In a world where succession planning is increasingly important, it’s good to be the COO — right? The chief operating officer has traditionally been the number two person in the C-suite — the senior executive charged with overseeing all of the company’s business operations. As such, the COO has long been viewed as the heir apparent, the leading insider candidate to succeed the chief executive officer. Yet, according to the senior executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, the percentage of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies with a COO has declined steadily from 48 percent in 2000 to 36 percent in 2014.

With San Diego County’s appetite growing for life science space, the question is whether enough space will be built to fill the demand. “The San Diego life sciences sector has been on fire over the last year and we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in activity and overall expansion of the life sciences tenant base,” Cushman & Wakefield wrote in its first-quarter report.

In 2012, President Obama signed a law that he called a “potential game changer” for entrepreneurs seeking financing to start or expand a business: Small companies looking for financial backers could advertise their offerings online, and average people — not just wealthy accredited investors — would be allowed to buy stakes in businesses they found promising.

Image: Andrew Gierczak, left, and Henry Schwartz, two of the founders of MobCraft, a brewery based in Madison, Wis., took advantage of a new state law to raise $67,000 from 52 state residents. Credit Lauren Justice for The New York Times

If you went to an office today, you’re taking part in an obsolete lifestyle.  At least that’s what many credible theorists in the 1990s led us to expect. According to them, “telework” was poised to supplant physical offices for good. The dream was that we could work from anywhere: congested roads during the morning commute would be a thing of the past as we could simply stay at home; or move to an inexpensive countryside house with a pool and a garden — all we need is an internet connection.

Self-managed teams may sometimes adopt task divisions that are all wrong for the project. Managerial intervention can help avoid this.

Suppose you were on a team tasked with manufacturing a single handmade wooden toy. For this project, a few component objects must be made from scratch and slotted together to form the finished piece. How would you break the project into manageable tasks to be divvied up among the team?

Many colleges go to great lengths to encourage their students to study abroad. Is the effort worth it?

In an attempt to answer that question once and for all, officials at Westmont College, in Santa Barbara, Calif., are making an unorthodox appeal to science: They’re scanning students’ brains and looking for signs of growth.

Science and technology remain undervalued in the State Department despite their increasingly important role in diplomacy, according to a National Research Council report released Tuesday.

The two disciplines have a growing influence on everything from international economic development to combating hostile governments, so they should also play a key role in U.S. foreign policy decisions, according to the report.

On Tuesday, May 26th, 2015, we lost a genuine pioneer in Knowledge Management – Bryan Elliott Davis, founder of the Kaieteur Institute. Precious few have carried the agenda in such good conscience and action. He stood heads above us all – physically and intellectually. Bryan had a vision that led us all forward. Simultaneously, he was the foundation for much of our thinking and plans – understanding the trends and memes better than the rest of us.

Image: Bryan Elliott Davis

The Human Genome Project was one of mankind’s greatest triumphs. But the official gene map that resulted in 2003, known as the “reference genome,” is no longer up to the job.

So say scientists laying plans for a new universal map they say will combine the genomes of hundreds, and eventually thousands, of people to create a true reference that reflects all of humanity.

You’ve heard the advice time and time again: Just do it.

In a perfect world, you’d be able to save up at least a year’s worth of income, quit your job and pursue your entrepreneurial venture with no career or job-based distractions. It’s the savings part that holds most people back.

As an entrepreneur, you’ll be wearing a lot of hats and dealing with a constant barrage of issues. Each day’s tasks and priorities will likely be a jumbled mess that changes as new emergencies and new developments arise. To be successful, you’ll need to quickly adapt to these low-level changes, but you’ll also need to have a solid “big picture” philosophy that serves as a foundation for your daily decisions. Without strict adherence to your most important, high-level priorities, your entire strategy runs the risk of falling apart.

People say that cycling is the new golf. Living in Colorado, that certainly seems to be the case. On a nice day, teams of cyclists head out for rides together on the more than 850 miles of paved bike trails and routes in and around the city. Last summer, I decided to at long last try to take my pursuits off road and learn to mountain bike in the foothills just to the west of Denver.

Labor markets around the world haven’t kept pace with rapid shifts in the global economy, and their inefficiencies have taken a heavy toll. Millions of people cannot find work, even as sectors from technology to healthcare struggle to fill open positions. Many who do work feel overqualified or underutilized. These issues translate into costly wasted potential for the global economy. More important, they represent hundreds of millions of people coping with unemployment, underemployment, stagnant wages, and discouragement.

Image: http://www.mckinsey.com

The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is currently forming a plan to attract more investors into university research enterprises that could lead to more jobs and spinoff companies in Birmingham.

You may have heard the saying, “When you’re in love, smoke gets in your eyes.” Well when you’re talking, smoke gets in your eyes and ears. Once you’re on a roll, it’s very easy to not notice that you’ve worn out your welcome. You may not even realize that the other person is politely trying to get a word in, or subtly signaling that they need to be elsewhere (possibly, anywhere else if you have been really boring).

Your boss told you to “think outside the box.” You and your team burnt the midnight oil and brainstormed until there were no more clichés left to describe how hard you worked. You found a great idea, prepared an amazing pitch, and still your idea was shot down.

We like to think that great ideas are recognized as such from the beginning, but in fact that is rarely the case. Research shows we’re not as good as we think at recognizing the value of innovative thinking. In fact, managers might even be a bit worse.

1. "If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney

2. "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, and magic and power in it. Begin it now." - Goethe

3. "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo

4. "It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?" - Henry David Thoreau

5. "You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case." - Ken Kesey

In “Self-driving cars and the Trolley problem,” Tanay Jaipuria provides an interesting and valuable examination of some of the dilemmas posed by trusting automatons such as self-driving vehicles to take care of people:

…(C)an you imagine a world in which say Google or Apple places a value on each of our lives, which could be used at any moment of time to turn a car into us to save others? Would you be okay with that?

But there is another variation on the “trolley problem” I created several years ago that illustrates a gap in the argument presented by Jaipuria.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), June 4, 2015 – Startup activity bounced upward in 32 of the 50 U.S. states last year, and 18 of the nation’s top 40 metropolitan areas also saw increases in new venture activity, according to the 2015 Kauffman Index: Startup Activity. The reports on states and metro areas, released today, followed the May 28 report on national startup activity.

“There’s been an explosion of entrepreneurship programs and events across the country in recent years, and while we don’t fully understand their impact, last year’s rebound in new business creation is a good sign,” said Dane Stangler, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “State and local leaders need to understand how many startups they have in their regions and who’s starting them so they can make decisions on how to build on what they currently have.”

1- Look at what other businesses are doing wrong so you can do the opposite. -

Sam Baitz, CEO, Shield Funding

My best tip for writing a business plan is to take a step back while you are brainstorming, and come up with strategies that will help you avoid falling into those traps that make so many other businesses fail. You should ensure that your business plan accomplishes these 3 goals: 1) Appeals to your target customer audience, 2) Differentiates your business as unique, 3) Communicates your value propositions in an articulate manner. When marketing yourself properly becomes the foundation of your business plan, you will expand your reach and ultimately make your business profitable.