Next to marriage, family and homeownership, the decision to start a business is one of the most demanding undertakings an individual is likely to encounter. The path is littered with obstacles, challenges and ever-evolving goals – the most and least of which is success. Still, if you are able to persevere through difficulties, cyclical changes and lulls in the economy, you will reap the benefits and the rewards not only of building your business, but establishing a brand that can thrive for generations to come.

For minority-owned businesses, in particular, creating a viable position in the marketplace is critical to economic empowerment. The much-discussed rise of black- and other minority-owned businesses is adding significantly to the U.S. economy and creating a base of power from the inside out. Read the full story

Some bosses are highly supportive of the success of the individuals whom they manage, doing whatever they can to foster career development and on-the-job advancement for those in their charge. Sad to say, however, some bosses exemplify in attitude and action the very opposite of career support.

For any number of reasons, consciously or subconsciously, these managers invariably thwart the advancement of their subordinates.

As an ambitious,career-minded professional, what should you do if you work for someone who stymies your opportunity for success? First, you’ve got to understand the likely reasons for your boss’s behavior. With that understanding in mind, you can more appropriately determine how to protect yourself while moving ahead in your career. Read the full story

About a decade ago, I had an epiphany about whole systems thinking when my project team and I were asked to figure out why an effort to digitize the company’s backup data systems was failing. After reading about the business trends of companies converting tapes to CD-ROM, an executive at my company thought that he could save the company millions by digitizing data onto CD-ROM instead of storing larger tapes at a third-party storage facility. After six months of running on the new CD-ROM-based platform, however, the company’s savings were negligible, nowhere near expectations. When the troubleshooting team compared our process to that of companies that had successfully lowered their back-up storage costs, they quickly discovered the problem. While moving to the CD-ROM approach was a good move, it was only one of the significant changes that other companies had instituted across their whole back-up storage system. We had looked at only one piece in the data-storage chain.

Since then, I have repeatedly observed how companies – in many different situations and in many different environments – fail to understand the entire context of a problem. This is especially the case with many diversity efforts. Diversity consulting leaders such as Linda Stokes, CEO of the Orlando, Fla.-based firm PRISM International, say piecemeal efforts with narrow scopes are very common in the world of corporate diversity — usually resulting in frustration and failure. Read the full story