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.
Although a career in the corporate world has many benefits, it is not unusual for businessmen and businesswomen to get burnt out from stress and routine, and begin considering a new career path — that of entrepreneurship.
While there is no perfect work environment, we must be honest with ourselves about whether a career path is really working. It is a decision that drives our overall sense of satisfaction.
The combination of open innovation and accelerated computing represents one of this decade’s most important technology trends. It’s transforming the concept of the closed-off supercomputer to a more diverse open architecture. As a result, companies that haven’t worked together before—and that may, in fact, be competitors—are collaborating together on groundbreaking projects.
Superstar employees are the obsession of the corporate world. They’re highly sought after, given the most attention and the best opportunities, generously rewarded, and expressly reassured after setbacks. And while some question whether such special treatment is appropriate, it’s clear that this group has outsize influence: high-performers have been estimated to be four times as productive as average workers, and research has shown that they may generate 80% of a business’s profits and attract other star employees. They can comprise the top 3% to 20% of a company’s workforce.
On 3 December 2015 the Accelerlator Graduation Day took place at B. Amsterdam. The 10 competitive start-up teams had to pitch in front of the Review Board in order to complete Stage 1 and to qualify for the next round.
There are only 5 places available in stage 2, therefore only the best performing and most promising startups were selected to move on to stage 2. It turned out to be a close call, but the Review Board has come to a final conclusion and selected the following five teams to enter stage 2:
Image: http://www.climate-kic.org
During a week where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has put Australia's innovation in the spotlight and offered more incentives for angel investors, there is a feeling venture capital is back in vogue.
Corporate lawyer and MinterEllison partner Riccardo Casali confirmed this feeling in a media briefing yesterday, and said it is becoming an investor's corporate and social responsibility to be aligned with initiatives that are seen as innovative or supporting start-ups.
It was only after spending the past couple of decades of my career working at big companies that I decided to become an entrepreneur. My team and I are now in the midst of building Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women. As I’ve made that transition, I’ve gotten a lot of advice, all of it well-meaning, but some of it pretty bad.
Recently, on my YouTube show, my editor in chief Steve Unwin asked me a question that I thought was very poignant and interesting. Even more so than that, it felt daring. He wasn’t nervous to ask it. And it got me thinking about all the questions I’ve been asked as CEO of my company VaynerMedia. Some have really provoked me to think. Some have been filled with fluff. But overall, I realized that knowing what to ask if you are ever presented with the opportunity is incredibly valuable. So I thought I would put together this list of five questions I think every employee should ask their CEO in their life.
When does it make sense to follow on, and when do you quit? That is one of the more nuanced things in seed investing. It is one of the things that seed investors are going to be confronted with more and more. With crowdfunding, and the changes in the funding cycle, I think we will see more internal follow on rounds.
Europe must increase efforts to invest in and channel research towards tackling the grand societal challenges, according to the Lund Declaration 2015, agreed at a conference in Sweden last week.
This will require clear political commitment to step up efforts to align strategies, instruments, resources and actors at national and European level towards this goal.
This report provides a broad index measure of small local business activity for the forty largest metropolitan areas of the United States. Key findings include:
Quarterly figures released last week by International Data Corporation on sales of wearable tracking devices showed that Fitbit held steady in first position with 22% of the market.
When the Apple Watch was first announced, we expected it would cut into the fitness-tracking market. Instead, the Apple Watch has mostly hurt other smartwatch makers, like Samsung, which fell out of the top five this quarter.
Image: http://readwrite.com
Australia will soon have its first $200 million VC fund focused entirely on later-stage startup investments in an “exciting turning point” for the sector.
Blue Sky Venture Capital has announced it will be raising the fund to help plug the current funding gap and help founders find assistance locally without having to look overseas.
Image: http://www.startupsmart.com.au
China has become the world's second-largest market for venture capital investments, as the country gradually shifts its economy to be more innovation and entrepreneurship driven.
Around 283 VC funds were rolled out in the third quarter, aiming to raise $58 billion, Forbes reported citing industry data.
Image: Andy Yan Yan, chief managing partner of SAIF Partners, in Beijing, July, 2006. (Photo/IC)
Ranked No. 22 among the Fortune 500, Express Scripts Holding Co. is a behemoth. But the country’s largest pharmacy benefit manager thinks tiny startups can help it find the next big idea in health care.
With $100 billion in revenue last year, the north St. Louis County-based company will invest $25 million in a multiyear deal with new local venture capital firm Lewis & Clark Ventures, which is led by serial entrepreneur Tom Hillman. The company didn’t specify over what time period it expected to make that investment.
Image: July 21, 2011- Express Scripts Research & New Solutions lab in St. Louis County. Stephanie S. Cordle This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I recently met with a company with a high profit margin for their industry. They hired me to help with a growth strategy. During my meetings with the senior people I heard again and again about their high margin and discerned an underlying worry that growth would only lower it. When I had gathered enough information and understanding about the company, I broached the idea to the CEO that I knew how to increase their current margin a few points. He looked at me a bit askance—but they were already doing so well! Better than most in their industry.
A year since it was formed, WSU Ventures has already proven successful in furthering Wichita State University's mission to become an Innovation University.
WSU Ventures was formed to assist faculty, staff and students in applying and commercializing their ideas and intellectual property.
Image: http://www.wichita.edu
Employee loyalty and engagement are hot topics, and for good reason. Companies want to attract and retain talented people who really dig into their work. But most employers ignore two of the most powerful tools for making that happen.
In a scientific first, researchers have just reproduced what a dolphin saw as it encountered a male diver.
This "what the dolphin saw" image of the submerged man reveals that dolphin echolocation results in fairly detailed images. What's more, it's now thought that dolphins may share such images with each other as part of a previously unknown marine mammal language.
Image: SPEAKDOLPHIN.COM, CYMASCOPE LABORATORY - http://mashable.com
TODAY’S PLAYING field for medical innovation is more competitive than ever. Transformational advances in the treatment of hepatitis C, cancer, and chronic heart failure are driving the industry ahead, and more are on the horizon. It is estimated that about 70 percent of the drugs currently in development are potential “first in class” treatments, meaning they use a completely new mechanism of action against disease. And as health care increasingly merges with advances in technology, out-of-the-box thinking will be necessary not only to succeed, but just to compete.
Image: JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2014
How does a big company that is not exactly at a loss for new product ideas drive innovation?
When a PepsiCo division focused on “breakthrough innovations” was looking for a second opinion on a slew of new product ideas, it didn’t turn to consultants or muster up a traditional focus group.
