I sat at the large conference room table with William S. Parrish Jr., president and CEO of NobleStrategy L.L.C. With him were members of his dream team, one of whom was wearing a blue chambray shirt that matched the paint on a wood-trimmed wall.

When Black Broadcasting Network launches this quarter, it will bring much-needed diversity to the cable broadcasting and programming industry.

During the current economic recession, it is critical for small suppliers to let their biggest customers know if they are in trouble because these same customers may be able to help.

With the recession sapping money from corporate social-responsibility programs at many companies, it would seem that efforts to ensure environment-friendly business operations and a diverse workplace would be in competition for the same dollars. They don’t have to be, diversity advocates say.

In March, Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank, and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) set up what they call an “innovative fund” to provide loans to small farmers and small agribusinesses in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.

Making a successful career in video production has a lot to do with finding the right niche and being innovative, say husband-and-wife team Stephen Jackson and Jennifer Young-Jackson.

Investors are putting their money back into stocks, pushing equity markets slightly higher in Africa and the Caribbean. Banking and commodities are leading the charge amid signs the world economy is stabilizing. The gains, though still fragile, offer glimmers of hope.

During the 1973 energy crisis, British economist E.F. Schumacher published a collection of articles and essays titled Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered that called for a holistic approach to human society centered around small-scale, localized solutions.

Generally, there are three ways that you can take money out of a business if you are one of the owners. Either the company pays you compensation for your labor; if you have loaned money to the company, the company repays your loan; or the company makes a distribution of profit to you (this is called a “dividend” for a corporation, or a “distribution” for a partnership or L.L.C.).

Despite years of effort, minority-owned businesses are still drastically underrepresented in the U.S. economy. Blacks made up 11.8 percent of the population and owned 5 percent of all privately held businesses, but Black-owned firms’ share of business receipts was a mere 1 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent figures, compiled in 2002.

In late 2008, the Federal Reserve Board, which oversees and regulates the credit-card industry, cracked down on unfair and deceptive practices by credit-card companies, including the fees and interest rate increases blamed for pushing Americans deeper into debt.

The 2012 Olympics in London may be three years away, but the Brooklyn International Trade Development Center (www.brooklynexport.com) at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, N.Y., already is working to get New York-area companies to take advantage of the numerous related contract opportunities.

With the 2010 Census looming, tens of millions of residents in mostly dense urban areas such as Los Angeles and New York City are at high risk of being missed due to language problems and a deepening economic crisis, government officials say.

As the travel industry braces for what some estimates say could be a $30 billion drop in spending by Americans in general on leisure trips in the first half of this year alone, minority travel planners are hoping to cash in on a growing trend among travelers of color.

South Africa literally has something for every traveler. Not only is it steeped in history, it also boasts romantic destinations, wineries, sprawling beaches, major business centers,  top safari/game reserves and sporting locales. It’s no wonder tourism to that country is on the rise.

A year ago, Jeanne Branthover wouldn’t think twice of flying business class “almost anywhere.” Now the New York office-managing director of Boyden, the global executive search firm, asks her assistant to scour Web sites and other sources for the best possible airline and hotel deals.

I try to keep a stiff upper lip about not having an iPhone. I just couldn’t afford it — not with the $75-a-month or so AT&T charges for service on top of the $199 upfront cost for the device.

Who says Paris hotels are outrageously, insanely overpriced thanks to the muscle-bound euro versus the flyweight U.S. dollar?

During the past few years, I’ve read about retail health clinics being the wave of the future. It wasn’t until my son Jeremy visited a new MinuteClinic in a nearby CVS drugstore that I sat up and took notice.

From the dripping paint of Jackson Pollock to the paper cutouts of Henri Matisse and the tap routines of Fred Astaire, jazz has inspiredsome of the greatest artists of the past century.