Stanford Professor of the Practice Tina Seelig explains how imagination requires active engagement, which reveals opportunities to envision what might be different. Imagination is the first stage of a four-step process that Seelig details for bringing ideas to life.

Mike Rothenberg encourages entrepreneurs to avoid "red oceans," a business-strategy term for cutthroat markets where competitors struggle for incremental gains. The CEO of Rothenberg Ventures says entrepreneurs should instead swim toward blue oceans, rivers and ponds, while developing the instincts to discover these emerging, wide-open markets.

Fear can paralyze a potential entrepreneur—something Philipp K. Berger knows all too well. Back in 2010, while working as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., Mr. Berger thought about starting his own business. But he found himself caught up with worrying about the move.

“Even though starting a company was completely my dream, I found myself confronted with a lot of irrational fear that I really could not explain,” says Dr. Berger. “Even if the company failed, I was sure I would get another good job afterwards, so objectively there was no reason to fear.”

What I have to say may upset you, or it may inspire you: We all have amazing dreams and aspirations, but many people will never achieve them because they were set up to live a mediocre life.

When you look at our society and the way you were raised, you were taught to get good grades in school so you could get into a good college. Once you got your acceptance letter you studied hard so you could get a good job. The day came where you put on your cap and gown, walked across the stage and began your life in the professional world with the hopes of climbing the corporate ladder fast.

When Tidjane Thiam, former CEO of Prudential (and an INSEAD alum) became the CEO of Credit Suisse, he was asked if he was equipped to do a good job since he had never worked in investment banking before. He replied, “I’ve studied physics and maths…there is nothing that I don’t understand in investment banking”.

There was a time when neuroscientists could only dream of having such a problem. Now the fantasy has come true, and they are struggling to solve it. Brilliant new exploratory devices are overwhelming the field with an avalanche of raw data about the nervous system's inner workings. The trouble is that even starting to make sense of this bonanza of information has become a superhuman challenge.

Image: Wesley Bedrosian

In another sign that governments are becoming more savvy when it comes to the economic potential of high-growth startups, the U.S. Small Business Administration recently announced $4.4 million in support for accelerators in 39 states (plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico). 

The eighty accelerators selected as winners in the Growth Accelerator Fund receive $50,000 each in cash from the SBA. In exchange, they commit to quarterly reporting for one year — tracking metrics such as jobs created, funds raised, startups launched and corporate sponsors secured. 

As an entrepreneur, you may have a lot of different business ideas, as well as ideas for new projects, in your head. If you can sell these ideas to colleagues, potential investors and partners, the concept could become your next successful business. A well-designed formal presentation can sell investors on your idea, but before you get to the stage, you'll likely have occasion to provide an elevator pitch.

Here are five do's and five don'ts to help you get off on the right foot.

Innovation is about bringing together individuals with diverse strengths who can push against each other and build something collaboratively that they never would've come up with on their own. Innovation happens when there is constructive conflict, or positive tension, within an organization-not total agreement.

Like the dog days of summer stimulating an algae bloom in a stagnant pond, there seems to be a burst of articles asserting that the patent system is harmful to innovation. The tendency is to ignore such attacks, but as we’ve learned to our sorrow unless rebutted theories that patents exploit the public interest can take root in a society where fewer and fewer people know how the products that we all depend upon are created.

According to the 2015 Kauffman Index, Montana ranks as the state with the highest level of startup activity—the third straight year it has topped the rankings. However, how sustainable is its recent entrepreneurial success?

The Treasure State—its official nickname, although lesser known than Big Sky Country—is not new to tech startups. It is home to Schedulicity, an app for finding and booking local services; Wisetail, a social media e-learning platform; and TechRanch, an advisory organization that helps tech startups get off the ground.

Only 29% of all employees across the most influential U.S. technology companies—Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Intel—are women. But that includes salespeople, service workers, and communications professionals. Companies that break out gender ratio by role report an an even more drastic disparity. At Twitter, 10% of technical workers are women. At Facebook, it’s 16%.

Countless articles stress the importance of finding mentors. But how do you tell whether a successful person is mentor material, or just someone to admire from afar?

We asked the experts to help identify the traits that make great mentors. If the following sounds like a tall order, then remember that you don’t necessarily have to find all of these traits in a single person. Successful people are often very busy, so having a personal board of directors can get you get the advice you need while spreading the questions across multiple people.

The people we associate with don't necessarily live right next to us. This is more common than ever before, as social media and other communication technologies allow us to stay connected with people across the globe. But as our urban social networks – the ones that define our lives in cities – continue to transcend traditional geographic boundaries, we must strike a balance along this line.

Imagine what it would be like to take a fresh look at your small business, to think and act like it was a startup all over again. What would you change? What could you do better? What time- and money-wasting bad habits could you stop?

They have funny accents, wear strange outfits, eat really spicy food and some wear turbans. Indian-Americans constitute less than 1 percent of the U.S. population. Yet you will find them at the helm of great companies such as PepsiCo and MasterCard; as presidents and deans of America’s most prestigious colleges; at the pinnacles of journalism; dominating fields such as technology, scientific research and medicine; and thriving in industries such as hospitality, transportation and real estate. They have also achieved extraordinary success in government: the governors of two of America’s most conservative states are of Indian origin, as are White House senior advisors and the U.S. Surgeon General.

Image: The success of Indian immigrants is a reminder of the great opportunities available in the United States. (Tsering Topgyal/AP)

Bayer HealthCare has launched its own digital health accelerator program in Berlin, Germany called “Grants4Apps,” selecting five digital health startups from around the globe that will advance their business ideas and technology in areas such as hormone tests, patient adherence, breathing patterns, clinical trials and vitamin deficiency. The selected five digital health startups will receive financial support of up to 50,000 Euro and will work out of the company’s pharmaceutical division in Berlin. Over the next four months, the startups will work with Bayer executives and seasoned entrepreneurs 

Image: http://hitconsultant.net/

The Indian government this week launched a much awaited venture capital (VC) fund. Dubbed the India Aspiration Fund, the 20 billion rupee fund (US$306-million) will operate as a fund-of-funds administered by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi).

Durham venture capital fund Hatteras Venture Partners plans to announce Monday that it has raised more than $90 million for its fifth investment fund, giving it roughly 60 percent of its $150 million goal.

“We’re humbled and gratified that people would continue to have this level of confidence in us,” said Clay Thorp, co-founder and general partner.

Talk of the bubble bursting eventually surfaces with every successful market. When valuations are increasing exponentially, excitement is building to a fever pitch, and companies are sprouting seemingly overnight — it’s almost like everyone becomes afraid that success won’t last.