The US economy is struggling to find a new formula for vigorous growth. But all growth opportunities are not created equal. New McKinsey research pinpoints five catalysts—in energy, trade, technology, infrastructure, and talent development—that can quickly create jobs and deliver a substantial boost to GDP by 2020. An animated video below also runs the numbers on these game changers and frames the challenge for business and government to make the most of the opportunity.

Business leaders didn't get to where they are today without a bit of wisdom guiding them along the way. Many of them cite books — whether strategy guides or novels — that inspired them or changed the way they think.

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Everyone wants more time in a weekend.

Most people look forward to some sort of relaxation while others use it as a time to catch up on household chores, errands or even work.

What's the best use of this precious time? It's somewhat relative.

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This past weekend I conducted a 10-second survey comparing job-hunting activity with current job satisfaction. The results should give pause to those trying to hire great people, or expecting to retain those already hired. You might want to take the survey yourself before you read the following. Not only will the findings be more accurate, but the comments and suggestions on what to do after getting or giving the “yes” will be more meaningful.

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Middle-income countries that focus on basic sciences, such as physics and chemistry, grow their economies faster than nations that invest in applied sciences, such as medicine or psychology, according to a paper by Venezuelan researchers.  

They say that "investing in basic scientific research seem(s) to be the best way a middle-income country can foment fast economic growth", although they found no direct cause and effect between basic science and economic development.  

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Three years ago, I left the cushy big company worlds of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! to embark on my startup journey. I accepted an entrepreneur-in-residence position at a prestigious venture capital firm, which felt like a great, safe way to build a company from scratch. They provided seed funding, which I happily took. Little did I know that I apparently had made my first major startup mistake – getting involved with a VC too early.

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Start-ups need to know where they’re headed and make sure they set up right to attract investors, says Cole Wilkinson, a director of accounting, auditing and investment group Pitcher Partners.

Pitcher Partners is hosting its annual Questions on Capital event on the Brisbane venture capital scene. Wilkinson spoke to StartupSmart about his top three tips for early stage start-ups seeking capital.

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Two baseball legends--Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams--were talking to each other. The former said to the latter: The single most important thing for a hitter was to get a good ball to hit.

This is something, as Farnam Street blogger Shane Parrish observes, Williams internalized: He knew that swinging at the best balls--those most in his range as a hitter--would help him to bat .400, while reaching for the bad ones could put him down .230.

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A young manager accosted me the other day. "I've been reading all about leadership, have implemented several ideas, and think I'm doing a good job at leading my team. How will I know when I've crossed over from being a manager to a leader?" he wanted to know.

I didn't have a ready answer and it's a complicated issue, so we decided to talk the next day. I thought long and hard, and came up with three tests that will help you decide if you've made the shift from managing people to leading them.

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We've all seen it. CIOs who do great things in leading IT soon gain extra responsibilities. By helping business leaders to improve their businesses, the CIO becomes an obvious candidate to fill any open role that involves technology, process, or strong governance. Some CIOs become CIO-Plus-COO or CIO-Plus-Head of Shared Services. Others gain new responsibilities in strategy, M&A integration, or innovation. Still others move on to business roles including CEO. In the book, The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value, Richard Hunter and I coined the phrase CIO-Plus. In the four years since our book was published, the CIO-Plus idea has gained real traction, and there are numerous stories and cases studies on the phenomenon.

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Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. These days, the technical side may be the easy part.

Proving the business model requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. For example, one CEO I know gave away his software product to the first ten customers. Customer technical personnel loved it, and it worked, so he was totally devastated when he couldn’t sell one for a “reasonable” price in the first two months of hard work.

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Enterprise Ireland is to host a new accelerator programme, JumpStart, to run in conjunction with its Competitive Start Fund call this month. The Competitive Start Fund is in its 12th call for applicants since launch in January 201. Some 170 businesses have received €50,000 in return for a 10 per cent ordinary equity stake. The fund helps start-up companies expand into overseas markets. John O’Dea, department manager of high potential start-ups at Enterprise Ireland, says most applicants tend to be operating in the digital, software and software services sectors.

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Employee motivation is vital for the continuing success and development of any business. However, motivators do not only include good salaries and benefits, employers must dig deeper and understand ‘hidden’ employee values to understand what motivates them. Motivating employees can develop efficiency, promote positive relationships and create a stable working environment. For the majority of employees, three main goals motivate them; achievements, respect and having productive relationships with other employees. Employers, though, need to be aware of 5 obstacles that can potentially demotivate employees:

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Coming off of an awesome weekend engulfed in watching the CrossFit Games, the world’s largest competition to find The Fittest on Earth, I can’t help but notice the parallels between “The Sport of Fitness” and our day-to-day lives as entrepreneurs. The hustle, hard work, good days, bad days, victories, and losses are things any entrepreneur and CrossFit athlete can relate to. CrossFit itself isn’t a stranger to entrepreneurship, amassing a $100MM, fanatical business since it’s humble beginnings out of a garage gym in 2000.

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Getting a full-time job seems more and more frequently to involve turning a part-time or contract position into a full-time one. Employers this year have added four times as many part-time jobs as full-time ones, or 93,000 part-time jobs per month compared to only 22,000 full-time ones, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

How successful people are in converting part-time positions into full-time jobs depends on their skill in navigating the transition. However, be aware that there are often no guarantees and no promises that part-time or contract workers will be hired full-time, even if suitable openings arise.

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Many American industries are still in flux following the financial crisis. In a new report, IBISWorld has identified ten of America's riskiest industries.

These industries do offer growth opportunities for investors, but are largely expected to decline the most between now and 2018. 

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I’m starting to think I may be getting too old for the internet. I got my first computer in 1991. It was a 286 running DOS 3.1 and had a 20MB Hard Disk and an amber monitor. Playing on it made me feel like I was running the NASA space station. It felt awesome. A lot has changed since then. Not only are computers interconnected but so are we. With a smartphone in our pockets we have access to the total knowledge of the human race, at the tip of our fingers.

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Brussels has paved the way for a specialised European patent court to solve disputes in one instance and avoid multiple litigation cases in up to 28 different national courts.

The European Commission yesterday (29 July) announced the legal framework for Europe-wide patent protection by updating EU rules on the jurisdiction of courts and recognition of judgments, the so-called Brussels I Regulation.

The changes are intended to make it easier for companies and inventors to protect their patents. The Unified Patent Court will have specialised jurisdiction in patent disputes, with an aim to cut legal costs and speed up decisions in patent infringement cases.

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Here we don’t go again. Sure, the Research Triangle is a technology hub, but North Carolina households rank last in the nation in having adequate high-speed access to the Internet. A sorry 17 percent have what most of us in this area regard as a utility as important as the water we drink. This compares with a national average of 45 percent.

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