Last autumn INSEAD teamed up with Wipro and Cornell to release the latest installment of their latest innovation index.  The report, which looked at various factors involved in the innovative capability of a nation, revealed that the UK was the 2nd best place in the world for innovation.

We scored particularly strongly on things such as a strong research base, a culture of knowledge sharing and good support for entrepreneurs.  To show that this strong showing was no fluke, the UK continues to show off its innovative credentials in a second report published earlier this year.

From a Single Bean Grew a Beanstalk: The Private Company Era (1987-1982)

As a private company between 1987-1982, Starbucks opened 150 new stores in five years, which surpassed its 1987 business plan objective of 125 new stores. Schultz’s business plan had predicted that there would be losses in Starbucks early years; and he was right: Starbucks posted losses of $330,000 in 1987, $764,000 in 1988, and $1.2 million in 1989.  In 1990, Starbucks finally boasted a profit. Despite being in the red those initial years, Starbucks was still able to raise the needed funds from venture capital financing. When board members tensely questioned Howard Schultz about the company’s lack of profitability, he had to find a way to justify those losses to the board and prove that they were necessary for an investment strategy.

U.S. cities continue to reinvent themselves and demonstrate economic resiliency. While The University of Maryland-College Park (UMCP) has long had a reputation as a high-class research institution, its status has had a limited impact on the community surrounding it. With the evolving partnership between UMCP and the City of College Park, however, College Park is on the verge of becoming a hub for new innovation in the Washington, DC area.

College Park, and other college towns like it, are on their way to becoming centers of the regional and national innovation economy.

Image: Image produced at the April, 15th 2006 Student Design Charrette at the University of Maryland - Wikimedia Commons

Canada is a vast country with ample resources, however political and economic machinery in this country are not open enough to create true and genuine marketplace for disruptive ideas. Cultural, artistic and intellectual innovation form the foundation of innovative economies.

No nation can stay competitive and economically advanced while stagnating culturally and intellectually. Innovation requires taking risk and being open to new ideas. The biggest obstacles in the way of innovation in Canada are regressive and closed institutions.

It's ironic millennials have been labeled the entrepreneur generation, considering they're not starting businesses.

Why? For starters, they graduated college during the recession, accepted jobs that didn't require a four-year degree, and can't pay off the $35,000 they've incurred in student loans.

But here's the thing: our economy needs startups. Startups create new jobs. And by 2025 millennials will comprise 75% of the workforce.

Behind every technological innovation is an individual or a team of individuals responsible for the hard scientific or engineering work. And behind each of them is an education and a set of experiences that impart the requisite knowledge, expertise, and opportunity. These scientists and engineers drive technological progress by creating innovative new products and services that raise incomes and improve quality of life for everyone. 

But who are these individuals? How old are they? Were they born in the United States or abroad? Are they male or female? What are their races and ethnicities? What kind of education do they have? Identifying the characteristics of the individuals who create successful, meaningful innovation in America can shed important light on how to broaden and deepen the country’s pool of potential innovators through STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math), immigration, and overall innovation policies.

Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, Which busy care draws in the brains of men; Therefore thou sleep’st so sound. —William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

In the passage above, the playwright’s tragic antihero Brutus enviously reflects on the timeless truth that people without worries and anxieties (in this case, his servant Lucius) generally enjoy the most peaceful and uninterrupted rest.

Most time-strapped executives know they should plan ahead and prioritize, focus on the important as much as the urgent, invest in their health (including getting enough sleep), make time for family and relationships, and limit (even if they don’t entirely avoid) mindless escapism. But doing this is easier said than done, as we all know—and as I, too, have learned during years of trying unsuccessfully to boost my effectiveness.

Knowledge@Wharton: We’ve seen these changes going on. Where does your concern lie for the future?

Martin Ford: It’s really across the board. Traditionally, robots have been in factories, but I think that over the next 10 to 20 years, automation in the form of robots, smart software and machine learning is really going to invade pretty much across the board. It’s going to start impacting jobs at all skill levels. It’s not just going to be about low-wage people who don’t have lots of education. It’s really starting to impact also professional jobs.

Georgetown Professor Cal Newport thinks uninterrupted, distraction-free deep work is so important that if you’re unable to do this at your current job, you should start looking for another.

"Many people have convinced themselves that it’s crucial that they are always connected, both professionally and socially, but the reality is that this requirement is self-imposed," he says. "Shallow tasks like reading and responding to emails or checking social media might prevent you from getting fired, but it’s deep tasks that produce the value and build the skills that get you promoted."

The archetypal U.S. innovator is not a young white college dropout building a startup in his garage, argues a wide-ranging new study of the demographics of U.S. innovators.

Rather than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates,  a middle-aged male Ph.D. toiling at a large U.S. firm—and perhaps born abroad—is more likely to be behind the next big thing, conclude researchers from George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia, and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington, D.C.–based think tank.

When deciding where to put down roots, many factors are in the eye of the beholder, such as climate, politics, or proximity to extended family.

Other aspects are coveted by nearly everybody: affordable housing, access to well-paying jobs, a low cost of living, good schools, and quality healthcare. In its recently released ranking of the best places to live in America, U.S. News & World Report gathered data on these crucial components for the 100 most populous US cities.

Have you ever had so much work to do or are suddenly under so much stress that you just cease to function? I’m not sure what the evolutionary basis would be for this. Perhaps my ancestors were simply hardwired against doing work, or maybe, as I have long suspected, I was actually bred for a life of sedentary comfort. Most probably however this unproductive lifestyle is just the result of an unfortunate accident, and it’s not actually my fault that I’m not currently able to do anything more taxing than watching Netflix.

Angad Singh thinks there’s a good chance that within 20 years, your job will no longer exist. And if it does, a bot will do it.

"It seems obvious," he says. "The nature of work will be completely different." By different, he means that anyone currently doing "non-creative" work will be made redundant in favor of software or robots. So long, assembly line workers. Good luck, white-collar paper pushers. Anything that can be automated will be. Even professions once thought to require actual human beings, like law and medicine, can be at least partly robotized.

If you were Googling "thank-you note after interview" in the hopes that someone on the World Wide Web would tell you they’re outdated and relieve you of your duty, you’re in the wrong place. Like it or not, thank-you notes are a must. Whether it’s an informational interview or traditional job interview, you need to send a thank-you note. But is an email enough these days? Does a handwritten note really help your chances? What should you say besides, "Thanks for your time!" Fear not—we’re breaking it down for you.

Image: Flickr user Paul Hayday

California’s Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy (JEDE) held an informational hearing this week on Methods of Review for Economic Development Activities in preparation for upcoming oversight hearings of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. I had the opportunity to testify on features of program and organizational oversight, including methods for evaluating economic development activities. This post is a summary of my remarks.

Many founders fall into the same trap: they focus all their energy and resources on building a product and finding customers, and when they come up for air, they realize that they need to raise outside capital. So they scramble to craft a pitch, find potential investors, and ask for money — and they usually fail. They end up with no money, and, sometimes, no company.

Organised and hosted by ide Group, the event hopes to attract early stage entrepreneurs from across Australia with novel product ideas and technologies that have the potential to make a significant difference to people’s health. In response to alarming rises in health care costs and a rapidly ageing population, ide Group joins Australia’s push to find and invest in fresh, new ideas.

BUFFALO, N.Y. —  For entrepreneurs using crowdfunding to bring new products to market, high quality photos and video, previous crowdfunding success and positive comments from backers are the keys to a successful campaign, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

The study found that by receiving these signals, potential investors, also known as “backers” in crowdfunding, gain valuable information that motivates them to participate and increases the likelihood of a project achieving its funding goal.

Passive income -- money you make on the side with little effort -- is the hottest way to build wealth, and for good reason: Millionaires, entrepreneurs and the average Joe all understand that passive income makes it easier to compound your overall returns even further.