I often hear the popular notion that successful entrepreneurs are built from a single heroic insight or a single innovation. This is just plain wrong. The business world is a symphony of players and elements that only works when everything interconnects harmoniously. Continuous innovation and continuous learning are required for any sustained connection and success.

'Finding the right approach for effective serial breakthrough (radical) Innovation has become the “holy grail” for today’s companies', write Fredrik Härenstam, Ben Thuriaux-Alemán and Richard Eagar.

However, a survey conducted by Arthur D. Little (ADL) of over 80 large organizations shows that there is still a long way to go before companies’ efforts match their aspirations. Although there is no single formula for success, it is clear that there are some important key factors.

Phat Le had his whole life planned out: get an aerospace engineering degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, complete the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate program, become a Navy nuclear officer.

A flat tire changed that.

The college junior felt the flat as he was driving back to school from the airport in October 2014, and he called for roadside assistance through his family’s insurance company. He was told a tow truck would arrive in an hour, but a passer-by stopped to help Le fix the tire before the truck showed up. The experience made Le think: Could there be an easier way?

Can the wireless industry deliver on its 5G promises?

There are engineering challenges that have to be solved on a significant scale in order to make plentiful, ubiquitous wireless connections work. Insiders have a name for a future when we are all awash in wireless access.

They call it the “tactile internet.”

Image: Real-time readings from a wall of sensors as MIMO beams swept it, using Nokia and Mitsubishi equipment. (Photo by Brady Dale) 

If Americans are united in any conviction these days, it is that we urgently need to shift the country’s education toward the teaching of specific, technical skills. Every month, it seems, we hear about our children’s bad test scores in math and science — and about new initiatives from companies, universities or foundations to expand STEM courses (science, technology, engineering and math) and deemphasize the humanities. From President Obama on down, public officials have cautioned against pursuing degrees like art history, which are seen as expensive luxuries in today’s world. Republicans want to go several steps further and defund these kinds of majors. “Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?” asked Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott. “I don’t think so.” America’s last bipartisan cause is this: A liberal education is irrelevant, and technical training is the new path forward. It is the only way, we are told, to ensure that Americans survive in an age defined by technology and shaped by global competition. The stakes could not be higher.

Hong Kong’s start-up ecosystem has progressed tremendously during the past five years.

The most important factor has been the entrepreneurs themselves. Without entrepreneurs, there would be no ecosystem.

To build teams, of course additional talent is needed, and there has been a strong mix of immigrants and inspired young locals.

Next, capital from angel investors and co-working spaces have provided the basic resources for starting a company.

Medicine has changed a lot in the past 100 years. But medical training has not.

Until now.  Spurred on by the need to train a different type of doctor, medical schools around the country are tearing up the textbooks and starting from scratch.

Most medical schools still operate under a model pioneered in the early 1900s by an educator named Abraham Flexner.

Image: http://medcitynews.com 

Recent White House appointee DJ Patil will lead up the big data plans that will be central to Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

But who is the guy?

Yahoo News put together a florid profile that’ll give you a good idea about who our new Chief Data Scientist is. Hint: He keeps a skateboard at the White House. It’s how he gets to work – at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. – when it’s nice out. Yahoo News paints Patil as a quirky, eminently Silicon Valley character: His office walls are whimsical – decorated with Pikachu memorabilia, for instance – but he’s one of the government’s key players in expanding its data plans. And healthcare is one of his main priorities.

Image: http://medcitynews.com 

We often get asked certain questions about accelerator programs: Do they contribute to revenue growth? Do they help companies attract investment? Do they work as well for developing-world impact entrepreneurs as they do for developed-world tech entrepreneurs? But, unfortunately, the only credible answer we have right now is: “No one really knows.” While there are at least 650 accelerator programs around the world — with new ones popping up all the time — we actually know very little about the impacts they are having on the companies that they are trying to accelerate.

There are more than 1,400 business incubators in the U.S., according to the National Business Incubator Association.  These incubators are thought of as giving a helping hand to startups and entrepreneurs, providing them with a variety of services, from the basics like Internet access and office space to guidance about things like business finance, making presentations, raising money and managing intellectual property.

As a member of the investment team at Carmel Ventures who has attended countless pitches for over a decade, I have observed that the way you tell your story can be just as important as the story itself.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or a first time CEO, pitching a startup isn’t easy, and if you’re not blessed with a natural flair for storytelling, then you need to work even harder because you only get one chance to make a first impression.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

If you're looking for jobs that pay upwards of six figures, your best bet may be a career at one of these 15 companies, according to a new report from Glasdoor.

The jobs website compiled a list of the 15 companies with the top median salaries in the country over the past year, with the lowest at $140,000. The list consists solely of tech, consulting and legal firms, with tech companies comprising nearly two-thirds of the top spots.

BIF PXL is geeking out — we're so excited to announce that our Healthcare Narrative Playbook is finally complete!

The recent surge in share prices on the mainland has created at least 41 new super-rich people in the nation whose individual net worth exceeded US$1 billion during the past two months, Forbes business magazine estimates.

At least half of them work in manufacturing industries, and others mostly focused on the finance, energy and retail sectors.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com - AP

NEW YORK, NY – U.S. venture capital firms raised $7.0 billion from 61 funds during the first quarter of 2015, a decrease of 24 percent compared to the number of funds raised during the fourth quarter of 2014, but a 21 percent increase by dollar commitments, according to the Fundraising Report by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Venture capital dollar commitments during the first quarter of 2015 declined 30 percent compared to the first quarter of 2014, which saw fundraising commitments surpass $10.0 billion during a three-month period for the first time since 2007. The number of funds raised during the first quarter of 2015 marks the lowest quarter for venture capital funds since the second quarter of 2013.

For the past few weeks I have been exploring some themes around innovation (in the post for why failure is a competitive advantage and the post that talks about how to turn failure into a competitive advantage), and I wanted to continue on that track by highlighting a few examples of companies that have internal incubator or "lab" programs. The goal of all of these programs is to: encourage employees to come up with ideas, give employees the opportunity to pitch their ideas, provide experimental capital to employees, test ideas, and then replicate the successful ones. Many companies are now starting to focus on developing various types of cross-organizational innovation programs, and in some cases, these programs have been going on for years. Here are just a few that I wanted to highlight.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

As everybody knows, if you do not work out, your muscles get flaccid. What most people don't realize, however, is that your brain also stays in better shape when you exercise. And not just challenging your noggin by, for example, learning a new language, doing difficult crosswords or taking on other intellectually stimulating tasks. As researchers are finding, physical exercise is critical to vigorous mental health, too.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

How's this for a fund: It sets up an exit for a company that only exists on paper, then sets out to create that company from scratch and sell it, all in the span of six to 12 months.

That's essentially the business model of AKT IP Ventures, the brainchild of French entrepreneur Nicolas Chaillan, which recently set up shop in the District. The firm is currently raising a $20 million fund for seed-stage investments in companies built around unused patents, which Chaillan expects to close in July.

Over the weekend I reflected on the essay and I’d like to share a few thoughts:

Mental Model “Thinking like a startup” is meant to be a mental model, not a business model. This confuses people who didn’t read the paper. I had been hearing from administrators around the county who were frustrated because they could not motivate their employees to embrace new directions. I wanted my paper to help with strategic planning and related conversations. It’s a chance to say—ok, for this afternoon let’s change our lens. Instead of thinking like a library, let’s consider how a startup might approach this service. What are we not doing? How would they operate? I viewed the paper as an invitation to brainstorm and a process that provides safety while encouraging experimentation and team building.

Image: http://chronicle.com

Welcome, Intel, to the family of edtech accelerators. The company behind the computer chips that’s given Silicon Valley its name now wants to help early-stage entrepreneurs chipping away at education’s thorniest problems.

The Intel Education Accelerator is open to both K-12 and higher-ed startups, with “special consideration for companies focused on data analytics and adaptive learning,” according to the press release.