Efficient ongoing collaboration has a significant impact on business innovation, performance, culture and even the bottom line. 

So says Google and this time it is not just talking up its array of enterprise productivity and collaboration tools in the Google for Work suite.

Worldwide, there’s a growing appreciation for the many benefits of the open source way. Clearly, being truly open is a frame of mind that can apply to just about anything in life — including the development and nurture of a progressive company culture that’s equipped for the challenges and opportunities of today’s Global Networked Economy.

Look, there are roughly 36 million articles on the Internet today that suggest entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. These same articles list common traits many successful people possess, such as persistence, persuasiveness, discipline and a strong work ethic. For over 25 years I have studied successful entrepreneurs and found that what contributed to their massive success was not what society typically considered valuable traits.

I read a column in the Huffington Post recently that inspired me to tell it like it is. The column broke down some of the myths that continue to be perpetuated about entrepreneurship, like how to “get rich quick.” I know I’m just one more voice adding to the fray, but I felt compelled to share.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 30 years now. I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is what I know.

You've created a great product. After testing the prototype, you're ready to go to market. But two big challenges remain:

1. Finding funds to ramp up production.

2. Finding customers to buy what you're selling.

Thanks to crowdfunding, you can raise money online to help your business get off the ground.

Business incubators are organisations that provide support to start-up and early stage businesses through the provision of facilities, mentoring and coaching, training, networking and seed capital financing. The first business incubator is thought to have been established in Batavia, New York in 1959 within an abandoned Massey Ferguson tractor factory.

Despite this early start the evolution of business incubators really took off during the 1980s. For example, in the United States the number of business incubators grew from a mere 12 in 1980, to around 1,100 by 2003.

If you think your business has weathered the storm, think again. In addition to obvious economic challenges, the emerging generation of customers is determined to radically change the rules for customer engagement. Their expectations of relationship and personalization are taxing businesses today, and their power through social media will kill those who can’t or won’t comply.

Understanding how and why we evolved such large brains is one of the most puzzling issues in the study of human evolution. It is widely accepted that brain size increase is partly linked to changes in diet over the last 3 million years, and increases in meat consumption and the development of cooking have received particular attention from the scientific community. In a new study published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682587, Dr. Karen Hardy and her team bring together archaeological, anthropological, genetic, physiological and anatomical data to argue that carbohydrate consumption, particularly in the form of starch, was critical for the accelerated expansion of the human brain over the last million years, and coevolved both with copy number variation of the salivary amylase genes and controlled fire use for cooking.

This week marked the launch of New York Ventures, an Empire State Development program dedicated to encouraging innovation and fueling economic growth in communities across New York. The program is derived of three separate funds: the $100 million New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund; the $45 million Innovative NY Fund; and, the $2 million Minority- and Women-Owned Business Investment Fund. As part of the New York Ventures launch, Empire State Development also announced the NYS Innovation Venture Capital Fund’s close on financing for two New York-based tech companies.

SSTI’s Annual Conference brochure is here and you can register now! Highlights include our keynote speaker, Mike Bowman, Advanced Technology Leader for GE’s Global Research Center; more than 20 educational sessions; and, plenty of opportunities to network with your peers.

Join us in Oklahoma City, and connect with a diverse community to share solutions and ideas.

Everywhere you look, young, modern thought-leaders are cashing-in on the entrepreneurial lifestyle. They've got the flashy headlines, the lucrative funding -- even their own exclusive dating websites. Society is worshipping at the altar of venture capitalism and extolling open-concept office spaces. And "entrepreneur” has become a trendy buzzword.

Entrepreneurs spend a considerable amount of time learning how to boost their businesses. Marketing is key to the success of a business and online marketing is ever so important. According to Constant Contact,  84 percent of people say that the biggest difference in small businesses between now and five years ago is the use of more online marketing tools.

Every entrepreneur needs to be familiar with this five concepts to maximize online marketing results.

If an offer seems to good to be true, it might just be. Do your research before accepting any offers for the company you put so much into. What are some clear warning signs that a deal could be one-sided? To find out more, we asked 11 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

Since Steve Jobs’s death, in 2011, Elon Musk has emerged as the leading celebrity of Silicon Valley. Musk is the CEO of Tesla Motors, which produces electric cars; the CEO of SpaceX, which makes rockets; and the chairman of SolarCity, which provides solar power systems. A self-made billionaire, programmer, and engineer—as well as an inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies—he has been on the cover of Fortune and Time. In 2013, he was first on the Atlantic’s list of “today’s greatest inventors,” nominated by leaders at Yahoo, Oracle, and Google. To believers, Musk is steering the history of technology. As one profile described his mystique, his “brilliance, his vision, and the breadth of his ambition make him the one-man embodiment of the future.”

The application of innovative models in international development has captured the attention of program implementers, funders, researchers and policymakers alike. Numerous innovations have been conceived and launched, however, there are many obstacles to identifying and accelerating the spread of innovative policies and practices that improve the lives of the poor.

In my research on innovators, I like to draw the distinction between “path finders” and “path creators.” Rarely does the metaphor seem so apt as in the case of Federico Bastiani. He is the originator of the “social streets” movement now spreading across Italy, so the innovation he created literally involves a path: the street in which he and his family live in Bologna.

What does your personality type have to do with being an entrepreneur? Quite a bit, according to a recent study.

Truity Psychometrics, a personality test developer, surveyed more than 25,000 volunteers about their careers and personalities. Covering topics such as job satisfaction, income and self-employment, Truity charted the differences between each of 16 different personality types.

A metaphor describes one thing in terms of another, hopefully making that one thing easier to understand. Here are seven metaphors to help better understand the logic of entrepreneurship. The logic may surprise you, as it is not the approach taught in business school.

Change, to borrow and adapt Greek philosopher Heraclitus, is the only constant in venture capital. Especially, if you happen to be a micro venture capital fund in India.

Rehan Yar Khan-founded Orios Venture Partners is the latest seed investments-focused venture capital firm to shift gears. The two-year-old firm has just announced that it is raising $150 million for its second fund. Plans for the new fund come barely a year after the firm debuted in the venture capital market with a $50 million fund.

You may think you’re doing all the right things—when it turns out you’re actually frustrating colleagues, alienating work allies, and maybe even disrespecting your boss.

The possible culprit?