So-called “soft skills,” by many accounts, are in high demand and short supply. But one of the reasons why things like communication, critical thinking, attention to detail, and the like seem so hard to find among job candidates is because hiring managers and recruiters aren’t all that good at testing for them. Unlike knowledge of JavaScript, you can’t always quickly determine whether somebody simply has it down or doesn’t. So as a workaround, I’ve started relying more and more on these three interview questions to reveal candidates’ soft skills.

A few decades ago, the idea of “managed retreat,” or the planned abandonment of an area, town, or city in the face of natural hazards, would have seemed quixotic. But it’s an increasingly real possibility for communities all over the world, faced with extreme weather, flooding, and other natural disasters. 

And it’s rarely simple. In a new study published in Nature Climate Change, Stanford PhD candidate Miyuki Hino analyzes 27 relocations caused by natural hazards.

Silicon Valley has been the epicenter of all major tech advancement in the past decade, but when it comes to self-driving, Detroit could snatch that the title away.

A new report from Navigant Research shows two of the ‘Big Three’ Detroit auto companies, Ford and General Motors, ahead of auto and tech rivals based in Silicon Valley and Germany.

The researchers used 10 different criteria, including strategy, manufacturing, distribution, staying power, and execution, to mark 18 companies currently working on self-driving tech.

Image: http://readwrite.com 

The partners at Right Side Capital Management (RSCM), a micro venture capital fund focused on pre-seed stage investments, have made an interesting observation recently about valuations of early stage companies: While the valuations of companies raising money at the Series A stage or later have risen substantially over the past few years, the valuations of pre-seed stage companies have fallen. More importantly, they think the reason is basic economics: a simple imbalance of supply and demand for capital at the pre-seed stage.

Back in October MIT announced that they were diving head first into the incubation and accelerator space, and why shouldn’t they. MIT, ranks amongst the top schools in the nation for producing the top startups and entrepreneurs. They keep great company with the likes of Wharton, Harvard and Stanford.

MIT’s new Engine Accelerator and work space incorporates labs, instruction areas, co-working space and work space for startups in their acceleration program. As far as acceleration is concerned, they are taking the long haul approach, similar to the RealCo Accelerator in San Antonio. Rather than hold cohorts and bootcamp style entrepreneurship camps, they rather deep dive with their portfolio companies through 6, 9 and 12 month sessions.

The power of networking should not be underestimated, whether the goal is to find a better job or counter Russia’s hacking of U.S. computer systems. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first woman to serve as director of policy planning under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, applies the science of network theory to handle amorphous and sometimes messy situations. 

In her new book, The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World, Slaughter argues that civic societies all over the world have an opportunity to rebuild their networks of relationships, especially in the digital age. Such networks can bring about change in the long run, supplementing geopolitical chess moves such as checking a Russian invasion. Slaughter, who is also professor emerita of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, recently discussed her book on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111.

Image: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu 

The UF business incubator Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute was named the 2017 Top Global Incubator of the Year.

The International Business Innovation Association recognized the institute March 28, said Mark Long, the institute’s director. The institute received $1,500 for winning the award out of 30 other incubators.

The biotechnology institute provides lab space, equipment, business and legal advice at a low cost for new biotech companies, Long said.

Image: http://www.alligator.org 

Much venture capital funding in Atlantic Canada comes from government sources.  That can have its drawbacks, so the challenge is to attract more private-sector investment to bring badly needed diversity to the region say some investors.

Brightspark Ventures believes diversity is vital to creating a more robust startup community in Atlantic Canada and throughout the country.

"Early Retirement," the headline in LIFE blared in February of 1957. Accompanied by photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt — some of which, including unpublished outtakes, are seen here — the article promised to share the secrets of men in their 40s who had managed the impressive feat of retiring while they still had the energy to enjoy the extra time. And, though the dollar figures they provided may be shockingly low 60 years later, when retirement experts tell potential retirees that they should expect to need 70% of their pre-retirement income and when more Americans than ever think they will need $1 million to be ready for that milestone, some of the wisdom of those young retirees stands the test of time.

Student and faculty entrepreneurs have until April 14 to apply for the first round of funding from the University System of Maryland's new $25 million venture fund.

USM's Board of Regents approved a plan last year to invest $10 million over four years in startups developed by professors, students and alumni from all 12 state institutions. Another $15 million in funds will come from outside investors and venture capitalists, collectively forming the Maryland Momentum Fund.

On Thursday, President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping – a meeting many observers expected to be tense given the situation in North Korea, as well as each leaders’ commitment to strengthening their respective countries’ positions in the world.  The President and his team are no doubt also aware of China’s moves to supplant the US as the leader of innovation and even patent protection. Unfortunately, this ambition coincides with our own actions to weaken patent protection in America.

The number of companies receiving venture capital investments during the first quarter of 2017 dropped 24 percent compared to a year ago, according to the latest NVCA-Pitchbook Venture Capital Monitor, released Tuesday.  Venture capitalists also parted with 12 percent less money during the quarter, suggesting to the report’s authors that 2017 is on pace to compare to 2013 levels.

Have you ever wondered where great ideas come from? If your company has ever stalled for the lack of innovation, then you’ve probably thought about it from time to time. Innovative ideas can come from nothing, or from a long process of brainstorming and debate, but it always seems like some industries are consistently coming out with the best new products and processes, while others lag far behind. This isn’t your imagination; some industries are moving much more quickly than others. But which industries are the most innovative, and what sets them apart?

1. Most people who purport to be influential aren’t -- and people with tons of social media followers probably can’t help your sales.

My experience raising cash for my business is how I mostly learned this lesson. Many people purport to be connected in circles with people who invest in startups. Try to raise money for your startup and reach out to people like that and you’ll see what I’m getting at here.

The Conference Board of Canada recently conducted an Innovation and Cyber Tech Cluster Study Tour in Israel. The goal of this tour was to learn about Israel’s world-class innovation skills, capabilities, and performance and connect how those lessons and experiences can help Canadian innovation stakeholders. Israel is a world innovation leader, boasting world-class innovation skills, capabilities, and performance. The country’s business research and development spending is among the highest of OECD countries, and its high-tech firms attract massive amounts of venture capital.

Bicycles have pretty much outnumbered humans in this park in Shenzhen, China.

These pictures emerged after a four-day long weekend in China for the Qing Ming festival.

Shared bikes were a great option to see the sights around Shenzhen, costing just 0.5 to 1 yuan ($0.07-$0.15) every half hour.

The shared bikes were so popular with visitors at Shenzhen Bay Park, that nearly two-thirds of the park's boardwalk was clogged with bicycles:

Image: IMAGE: WEIBO  

Japan and China may have a reputation for being technologically advanced, but recording appointments and to-dos with pen and paper is long-held tradition in Asia. There is also evidence that it’s gaining popularity with millennials there as sales of paper planners have increased in the last few years. 

Increasingly, the trend is catching on in the West among younger people. As a matter of fact, some adherents to the pen-and-paper planner culture are so fervent in their use that they post videos giving the world a tour of how they organize in their diaries.

Even small business have a global reach these days, thanks to the Internet. Thus every entrepreneur and business owner needs to see their market in that context, understanding the global forces that will impact them sooner or later. This impact can be positive, as a huge untapped opportunity, or negative as a global competitor invades your local space.

Americans weigh a lot of factors when deciding when to retire: when Social Security kicks in, how much they have saved and, of course, whether they're willing and able to continue working. When it comes to that last calculation, the age at which workers decide to retire varies widely across different professions.

As Tax Day looms, for example, many of the nation's tax preparers will be preparing returns well after they became eligible for retirement benefits. According to our calculations, 14.2% of tax preparers are older than 66, the highest of 250 occupations for which sufficient data was available.

Boeing has formed a small venture-capital division called HorizonX to capture some of the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of tech startups.

Steve Nordlund, who previously headed InSitu — the drone company based in Bingen, Klickitat County, that Boeing acquired in 2008 and made into its small drone division — has been appointed to lead HorizonX, which he said aims to invest “tens of millions of dollars per year” in companies that have interesting technologies.

Image: http://www.seattletimes.com