The Legatum Institute, a think-tank based in London released on Monday its annual global Prosperity Index, a huge survey that ranks the "most prosperous" countries in the world.

The amount of money a country has is one factor of prosperity, but the Legatum Institute considered more than that in their ranking.

On 12 September 1962, in a famous speech, John F Kennedy said the following: “…we choose to go to the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win”.

Kennedy was talking about the challenge of taking a moonshot, of going somewhere no one had been before, of doing what might previously of have been thought of as impossible. Of taking a shot at the moon! This is a term that Google has adopted to describe audacious projects that can change the world.

More and more startups have realized that benefits like creative equity plans and favorable parental-leave policies increase employee satisfaction better than pool tables and endless supplies of free food.

Image: Jeffrey via Flickr  

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution — it will change the way all businesses, governments, and consumers interact with the physical world.

For more than two years, BI Intelligence has closely tracked the growth of the IoT. Specifically, we've analyzed how the IoT ecosystem enables entities (i.e. consumers, businesses, and governments) to connect to, and control, their IoT devices in 16 environments, including manufacturing, the connected home, transportation, and agriculture. 

Disruption is everywhere and will affect all organisations. This disruption is being driven at a faster pace and with greater impact than ever before. Large organizations have learned how to survive in the battle for growth within their own segments but are not adequately prepared for the sort of disruption they are now facing.

You can no longer have a serious and credible innovation strategy if you do not have a strong understanding of the digital economy and how the “internet of things” (IoT) will impact your company and industry.

This is one of my key lessons from a week long trip in Silicon Valley where I helped design and lead a program for senior executives from Koc Holding, Turkey. (Get in touch if you want to join a similar program).

One of the biggest roadblocks to success is the fear of failure. Fear of failure is worse than failure itself because it condemns you to a life of unrealized potential.

A successful response to failure is all in your approach. In a study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers found that success in the face of failure comes from focusing on results (what you hope to achieve), rather than trying not to fail. While it’s tempting to try and avoid failure, people who do this fail far more often than those who optimistically focus on their goals.

Venture capital, philanthropy and family business are not mutually exclusive concepts. They all reflect the same entrepreneurial values of long-term investment, personal commitment, building teams and thinking outside the box.

If you ask a family boss what makes them special, they will mention their long-term perspective. They are also likely to tell you that their family’s values shape who they are and how they do business. Families built the foundations of many industries, from high fashion to car making, and their longevity has often enabled them to build trustworthy names and eventually become prominent philanthropists.

Success in the twenty first century will depend on many things, including how well your organisation empowers others to make money.

There are not many companies that focus on helping other businesses or people make a profit. Yet, it is a capability organisations will benefit from in a digitally enabled world.

Many traditional business models are based around the fundamental corporate truths that:

An organisation’s core product generates the majority of its revenue. Revenue is derived directly from a buyer in exchange for the value the organisation has created. And value is primarily generated by the organisation through a linear value chain owned and managed by that organisation, with little or no interference from the customer. 

As federal governments around the world increasingly explore how national policy can help the country’s economy, it is important that we not lose sight of local efforts that have the potential to be replicated on a larger scale. With four of the top five startup ecosystems in the world, according to the Compass 2015 Startup Ecosystem Report, U.S. cities are still at the forefront of experimenting with new policies and programs.

Earlier this year, the Kauffman Foundation released its Guidelines for Local and State Governments to Promote Entrepreneurship, encouraging policymakers to avoid approaches like public venture funds and traditional incubators. Rather, it suggested a focus on fostering connections and learning, while also addressing regulatory issues.

It is easier to be an entrepreneur than it ever has been in history. Many people may sound convincing about starting their journey as an entrepreneur. However, the truth is that most employees are not ready to be entrepreneurs.

Countless successful entrepreneurs inspire many people. Often, the problem is that the spectators are inspired by the results but fail to acknowledge the hard work that preceded their success.

Recently I started advising two very large foreign corporations on whether to open up Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley.  Both companies have already established innovation centers in their home countries where they are working with local startups.  In both cases, these innovation efforts are led by the corporate R&D organizations.  In the eyes of both CEOs, these efforts are not viewed as effective.  So, while some members of their teams are advocating the opening of outposts in Silicon Valley, the CEOs are not yet sold on the idea.  In fact, during one of our sessions the CEO stated that “we are losing ground in innovation rather than gaining.  Maybe startup-driven innovation is not for us and a presence in Silicon Valley won’t change that.”

I’ve written a great deal about the theories around education innovation ecosystems, including exploring who the major players are in the ecosystem, but how does one actually go about building an innovation ecosystem? Successful ecosystem builders do their work face-to-face, and virtually, through near-constant interaction. They never expect immediate returns on their investments of knowledge, time, or advice. Here I’ve tried to use our work in Philadelphia as an example of how one goes about engaging with and building an ecosystem.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/barbarakurshan/2015/11/02/tips-for-entering-and-maintaining-an-innovation-ecosystem-ecosystem-builders-do-it-face-to-face/

The city of Cleveland and three private developers are planning to invest in JumpStart’s Evergreen Fund, to help the nonprofit attract biomedical and other high-tech startups in Cleveland’s Midtown Corridor.

The investment is part of what JumpStart expects will be a $2 million fund that will be used to attract companies to the growing business neighborhood between Cleveland State University and University Circle.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google founder Larry Page is hoping his newly created company called Alphabet becomes synonymous with innovation. In a Monday night appearance, Page described Alphabet as a way to give engineers and scientists the independence they need to develop breakthrough products that have little or nothing to do with Google's Internet search and advertising business.

The steps to make it to the top slot at a company aren't cut and dried. The current CEOs of the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 have examples of both entrepreneurs and those who climbed the career ladder in a more traditional way. There’s Jeff Bezos who started Amazon as an online bookseller in 1995, and Frederick Smith who launched FedEx. Then there’s Tim Cook, who joined Apple in 1998 and worked his way up to CEO when Steve Jobs resigned in 2011.

After years of delay and political battles, the Security and Exchange Commission has proposed rules to legalize crowdfunding of small businesses. The Jumpstart Our Businesses Act (JOBs) made it possible for the public at large to invest part of their income in tech startups, but required the SEC to approve the rules, subject to heavy limitations on who could invest and how much.

Rochester doesn't want to be the next Silicon Valley. Nor do city leaders see this as the new Triangle Research Park.

However, over the past few months, the city has made noteworthy progress in creating its own startup and research community inside a place that's been dubbed the Downtown Innovation Zone. Since announcing its creation last November, 23 companies have moved into the zone. Rochester has also nailed down which "anchor" organizations will groom startups for growth, when these organizations will open and where — all of which were question marks a year ago.

There are times when it’s difficult to know exactly how to feel about human progress. On the one hand, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that we live a golden age and that as humans we’ve never had it better. On the other, that progress seems to have set us on a collision path with our own planet.

But if the scientists at the forefront of the world’s most promising emerging technologies have their way, we’ll one day look as backwards as medieval peasants do to us and most of the world’s current problems simply won’t exist.

The fact that businesses would even begin to consider that their website is merely a place where existing clients “can find them” is ludicrous. Why have a website if you’re not utilising its full potential to generate leads, build a brand or trade? I ask this with tears in my eyes. Online perceptions of a business’s size, success and credibility create offline realities of a business’s size, success and credibility. So the question that we’re addressing here is how, as a business, do you create positive online perceptions in order to create effective offline reality?