"Business Education: Students Struggle for Words"

"Business Schools Put More Emphasis on Writing Amid Employer Complaints" by Diana Middleton

This article from the Wall Street Journal on March 3, 2011 was a good read. Written communication is very important and doing it right is crucial. Click here to read the article.

Worthy reads from Thomas Friedman

I occasionally read Thomas Friedman and am generally impressed with what he has to say. Here's a link to his New York Times site that has his editorials listed. I would like to direct your attention to two recent ones that I read. The first one, The Start-Up of You, deals with the new realities of today's job market versus that of the past. The second one, The Clash of Generations, pertains to the state of today's worker versus that of the retiring baby boomers. Also, in this article is the assessment of America's standing in the world relative to up and coming economies like China's.

Khan Academy

Be sure to check out Sal Khan's online education project known as Khan Academy. This phenomenal collection of free, short, online video tutorials on a wide range of topics is educational, inspirational and so much more.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Start Your Own Restaurant and More

by Entrepreneur Press and Jacquelyn Lynn. This is a book in the Bruno Library's collection that was added because of our support of the Alabama Entrepreneurial Research Network (AERN). This reference style book does a great job of covering a wide array of topics related to opening a restaurant (the most popular kind of businesses to open). Lots of practical advise is given throughout. Varying formats of eateries are covered such as pizzerias, coffeehouses, deli, bakeries, catering businesses and more.

Bruno Business Library REF TX 911.3 .M27 L9776 2009

Toastmasters International

The featured item for this post is Toastmasters International. This is a fantastic organization that serves to help those who need help with public speaking skills...and who couldn't use this???

Look for information on a local chapter. There once was one here on the UA campus. I was involved with it for a short while. If you have the time, leadership and inclination I am sure that re-establishing a chapter here at UA would be a wonderful thing to do that would pay huge intangible dividends.

Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Bookshelf

Because I find so many things that are interesting I have difficulty in picking up a book and reading it from cover to cover. I easily and quickly get engrossed in a book and there lies a problem. I am surrounded by books at work and at home. One way to solve this problem is to read book reviews. You can learn a lot and get the essence of the book or the executive summary. One place that I like to read book reviews is from the Wall Street Journal. The reviews appear almost daily in the paper and the books that are featured are very interesting...usually non-fiction (my favorite). To easily see back issues of WSJ book reviews one can quickly enter the ABI/INFORM database that we subscribe to and search for "Bookshelf" in the Wall Street Journal. Here's an effective search if you want to specifically look for books with "management" in the title. Use these search terms:

Wall Street Journal = Publication Title
Bookshelf = Citation and Abstract
management = Citation and Abstract

Happy reading,
Paul

Business for the Glory of God

by Wayne Grudem

This is a great little book of less than 100 pages. It has an index and notes section and is very well written by a great scholar in the field of Bible and Theology. This book will help open your eyes of understanding to a more Biblically-sound side of capitalism and commerce and provoke your thoughts in ways you may not have considered before. Read only if you want to be challenged and have a deeper understanding of things.

See Kindle # 26 in the Bruno Business Library for this title. Be sure to check the Scout catalog for availability. Read this Amazon summary to whet your appetite.