 2009?

It seems as if businesses are finding ways to use social media (usually without paying anything)... But regardless of whether some businesses are using social media tools, when do the social media tools themselves start to generate money?

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New Year Blues in Japan

[W]hile Japan’s problems remain the same—slowing demand and a surging yen—the size of their combined impact is growing remarkably quickly.

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Malcolm Gladwell on meaningful work and curiosity

When you believe that the work you’re doing has meaning, it’s an extra shot of adrenaline. Good food for thought for anyone trying to create a workplace culture that engages employees.

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Brand Management à la Affinnova

The Waltham (Mass.) company uses evolution simulation software to help businesses like Staples and Dannon redesign products or packaging.

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Airline Flies a 747 on Fuel From a Plant

Air New Zealand did a test flight with a fuel made in part with oil from the jatropha plant in a search for an alternative to crude oil. (Subscription required)

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