Bill Gates gave an incredible interview to the Daily Mail in advance of his announcement that his foundation has raised about $3.7 billion to vaccinate more than 200 million children.

It's one of those rare, amazingly candid looks into Gates' personality.

Seriously, you should read it now. We learned a lot.

And check out our 10 favorite anecdotes from the interview below.

Editor's Note: This is the second of two stories about the Talent and Innovation Initiative recentlypassed by the Legislature. Part 1 appeared in Sunday's business section.

The four-part Talent and Innovation Initiative, passed during the recent legislative session, is designed to advance business innovation and strengthen workforce recruitment in Nebraska.

Gov. Dave Heineman called it "a bold action on our part."

"We are focused on the future and positioning Nebraska for additional economic growth," he said.

One of the forceful presenters at a recent event of SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network), Chennai, was Tathagat Varma, Sr Director-Business Operations, Yahoo! Software Development India Pvt Ltd, Bangalore. Speaking on innovation, Tathagat emphasised that today’s customers expect top-quality innovative solutions in less time and lesser dollars than ever before, and that competing on ‘cost arbitrage’ or ‘part quality’ is necessary but not enough.

“As the premier digital media company, Yahoo! places a strong emphasis on innovation,” he noted, during a brief interaction with Business Line. “Being in the consumer Internet space, innovation directly relates to our ability to adapt to a fast-changing market environment.” Our conversation continued over the email, on the theme ‘Creating an innovation ecosystem in the IT industry.’

Excerpts from the interview.

Why do we need an ecosystem to foster a culture of innovation in the IT industry?

It takes a great entrepreneur with a great vision to start a business, but it takes a collaboration of many people to make it a success. That’s where leadership comes in as a key ingredient, to drive the collaborative process to make the whole team better than the sum of the parts.

I remember a book from a while back by Amilya Antonetti, titled “The Recipe: A Fable for Leaders and Teams” which illustrates the key concepts with stories and specific guidance on how to develop your natural leadership style. It all starts with how to be the leader in your own life, but then extends to learning the following skills she outlines for building a great collaborative team:

Build and maintain trust. Trust is a key element we all need to set aside vulnerability, but it is hard to build, and easy to lose. It is not built on words, but through actions and evidence. Only when it works can a team raise and address the necessary issues to win.

With the fast-paced time, humans have now become dependant on newer technology. The sophisticated machines, earlier regarded as a medium of entertainment, have now become the need of our daily life. Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. In a nutshell, robotics is related to the sciences of electronics, engineering, mechanics and software development.

An earliest design of a humanoid robot was given by Leonardo Da Vinci. With the advancement of science, robots are programmed to perform human functions. Robotics has crept into our daily lives. From calculators to laptops, and large mechanical appliances like washing machines and cars, these robotic machines have helped to cut down the labour cost, thereby, enhancing the end user product. With the rising demand, a career in robotics has steadily gained pace among the creative and talented students.

Two years ago, I caved in to the pressure and signed up for a Twitter account. I had been resisting for months. Millions of people were flocking to the 140-character microblogging service, but from what I could see then, it looked like a time-wasting fad.

Hardly anybody in the business I write about, biotechnology, was using it. Since no one in my niche was there, who would care to read my writing? Worse, it seemed like a good way to fragment my attention span into a million little pieces by consuming gossip and trivia, diluting the focus needed to produce in-depth biotech news and feature stories on tight deadlines.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. While I do still have some concerns about what real-time connectivity is doing to humanity, which Bill Keller voiced recently in the New York Times, I’ve come around to the idea that Twitter, used wisely, has potential to be a great force for good in biotech. I’ve been careful to follow people that have valuable and relevant information to report and share, while unfollowing everything else. I’ve expanded my professional network around the world by having conversations with readers I never would have met any other way. I’ve gotten story tips. And this is all happening even while I surmise that fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. life sciences professionals are using the service.

According to BetaBeat, as tech incubator TechStars narrows down the applicants for its NY startup accelerator (it has gone from 1,000 to 30), the company is expanding an ancillary program for those that didn’t make the cut: HackStars. HackStars developers and designers are given the same stipend as TechStars co-founders but, rather than work on their own startups, they help code other people’s projects with the possibility of a job.BetaBeat reports that by giving these “wantrepreneurs” access to fledgeling TechStars companies, it offers a chance for the “cross-pollination” of talent.

The Innovation Advisory Board held its first meeting today at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va. Acting Deputy Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank led the meeting and Secretary Gary Locke welcomed and thanked the new board members for their service. The 15-member board will guide a study of U.S. economic competitiveness and innovation to help inform national policies at the heart of U.S. job creation and global competitiveness.

In the State of the Union, President Obama launched a commitment to winning the future by out innovating the rest of the world. The board will build upon the early work and findings of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and Startup America to advise the U.S. Department of Commerce as it produces a report by January 2012 assessing America's capacity for innovation and our global economic competitiveness. The study will analyze all facets of the economy impacted by national policy, including trade and exports, education, research and development, immigration, technology commercialization, intellectual property and tax policy.

The future looks bright. That’s the message from a law firm that has represented tech companies ranging from Apple to Oracle.

In a recently released survey of 122 Silicon Valley startups conducted by law firm Fenwick & West, valuations were up for Valley startups, with 67% raising money based on higher valuations than in their last round of financing (this is known as an “up round” of financing). Software and internet/digital media companies were most likely to see increased valuations, according to the report.

The first rank professionals at this conference have come together to rethink how best to reach the goals we share -- as we struggle with the choices we weigh. An anonymous sage – I bet she was an engineer – once said, “minds are like parachutes: they work best when they are open.” Old, proven ideas often work, but we need new ones, too. This a central aim of CRDF Global: tap and extend best practices to frame even more effective programs.

Download the PDF

I was interested to read the views of Rick Boven of the New Zealand Institute about central and local government needing to resolve their differences about the future of Auckland. Well, they have worked on that since the establishment of GUEDO in 2005 (now the Auckland Policy Office).

But that’s not what the article was really about. Under the pretext of calling for “new ways of working together” Rick promotes urban containment and greater train travel for Auckland’s future. Well, we’ve heard all that before.

While acquisition activity among medium-sized companies is returning to near-normal levels, today’s transaction landscape has undergone epic changes. The dynamics have shifted as buyers aggressively hunt strategic acquisitions; they’re making more unsolicited offers, looking to close deals quickly, and scoping out attractive companies that can be acquired without a competitive process.

Corporate buyers, having streamlined costs and preserved profits during the downturn, are now sitting on balance sheets with ample amounts of cash. As the economic recovery continues its slow slog, growing through acquisition is often the fastest (and easiest) way to take profits to the next level. By identifying and acquiring innovative companies, strategic buyers are betting that the quicker (and ultimately less expensive) path to growth will be buying versus building.

A reader asks: I have a website and can’t afford a lawyer to draft up essential legal notices. I have decided to cut and paste all necessary legal language from a similar website for my site. Is there a problem with this?

Answer: Given the staggering number variables that can play into this, it’s unwise to simply cut and paste terms of use, disclaimers and other legally binding documents on your own website. Covering them all would take several columns, but here are four things to consider:

It may be copyright infringement – Simply cutting and pasting content from one website to another is often copyright infringement. In this case, you’re not copying pure facts, you are copying the creative expression. For example, there may be specific language that is necessary for terms of use that have independent legal significance. Those sections may have been drafted by an attorney (or not) and the rights to the copyright may be with the website or with the original attorney, depending on their contract.

Entrepreneurs have started up the fewest new U.S. businesses in more than a decade, according to government figures that could spell more bad news for job creation.

Through the 12 months ended in March of last year, 505,473 new businesses started up in the U.S., according to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's the weakest growth since the bureau started tracking the data in the early 1990s. It's down sharply from the record 667,341 new businesses added in the 12 months that ended in March 2006.

Weak start-up growth has dire implications for jobs because small and midsize businesses have driven employment gains in the U.S. for years. Between the recession that ended in late 2001 and the start of the most recent recession in late 2007, businesses that employed fewer than 500 workers added nearly 7 million employees, according to data collected by payroll provider ADP, which tracks employment trends.

Maybe it’s just a biofuels thing this year, but it seems like the feds are giving cleantech grant money to companies and institutions that are based anywhere but in the nation’s capital of venture capital.

The U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced six recipients of $36 million in total grant funding via the Department of Energy’s Biomass Program on Friday. That non-dilutive funding went to organizations working to make the production of “drop-in” biofuels and plant-based chemicals better, and to ultimately bring affordable alternatives to petroleum-based products mainstream in the U.S.

Despite the region’s reputation as a cleantech hotbed, not one Bay Area organization or business scored a piece of this funding. They also missed out on a previous grants round from the same program, announced in May, which doled out $47 million to eight companies in the sector.

LinkedIn valued at over $8 billion; Facebook is currently at over $70 billion and was even the star of a movie. Start up conferences and competitions abound, as do rich valuations and venture capitalists throwing money at early stage companies.

It’s a far cry from 2009. (And, as I’ve argued before, even further from 1999.) Are we seeing a bubble? Sure, we probably are. But that doesn’t mean that it’s either a good or bad time to start a company.

I have my biases. When funding is scarce and hope for innovation is low, engineers are cheaper and available since the alternative career paths aren’t as bright. Smart people are willing to create opportunity because the downside is so low.

Located at the Iowa State University Research Park, BodyViz creates incredible 3D MRI/CT scan visualizations, unlocking medical imaging for doctors, specialists, surgeons as well as educational institutions.

BodyViz has been awarded the prestigious Prometheus Award for Startup Company of the Year by the Technology Association of Iowa, was awarded first place in the John Pappajohn Iowa Business Plan Competition, and has been featured on the megahit reality television show The Biggest Loser.

Leveraging expertise developed at ISU’s state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Application Center (VRAC) on Iowa State

University’s campus, BodyViz was created by VRAC Director James Oliver, VRAC Associate Director, Eliot Winer and world renowned surgeon, Dr. Thom Lobe.

BodyViz has extensive visualization features that enable users to quickly and effectively view and interact with their patient's data in a never-before-seen 3D manner that is changing the way medical and educational professionals view their world. This virtual reality visualization software is affordably priced, lightweight and simple to use on laptops, PCs or on large stereoscopic 3D projection systems.

For more information on BodyViz, visit: www.bodyviz.com.

Dr. Janice Presser, CEO, The Gabriel Institute

Special to InnovationDAILY

I was talking to my friend, Natalie, th

is morning. She's a fabulous consultant, definitely the person you would want for an innovative project that needs crisp organization, reliable follow up, and a good measure of common sense. I had received an email from someone who really could use services like hers, so I forwarded it to Natalie, thinking she might already know the players. I was right. She did. In fact she knew them well enough to say straight out, "No amount of money is worth working with a bad team."

The same holds true when you're on the buy side of the equation. 'Talent experts' constantly remind us that they have access to vast pools stocked with potential employees and consultants. Unfortunately, they fail to mention that sharks also swim in those pools, and that it's very hard to tell the difference between the fish who school in orderly fashion and the predators who bloody the water wherever they go.

Recruiters and staffing agencies provide a needed service. They really want to help you find quality people, and many will even forfeit their fee if there's a breakdown. But if they can't prevent this kind of hiring mistake, here are some things you can do to protect the integrity of your team:

Immigration remains a hotly debated issue across America and may prove a key sleeper issue in the looming 2012 presidential campaign, as my colleague Josh Green wrote yesterday. He notes that "whites are far more pessimistic about their prospects and their children's prospects--and many mistakenly believe that illegal immigrants are the primary culprit." He adds that "widespread misconceptions about the economic effects of immigration" stem "from a lack of information that's largely due to both the Democratic and Republican parties' unwillingness to pursue immigration reform, after years of failed attempts."

Nonetheless, a wide body of research shows the ways that immigration powers the twin engines of American innovation and entrepreneurship. Foreign-born founders and entrepreneurs stand behind anywhere from a third to a half of Silicon Valley high-tech startups, and comprise huge shares of computer scientists and software engineers.

There are a couple questions that everyone dreads in an interview.

"What is your greatest weakness?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and "Tell me about yourself." It's the default question (and the first) in most interviews, and to many candidates, it can feel like a trap.

So we spoke with executive headhunters and career coaches about how best to answer this question. "They want to gauge how the person thinks," says Eileen Finn, president of executive search firm Eileen Finn & Associates in New York.