Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
When Nassim Nicholas Taleb developed his popular theory to explore way-out-of-the-norm surprising events, he outlined three characteristics of a black swan event:
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
In the wake of the Great Recession, local policymakers are working harder than ever to differentiate their areas as friendly to small businesses and economic development. As part of these efforts, billions of public dollars are spent every year to attract companies, big and small, through the use of venture capital, tax incentives, public-private partnerships, workforce training, capital improvements, and many other tools. As economic development has become more competitive, policymakers are offering more and more to attract jobs and new opportunities for their constituencies. Though it is clear that these financial incentives are producing results in some areas, there are other environmental factors that policymakers can improve to attract more new businesses.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Area Development analyzes economic and workforce data for 379 MSAs, producing a snapshot of the cities across America that are poised to capitalize on the new potential for economic growth as the United States leaves the recession behind. A diversified economic base tops the most desirable traits.
Image: http://www.areadevelopment.com/
Germany, a land of innovation and cutting-edge technology, is home to world-class scientific and technical research institutions. A global player in the automotive, chemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as biotech and nanotech sectors, Germany has a high percentage of R&D-intensive industries. Historically, Germany has excelled in sophisticated technologies, such as medical devices and automotive manufacturing. To maintain its competitive edge in the future, Germany plans to harness the potential of key technologies in the fields of optical, materials, nano, and microsystems sciences.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
The Italian economy has grown fat on excessive bureaucracy and corporatism, but its brain remains agile thanks to the adrenaline of its internationally successful manufacturing industry. The “Made in Italy” knowledge maps mastered by Italian pocket multinationals are so detailed that they can identify paths to stay ahead of their rivals in international markets. Strengthened by significant manufacturing attainments in the Peninsula, a wind of creative emulation is blowing in the direction of Germany. ‘We can catch up with you and, one day, we may even overtake you,’ is the message blowing in this Italian wind. Shadows loom over the contribution of manufacturing to GDP, down 5 points since 2000, and now standing at 15.5%. But light emanates from the new industrial specializations in medium to high technology, from the automated mechanical to the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, which, according to estimates by economist Marco Fortis, jumped from 41% of the Italian foreign trade surplus in manufacturing in 2000 to 71% in 2012.
Image Courtesy of Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Many companies are moving beyond the basics of open innovation making this new paradigm of innovation even more complex, challenging – and rewarding. This is the outset for this session with Stefan Lindegaard in which we get into these topics:
Image Courtesy of Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The technology industry has been fighting hard not to reveal race and gender diversity data — especially for its engineering teams — because it has a lot to be embarrassed about. Data collected on Github showed that the percentage of female engineers at Qualcomm’s development center in Austin was 5.5 percent. At Dropbox it’s 6.3 percent, at Yelp 8.3 percent, at Airbnb 13.2 percent and 14.4 percent at Pinterest. Google just revealed that 17 percent of its technology staff is female. That is impressive compared with the rest of Silicon Valley, but not once you put it in the context of the available pool of female computer scientists.
What if, instead of paying millions of dollars to export trash from cities to festering dumps in other parts of the country, we could export our garbage bags to virtual realities instead? And what if, instead of buying a new smartphone every few years before chucking it, we held onto indestructible ones for the duration of our lives?
Image: THE RECYCLING INQUISITION Instead of forklifts moving garbage, what if they tortured people who didn't recycle? That's one way to incentivize curbside recycling, according to one Mini Inquisitor. LATITUDEº / LATD.COM
Incredibly, there are interest groups in the US who are taking advantage of a provision in Dodd-Frank to try to throttle angel investing.
For context, see VC Experts' Tuesday Newsletter.
Here's the money quote:
“'We appreciate the importance of regulation to protect investors from fraud, however regulations need to be focused in areas with a proven need for added oversight. The angel investment asset class has experienced very little fraud, because angel investors have strong processes for due diligence and investment terms, and ongoing entrepreneurial support,' said Marianne Hudson, ACA’s executive director.”
Image: https://vcexperts.com
The annual White House Science Fair with Bill Nye is always a delightful place to renew one’s faith in the future.
Selected teens showcase world-class inventions at an age when most us spent our free time falling asleep in front of MTV. It’s nice to have some good news.
Image: http://venturebeat.com/
YOUR TEAM MAY BE IN THE CLOUD BUT THEIR HEADS DON'T HAVE TO BE. GET CREATIVE ABOUT BUILDING BONDS, COMMUNICATING, AND FINDING WHAT WORKS.
BY LAURA VANDERKAM
Plenty of people work from home occasionally, and plenty of managers work with people in different offices. But what if no one is in the office? What if your entire company consists of people working wherever they want to work?
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
“In the early morning hours of June 1, 2009, Air France Flight AF 447, with 228 passengers and crew aboard, disappeared during stormy weather over the Atlantic while on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.” So begin Lawrence Stone and colleagues from Metron Scientific Solutions in Reston, Virginia, in describing their role in the discovery of the wreckage almost two years after the loss of the aircraft.
Image: http://www.technologyreview.com/
John Favreau’s new movie Chef is a celebration of food, a sweet story of family, and an inside look at the ups and downs of the restaurant business. It’s also a meaningful story about entrepreneurship as the main character, Chef Carl Casper, confronts a common question of business ownership– when to take a risk and how much is enough.
In decades past, companies derived value from deep knowledge and discipline within specific functional areas. They were strong at operations or in finance or in service, etc. Companies were often strong at multiple of those, but the organization structure that owes tremendously to Alfred Sloan and General Motors was almost militaristic in its hierarchy and in its silos. Just as the military has had to think creatively about breaking down these silos, promoting people who have breadth of experience as well as depth, companies too have derived great value at thinking about value generated at the nexus of disciplines.
They say that wisdom comes with age. But does success only come to the older generation?
The economic world is finally ready to start making its comeback after more than half a decade of slow growth and painful retraction.
The playing field has been leveled by this; large corporates are tightening their belts while the eyes of the world are looking to the entrepreneur and the innovator to kick-start growth.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
I’ve met with dozens and dozens of VC investors over the years, both formally and informally. Some passed on my company. Others we passed on. I’ve also had hundreds of conversations with other entrepreneurs about their experiences with venture investors. These opportunities have given me a good understanding as to what makes a great (and not-so-great) venture capitalist. I also worked in private equity for years before starting CircleUp, and this experience has given me the added perspective of having sat on both sides of the table.
Image: http://medcitynews.com/
The IPO market appears to be open for Internet companies – for the right price. But the companies on the runway to launch after Memorial Day still have reason to be wary.
ZenDesk went public at a multiple of under 4 times its projected 2014 sales, according to people familiar with deal. That’s below the average 7.2 times multiple for companies in the Bessemer Venture Capital Cloud Index as of May 16, which tracks prices of publicly listed “cloud” software companies.
Image: http://stream.wsj.com/
A report entitled "Angel Investing Activity in Canada: Accelerating the Asset Class" produced by the National Angel Capital Organization has mapped out Canada's angel investment groups, revealing where they're located and how much each regions invests.
Central Canada is the obvious hub, accounting for 68% of all investments and 78% of the dollar value of all investments made in 2013. Western Canada picks up the rest, while Eastern Canada's presence is virtually non-existent.
Kansas City, Mo., May 20, 2014 – The Angel Capital Association (ACA) today launched a campaign to protect startups from a devastating loss of angel capital if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increases the financial qualifications for accredited investors. The “Protect Angel Funding” initiative is a call to action to the startup ecosystem—from angel investors to economic development organizations and entrepreneurs – to urge regulators to preserve the definition of who qualifies as an accredited angel investor. Protecting this important investment class is critical to preserving the economic fuel it provides to startups and job creation. If changes proposed by “investor protection” organizations are enacted by the SEC, nearly 60 percent of angel investors would be eliminated.
Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is increasingly common. Many researchers have suggested that laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’ capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
