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.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Malala Khan wants to empower women with technology.
The University of North Dakota student is using her training as an electrical engineering major to develop a product--perhaps a smartphone app--aimed at "crowd security," although she didn't want to give too much away about her product.
"I'm a tech person," she said. "I have ideas, but I don't know how to turn them into something that could be sellable."
How scientific evidence beats gut feelings when it comes to making better decisions for your company.
How does a manager know which of two potential decisions will be most conducive to achieving her goals? As firms seek innovative ways to gain an edge, leaders are faced with tough, often expensive decisions, over which new programme or policy, to introduce. A new incentive system? A new marketing approach? Not being able to go down two roads at once, the choice they make will have a significant impact on the success of their corporation into the future. Given that choices are costly, wouldn’t it be great to experiment with programmes, and have a clear sense of not just the costs but also the benefits of each, before committing to one?
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.
The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:
The nurses and doctors summoned to the hospital room of 16-year-old Pablo Garcia early on the morning of July 27, 2013, knew something was terribly wrong. Just past midnight, Pablo had complained of numbness and tingling all over his body. Two hours later, the tingling had grown worse.
Although Pablo had a dangerous illness—a rare genetic disease called NEMO syndrome that leads to a lifetime of frequent infections and bowel inflammation—his admission to the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center’s Benioff Children’s Hospital had been for a routine colonoscopy, to evaluate a polyp and an area of intestinal narrowing.
As an Angel investor in early-stage startups, I’ve long noticed my peers’ apparent bias toward the strength and character of the founding entrepreneurs, often overriding a strong solution to a painful problem with a big opportunity. In other words, the entrepreneur quality is more important than the idea -- in investor jargon, people invest in the jockey, and not the horse.
R
eal estate firms, which have traditionally been slow to innovate, are beginning to embrace new technologies to find clever solutions to old problems. This newfound openness comes as millennials start to enter the workforce, creating a need for tools that appeal to a tech-savvy customer base.
“It’s pretty fascinating when you think about we’re 75 percent millennials in maybe a dozen years. Clearly technology’s going to have an incredibly important impact on real estate; the operation of real estate and what the tenants do and how they do it,” said Joel Marcus, the CEO of Alexandria Real Estate Properties, an REIT that specializes in science campuses.
When Zappos started selling shoes online in 1999, few would have predicted that by 2014 e-commerce sales would be worth $1.5 trillion worldwide or that the once-mighty American mall would be brought to its knees by a fall in foot traffic and shifting consumer shopping habits. It’s not that hard to envision the wholesale marketplace following suit.
AsianScientist (Apr. 24, 2015) - Looking at the central business district of Manila, I find it easy to see the progress and its effects on the city–busy streets, construction of high rises, a consumer-driven economy highlighted by some of the world’s largest malls and a buzzing 24-hour culture driven largely by a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) boom. Over the past four years, the country has experienced rapid economic growth of around 5-7 percent and its GDP will continue to flourish due to the continued depression of oil prices; additionally, the Philippine stock exchange just recently closed at an all-time high.
Experiencing new things as a kid is a learning process — a hilarious, learning process filled with uncontrollable laughter.
Toddler Buzz and his father Tom Fletcher, a guitarist for the band McFly, took to the fields and discovered how dandelion seeds are dispersed.
The result? Buzz found it extremely amusing, and Tom did as well, saying in the video's comment section: "This is why being a Dad is awesome."
The numbers are quickly growing for Blueprint Health.
Some four years into its existence, Blueprint—the New York City-based healthtech startup incubator—has now helped launch 60 companies. That includes the seven that debuted on Friday at the latest Blueprint demo day at the City Winery in SoHo. The new group, toting digital health solutions for insurance brokers, dieticians, and other health providers, is Blueprint’s seventh graduating class.
So what type of progress are all these companies making?
The spark of inspiration, that great idea, is the beginning of many small businesses, but turning that idea into something takes money. A lot of good ideas have been left to whither without the capital they need to become a reality. Sixty-five percent of small business owners believe finding financial funding for a new business is difficult according to Hiscox’s DNA of an Entrepreneur study.
Raising startup capital is one of the toughest parts of starting your business. Here are some tips to help you get funding you need to make your small business a reality:
While Europe may not be the best economically these days, it remains the happiest region in the world. Surveys of national happiness routinely place countries like Norway and Sweden at the head of the global well-being stakes. And it's a similar story with the latest World Happiness Report, published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Successful CMOs achieve growth by leveraging technology. Join us for GrowthBeat Summit on June 1-2 in Boston, where we'll discuss how to merge creativity with technology to drive growth. Space is limited. Request your personal invitation here! Has the market for marketers heated up?
Short answer: Yes.
Slightly longer answer: Yes, absolutely!
Y
our next eye exam could be done with gadgets that connect to a smartphone and fit into a small suitcase—and there may not be a doctor or optometrist in the room.
A service called Blink is launching today in New York that will bring an eye exam to your home or office for $75, administered by a technician who uses a trio of handheld devices that take the place of the bulky autorefractor, lensmeter, and phoropter you may have seen in an eye doctor’s office. The technician will send the results to an optometrist, who will write a prescription if necessary and e-mail it to you (in the U.S., only ophthalmologists and optometrists can legally write eyeglass prescriptions).
Image: http://www.technologyreview.com
One of the biggest challenges an organization can face is getting employees to complete timesheets and track their time. In an age of “Big Brother” wariness and an increased focus on privacy, some employees may balk and fuss at the idea of accounting for their time, while others may struggle with submitting their timesheets entirely.
StartUp Health, a New York-based accelerator, and Rock Health, a San Francisco-based accelerator and seed fund, each recently released its independent 2015 first quarter report on venture funding and transactional data of the digital health sector. The following are some key observations:
It’s understandable that most CEOs try to manage their boards. With directors often attempting to take a more active role in decisions these days, CEOs naturally feel a bit threatened. They’re trying to lead a group of people who typically lack the time or expertise to fully understand what’s going on — but who have real power.
At most companies, despite all the best intentions, managing the board usually means keeping directors at arm’s length. Most CEOs I’ve known are inclined to give out just enough information to satisfy their fiduciary obligations, often in highly structured meetings that leave little to chance. They hold off on revealing the deeper challenges or complexities that might provoke tough questions.
When just getting started, businesses succeed because of their founders’ skill and determination. In later stages, businesses succeed because they’re well structured and have a plan in place to accommodate growth.
Unfortunately, most companies fail to make this transition. The root cause of the problem? It’s often too difficult for founders to let go.
We all know that we should probably be getting more sleep. And we've learned that sleep improves your mood, helps you to learn, clears your brain of toxins, and helps you concentrate. As if that weren’t enough, sleep has another benefit: It can help make you more creative.
To understand how, it is helpful to know a bit more about creativity. When you are trying to develop a creative solution to a difficult problem, you need to find some knowledge that you already have that will help you take a new approach.
So you want to work at a startup. You know how to handle interviews and you know what startup skills you need. You know your strengths and can't wait to hustle.
Three years ago, I was in the same position. After working in the corporate world of fashion at Louis Vuitton and Aritzia, I was dying to work at a startup. I was particularly energized by Wantering, an up-and-coming fashion tech company, so I wrote a blog post on my personal fashion blog about why I thought Wantering was so game-changing.
