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.
If you’ve ever seen me present a strategic thinking workshop, you’ve likely heard me say, “People think strategic planning is boring, and I agree with them. I’m a strategic planner, and even I don’t enjoy strategic planning. That’s why we make it fun!”
That’s not simply a throw-away line. It’s the absolute truth.
We consciously try to develop fun strategic planning activities.
Image: http://brainzooming.com
The Dearborn automaker on Thursday opened a 25,000-square-foot innovation and mobility center in the backyard of Google, Yahoo and Facebook in an effort to accelerate its mobility and autonomous vehicle research. Ford has had a presence here — a small office that housed about eight workers — since 2012. But President and CEO Mark Fields said the automaker wanted to become a major player in the region and take advantage of nearby university partners and app developers like Nest.
Image: Detroit News
Maybe it’s Google Glass backlash. Even as the niche for Google Glass in sectors like healthcare continues to generate interest, particularly for telemedicine and surgical checklists, consumer interest in the device failed to take off. I saw it more frequently worn by folks at mobile health and health IT conferences than on the street. The owners tended to be selling something or used it to attract attention as to how they were putting the smart glasses to use.
Image: http://medcitynews.com
Today, Bill and Melinda Gates released an ambitious 15-year plan for their eponymous foundation. The plan covers everything on the poverty-reduction spectrum, from wiping out diseases to giving the global poor access to mobile banking services. And to carry it out, they’re taking some inspiration from the private sector.
CHAPEL HILL — UNC-Chapel Hill has created a $5 million fund to help startups commercialize technology developed at the university.
The new Carolina Research Venture Fund, an initiative of the university’s board of trustees, aims to address the dearth of seed funding available to startups. A long-standing maxim in the startup world is that the first infusion of cash is the toughest to raise.
U.S. venture capital investment hit $48.3 billion in 2014, its highest level since 2000, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Investments jumped 61 percent over the previous year in terms of dollars. Deals were up as well, but by a more modest 4 percent to 4,356 deals in 2014, indicating the growth of deal size and the presence of a number of “megadeals.” NVCA also noted that investments were dispersed throughout the country, with 160 U.S. metros receiving some venture capital.
GlobalGiving is one of the oldest crowdfunding sites on the web, having been launched half a decade ahead of industry giants Kickstarter and Indiegogo. GlobalGiving is a highly curated platform–an application process is used to screen fundraisers–that services only nonprofit organizations.
In a guest post on VentureBeat last week, Chris Lynch of Atlas Venture wrote, “If you’re stupid enough to sign on with one of these guys (accelerators), you might not deserve to be in business in the first place.”
Ouch! I resemble that remark!
I’m a first-time chief executive and a cofounder of LaunchDarkly, and my Alchemist Accelerator demo day is actually happening today.
Image: Epic Bets/Flickr
LOS ALAMITOS, California, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- At Startup Rock Stars, March 24 in San Francisco, attendees will receive everything they need to propel a successful business, including information on current funding options, from crowdfunding and incubators to venture and angel investing. The conference will also include a pitchathon where attendees can present their ideas to funders from Intel, HP, RocketHub, and Crowdfunder.
Image: http://photos.prnewswire.com
Small businesses are often more receptive than large ones because the playground for them is very competitive and the only way to survive the intense competition is to keep improving, for which they need new ideas. One such idea was “bring your own device (BYOD)”. Employees were supposed to bring their own devices to the office and use them for office works. The reaction toward the idea was lukewarm.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/agree-terms.php?id=100249660
Patents are the structural foundation of the digital economy. They create incentives for entrepreneurs like me to bet the proverbial farm on a great idea with the confidence that we can bring it to market and compete with the biggest companies in the world. The problem is that some companies are abusing patents in ways that threaten the very innovations they are meant to serve.
If you Google “daily habits of successful people” you’ll find almost every business-focused media outlet represented in the results. But if you’re looking for a guaranteed roadmap to success, don’t get excited just yet. If you read all of those articles, or even a few of them, you'll soon realize that successful people have a wide range of daily habits.
Companies hit by lawsuits filed by so-called patent trolls become gun-shy about innovations and spend less on R&D, say Lauren Cohen and Scott Duke Kominers of Harvard University.
The United States is a land of innovation. New products and services are being invented and marketed every day. A legion of young, talented entrepreneurs is starting countless new ventures, and venture funding is abundant. What could possibly be wrong with this picture?
It looks like the stuff of science fiction. As a snowboarder carves through virgin snow, a small drone buzzes overhead – an attached camera following and filming his every turn. This is Hexo+, an intelligent drone from a company founded by students doing a postgraduate in entrepreneurship at the Grenoble Ecole de Management in France.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® announced today its 2015 International CES® Best of Innovation Honorees, presented by Gracenote. The CES Innovation Awards honor outstanding design and engineering advancements across 28 consumer electronics product categories.
“This was a record-breaking year for entries; we saw a 14 percent increase in the number of products and innovations entered in the 2015 CES Best of Innovation program. Honorees this year represent the diverse range of consumer technologies and highlight the intersection of artistic, user-friendly design and innovative engineering that capture the hearts and meet the needs of consumers worldwide,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, International CES and corporate business strategy, CEA. “These innovative products provide greater flexibility and ease of use – key trends to be highlighted at the 2015 CES.”
Montclair, New Jersey, January 5, 2015: Applications are open for tech entrepreneurs interested in joining TechLaunch, NJ’s investor led technology accelerator, housed off-campus at Montclair State University. This will be TechLaunch’s 4th program, beginning its 16-week program in May and ending with Demo Day on September 17, 2015.
Please click here to APPLY or here for FAQ or here for TESTIMONIALS from past teams. Applications and program acceptance will be on-boarded on a first-come rolling basis. Once accepted you can start working immediately with Mentors, Investors and the TechLaunch staff. If you have a team or know a team that is up to the challenge and has a spectacular technology please do not hesitate to direct them over to the APPLY page.
Leadership educator and author Liz Wiseman shares several examples of accomplished individuals who rely on personal and intentional rituals that energize and help them maintain a fresh perspective and a “rookie” mindset to counter complacency.
Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu
Silicon Valley luminary Ben Horowitz explains when it makes sense for a founding CEO to relinquish multiple roles and recruit others in order to focus on leading the business. Says the co-founder and general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz: "You only get leverage if the person that you hire can do it better than you can."
Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu
New Relic Founder and CEO Lew Cirne discusses how difficult it is for high-tech companies with a product that is a huge hit on the market to follow up with an equally successful "second act." He says the few companies that have done it are driven by founders who are obsessed with product.
Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu
Every business professional and entrepreneur believes they are good communicators, but how do they know? It’s really the perception of the recipients that counts, and poor communicators are almost always poor listeners, so they don’t hear the shortcomings. Warren Buffet once told a class of business students that better communication could boost their value by fifty percent.
