Bob Kreitner’s Quick-and-Easy Guide to Reading Business Week
Magazine
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Business Week magazine is essential reading for present and future managers and
professionals, investors, and anyone interested in figuring out how today’s world works. Your
authors are devoted readers, as evidenced by the many real-life examples and case studies in
Kreitner and Kinicki’s Organizational Behavior gleaned from the pages of Business Week. The
question for you is: How can a busy person generally stay abreast of the business world by
investing about 20 to 30 minutes a week?
This guide highlights a brief message Bob Kreitner shared with a generation of Arizona
State University students at the start of each new semester. It assumes that students, who
already have more than enough to read, want and need a quick-and-easy way to stay current in
the world of business. Here’s the plan. It involves reading a minimum of four regular features
(a total of 5 pages) in each weekly issue:
“Up Front” is the opening segment in each issue of Business Week. This 2-page
feature presents a quick-hitting mix of business news items, poll results, tell-tale
statistics, quotes, and a timely cartoon.
“In Business this Week” is a 1-page feature including 6 or 7 brief current-event stories
about the world of business. Which companies merged, which top executives got hired
or fired, which firms are soaring or skidding out of control, etc.?
“Economic Trends” is a 1-page feature focused on workings of the global economy
affecting each of our lives through the money we make, prices we pay, and interest
rates we’re charged. Typically, this feature includes 3 or 4 short updates about
important economic matters.
“Developments to Watch” is a 1-page feature for those interested in innovation and
technology. In 4 or 5 short summaries you can learn about significant research
breakthroughs, new inventions, exciting new products, and promising new medicines
and medical procedures.
Subscribers to the print version of Business Week can access these features through
www.businessweek.com (click on tab “BW Magazine”).
If and when you find the time, you can supplement this core reading by checking out
feature articles that suit your current interests. Two full-length features we like can be found
under the major headings “The Corporation” and “People”.
By faithfully following this approach for a year or more, you will start to connect the dots,
so to speak. You will see patterns emerge as names of individuals and companies become
familiar, trends become apparent, announced strategies succeed or fail, and forecasts come
true or not. Thus, you will be better prepared to get and keep a good job, carry on intelligent
conversations, make smart buying decisions, vote, invest, and face the challenges of a rapidly-
changing world. Good Reading!