Business - Opinion

Daniel Wesley knew as soon as he started applying to business school that he wanted to avoid student loans. He'd already racked up about $45,000 in loans from his undergraduate days and didn't relish the idea of adding another $200,000 or so to that debt load, he says. When he found out he got into the Weekend MBA program at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business (Booth Part-Time MBA Profile), he turned to his mother and father, a retired construction foreman, for help. ... Full Story »

Not a week passes without headlines that excoriate some corporate executive for mishandling an operational crisis that has mushroomed into a public relations disaster. Despite impeccable credentials and accomplished careers, many chief executives find themselves looking foolish after responding obtusely to common and inevitable threats to their companies' reputations. Full Story »

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately in real estate, value is a trade-off. Someone in Manhattan is willing to pay $2,200 per month to rent a studio apartment so as to be near jobs and cultural amenities, sacrificing square footage. For someone in Las Vegas, where housing is inexpensive -- the city's median home value is about $115,000, according to real estate site Zillow.com -- and the labor market is tough, the reverse is true. What if you could have both proximity to work and quality of life at an affordable cost? Full Story »

Hamdy El Fakhrany didn't set out to strike a blow against Egyptian government corruption when he traveled to a state land auction in 2007. All he wanted was a quarter of an acre to build a house. The auction was canceled, as were the others he tried to attend over the next six months, the 53-year-old engineer says. Full Story »

Two years ago I wrote a column about what I would say to the MBA of 2009 if I were selected to deliver a commencement address. That graduation occurred just as the savage effects of the Great Recession were unfolding. Millions had lost their jobs and millions more would fear losing them. Business confidence was nonexistent. More often than not, you heard executives say they'd not seen anything like that before. Full Story »

Few corporate leaders have as rapt an audience as they do when they speak at commencement, that great rite of spring when graduates get to reflect on the academic life they're leaving behind and the challenges and opportunities ahead. And this year's crop of B-school graduation speakers is no exception. With the job outlook for both college business majors and MBAs improving, the tone this year was generally optimistic -- with a healthy dose of reality thrown in for good measure. Full Story »

Guest: Megan Lynam, director of admissions at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Full-Time MBA Profile). Full Story »

As the city-run Women's Health and Family Planning Center in Bayonne, N.J., closed its doors last month for the final time, workers hauled away desks, cabinets, and dozens of white boxes labeled "pregnancy tests" and "condoms." The clinic was one of six forced to close after Republican Governor Chris Christie eliminated all of the $7.45 million in state funding for family planning last year as part of an effort to narrow a budget shortfall approaching $11 billion. Full Story »

Some might call it a simpler time. Others might say life was just less comfortable. In 1973, about three people lived in each household in the U.S. The average single-family home built that year was one story, 1,660 sq. ft., and had two or three bedrooms. It was very rare to have more than two bathrooms. Full Story »

MBA internships are more important -- and more competitive -- than ever. Now, besides helping business school students get a taste of life post-graduation, they are the main gateway to a full-time job offer. Full Story »

In 2007, Cyrus Massoumi was flying home to New York after a business trip when he ruptured his eardrum. The McKinsey consultant needed to see an ear-nose-throat specialist immediately, but it took him three days to even find a doctor. Massoumi couldn't believe the holdup: If he could book a dinner reservation online, he thought, why not a doctor's appointment? That's when he came up with the concept for ZocDoc, an OpenTable for medical appointments. Full Story »

Christopher Ely is prone to philosophizing about his life's work. "You should be invisible, to a certain point," he explains carefully, wearing a navy blue pinstriped suit and well-polished shoes. "You exist, of course, but you don't." Ely, of course, is describing the secrets of the manservant trade. As one of New York's most famous butlers, he's enjoyed a storied career that began as a footman at Buckingham Palace and led to a job as the butler and estate manager for philanthropist and power widow Brooke Astor. Ely, 48, does not use the term "manservant. ... Full Story »

When Antonio Ribeiro found himself with two restless children in a Portuguese beach town, he did what any desperate parent would do: He went for the leaflet rack in the hotel lobby. There he found a brochure advertising something called KidZania -- a sprawling indoor theme park, attached to a Lisbon mall, where children could pretend to be nurses, dentists, runway models, photographers, radio announcers, window cleaners, and countless other professions. And so Ribeiro ventured to KidZania with his 4-year-old twin girls. They burped fake babies in a pretend maternity ward. ... Full Story »

Sue and Douglas Reed knew no bank would give them a mortgage -- not with a bankruptcy and two foreclosures fresh in their credit history. They turned to Hilarie Walters, whose childhood home on 15 acres in Marshall, Mich., had been on the market since 2009, a year after she inherited it. Walters agreed in December to sell the property to the Reeds for $105,000. She also consented to a risky payment plan that in effect makes her the couple's mortgage lender. ... Full Story »

Editor's Note: This story is part of Bloomberg Businessweek's occasional series on the world of startups. The series focuses on MBAs and undergraduate business students who developed ideas or launched businesses while still in school, examining the many ways their schools helped them get new ventures off the ground. For a look at some business students trying to build their own businesses, check out our slide show. Full Story »

With the first part of Business Fundamentals over, the IMD (IMD Full-Time MBA Profile Class of 2011 is gaining momentum in this one-year marathon. The first three months were intense, but we never failed to play hard outside the classroom. I will always remember heading to the local bar on Feb. 11 and celebrating with our Egyptian classmates when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, raising our glasses to others turning another year wiser, and walking with candles to Lake Geneva in memory of the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. ... Full Story »

Francisca de Carvalho lives in Rocinha, a shantytown that climbs a hillside just beyond the fancy Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Leblon. Her fourth-floor apartment isn't what you'd expect in a favela: It's spic-and-span, with modern furnishings and a sweeping view. Carvalho, 54, recently spent about $400 to remodel her bathroom. She borrowed the money on her Banco Ita credit card and pays 14 percent interest -- per month. "I like nice things," she says. Full Story »

Shelby Webb rented her first apartment on Apr. 9 after landing a job translating ads for a Spanish-language newspaper in Chattanooga. About the same time, 24-year-old Anna Stokkebye, who was hired full-time in January as a website designer, closed on a $155,000 two-bedroom condominium in Charlotte. Both left their parents' homes to move into their new digs. "I love my parents, but I didn't want to live with them anymore," says Webb, 22. Full Story »