I recently wrote a piece about how Entrepreneurs Should be Respected, Not Loved.  The premise was that some leaders are too enamored with the approbation of their peers than making the tough decisions in the business that are bound to upset some people.

The corollary to this rule is “decision by indecision.”  This is one of my favorite lines to remind entrepreneurs because it is the sort of garden variety mistake that is so common in everyday life.  It is the anthesis of JFDI.  And I use it so often that my wife must be sick of hearing it.  But that’s mostly because it’s so prevalent.  It affects us all in everyday life.  Decisions by indecision are those where having not made up your mind early enough your options are constrained or gone altogether.

The Huffington Post is now five years old.

In another five years, the Huffington Post will likely have blown past the few remaining news sites that are still bigger than it is -- the New York Times and CNN, for example -- and become the largest independent news site in the world.

Don't believe it? Let's go to the numbers.

Two-and-a-half years ago, according to Comscore, the Huffington Post was visited by 1.2 million U.S. uniques a month. That compared to 11.1 million at the main site of the New York Times, 5.8 million at the Washington Post, 2.8 million at the Wall Street Journal, and 2.6 million at the LA Times.

For the past six months, prominent players in the New York City technology community have loudly – and increasingly – asserted that NYC is “hot,” or “exploding,” or “insert any other dramatic adjective here.”

The individuals making these claims are as smart as they are savvy, and are astutely aware of the value of increased attention on the blogosphere. Although provocative, these declarations have generally lacked hard evidence and usually have been inspired by biased anecdotes from a select few.

I set out to go beyond one-off observations by analyzing concrete macroeconomic data about technology entrepreneurship in NYC. As part of this process, I conducted 35 interviews with local investors, start-up founders, and government officials. It might be a long list of some of the who’s-who of New York, but it is unfortunately far from exhaustive.

Anthropologist and Babson Entrepreneurship Professor Lisa DiCarlo discusses her off-shore undergraduate course, “Social Responsibility Through Eco-Enterprises in Turkey.” Her research areas include transnational migration, consumption and sustainability, entrepreneurship and creative economy, and the intersection of ethnographic research and social entrepreneurship.

European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes today (19 May) unveiled her strategy to create a "virtuous and self-replicating digital economy". The five-year plan concentrates on infrastructure for high-speed Internet and fostering a borderless market for online music and film.

Kroes, who has held the Commission's new 'digital agenda' portfolio for almost three months, presented a 39-page plan to boost the digital economy.  

The plan aims "to put the interests of Europe's citizens and businesses at the forefront of the digital revolution and maximise the potential of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to advance job creation, sustainability and social inclusion," Kroes said in a statement.

Short on cash and long on energy, most new business start-ups struggle through their first few months on the flexibility and stick-to-itiveness of their founder. Like feeling around for the light switch in the dark, you try to find a formula that works.

All of that experimentation usually gets you through the first few months but also creates a business highly dependent on your intuition. If you are feeling your way around, it is hard to train employees and therefore difficult to scale a business into anything more than a glorified job.

Instead of thrashing around in the first few months, follow this formula for starting a business that can grow beyond just you:

Step 1: Pick a product or service that has the potential to scale

Melinda Moree, 45, wants to treat neglected people suffering from neglected diseases.

Armed with a Ph.D. in microbiology and a desire to help people around the world receive antibiotics and aid, Moree became the principal investigator on the Malaria Policy Project, and the director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, before she took on her current post as the CEO of Washington, D.C.–based Bio Ventures for Global Health.

The company is a nonprofit organization that seeks to enlist biotechnology companies to apply their knowledge and expertise to about 16 neglected diseases that claim the lives of millions each year. Moree takes the time to talk about Bio Ventures for Global Health and the state of global health today.

When I attended Wayne State University in Detroit back in the mid-’80s, scattered around downtown Detroit were white pillars that supported… nothing. They looked as though they were part of a kind of ancient Roman ruin—but these pillars were brand new. They were the beginnings of Detroit’s People Mover, a raised monorail that was to take riders to various sites downtown. It was also derided as then-Mayor Coleman A. Young’s “train to nowhere,” the Motor City’s poor excuse for a mass transit system. The pillars stood alone for a few years because funding had run out in the middle of construction. At the time, these columns appeared to be emblematic of everything that was wrong with Detroit—a half-thought-out idea with no support.

But now more than ever, Detroit needs new ideas, and before they can be thought through and sufficiently supported somebody needs to start tossing them out there. Which brings me to Xconomy’s just-ended series in which we asked our Xconomists—some of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs and innovators—to answer the open-ended question: “What are five things that entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan can do to reinvigorate their regional economy?” Of course, you cannot ask innovators to always color within the lines, so some gave us four things, others six, but all of them were insightful, provocative, even at times humorous.

A good idea can only become great if you've got the skills to sell it. We asked Sam Harrison, a speaker and writer on creativity-related topics, for a how-to in this excerpt from his latest book IdeaSelling: Successfully Pitch Your Creative Ideas to Bosses, Clients and Other Decision Makers.

1. "If they feel they birthed it, they can't kill it." David Schimmel touts this tenet at And Partners, his New York design firm. "If you truly collaborate with your clients and let them take credit for ideas," says Schimmel, "there's a good chance you'll sell your strongest ideas without having them watered down."

Rather than making history for its deep recession and record unemployment, 2009 might instead be remembered as the year business startups reached their highest level in 14 years – even exceeding the number of startups during the peak 1999-2000 technology boom.

According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, a leading indicator of new-business creation in the United States, the number of new businesses created during the 2007–2009 recession years increased steadily year to year. In 2009, the 340 out of 100,000 adults who started businesses each month represent a 4 percent increase over 2008, or 27,000 more starts per month than in 2008 and 60,000 more starts per month than in 2007.

TechStars founder David Cohen posted an insightful blog post earlier this week that mentioned the impact second generation entrepreneurs are having on the current generation of first-time innovators. As Cohen points out, five companies from the 2007 Boulder TechStars class Brightkite, Filtrbox, Intense Debate, MadKast and SocialThing. As the entrepreneurs behind these companies continue on to found their second round of startups, they are simultaneously providing for the newer classes that come through the incubator.

"There's been a dramatic increase in angel investing activity in the communities we're in," writes Cohen. "We've also noticed that the past TechStars founders are incredibly giving of their time to other companies in their community. They've learned the amazing power of sustained mentorship, and they're giving it back every day. That's a powerful cycle."

As we emerge slowly from the first global recession since World War II, many governments have taken a more proactive approach to boost growth and competitiveness, and many business leaders support these efforts. Given the fragility of the business and economic climate—and strained public coffers—the responsibility to get policy right is acute.

Experience shows that governments have, at best, a mixed record in this regard. An important reason why public intervention in markets has been hit or miss is that action has tended to be based on academic and policy research that has looked through an economy-wide lens to understand competitiveness—in other words, whether one country is "more competitive" than another. This approach has all too often failed to capture the fact that the conditions that promote competitiveness differ significantly from sector to sector—and so, therefore, do the most effective potential regulations and policies.

While the economic storm of the last two years has left virtually no nation untouched, few countries have felt its wrath like Ireland. Once dubbed the "Celtic Tiger" for its transformation from a laggard to a growth powerhouse, Ireland is now suffering from a stunning reversal of fortune.

From 2008 to the end of this year, the Irish economy is expected to contract 11.6%, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "Ireland is a disaster," says Desmond Lachman, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "To call this a recession [in Ireland] is a gross understatement. It is halfway between a recession and a depression."

The bust, and the electrifying boom that preceded it, were caused by a confluence of factors. One contributor: Ireland's entry into the euro zone in 1999. Low interest rates set by the European Central Bank (ECB) fueled a real estate bonanza in the country, which the Irish government was all too happy to sustain. "The government wanted the residential and commercial boom in property to continue because it was so important to employment and consumption and other economic indicators," notes Mary O'Sullivan, a management professor at Wharton. "At some point, the government got locked into the cycle and attacked anyone who worried that [the boom] was unsustainable." When the real estate market overheated and collapsed, it brought the Irish economy down with it.

This video is from Apple Fellow and entreprenuer Guy Kawasaki. "The Art of Innovation", which contains a number of useful steps that are spot on and worth thinking about for any business regardless of size.

In TheGivingMachine, we are constantly trying out new things. Some of them work well and some don't. However, the ability to get even a "beta" version out the door is important becuase it is not until your community tries your product or service, that meaningful input comes back your way. What you want to give/sell and what people want to receive/buy are always different.

Is China really the new emerging Asian innovation leader? No, not yet! For one simple reason: Japan – the former, and still reigning, Asian innovative champion!

In the midst of a veritable media blizzard regarding China’s newly-found innovative prowess (especially with respect to green technologies), and Japan’s -- Toyota’s -- recent embarrassing technical gaffes, it is important not to lose one’s perspective about what innovation really is, and why Japan, despite it’s stalled economy, is still the innovative powerhouse of Asia.

Thomas Friedman has made it fashionable to speak about the world becoming “flat”, and this might actually be happening – to some small extent – when we speak about invention; in other words a lot of people doing research. But, innovation is the ability to produce, apply and distribute these inventions. It is the ability to create positive change by turning new ideas into application. Richard Florida pointed out that “The world is spikey”; and the spikes are centered on the location of powerful multinational corporations with global reach and global brands. These MNCs can take products, processes or business model improvements and turn them into new practices that change the way an entire industry works, on a global scale. New ideas (a commitment to research) are simply not enough. Innovation requires this, for sure, but also the ability to apply these new ideas, and this is where the Sonys, Matsushitas and Nintendos of the world provide a Japanese advantage that China simply does not yet have.

Over the next few weeks, a consortium of municipal utilities in California will begin retrofitting government offices and commercial properties with systems that use ice made at night to replace air-conditioning during the day. It's part of a pilot program for the devices, which are built by Windsor, CO-based Ice Energy. If widely deployed, they could reduce fuel consumption by utilities by up to 30 percent and put off the need for new power plants.

The first devices will be installed on about two dozen city-owned buildings in Glendale, CA, under the plan being coordinated by the Southern California Public Power Authority. Over the next two years, the 11 participating utilities will install 1,500 of the devices, providing a total of 53 megawatts of energy storage to relieve strain on the region's electrical grid. The project is the first large-scale implementation of Ice Energy's technology.

Each Ice Energy device is designed to make ice overnight, when demand for electricity is low, using a high-efficiency compressor to freeze 450 gallons of water. Around midday, the cooling mode kicks in, and the device shuts off the building's regular air conditioner for a six-hour cycle. It pipes a stream of coolant from the slowly melting block of ice to an evaporator coil installed within the building's heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning blower system. Once the ice is melted, the air conditioner returns to normal operation. Brian Parsonnet, Ice Energy's chief technology officer, says the technology can cut a building's power consumption by 95 percent during peak hours on the hottest days.

In recent years, the idea that development is solely a matter for governments has been replaced by a clear recognition of the role of both the private sector and civil society. The UN Global Compact has played a pioneering role in encouraging PPPs. From UNESCO’s perspective, this new vision applies particularly to the cultural and creative industries, which, with a global value of US$ 1.3 trillion, constitute one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world economy today. The promotion of viable, creative industries in developing countries is indispensable to developing the full human development and economic growth potential of artistic creativity and talent, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. The key challenge facing policy-makers is to create enabling environments for effective local and national initiatives, many of which must be based on new forms of PPPs.

UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions enshrines the principle of PPPs in the cultural sector. In addition, through its Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity launched in 2001, UNESCO has explored many different facets of PPPs in support of cultural industry projects in developing countries. This alliance is evolving into a more ambitious electronic platform focused on fostering tri-sectoral partnership agreements in the cultural sector, by providing actors from the public, private and civil society sectors a wealth of knowledge and contact information.

Focusing on growing the business and maximising profitability should always be top priorities for small businesses. However, concentrating on these areas alone can mean neglecting crucial cashflow practices that can lead to the demise of your business. Sue Hirst explains.

Now that we seem to have come through the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ and the ‘Downturn’ in Australia, it’s time to gear up for growth again.

A question that often arises in growing businesses is, “How come I’ve made more profit, but I still have cashflow problems?”

Flagship Ventures managing partner Noubar Afeyan says his Cambridge firm is expanding its summer program for scientists with an entrepreneurial inclination; piloted in 2009 with just two Flagship "entrepreneurial fellows," this year it will grow to about 15 graduate students and recent alums. The firm doesn't exactly put out an open call for applicants — there's no information about it on Flagship's Web site, for instance — but rather circulates a call for applicants selectively, in places like MIT's chemical engineering department (where this job description appeared earlier in 2010.) "It's not something that's open for all comers," Afeyan says. "But we've reached out broadly across the U.S. We broadcast it across many different universities."

Last week we published a press release about a study put together by Forbes Insight and KeyBank’s Key4Women that looked at how women-owned businesses were coming out of the recession and their attitudes regarding customer service. The survey collected responses from 320 female small business owners and found that while they’re taking a very customer-centric approach to business, most are sticking with the “tried and true” (read: old) methods of customer service and aren’t putting actual customer service strategies in place. Scary.

As a woman small business owner, I was pretty surprised by many of the findings. The study found that post-recession, women business owners are focused on customer service. Eighty-four percent of respondents said that customer relationships were the core of their business, putting faith in the old adage that it costs more to gain a new customer than it does to keep an old one. You would think, then, that we’d find women small business owners all over social media. That they’d be using tools like blogs, Twitter and Facebook to increase engagement and stay abreast of customer issues, their wants, needs, etc.

However, that’s not the case.