As usual it was Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern management, who said it first. Right back there in 1966 (!), in his landmark book “The Effective Executive”, Drucker argued that companies would need to build a new kind of organizational capital as the industrial economy gave way to the knowledge economy. His famous proclamation was that, in future, brainpower would be a more valuable asset for wealth creation than factories and financial clout. All of which came true, of course. But that was not the end of it. Now, over four decades later, we are once again challenged to rethink organizational capital as we make the transition from a knowledge economy to an innovation economy. And that creates a new agenda for every single company.

PARSONS, KS-- Parsons city leaders are helping local businesses become more competitive and profitable through a new program. The city of Parsons teamed up with the Kansas Economic Gardening Network and MAMTC to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

The two groups are paying part of the expert services and parsons is matching that investment at a cost of $21,000.

One participating business owners says the hopes the program will help his business thrive at a new and better level.

In the 15 years he’s spent helping startups get off the ground as an investor, entrepreneur and founder of Montreal’s Year One Labs accelerator, Raymond Luk kept bumping up against a curious phenomenon: After cashing their cheques, young companies drifted away from their investors.

“Every angel investor has had this experience,” he says. “You have this weird, awkward scenario where you’re sending an e-mail, asking, ‘Hey, are you still in business?’”

A piece in the Harvard Gazette covers what Karl Pillemer of Cornell University learned from studying nearly 1500 people age 70 to 100+ for his book “30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans.” What insights did he come away with? 1) Remember that life is short. His research began with a simple question: “What are the most important lessons you have learned over your life?” Respondents included homemakers, entrepreneurs, and even a former Tuskegee airman, and their answers touched on topics like marriage, children, money, work, aging, and health.

Hilary Kolman considers herself a happy person, but who wouldn’t like to be happier? So when she learned that her employer, media agency MEC, was going to offer a small number of employees slots in a workshop on happiness, she wanted in. “We were invited to submit a short explanation of why we wanted to do the workshop, and after I got that email, I shut the door to my office and sat down and wrote it out really quickly because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on the opportunity,” says Kolman, director of analytics and insight at MEC. “I was incredibly excited.”

I started my company a few months ago and I have always been on guard for potential funding that would help me grow it faster. At the very early stage, I would pitch my idea to angel investors that were all asking me for a proof of concept and a prototype, while others dictated me what team members I should bring on board (I still remember vividly the guy who insisted I get a tech co-founder even though my venture is a retail company). I was facing the chicken-and-egg problem: I needed capital to move forward but I needed a prototype to get funding. Fortunately, scientists solved the problem (it's the egg that came first), but in the seed funding case I don't think a solution has been found. I have friends who received funding in two weeks by pitching the idea and relying heavily on data that came from market research, while others took very long time to raise a round and their company has already been generating revenue.

When Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced a complete ban on working at home in late February, she sparked an uproar in the media, not to mention in the halls of Yahoo itself. The ban goes into effect in June and impacts everyone, including employees who had previous agreements with the company allowing flexible work arrangements. One irked employee sent an anonymous e-mail to the technology blog AllThingsD saying the new policy is "outrageous and a morale killer."

This set of posts is devoted to Business Incubator Models. Business Incubation is a concept which involves multiple stakeholders, dozens “building blocks”, various types of resources and several service categories (around 100 specific services in total). Consequently, it requires high level of conceptualization for better defining, analyzing, designing, calibration, performance evaluation and thinking about business incubation. I will use modeling and models to do so, trying to stay as simple as possible. It’s also important to highlight that researchers, consultants and practioners were developing models of business incubators, incubation processes, etc. since 1985 and created around 20 different models.

Do you know this feeling? “A temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email.”

If you do, you may suffer from email apnea, an expression coined by researcher Linda Stone. As she recently told Inc., about 80% of people experience the condition while they work through their email.

If you want to know the most in-demand tech skills, that info is readily available. Want to learn the programming skills most coveted by employers? Done. But what are the skills and specialties that no one wants any more? What core competencies raise red flags instead of call backs? 

A survey of 1,100 tech-hiring professionals by Dice, a job firm for tech professionals, offers some insight. Combining the Dice survey and other research, including an off-the-record conversation with an engineering VP who participates in hiring decisions, here are some of the outdated tech skills and withering technologies to be wary of putting on your resume:  

Not all startup companies are created equal. Although both innovation-driven enterprises (IDEs) and traditional small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can provide valuable products and services and create jobs, IDEs – startups focused on addressing global markets based on technological, process or business model innovation – can potentially create hundreds or even thousands of high-skill jobs if they succeed.

The distinctive differences between these two forms of entrepreneurial ventures – and their importance for governments and policymakers wanting to support long-term economic growth – is the subject of a new paper released today by the Kauffman Foundation. "A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs: Understanding Differences in the Types of Entrepreneurship in the Economy," examines IDEs and SMEs, their roles in local, regional and global economies, and their differing needs in terms of financial and policy support.

New technology innovations – and the startup companies formed to commercialize them – increasingly have their beginnings in university research labs.

And it's more likely that PhD students, not faculty, form the initial idea for a new technology. While in later stages these ventures resemble typical technology startups, they experience a different early development process, decision points and potential conflicts that can make or break an innovation's chances of making it to market.

"From Lab Bench to Innovation: Critical Challenges to Nascent Academic Entrepreneurs," a new study released today by the Kauffman Foundation, examines the particular experience of nascent academic entrepreneurs (NAEs) and the implications of this experience for universities and policymakers. The study is among the few to focus specifically on this important group of entrepreneurs at the individual, rather than institutional, level.

Early-stage business owners' confidence is climbing, according to the first-quarter 2013 Kauffman/LegalZoom Startup Confidence Index, released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom.

Eighty-four percent of entrepreneurs said they are confident or very confident in their companies' prospects for profitability in the next 12 months, which is the highest confidence level since the survey launched early last year and reflects a 1 percent increase over the fourth-quarter 2012 survey. Furthermore, confidence levels of the youngest entrepreneurs – those 18 to 30 years old – started to rebound, as 96 percent reported they were confident or very confident that their businesses' profitability will increase in the year ahead, a 3 percent jump over fourth quarter 2012.

"The findings of this survey from quarter to quarter provide an important gauge for entrepreneur sentiment, which plays a significant role in their business decisions," said Dane Stangler, director of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. "This also is a way to give entrepreneurs, who are as diverse as their companies, a collective voice."

I’m a big fan of business networking (and I’ve even written a book about it!), but there’s often a misconception that networking events have to be big business card exchanging bonanzas.

Don’t get me wrong, business cards are a valid way to exchange information, but networking events should be much more than speed dating for your business.

Michael Arrington began moderating a panel at Disrupt NY today with Ron Conway, David Lee, and Brian Pokorny of SV Angel by noting that he was “pissed off” by investor Chamath Palihapitiya’s comments on Monday that startup quality is at an “all time low.”

“I don’t agree,” Lee said, explaining that he thinks the ideas in the last 12-18 months have been bigger and bolder than those before them, rather than “just mobile and social.”

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. I see it most in the newest generation of entrepreneurs (Gen-Y), who were shocked out of entitlement into action by the recession.

Donna Fenn, in her book from a while back, “Upstarts! How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business,” was one of the first to predict that Gen-Y would lead the charge, bounce back from the recession, and be big winners. She describes a new generation of entrepreneurs that is highly collaborative, quick and alert when it comes to new technologies, and hell-bent on changing the world in general.

If you’ve been accepted into a startup accelerator, resting on your laurels could doom you to failure.

Acceptance is where the real work starts, say Laura Reitel, the former programme manager for US-based accelerator Techstars and its global accelerator network, and Nick Churchouse, venture manager at Wellington’s Creative HQ, which founded local accelerator the Lightning Lab.

With globalization, many investors are not just looking for opportunities in their home countries but also in the global market. These investors are driven by the desire to maximize earning potential by opening businesses abroad. Though good managerial skills are as important in the global business arena, investors should follow a few steps when starting their businesses abroad.

Before going abroad to find opportunities, contact the Department of Commerce.

They can offer useful advice on what is involved in starting a business abroad. The department offers advice on various issues ranging from taxation and currency exchange to hiring overseas.

Add North Carolina to the growing list of states working on intrastate investment crowdfunding legislation, especially as the equity crowdfunding proposal of the Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act (JOBS Act) won’t be brought up by the SEC for a three-month public commenting until the end of August at the earliest. This is according to Arizona Representative David Schweikert’s estimates during his speech at the Angel Capital Association on April 19, 2013.

Bill Gurley, partner at Benchmark Capital, leveled a number of serious charges at a ballroom full of New Yorkers this week–the city has yet to produce an iconic venture-backed company, he said. And, he added, people here are more likely to sell early rather than create a true home-run for a venture firm via an IPO.

Out of the 50 venture-backed companies that raised the most money via sales or IPOs over the years, none were located in New York City and only five were based in the New York region–that is in New Jersey or Connecticut, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource.