I was walking near the creek behind my house with my 14-year-old daughter and her friend. Walking ahead of me they suddenly huddled together so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Giggling, they pointed to the trees, then the creek, then turned back to me to say “here dad, take our picture.” As my daughter handed me her iPhone I could see she had Instagram (or “Insta” as she calls it) open on the screen. So I knew this would be no ordinary photo.

You've created an innovative product. Customers love it and pay you quite well for it. You plow your profits back into R&D, making your product ever better, more powerful, and more useful to your customers. This may sound like a formula for success but it's actually the opposite, according to Clayton Christensen, Harvard professor and author of the bestseller The Innovator's Dilemma.

Starbucks is trying to let you buy coffee without speaking to or standing in line with another human. 

Humans are fine and all, but sometimes they are best dealt with after coffee, so I am considering this a beta test for a public service until proven otherwise. 

Don't get too excited just yet. Starbucks is now just testing out a store where you'll be able to order and pay for your half-caf grande, iced, sugar-free, vanilla latte with soy milk and caramel drizzle entirely through your mobile phone.

A central European country tops a global ranking of the best places to be an entrepreneur — although several continents are represented at the top of the list.

The index, compiled by Wharton University and market research firm Y&R, evaluates a total of 80 countries which collectively account for 95% of global gross domestic product.

For Hong Kong to capitalise on the opportunities triggered by the future technology park at the Lok Ma Chau Loop, the city must create the necessary environment to attract top companies and experts, Science and Technology Parks Corporation chairwoman Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun has told the Post. “Developing IT requires more than infrastructure. We need an innovation ecosystem that addresses investment, policy support and human capital among others,” Law said.

TOKYO -- Fintech is changing the way companies around the world finance operations and make investments. In Japan, a growing number are turning to the web to raise capital needed for developing new products and services, with crowdfunding in particular rapidly gaining currency. 

Individuals are also seeing more options for investing their money. 

The significant transformation taking place around exploiting technology and digital management has made ecosystems and platforms a mainstream prospecting need, in most of our businesses today. We must engage in what all of this means and its business impact. I certainly believe the ecosystem approach will increasingly become the main value-producing stream for innovation delivery.

For the past fifty years or so, technology has followed a fairly predictable path. We squeeze more transistors onto silicon wafers, which makes chips more powerful and devices smaller. Manual processes become automated, productivity increases and life gets better. Rinse and repeat.

Today, we’re at an inflection point and that predictable path to progress will soon be closed off. What lies ahead is a period of extreme disruption in which most of what we’ve come to expect from technology is becoming undone. What replaces it will be truly new and different.

Austin has rapidly become a hub for tech development, and Angelos Angelou is a major reason why. Angelou is an international expert on technology-based economic development, public policy, investment attraction, marketing, and entrepreneurship, and his efforts during his 12 years as Vice President of Economic Development and Chief Economist for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce to recruit tech companies are widely regarded as one of the biggest reasons Austin is a thriving tech hub.

You know the rap on boomers — those greedy oldsters who elected Donald Trump. And you know millennials — those special snowflakes who spend all their time on the Internet. We found one of each, a fairly typical father and son, and asked them, separately, about their philosophies on money. Dad Jeff Groff, 53, has worked in management positions in the health and dental insurance industries and is an Army veteran; son Matthew, 23, a pilot in the Army National Guard, bartends for extra cash and is engaged to be married. The pair recently went into business together, opening Fat Cow Coffee Roasters in Lancaster. 

Image: Photograph by Donovan Witmer - http://www.phillymag.com

Entrepreneurs know that every small business starts with taking a risk.

We have an idea for a product or service, but even the best ideas require a leap of faith. Whether it is our money or time or the security of working for someone else, we put ourselves on the line when we pursue our goals. When that risk succeeds… simply put, it’s empowering.

Yet research shows women are more risk-averse than men. Are we missing out on empowerment, too?

Image: https://www.sba.gov 

When Chris Rizik talks about Michigan’s Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, it’s not just a feel-good story about major companies stepping forward in a time of crisis to invest in their home state.

It’s the tale of a double bottom line: investment in Michigan’s startup economy and strong returns for those who took the risk.

Rizik, chief executive officer and fund manager for Ann Arbor-based Renaissance, spoke Monday at the Wisconsin Tech Summit in Pewaukee. His message: Wisconsin is primed for a similar corporate fund of funds.

From 2007 to 2016, productivity in the U.S. grew at a historically low rate of about 1 percent per year. In other recent periods, it’s been much higher: 2.6 percent from 2000 to 2007 and 2.2 percent in the 1990s. The divergence has left economists looking for answers about slumping productivity and how to fix it.

The hype around programs that connect start-ups with corporates and investors in digital health has peaked. For two years running, the number of new accelerator programs has decreased. A lot of accelerator programs are having problems in attracting enough high quality start-ups to justifying budgets from their partner or parent companies. Many digital health accelerator programs will have to change along four dimensions to survive.

On Wednesday night, the Tesla and SpaceX cofounder took to Twitter to share an unusual image: A flatulent mythical beast, surrounded by smiley faces, a rainbow, and a car appearing to vacuum up the unicorn's gaseous emissions.

Rather than focus on the disruptive and competitive nature of new technology, New York’s smart city czars are emphasizing collaboration with business and other smart cities.

City technology leaders spoke at a recent event hosted by Brooklyn’s Urban-X accelerator for connected city startups.

Executives are more upbeat about current economic conditions—both globally and in their home countries—than they were for all of 2016, in McKinsey’s latest survey on the topic.1 They are nearly twice as likely as in the past two surveys to say conditions in the world economy have improved in recent months, and they report notable improvements in their home economies, too. Their views on the future, though, are more tempered. Respondents are more optimistic than not about economic prospects but doubt conditions will improve much more than they already have.

Female CEOs in the nonprofit world are still being paid less than their male counterparts. In fact, the bigger the organization, the bigger that pay gap. While women leaders make roughly 8% less than male leaders at groups with a budget of $250,000 or less, the disparity widens to 25% for groups at the $25 million or higher level, according to a recent GuideStar report. Nationally, women within the private sector generally make an average of 20% less than their male counterparts, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

INNOVATION IS great. Except when it’s just another excuse to wish problems away.

This week, President Trump tapped his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to run something called the White House Office of American Innovation. When Kushner’s not tending to all his other duties, which include securing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, he’s supposed to dream up bold, tech-forward ways of overhauling the federal bureaucracy and untangling a mishmash of job-training programs.

In rural communities across the country, jobs are disappearing and people are moving away, driving a desperation that helped elect Donald Trump president.

But as state lawmakers look for ways to bring life to these long-struggling areas, many are falling prey to a complex economic development approach, pushed hard by investment firms that stand to benefit, that has failed to live up to its promises.