We often measure the impact of corporate philanthropy by counting the number of individuals who are helped by a particular program. In my experience, however, philanthropy can also help companies reduce business risk, open up new markets, engage employees, build the brand, reduce costs, advance technology, and deliver competitive returns.

Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Around these parts, we like to celebrate creative people. And we stand up and cheer for (and hire!) people like Natalia Rodriguez, whose tweets and blog landed her an internship at Fast Company.

So is traditional job recruiting dead? Not totally. But it may be on life support. New data from Jobvite, an online recruiting platform, found that 94% of recruiters are using or plan to use social media to find qualified candidates. More than three-quarters (78%) have already made a hire through social media.

Image Courtesy of Gualberto107 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I love our tagline: “Enabling Entrepreneurship at Penn.” Not only does it have that euphonious alliteration, but it’s such a great description of what we at Wharton Entrepreneurship do.

Like any good entrepreneur, we’re always looking for more and better ways to do that enabling, and this year we’re proud to roll out W.E. Weds: practical workshops and information sessions for the serious entrepreneur, which will take place throughout the school year, every other Wednesday.

Image Courtesy of Ohmega1982 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Every Pumpkin Spice Latte-loving, cardigan-wearing person knows that fall is the most awesome season. But, until now, little science has provided evidence to back that claim.

Unfortunately, "comfy sweaters" and "pumpkins" don't get you very far when arguing with a champion of the summer months.

Image Courtesy of Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This am, I got an email from Nicole who runs Techstars Boulder reminding the mentors that Friday is the last day to apply. “Cool,” I thought, “I’ll just tweet that out.” But right before hitting send, I got an email from an entrepreneur with the title “Why an accelerator?” So, I figured a-bloggin’ I would go.

Image Courtesy of digidreamgrafix / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Are you waiting until after graduation to start building up your LinkedIn profile? It's time to reconsider.

"Every student is blindly trying to make a resume, but surprisingly many don't have great LinkedIn profiles," says Natan Edelsburg, senior vice president at Sawhorse Media. "I often hear, 'Here's my resume. My LinkedIn isn't great, but here's the link.' I usually respond, 'Make it great, and then get back to me!'"

Image Courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Six out of the eleven startups that were recently accepted into TechStar’s first international program in London have a financial angle, Jon Bradford, Managing Director of TechStars London, tells me over a pub lunch in the London neighborhood of Clerkenwell, down the road from TechStar’s new office space. Beyond the financial slant — which is a unique focus for London’s emerging tech startup scene — there’s a variety of other little differences between the inaugural London class, and the ones that have gone through TechStar’s 3-month mentorship and equity-investment program over the past seven years in cities across the U.S. including Boulder, Austin, Boston, Chicago, New York and Seattle.

Image Courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve heard it dozens of times from entrepreneurs. Being in business by yourself can be a lonely proposition. There’s nobody with whom to bounce ideas; nobody to share the wins, and the losses. There’s nobody to give me a reality check and no one to slow me down. In the world of coaches and consultants, we are predominately solopreneurs. It’s one reason I choose not to be without a coach of my own.

Still, my coach is not in my office, working near me. I’ve found myself mumbling to myself, and even sometimes answering. The mail carrier pops in to deliver mail and I’m tempted to ask him to stay for tea. I’m not kidding.

Almost all Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are not rock stars, according to CEO David Friedberg. He offers metrics comparing the possible rewards and chances for success between working for an existing company and starting your own venture. He also explains the advantages and caveats of trying to make impact from inside larger organizations.

Venture capitalist John Lilly expresses three rules for entrepreneurs to consider: make things for as long as you can, find a tribe of people you really want to collaborate with, and do work that makes your soul sing.

Applying for an accelerator program is a major decision for any company in its early years.  For CoachUp, it was the right decision, and we learned a lot along the way. We launched CoachUp in 2012 and successfully went through two incubators/accelerators that same year in Boston: MassChallenge and Techstars (Boston). But as with any business decision, there were distinct pros and cons.

Image Courtesy of renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The use of biological markers like fingerprints, faces and irises to identify people is rapidly moving from science fiction to reality. Apple’s latest iPhone, which went on sale this week, can be unlocked with a fingerprint. Users of Android smartphones can unlock their devices with a glance. And the Federal Bureau of Investigation is developing facial recognition technology that would allow it to pinpoint criminals and suspects in large crowds of people with closed-circuit cameras.

Image Courtesy of Chris Sharp / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you are a start-up business or an already established company, you probably have a lot running through your mind. Am I spending enough on advertising? Are my prices at a competitive level? Do I have the right team? Those are all important issues we have to address as entrepreneurs. Because of the challenges we have to overcome on a day-to-day basis, it is easy to become overwhelmed and get distracted.

No one ever knowingly makes a bad choice, rather those decisions are made by clouded judgement. When that happens, it is very easy to make simple yet critical mistakes. Here are three mistakes that you must do your best to avoid.

Image Courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Being an Entrepreneur is about innovating and creating something that million of people will use, but it is also about delivering services to hundreds or even dozens of people. There is no specific definition to what an Entrepreneur is or does, but what we know he/she must do is innovate and create new business opportunities.

Entrepreneurs are the leaders of the modern world. They are those who see further standing on the shoulders of the people who have previously innovated. They are part of this huge cycle of innovation that will never stop. I believe the best thing you can achieve in life is saying the sentence: “Yes, I am an Entrepreneur”.

Image Courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Can you teach entrepreneurship? Bestselling author Eric Ries thinks so. He also thinks that entrepreneurship must be taught to more people if the U.S. is to successfully pivot to a post-manufacturing economy. According to Ries, business has become so efficient at manufacturing that even though it's making more stuff than ever, there are fewer jobs needed to do it. That’s why economic survival lies in our ability to better teach the business of creativity and entrepreneurship.

Image Courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In a recent in-depth interview with Kathy Calvin of the United Nations Foundation, Elaine Weidman-Grunewald of Ericsson, Kate James of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Henry Timms of 92Y and Sigrid Kaag of UNDP, we discussed the creation, purpose, vision and global impact of the Social Good Summit—a three-day conference where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions. Held during UN Week from September 22-24 at the 92nd St. Y in New York, the Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our world’s greatest challenges. Read the full interview below.

At the Top Crop farm in Dwight, Ill., 200 wind turbines rise from a sea of corn and soybeans, their blades turning day and night to generate energy. The turbines monitor their own performance and each other’s with sensors. If one falls behind in meeting goals such as speed and ouput, it reaches out to an office about 850 miles away in Schenectady, N.Y., where General Electric’s (GE) remote operations center uses data from 19,000 windmills worldwide to find the most efficient way to help. Intelligent monitoring of the machines has helped GE fix faults, limit snags, and preempt thousands of failures.

Image: Bloomberg Businessweek

- How to get your product out there before a competitor does -

By: Mike Hoggatt, CEO at Leardon Solutions

When developing a new product, an entrepreneur or small business can rarely assume that the market will wait or that a competitor will not introduce something that’s smaller, better, faster, and at a lower price point before you’re ready. Therefore, reducing time-to-market is a key requirement for business success and can be a competitive advantage. Here are four tips that will help your organization do that:

Product Design Specification

A Product Design Specification can take on a variety of forms. Many times, it’s not just one document, but a collection. Whatever the form, when the design of the first prototype begins, it must have cross-organizational support that delivering to this specification will produce a viable product (price, features, product cost, investment and schedule) in the market place without additions, modifications or deletions. This may not be completely achievable in the real world of product development, but a specification with “creeping features” can produce major design resets, adds complexity and produces secondary defects that will lengthen time-to-market as well as increase investment and potential product costs.

Johns Hopkins will cosponsor DreamIt Health Baltimore, a four-month boot camp early next year for entrepreneurs starting health information technology companies. The project—called an “accelerator”—will speed promising new technologies to market by giving company founders intense business and health care training, mentoring, an injection of “pre-seed money” capital, and opportunities to meet key individuals from industry and government health care agencies in the Baltimore-Washington area.

Johns Hopkins University and BioHealth Innovation are partnering with Philadelphia-based DreamIt Ventures to bring a new health IT accelerator to Baltimore. The accelerator, called DreamIt Health Baltimore, is being supported by a portion of a $520,000 federal grant awarded to BioHealth Innovation and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore. Richard Bendis, CEO of BioHealth Innovation, talked to the Baltimore Business Journal about his newest project.