Future Proof Your Career
Dr. Silvanus J. Udoka, Dean of Clark Atlanta University's School of Business Forbes
I
n today's rapidly changing economy, success depends not only on what you know but also on how you think.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Silvanus J. Udoka, the Dean of Clark Atlanta University's School of Business. We discussed how the university is equipping the next generation of young professionals with the mindset necessary to thrive in an unpredictable workforce.
And the need is urgent.
In May, Resume.org released a survey that noted that colleges aren't adequately preparing students for today's workforce. Additionally, 65% of hiring managers had to fire at least one recent college graduate within the past year. The causes range from a lack of motivation to professionalism issues to poor time management. However, Udoka notes the struggle isn't limited to new grads.
Layoffs have dominated headlines in 2025, prompting a Forbes contributing writer to ask in March if 2025 is the year of layoffs? Through July, thousands of traditionally 'secure' roles—especially in government—were eliminated. Job losses in the private sector aren't far behind.
So, whether you're fresh out of school, mid-career, or mentoring someone in transition, Udoka offers a timely blueprint to stay relevant, resilient, and ready. We'll unpack the career climate further in our upcoming members-only interview, 'From Pivot to Power: Strategies For Professionals Navigating Workforce Uncertainty.'
Until next time, stay connected with me on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
BellRing Brands (NYSE:BRBR) Posts Better-Than-Expected Sales In Q2
Nutrition products company Bellring Brands (NYSE:BRBR) reported Q2 CY2025 results beating Wall Street's revenue expectations , with sales up 6.2% year on year to $547.5 million. The company expects the full year's revenue to be around $2.3 billion, close to analysts' estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.55 per share was 9.9% above analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy BellRing Brands? Find out in our full research report. BellRing Brands (BRBR) Q2 CY2025 Highlights: Revenue: $547.5 million vs analyst estimates of $531.8 million (6.2% year-on-year growth, 3% beat) Adjusted EPS: $0.55 vs analyst estimates of $0.50 (9.9% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $120.3 million vs analyst estimates of $112.6 million (22% margin, 6.8% beat) The company reconfirmed its revenue guidance for the full year of $2.3 billion at the midpoint EBITDA guidance for the full year is $485 million at the midpoint, below analyst estimates of $488 million Operating Margin: 8.2%, down from 21.7% in the same quarter last year Organic Revenue rose 6.2% year on year (15.6% in the same quarter last year) Sales Volumes rose 3.5% year on year (18.4% in the same quarter last year) Market Capitalization: $6.87 billion Company Overview Spun out of Post Holdings in 2019, Bellring Brands (NYSE:BRBR) offers protein shakes, nutrition bars, and other products under the PowerBar, Premier Protein, and Dymatize brands. Revenue Growth Reviewing a company's long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. With $2.22 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, BellRing Brands is a small consumer staples company, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from economies of scale and negotiating leverage with retailers. On the bright side, it can grow faster because it has a longer list of untapped store chains to sell into. As you can see below, BellRing Brands's sales grew at an impressive 18.6% compounded annual growth rate over the last three years as consumers bought more of its products. This quarter, BellRing Brands reported year-on-year revenue growth of 6.2%, and its $547.5 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street's estimates by 3%. Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 12% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last three years. Still, this projection is admirable and suggests the market is forecasting success for its products. Unless you've been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report one of our favorites growth stories. Volume Growth Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (the number of units sold). While both are important, volume is the lifeblood of a successful staples business as there's a ceiling to what consumers will pay for everyday goods; they can always trade down to non-branded products if the branded versions are too expensive. To analyze whether BellRing Brands generated its growth from changes in price or volume, we can compare its volume growth to its organic revenue growth, which excludes non-fundamental impacts on company financials like mergers and currency fluctuations. Over the last two years, BellRing Brands's average quarterly volume growth of 20.1% has outpaced the competition by a long shot. In the context of its 19.5% average organic revenue growth, we can see that most of the company's gains have come from more customers purchasing its products. In BellRing Brands's Q2 2025, sales volumes jumped 3.5% year on year. This result was a meaningful deceleration from its historical levels. We'll be watching BellRing Brands closely to see if it can reaccelerate demand for its products. Key Takeaways from BellRing Brands's Q2 Results We enjoyed seeing BellRing Brands beat analysts' organic revenue growth, total revenue, and EBITDA expectations this quarter. That full-year revenue guidance was reaffirmed shows that the business is on track. Overall, we think this was a decent quarter with some key metrics above expectations. The stock remained flat at $54.00 immediately following the results. Indeed, BellRing Brands had a rock-solid quarterly earnings result, but is this stock a good investment here? We think that the latest quarter is just one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free.
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Former BLS commissioner explains damage of Trump's BLS firing
President Trump's surprise firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner has raised concerns about potential political interference in labor data. William Beach, former BLS commissioner and Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) senior fellow in economics, joins to explain how jobs data is collected and why the integrity of the process is critical to public trust. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination. I guess to start, Bill, let me just get your reaction on that news of Trump firing the BLS chief. What do you make of it, Bill? How important is it? What's at stake? I was I was very surprised when he did that. I, in fact, it caught me when I was in my pickup truck. I had to I had to come over to the side and just sat there for about 40 minutes fielding calls. Uh, so, what do I make of it? Well, it first off, it damages BLS a bit because as your previous experts pointed out, uh, now, there's this uh this cover, this uh this appearance that there may be some bias, and that there may be some people working inside BLS to shape the numbers. I can tell you that it's simply not true and and it's it's just simply not the case that the commissioner, especially the commissioner, has anything to do with the preparation of the numbers or the estimation of the numbers. Much more likely, there's some senior person deep inside the bowels might, but the commissioner's just completely locked out of that thing, but the damage is done. Uh, even if St. Peter was the nominee and that was approved in committee and on the floor of the Senate, there would still be this this possibility in people's minds who don't follow BLS that closely, that, "Well," you you know, "Uh, a poor month, maybe 25,000 jobs." And they'll say, "Well, it it could have been a lot worse, and it probably was a lot worse, but St. Peter raised the number." So, uh yeah, we're going to take a long time to recover from this. I hope we can recover in a shorter amount of time than I'm I'm expecting, but I think damage was done. Can you walk us through, Bill, how does BLS collect the data? Can you walk us through that process? Well, sure, there're two surveys, and the survey we're talking about, the revisions, the big revisions, is a survey of business establishments. You know, somewhere around 600,000. The number varies from month to month. These are surveyed. This is a survey, and as a consequence, uh the it is a sample of the entire 12 million firms that are out there. So, we collect that sample in the time period in which the 12th of the month occurs. That should be a payroll period, with the 12th of the month, the date in there. And then the sample begins to come in. By the end of the first month, we have about 68% of that sample in, and it's on the basis of that that the estimate is done. So, on the basis of about 68 65 to 70% of the returned sample. Now, you notice I didn't say 100%. Um, that's because some firms don't get their sample in, so it the period of collection is kept open for 2 more months. Uh, by the end of the second month, we have about 83% of the sample in. By the end of the third month, we have 91 to 95% of the sample in, so it's a very complete survey. That sample is collected at the regional level, sent to the National Office. In the National Office, which is here in Washington, now at the Suitland Federal Center, that the there are people who take the sample return and using formulas, mathematics, statistics, they expand that sample up to hit national targets for, say, individual industries, like banking or finance or something of that nature. And then, on the basis of those, we sum it all up, and that's the national number that's reported first Friday. That's the 73,000 additional net jobs in the economy. So, that's basically how it's done. Related Videos How Wall Street & DC are reacting to Trump's BLS firing Fmr. Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross explains Trump's BLS suspicions Trump to announce new Fed governor & BLS head this week Bill Dudley on Fed Disagreement, BLS Data Quality Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Trump envoy Witkoff in Russia this week for stab at Ukraine ceasefire after Kremlin warns US to be ‘careful' over nuclear subs move
Steve Witkoff, the New York real estate developer turned roving peace envoy for President Donald Trump, is heading to Russia this week for yet another round of talks with officials in Moscow with an eye towards pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his years-long war against Ukraine. Trump told reporters on Sunday that Witkoff, who has also been tasked with serving as a mediator in the Israel-Hamas conflict, would be traveling to Russia on either Tuesday or Wednesday for meetings ahead of Friday's deadline for Moscow to call off the war or face more U.S. sanctions. Asked what Putin could do to avoid harsh penalties, including secondary tariffs on goods from countries that purchase Russian oil, he told reporters: 'Get a deal where people stop getting killed.' But the president also expressed skepticism that new sanctions could hurt Russia's economy, citing Moscow's demonstrated ability to evade them. 'Well there will be sanctions but they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions. You know, they're wily characters and they're pretty good at avoiding sanctions. So we'll see what happens,' he said. Trump's Ukraine envoy, retired Army general Keith Kellogg, is understood to be planning travel to Kyiv at the same time Witkoff is in Moscow. Witkoff has visited the Russian capital multiple times since being handed the Russia portfolio, and he has attracted attention in foreign policy circles for his nonchalant and conciliatory attitude towards Putin and his government. He has openly spoken of his admiration for the Russian leader and once presented him with a painting of Trump as a gift. Witkoff has also violated normal diplomatic protocols by arriving without an American translator, instead relying on a Russian one during meetings without any other American witnesses. Kremlin press secretary Dimitri Peskov told reporters on Monday that the Russian government is 'always happy to see Mr. Witkoff in Moscow' and called the talks with the real estate developer 'important, substantive and very useful.' He also suggested that Witkoff could end up meeting with Putin during his time in the Russian capital. The Trump White House envoy's visit comes just days after Trump said he was redeploying a pair of American 'nuclear submarines' in response to belligerent statements made on X by former Russian president Dimitri Medvedev earlier last week. Writing on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said he was ordering the American warships to 'the appropriate regions' due to what he called 'the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia' and noted Medvedev's status as a deputy chair of the Russian national security council. Trump said the move was a precautionary measure 'just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.' 'Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,' he added. The online feud between Trump and Medvedev comes as months of talks in Turkey between Ukraine and Russia have failed to achieve anything beyond arrangements for exchanges of prisoners of war and the bodies of each side's respective war dead. Russia has continued to target Ukraine with nightly attacks by drones and other aerial weapons, with a civilian death toll that has incensed Trump and led him to send more U.S. made weapons to Ukraine after months of indulging the more isolationist-minded members of his government. During an appearance last week alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on the steps of his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Trump complained that Putin had too often talked a good game about wanting to reach a ceasefire in the conflict only to resume bombing civilian targets in short order. 'We thought we had that settled numerous times. And then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street. And I say that's not the way to do it,' Trump said.
