5 Indian MBAs Who Left Corporate Jobs To Follow Their Hearts

From The Better India: An MBA is often viewed by Indian society as the ultimate degree. So, when an MBA graduate quits a high-paying job to start something unconventional, it does take people by surprise. That was the case when MBA grad Mohammed Arif Hussain decided to ditch the traditional job route and open a nimbu paani business — he not only took everyone by surprise, but also heard many jibes along the way.

“Everybody doubted it,” he told Telangana Today. “Things like ‘gharwalon ka naam kharab kare’ (You’re ruining the family name) and ‘bade khandaan se hoke aise kaam’ (Why are you doing such things when you’re from an established family?) were said to me in a discouraging way. But there is no compulsion that if I have an MBA degree, I will have to do a job.”

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New leadership at National Black MBA Association

From Atlanta, Georgia: The National Black MBA Association has officially announced its new executive leadership: Shawn M. Graham, CPA as its interim chief executive officer and Paula Fontana as interim president.

Graham transitions from her role as NBMBAA’s CFO to the interim CEO role. Prior to joining NBMBAA, she served as the chief financial officer of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority (Authority), which is the owner of Grady Health System. There she was responsible for the oversight and compliance of Grady’s Pension Plan, endowment funds, investment strategies, uncompensated care reporting, bond issuance of the $250M Center for Advanced Surgical Services, and the financial statements of the Authority.

NBMBAA is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) member-based professional organization which leads in the creation of educational, wealth building and growth opportunities for Black students, professionals, and entrepreneurs. Representing more than 20,000 members, 41 professional chapters, and 33 Leaders of Tomorrow® chapters, and over 500 corporate, academic, and non-profit partners, the Association is dedicated to developing alliances that create intellectual and economic wealth in the Black community through its five channels of engagement: career, education, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle.

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Report: Cities with the Most Female Business Owners

From the U.S. Census Bureau: Small businesses are a major engine of growth in the U.S. economy, and women are playing an increasingly large role in the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, women-owned firms now represent more than one in five businesses with employees in the U.S., a figure that has trended upward in recent years. These enterprises  report over $1.8 trillion in annual revenue and employ nearly 11 million workers.

While women-owned businesses are becoming a more significant part of the economy, the Census Bureau’s data also shows that women’s experiences of entrepreneurship frequently look different than men’s. Notably, the industries that women tend to start businesses in are different from the most common industries for men. In particular, fields like health care and social assistance or accommodation and food service tend to have higher proportions of women-owned businesses. And in part due to these differences in industry, women-owned firms tend to pay less per employee (-30.1%) than the national average.

However, these differences also extend to women’s reasons for getting into business in the first place. Women are more likely than men to report that flexible hours or balancing work and family obligations were very important when deciding to start a business. Meanwhile, men are more likely to say that the possibility of earning greater income or wanting to be their own boss motivated their decision to start a business.

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DON’T MISS A CALIFORNIA B-SCHOOL GETS A NEW DEAN