It has been said that the purpose of organisation is to eliminate uncertainty. Is this stifling the ability to innovate?

I recently spoke with the innovation leaders at a major biopharmaceutical firm. They were lamenting the challenges of designing an innovation program that seemed overwhelming. No matter what they did, the organisation just kept focusing on execution and narrow thinking rather than innovation and big thinking. I reminded them that big companies are like slowly sinking ships (sinking under the weight of their own execution orientation); efforts to innovate will never be ideal, rather it’s a matter of pumping water out of the hull to keep the ship afloat.

Most people have a desire to start their own business but are not sure where to start. Entrepreneurial activity in SA is low, but has increased in the past 10 years, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Serial entrepreneur and executive at Smartrand, Warren Ingram, talks us through what makes an entrepreneur successful.

"Entrepreneurship is not just about a business idea, it’s also about having the drive to do it," says Ingram.

Every new venture that survives the first five years starts to drift away from their entrepreneurial thinking, and assumes they have achieved the path to longevity. In fact, even within Fortune 100 companies, almost 90 percent have encountered growth stalls or flirted with failure, or worse, in the last 50 years. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup.

Examples of great companies that have achieved longevity, by initiating major changes, include American Express (originally express mail), IBM (tabulating and computer hardware), and J.P. Morgan (chemical manufacturing). Others, including Eastman Kodak (film and cameras), Pullman Company (railroads), and RCA Victor (radio) never kept up with change and are gone forever.

I talk about failure a lot because I think it can be tremendously instructive and I think that success without failure often masks underlying lessons. I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy. I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid.

Ever notice that we seem to learn more from conversations and experiences that careen off-topic? Topics are overrated!

Admit it. In every conversation, it’s always the throwaway or tangential comment that sends whatever neurotransmitter through whatever synapse, goading our brains into action.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a discussion in a corporate conference room, cocktail party chatter, or banter at the family dinner table. It’s always the same. The one comment that sticks out, or the idea worth more thought, was off-topic: It had absolutely nothing to do with the topic being discussed.

If you think you have a lot of meetings today, you're in good company. One Harvard Business School professor estimates that there will be 11 million meetings taking place today in the United States. The unproductive ones (an estimated third) can cost a company an astounding amount of money. In a 2014 study of time usage, Bain & Company found that just one meeting of mid-level managers per week could cost an organization as much as $15 million per year.

A summer internship is a small window to make a good impression. The interns who knock it out of the park can provide valuable examples for anyone who wants to make a good impression in a new job.

SHOW WHY YOU REALLY WANT TO WORK THERE Erika Ebbel Angle, founder and executive director of Science from Scientists, a nonprofit that sends scientists into classrooms, says that "our recent intern reached out to us and desperately wanted to work with us. I think this is critical. Ultimately, as with employees, one wants to have individuals working at the company who really want to be there and who fit the company culture."

Where is Here is a cultural mapping project. It’s also the name of a symposium that the Comox Valley Art Gallery is hosting in downtown Courtenay July 20-22.

The #WeAreYQQ / LIFT Project just came on as a sponsor. Why are we interested in “cultural mapping?” Because I see a good fit.  Where is Here is doing an inventory of our talent resources. We’re interested in leading, inspiring, and fueling Comox Valley talent to think bigger, to act collaboratively, to grow our economy.

Image: http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/

The South Carolina Research Authority is redrawing its organizational chart in an effort to separate its government contracting arm from the rest of the agency.

Advanced Technology International, as the contracting business is known, will run as more of a separate group in an effort to keep their missions separate, said SCRA spokeswoman Micki MacNaughton.

ATI, which is based in Summerville, provides much of the revenue that keeps the state-chartered research-and-development agency running, MacNaughton said. It oversees government contracts that use technology developed in South Carolina.

LOS ANGELES–San Francisco remains the nation's leading tech market, but the competition for talent is getting tougher as more highly skilled tech workers—especially millennials—are flocking to cities where the cost of living is lower and tech jobs are plentiful, according to CBRE Group, Inc.'s annual Research report, "Scoring Tech Talent," which ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.

In their quest for highly skilled talent and for lower cost of doing business, both new and expanding companies are establishing footprints in these more affordable markets—including Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa, Seattle and Phoenix—leading to a rise in demand for office space and a decrease in office vacancy.

"Tech talent markets share several distinct characteristics, including high concentrations of college-educated workers, major universities producing tech graduates and large millennial populations," said Colin Yasukochi, who authored the report on behalf of CBRE Research. "The robust entrance of millennials into the labor pool contributed greatly to the growth in tech talent across all 50 downtown markets in our ranking this year."

Iowa State's long-standing commitment to economic engagement has earned it national recognition from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. APLU has designated Iowa State an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University.

APLU launched the program in 2013 to recognize universities that are leaders in spurring regional economic development, and has since designated 54 institutions as Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities. Iowa State is the first university in Iowa to receive the designation.

By examining a new class of immersive and interactive digital tools, PSFK’s Future of Advertising report presents a playbook of strategies to transform digital advertising into richer engagement between people and the companies around them. With traditional advertising formats such as print, TV spots and web banners losing their impact and relevance, organizations must reframe marketing as a value-based relationship between consumers and brands.

Corporate venture capitalists have long been considered second class citizens compared to their traditional VC counterparts.

No more.

A new report concludes that corporate VC activity in healthcare is not only rising in terms of quantity, but the type of the investors participating and their focus show a qualitative shift in how they spur innovation.

There are many reasons that founder-led companies are so good at disrupting industries and making life miserable for slow-moving incumbents. But perhaps the most powerful is that founders create great insurgencies. They ignore established industry rules and boundaries. They create better ways to solve old problems. They disdain anything that blurs their focus on the front line. From top to bottom, they are at war against the industry leaders on behalf of underserved customers.

Image: https://hbr.org

Rick’s boss thinks Rick is both brilliant, and a tyrant. He recently told Rick he is not on the succession plan to become the next CEO because his volatile temper could destroy the company. Rick, like many of us, was one habit away from his ultimate professional aspiration. Ultimately, he retired early and angry, toggling between resentment and self-recrimination at failing to achieve his final goal.

Last Chance...July 22

We received a number of requests for an extension of the Awards of Excellence application deadline. With the new Awards categories and format, we are extending the deadline to midnight, your local time, on July 22. This is the last extension the Awards program will have this year, so be sure to meet this deadline.

Several years ago, Michigan briefly enjoyed its status as Hollywood on the Great Lakes thanks to the state's best-in-the-nation incentives for filmmakers. Then the state drastically cut back those incentives to movie producers, and the nascent film industry here withered.

Many people lamented that outcome. Others cheered the state's mostly getting out of the film incentive business.

Image: Michigan Venture Capital Assn

Is America still Number One? Depends on which metrics you use. By at least one measure, China's economy already is the world's biggest (1). Other criteria still put the U.S. ahead, at least for a few more years.

This map presents another way to gauge the size of the American economy, and one less prone to the 'declinism' of the eternal comparison to China.

Image: http://bigthink.com

It may be strange to think of gaming and entrepreneurship going hand-in-hand — unless you own a video game startup — but the two are a perfect match. They actually hold a lot more in common that meets the eye.

Besides the benefits of teaching players patience, hand-eye-coordination, and being able to let off a bit of steam, video games can benefit entrepreneurs in a number of ways.

Here are 6 videos games every entrepreneur should be playing:

A 10-year effort by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to promote entrepreneurship in the state has produced new jobs and tax base, but the state's innovation economy still lags in important ways and more investment is needed, a new report has found.

The MEDC, the state agency dedicated to promoting economic growth, has just released its 10-year assessment of the performance of its 21st Century Jobs Fund, the state venture capital fund set up in 2005 to promote entrepreneurship and venture investing in Michigan.

Image: Steve Arwood, CEO, Michigan Economic Development Corporation