It's important to state from the outset that there is no magic bullet that can transform you into a rich and successful entrepreneur overnight. However, for those prepared to work hard to succeed, there is an almost formulaic blend of entrepreneurial skills that can help set successful businessmen/women apart from the rest.

One-person businesses are taking hold around the globe, with solo operators now accounting for 9% of total entrepreneurial activity, according to the latest global installation of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, a sweeping, 20-year study of entrepreneurship.

Gary Pisano, professor of business administration at Harvard, rejects the narrative that only scrappy startups are nimble enough to innovate. He believes large, established firms can adapt and evolve, but they have to go about it differently than their small-sized competitors.

In his new book, Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation, Pisano offers a three-pronged approach for innovation based on more than three decades of research and consulting with companies that stayed a step ahead. He recently joined the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM to talk about his book and explain why innovation for big firms isn’t as simple as “be like Uber.”

There are many nuances and potential costs or risks to consider when economic development incentives are a part of a real estate development project.  This is often true regardless of the development size or type. The impact of receiving economic development incentives can often be an afterthought, but they can have a significant impact on various parts of a development project, such as prevailing wage requirements, competitive bidding/public contracting considerations, and financing arrangements with lenders. 

Leaders from business groups Civic Progress, the Regional Business Council and the St. Louis Regional Chamber have formed a new private-sector economic development effort to attract and retain businesses, jobs and talent.

The newly formed St. Louis Regional Economic Development Alliance, a subsidiary of the Chamber, will have its own CEO and board, the Chamber announced Thursday. Suzanne Sitherwood, president and CEO of Spire, will serve as board chair for the Alliance. Steve Johnson is being hired as CEO, with a start date expected in March.

Image: https://www.stltoday.com

We think of leaders as being towards the top of most organizational structures, but leadership is a behavior, not a job title. If entrepreneurs can tap into the leadership potential of their team — including those in entry-level positions — there’s a tremendous opportunity for innovation. Being open to creativity from everyone helps you drive employee engagement, increase productivity, boost retention and discover all sorts of brilliant ideas.

“Leadership” and “innovation” are two key concepts that are widely discussed within the business community. These discussions often include a definition of both and examples of those who actively demonstrate these concepts, but they do not usually offer specific actions that can be implemented practically to achieve them.

When it comes to predicting the behavior of the stock market in 2019, experts are in lockstep agreement: Nobody knows what’s going to happen.

Even so, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, visiting associate professor at MIT Sloan, does have some insight to offer innovators, entrepreneurs, and would-be startup moguls as the nation heads into what could be an unpredictable year on Wall Street.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the fifth largest distributor of SBIR awards among federal agencies, received more than 20,000 proposals over the decade long period from 2008 to 2017, approving more than 3,600 (16.8 percent), according to an SSTI analysis of NSF data. NSF SBIR awards are the least concentrated of all federal agencies, as measured by share of awards going to firms with more than 10+ awards. An SSTI analysis found that New Hampshire (28 percent success rate), Wisconsin (26.7 percent success rate), and Louisiana (24.7 percent) were the most likely to convert their NSF SBIR applications into awards.

If eating makes you tired, you’ve got something in common with most people—and, for that matter, with most living things. Researchers have turned up evidence of “postprandial sleepiness,” also known as a food coma, in insects, snakes, worms and rats.

“The conservation of this behavior across species suggests that it’s really important for something,” says William Ja, an associate professor of neuroscience at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida who has studied this food coma phenomenon.

An internationally recognized startup program with a track record for nurturing entrepreneurs who are successful in raising money and creating jobs is opening a location in downtown Houston.

Boston-based MassChallenge announced Wednesday that it's launching a boot camp-like business accelerator program in GreenStreet, a four-block mixed-use development in the center of downtown. It's seeking startups that have generated less than $1 million in revenue over the past year and have raised no more than $500,000 in equity-based funding.

The global market for autonomous systems is growing quickly: an estimated EUR 76 billion will be spent on robotics by 2025. To keep pace with this development, Finland is launching RAAS, a new innovation ecosystem for autonomous systems. The aim is for RAAS to grow into one of the world's leading development environments. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland has given a government grant for the full launch of the innovation ecosystem.

Image: IMAGE: RAAS FOCUS DOMAINS AND WHAT CAN BE ENABLED IN THEM IN THE FUTURE. CREDIT: PHOTO:ANASTASIIA KANATKINA

The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists announced Thursday that the hands on the Doomsday Clock remain at two minutes to midnight in  “a new abnormal” world situation with little progress made on limiting nuclear risks, climate change dangers and cybersecurity threats.

The hands of the clock freeze where they were last year and also in 1953, the closest to midnight since the clock was first set in 1947 to measure our proximity to Cold War Armageddon. Rachel Bronson, President and CEO of the Bulletin organization, along with other board members and scholars, revealed the clock’s setting for the coming year.

Image: https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/

An ambitious $100 million initiative to transform New York City into the global capital of cybersecurity, creating thousands of new jobs in the process, set itself a demanding target: to find the very best partners, no matter their location, to fulfill its mission.

The Cyber NYC initiative’s worldwide hunt for leading innovation – driven by the quasi-government organization behind the project, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) – eventually brought it to Israel and its pioneering innovation start-up ecosystem.

When I'm working a 24-hour shift in the ER, I naturally become tired. I've learned a few things to fight through the fatigue and continue to perform at a high level.

Keep the adrenaline flowing Whether it's at the start or toward the end of my shift, anytime severely injured patients arrive from a car accident, I get a surge of adrenaline. The energy burst enables me to focus better, work faster, and perform at my absolute best.

Image: Dr. Sudip Bose. Courtesy of Dr. Sudip Bose

In the last decade, crowdfunding has become a popular way to finance all sorts of projects and products. Biotech is no exception, but many question whether the high risk and long term nature of investing in the biotech industry makes it a good fit for equity crowdfunding.

When you hear the term crowdfunding, you might think of platforms like Kickstarter, where people can pay for a product in advance in order to fund the company that will create it. The model has been very successful for many startups, but biotech companies often follow a different strategy where investors get a stake in the company rather than a product.

Achieving gender equality in business is not only “fair” — it leads to increased performance and innovation.

The implications of gender equality, however, extend beyond hiring and workplaces practices that target women. Education is also part of the conversation. Unfortunately, women are less likely than men to pursue an MBA.

Image: Image credit: Concordia University, St. Paul

The concept of the "gig economy" clearly captures something real, but it can be hard to measure define in the statistical sense that brings joy to my heart. For example, it clearly refers to those who drive for Uber and Lyft. But does it refer more broadly to all workers with "alternative work arrangements," who are hired for a short-term job with no serious expectation that it will become a longer-term employment connection? Does it cover people who obtain jobs through a temp agency and work for a series of employers, for example?

Digital transformation has gone from trendy best practice to survival prerequisite. Every business worth its salt has a hand in the game. But "getting it" is one thing, and getting it done is another. Adapting to new technologies, developing new skill sets, and keeping up with customers poses a set of pretty complex challenges.

Firms that don’t protect their innovation risk losing much of the value they create. That’s why intellectual property protection (IPP) is a key component in the strategy of both established enterprises and early-stage startups.