Innovation can be a delicate balancing act between ideas and implementation. Ed Muzio, CEO of Group Harmonics, explains the three stages of turning a vision into reality.

A source close to Yahoo's strategic planning recently complained to us that Yahoo has "a fundamental innovator's dilemma."

What he meant is that while Yahoo has flat traffic, flat revenues, and increasingly limited growth opportunities, it can't innovate it's way out of the problem with bold new products because it has to fund, protect, and iterate on "a big existing business that is, let's face it, very profitable" -- display advertising on Yahoo.com and the company's other media sites.

So while there is, at Yahoo, "a core group of people who still want [and] believe that Yahoo can change things," these product directors and line engineers increasingly find themselves working not for a tech company, but for a media company content to serve ad impressions against an already huge Web audience.

A few months ago, in a post titled “Innovation Needs Information” I wrote about the basic importance of information in the innovation process. Voice of Customer, competitive intel, market studies, syndicated data, and more. It’s all important. But what happens when you get emotionally attached or intellectually numb to gathered information?

One of the classic pitfalls of data analysis for any individual is the propensity to develop an emotional attachment to the information itself. For reasons not always entirely clear (or rather for reasons that might take some psychological therapy to fully explore), an individual may react or become emotionally attached in some manner to a specific set of gathered information. This is especially true if the person in question performed the actual data gathering – as might be the case with investigative phone or personal interviews. Such reactions could manifest themselves in a variety of ways, including possessiveness or denial. When attachment occurs, a couple things might happen.

Asia’s rising “clean technology tigers”—China, Japan, and South Korea —are poised to out-compete the United States for dominance of clean energy markets due to their substantially larger government investments to support research and innovation, manufacturing capacity, and domestic markets, as well as critical related infrastructure. Government investment in each of these Asian nations will do more to reduce investor risk and stimulate business confidence than currently proposed U.S. climate and energy legislation, which includes too few aggressive policy initiatives and allocates relatively little funding to directly support U.S. clean energy industries. Even if climate and energy legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law, China, Japan and South Korea will out-invest the United States by a margin of three-to-one over the next five years, attracting much if not most of the future private investment in the industry. Global private investment in renewable energy and energy efficient technologies alone is estimated to reach $450 billion annually by 2012 and $600 billion by 2020, and could be much larger if recent market opportunity estimates are realized. For the United States to regain economic leadership in the global clean energy industry, U.S. energy policy must include more direct and coordinated investment in clean technology R&D, manufacturing, deployment, and infrastructure.

innovation@cfed is now accepting idea submissions from innovators who want to take their cutting-edge approaches to expanding economic opportunity to the next level. To date, we've received a number of applications from innovation leaders across the country and we are thrilled with the response we've seen.

We'd like to hear your idea! Are you ready to work with innovation@cfed to help bring your idea to scale? Are you interested in playing key roles at the go-to event of the year, the 2010 Assets Learning Conference? If so, click here today to start filling out an application for one of these exciting programs:

• Innovators-in-Residence are individuals who are prepared to take a proven concept to the next level during a virtual or in-house residency with CFED. This highly competitive program will offer one or more opportunities for a 12– to 24– month residency including a stipend of up to $50,000 and CFED support and resources.

When health care reform was signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, it signaled the beginning of a new era for nurse-led health care. The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Ac (H.R. 3590) will capitalize on the ability of nurse practitioners to provide high-quality primary and preventive care by defining "nurse-managed health clinic" in the Public Health Service Act and authorizing a new $50 million grant program to support the development and operation of nurse-managed health clinics that provide primary care or wellness services to underserved or vulnerable populations.

Nurse-managed health clinics serve as crucial health care access points in areas where primary care physicians are in short supply. These health centers are led by advanced practice nurses (primarily nurse practitioners). Sometimes called nurse-managed health centers or NMHCs, they provide primary care, health promotion, and disease prevention services to patients who are least likely to receive ongoing health care services. This population includes clients of all ages who are uninsured, underinsured, living in poverty, or members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

In addition to providing services directly to clients, nurse-managed health clinics also play an important role in health profession education. The majority are affiliated with schools and colleges of nursing and serve as clinical education and practice sites for health profession students and faculty. More than 85 of the nation's leading nursing schools operate nurse-managed health clinics that provide high-quality, cost-effective primary care to patients and enhance learning and practice opportunities for nursing students and faculty. In addition, many have partnerships with other academic programs and provide learning opportunities for medical, pharmacy, social work, public health, and other students.

What might future explorers of the solar system see? Find out by taking an interactive tour through the eyes of Hugo Award-winning artist Ron Miller. Text and narration by Ed Bell.

Artist Ron Miller takes us on a journey to eight of the most breathtaking views that await explorers of our solar system.  The scale of these natural wonders dwarfs anything Earth has to offer.  What might we see and feel if we could travel to these distant domains?  By interpreting data from probes such as NASA's Cassini, which is now exploring the Saturnian system, and MESSENGER, which goes into orbit around Mercury in March 2011, the artist's eye allows us an early visit to these unforgettable locales.

Michigan is, by right, obsessed with economic development. The convoluted array of incentive and subsidy programs we’ve built to lure new firms or build new industries is substantial, to say the least.

But the theory underlying most of these traditional economic development tools is changing. The shift—one with serious potential for environmental and community-minded folks—is fundamentally moving away from traditional “smokestack chasing” models toward what’s been dubbed “economic gardening.”

The difference is stark.

Rob Fowler, head of the Small Business Association of Michigan, suggests we shouldn’t consider it an evolution, but the emergence of a whole new approach to economic development.

Cisco has just signed up to what sounds like a bizarre and confusing thing: It'll be a partner in developing a whole "smart city" in Korea. Weird. But if you think about it, with networks connecting up everything, it may be a model for where you'll live in the future.

We're talking about Incheon, in South Korea. It's going to transform the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) into a "high-tech, globally competitive and environmentally sustainable smart connected city" which sounds terrifically grand. Yet the ultimate goal, to "support continued innovation in Korea" is even loftier--while being perfectly believable, given the amount of high-tech innovation and manufacturing Korea already fosters.

Market Size
The angel investor market in 2009, on the heels of a considerable contraction in investment dollars in 2008, exhibited a modest decrease in investment dollars but little change in the number of investments.  Total investments in 2009 were $17.6 billion, a decrease of 8.3% over 2008, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.  However, a total of 57,225 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2009, a reserved 3.1% increase from 2008, and the number of active investors in 2009 was 259,480 individuals, virtually unchanged from 2008.  The small decline in total dollars, coupled with the increase in investments resulted in a smaller deal size for 2009 (a decline in deal size of 11.1% from 2008).  These data indicate that while angels have not significantly decreased their investment activity, they are committing less dollars resulting from lower valuations and a cautious approach to investing.  Significant changes did occur in the critical seed and start-up stage investment landscape.

Download the Full Year 2009 Angel Market Analysis Report
Director, Jeffrey Sohl     

Canada’s federal budget, presented March 4, 2010, has been passed by the House of Commons. The 451 page document describes cuts to the public service and foreign aid, in addition to limited spending on the military and EI premiums. Stimulus programs continue, however little new money has been announced. The plan is to reduce the $53.8B deficit to $1.8B by 2015.

Despite aggressive cost cutting measures, new money for innovation has been provided. Post- doctoral training was highlighted as a key investment. Granting agencies and Genome Canada received additional funds. Innovation projects such as TRIUMF, NRC clusters, RADARSAT have received substantial investments. Regional development organizations have also received funding to support innovation and job creation across the country.

Excerpts on Innovation from the Canadian Federal Budget 2010
Compiled from budget (Source: Ministry of Finance, Budget 2010)
Budget 2010 makes targeted changes to improve Canada’s productivity growth through innovation by:

• Providing $45 million over five years to establish a post-doctoral fellowship program to help attract the research leaders of tomorrow to Canada.
• Delivering $222 million in funding over five years to strengthen the world-leading research taking place at TRIUMF, Canada’s premier national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics research.
• Increasing the combined annual budgets of Canada’s research granting councils by an additional $32 million per year, plus an additional $8 million per year to the Indirect Costs of Research Program.
• $16 million CIHR
  
• $13 million NSERC ($8M research and $5M strategy for partnership and innovation)
  
• $3 million SSHRC
• Providing Genome Canada with an additional $75 million for genomics research.
• Doubling the budget of the College and Community Innovation Program with an additional $15
  million per year.
• Providing $135 million over two years to the National Research Council Canada’s regional innovation clusters program.
• Providing $48 million over two years for research, development and application of medical isotopes.
• Providing a total of $497 million over five years to develop the RADARSAT Constellation Mission.
• Launching a new Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Innovation Commercialization Program with $40 million over two years.
• Renewing and making ongoing $49 million in annual funding for the regional development agencies to support innovation across Canada.

Download the full PDF Here

Prepared by: Robert Merson

It takes more than ensuring educators and students have access to technology when schools begin the work of developing a 21st century strategic school plan. As innovative educators, students, leaders, and families, are well aware, technology is just a tool. In and of itself technology does not equate to either innovation or greater effectiveness. In fact poorly used technology generally results in substandard instruction. In some cases this further results in dropping technology-(rather than learner) driven programs and support. This is important to remember when developing a strategic school learning plan. What's most important is learning always come first.

I've heard one too many educational leader, teacher or parent proudly state that they are part of an innovative school as evidenced by the fact that they have laptops or Smartboards in every classroom. That is not impressive. What is impressive is when the conversation begins with how student learning is enriched in new ways and learners are engaged with innovative tools and ideas. I was recently asked by a school leader for feedback on how to ensure their school's strategic planning could help ensure educators were preparing 21st century learners for success. Here is what I shared.

Carl Dietrich, co-founder of a company that has built a flying car, gets a lot of calls from Dayton these days.

In fact, Dietrich said he’s a bit “overwhelmed.”

“We appreciate the interest, we really do,” said Dietrich, chief executive of Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia.

The “interest” revolves around whether Terrafugia will base its manufacturing in Ohio and particularly, Dayton.

The question arose publicly in mid-February when a Massachusetts journal wrote that Terrafugia “would move into a manufacturing facility in Dayton, Ohio.” The Boston Globe also reported that the company was “very close” to coming to terms with Ohio investors that would herald an Ohio move.

“It was a lesson for me to know that you have to be ... extremely careful with what you say,” Dietrich said with a chuckle. “It was not my intention for that to be picked up.”

Cities of Opportunity presents a rich view of city life at an important point in time. While many significant challenges remain the worst of the economic downturn may have passed. Growth is returning to many parts of the world. Forward-looking action on key social and economic issues can make major advancements for many. As the home to most of the world’s population and intellectual and economic capital, cities will be at the forefront of progress.

Education, energy, transportation, waste and water, health care, sustainability and urban migration are just a few of the areas where significant gains can be made if wise policies are pursued by the world’s leading cities.

It is in this light that Cities of Opportunity takes both a quantitative and qualitative look at the emerging picture of city life in 21 capitals of business, finance and culture worldwide. To a great extent, the successes and shortcomings that surface in the study substantiate the central thesis of our research: the more well-balanced a city is for both businesses and residents, the better it will fare.

The recurring question I hear from so many people in business is: “Why aren’t more startups generated by the university system?” It’s not an easy question, certainly not one to be solved in a single blog post. As I considered the many facets of academia that influence the actions of its researchers such as government policies, university culture, funding agency metrics and so forth, I realized that the obstacles and challenges faced by professors are similar to those of most any startup.

Academic scientists must in fact be entrepreneurial minded in order to maintain the funding they need to not only survive, but thrive in academia. The outsider would be mistaken, however, if they consider the lack commercialization from academia as a sign of a lack of entrepreneurial muster. Considering an academic lab as a startup in its own right, most researcher professors make a wise entrepreneurial decision by remaining focused and not spinning out one of their ideas into a new company.

During a recent television interview, I was asked by a reporter, “Which industry is more sexist, Wall Street or Silicon Valley?”

That question is of great interest and relevance to me. I’ve spent over a decade as a female partner of one of the largest venture capital firms. I was an entrepreneur at a start-up here in Silicon Valley before that. I'm a working mom with a seven-month-old son and a seven-year-old daughter. A first-generation Chinese-American, I “immigrated” to the Valley as a young engineer and business school student.

But before all this, I have been the only non-white, non-native person in my small-town high school and the only woman in the engineering lab, the GM auto plant and the executive boardroom. And, like many women, I've had my abilities questioned, my looks appraised, my senses assaulted (a business lunch at a topless bar…but don’t get me started) and my biological clock monitored.

LYON, France, March 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Founded by EMLYON School Business and KPMG S.A., the World Entrepreneurship Forum is the first global Think-tank dedicated to entrepreneurs, creators of wealth and social justice. It benefits from the high patronage of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic and gathers annually more than 100 international personalities, entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, political leaders and experts selected from 40 countries.

Creation of the first "World Entrepreneurship Centres"

Argentina and Singapore are the first countries where regional chapters of the World Entrepreneurship Forum will be created. These chapters, directed locally by members of the think tank, will gather throughout the year local entrepreneurs and decision-makers who will debate global issues with their vision and experience of the local reality. These centres will be places of identification and observation of the best practices, and they will feed the debates carried out on a global level.

Enterprise Ireland launch their latest call for innovation vouchers tomorrow, 1 April. Each voucher is worth €5,000 and allows small companies to contract a third level institution to undertake research to solve a business problem or identify new opportunities.

According to EI, the objective of the initiative is ‘to build links between Ireland’s public knowledge providers and small businesses and create a cultural shift in the small business community’s approach to innovation’.

In an office park in Woburn, MA, a volunteer presents his fingertip for a quick finger stick. A phlebotomist wicks up the small drop of blood with a specially made square of plastic, then snaps the plastic into a credit-card sized microfluidics cartridge and feeds it into a special reader. Fifteen minutes later, the device spits out the volunteer's prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, a protein used to monitor the return of prostate cancer after treatment.

The rapid results are possible because of a novel microfluidics technology developed by startup Claros Diagnostics, which hopes to make quick PSA screening in the doctor's office a reality. If approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the device will be one of the first examples of long-awaited microfluidics-based diagnostics tests that can be performed in the hospital or doctor's office. While microfluidics--which allows for the manipulation of fluids on a chip at microscopic scales--has been around for a decade, the complexity and expense has kept it largely limited to research applications.

Claros's technology, which consists of a small blood-collector device, a disposable cartridge, and a toaster-sized reader, could, in theory at least, be adapted to detect any number of different proteins. But the company has initially chosen to focus on PSA, which is routinely screened. With current testing, blood samples are typically sent to a centralized lab for PSA analysis. Results are returned in a day or two. Claros's test, now in clinical trials, would allow PSA readings to be determined during the patient's visit.

This is part two of a three part series on start-up success. The first blog post was about developing a life plan before writing a business plan. This post is about being a successful home-based business. Part three will be about the top reasons why start-up businesses fail and how to avoid that fate.

When you are starting out in business it is best to keep your overhead expenses as low as possible.  One great way to do this is to work from home.  Your spare bedroom, basement or kitchen table will do just fine as an office until you are making enough money to pay for professional office space.

One of the key considerations in working from home is – can you handle it? One really is the loneliest number.  I have a few tips for evaluating whether you are fit to work from home.  Sometimes when you work from home, the people closest to you might not take your work seriously.  I remember when I first started my business, my boyfriend who is now my husband of more than a decade, would call in the middle of the day to ask me to grab his shirts from the dry cleaners. (By the way, he’s been getting his own dry cleaning, for years now.)