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.
Desire for power is a basic human instinct. But few people achieve it — or at least a great deal of it.
In his book "Power: Why Some People Have It — And Others Don't," Stanford business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer tells us why we should want it, and how to go about getting it.
Most of us willingly give up power, or ruin our chances of ever getting it by never even trying (it's called the self-handicapping principal).
Here are the best takeaways from Pfeffer's book.
Governments are often seen as a nuisance in business, but this is a jaded view. Responsible and engaged governments are able to do amazing things for a country’s startup scene. Most countries outside the US want to mirror the success of Silicon Valley, the undisputed king of tech innovation.
Nicolas Princen is French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s “digital man”. He has spoken about the ways the French government is stimulating its local startup scene and “helping startups grow”. The internet economy contributes about 6% to French GDP, he estimates, but affects and enhances more than 80% of the economy.
Don Tapscott, the digital strategist who inspired US President Barrack Obama to focus on internet group organisation during his 2008 election campaign, told delegates at a Brussels innovation convention that "vertically integrated industrial business is becoming obsolete".
“The same processes that led ‘old-world’ knowledge models such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica to be overtaken by on-line Wikipedia is moving fast into manufacturing industry,” Tapscott told the conference.
As with anything in life, there are pros and cons involved and it’s important to consider every aspect of them. In this piece, we’re going to take a look at the pros and cons of buying a franchise as a way of getting into your own business. So let’s get started.
Pros
Operating system:
This is the system developed by the franchisor that enables the business to be easily replicated by franchisees. This includes standard operating procedures and methods. By getting an already-established operating system, it means you don’t have to start from a blank sheet of paper creating everything yourself for your business. When I think of “systems” I think of McDonald’s. They’re the franchise industry standard.
If higher education faces laser-like scrutiny these days, everything I have observed says it is well deserved. A college degree is still a key determinant of earning capacity and job security. But as residents of Greenwich Village know, the pace of change keeps accelerating and, along with it, the cost of a college education. Tuition is increasing at both public and private institutions. Federal financial aid has diminished. States are reducing their support. Further belt-tightening is on the way as universities struggle to stay relevant and the economy continues to stagnate. Even more troubling is the growing mismatch between what colleges are teaching and what the labor market requires. It is this disconnect which The New School intends to address.
California gets a bad rap for business, and a new report doesn’t make the image any better. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranked the Golden State near the bottom, at No. 46, for its public policy climate for small business and entrepreneurship.
The annual “Small Business Survival Index” looks at how taxes and major government-related costs affect investment entrepreneurship.
By Edward Roberts
David Sarnoff Professor of Management Technology
Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic
Management Chair, MIT Entrepreneurship Center
I was in Portugal for the 1st time back in 1959. Then I was here 3 years ago - before we started this competition. Much has changed. I had the opportunity to share the enthusiasm particularly of the people ISCTE-IUL to do something of this sort. I am excited to be back in Portugal once again and see how much has been accomplished in such a short time. I’m thrilled to be part of this celebration.
It is my believe that specially science & technology based universities have the opportunity of dramatically impacting economically the regions that they are in and countries where they are located. We have done this a lot at MIT for many years now. I started the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in 1990, so we have 20 years of building a formal entrepreneurship center and the programs related to it.
Two years ago, I issued a report said that when we study the Alumni from MIT and the companies that are still alive and working we have found that 25,800 companies (76% of all founded) employ worldwide 3.3 million people and produce 2 trillion dollars global revenues. I am sure that some of these revenues are produced in Portugal and some of those jobs as well. These constitute the 11th largest economy in the world if we were to consider them together. We looked also at the companies depending on University technologies, MIT and others, they are the largest source of impact on jobs and on revenues – 1.7 million jobs of the 3.3 million come from companies that were based up on an university technology and about a trillion of the overall revenues come from those companies.
So, if we try to build policy of stimulating your economy by looking carefully at the universities into which you could be pouring resources and helping them to function, you may very well do wonders on your economy over time.
For many years, Canadian entrepreneurs looked longingly to the United States, where a growing number of incubators supported and financed startups, including many that came into the fold as nothing more than ideas.
These incubators providef little or no money but plenty of non-financial support, such as office space, desks, education, mentorship, networking opportunities and help from a variety of advisers.
Soda — yes, soda — is about to get a platform dedicated to user-created content. Indianapolis-based startup uFlavor is launching a website on Thursday that gives users a taste of beverage design.
If all goes as planned, you’ll soon be able to mix your own soda at vending machines.
In a few months, anyone will be able to create a recipe online, design a label and ship the resulting bottled beverage to their door. uFlavor, which was founded by three tech experts and beverage greenthumbs, worked with flavor company Flavors of North America (FONA) to design 42 “ingredients” such as “cola” and “cinnamo” that users can mix and match.
#1: Fayette County, Kentucky
Topping the inaugural list for mid-sized counties is Fayette County, Kentucky. Fayette is home to the City of Lexington and is the self proclaimed “Horse Capital of the World.” Recognized as a top bike-friendly location, Fayette offers both high quality place-based amenities along with critical resources to support innovation. “Lexington-Fayette County’s economic success can be attributed to a vibrant, diversified economy, an entrepreneurial focus, a signature public research institution, and one of America’s most educated workforces,” said Robert L. Quick, President of Commerce Lexington. “Its blend of advanced manufacturing, high-tech transfer efforts, a quality P-16 educational system, innovative health care options, and a strong equine industry help the area to grow and prosper,” Quick added.
The existing ADFA “fund of funds” model has been expanded to include making commitments for risk capital investments to Arkansas based seed and angel capital funds. A portion of the SSBCI allocation has been set aside to assist with the fund raising activities in support of the establishment of new seed and angel capital funds. These funds are being encouraged to develop to accelerate growth and the support of Arkansas companies and the entrepreneurs that drive them. Over time, we wish to see an increase in the number of funds, but more importantly, we want to see the growth in the numbers of successful business people participating in these funds. We are looking to build this industry by matching the investments of individuals, individuals willing to bring not only their capital but also their previous business experience and advice which will be focused on building, growing and mentoring young companies. This form of economic development is long-term. One of the keys to success will be the ability of these individuals to be able to work together. We plan to identify education and training opportunities to help grow the investment talents of new investors and facilitate a networking of funds in Arkansas.
Athletes go to great lengths to protect their muscles and recover from exercise-induced muscle damage, but there has been little work to determine what methods are most effective.
Now, a study published in the Dec. 7 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE reports that runners benefit more from whole-body cryotherapy, in which the study participants was exposed to temperatures as cold as -166°F (-110°C), than from exposure to far-infrared radiation or no treatment.
The study, led by Christophe Hausswirth of the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance in Paris, was conducted with nine well trained runners, and each participant tested each recovery method to control for individual differences in muscle damage and recovery.
As a red light district forms this year in cyberspace using new .xxx domain names, universities and other groups are mulling strategies for keeping their trademarks from becoming adult websites.
The University of Michigan took a direct approach and grabbed 21 .xxx website names, some on Tuesday when sales of XXX URLs opened to the general public. Now, no one else can use those addresses.
"This is viewed as a rational and practical step to protecting our image," said U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald.
For years New York state has had the makings of a strong biotechnology cluster. It graduates the nation’s fourth-highest number of bioscience majors (9,630 in the 2008 academic year). Its academic institutions spend some $2.7 billion on bio R&D, more than any state except California.
New York is also second only to California in its number of clinical trials (3,267 last year). In terms of life science employment, a report issued April 12 by the research arm of the Business Council of New York State put the Empire State in fourth place with 10,320 jobs across seven categories that included scientists but not administrative and support staff. The report analyzed seven reportedly peer biomanufacturing states. California came in at number one by a large margin with 41,200, followed by Pennsylvania (15,920) and Massachusetts (15,300).
I’ve written a variety of blog posts with blogging topic ideas with things to blog about when you’re out of ideas. When I see someone on Twitter expressing frustration with a writers’ block on their blog, I enjoy reaching out and sharing links with blogging topic ideas to get their creativity going again. Rather than continuing to cram multiple links in a single tweet about writers’ block, it seemed time to compile a big list of blogging topic ideas, especially for business bloggers.
If you’re stuck thinking about what blogging topics you can write about when you’re out of ideas, take a look through these ideas. I attempted to make these blogging topic ideas general enough they would have wide applicability, irrespective of your industry or business blogging focus.
It was a chance meeting at the historic Greenbrier resort, deep in West Virginia's mountains, that yielded a $10 million donation aimed at spurring economic development in Northeast Ohio. Coal-mining and farming magnate James C. Justice II, along with his wife, Cathy, confirmed this week that they are giving $10 million to Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the commercialization and corporate venture arm of Northeast Ohio's largest health system.
The gift from the West Virginia resident will establish a chair in medical innovation, as well as funding patent applications, bringing in speakers, adding work space and providing seed money for products in the early stages of development at companies under the Innovation umbrella.
Justice, a bear of a man at 6 feet 7 who was once named West Virginian of the Year for his benevolence, gives a simple explanation for the contribution: "They're going to do things to change the world, and I'd like to be a part of it."
Max Wallace, CEO of Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure, uses a football analogy when explaining his foundation’s approach to funding life sciences research.
Large companies aren’t getting into the game, which they see as too risky. But the stakes are high because patients are dying. Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure steps in to try and help researchers get into the end zone. Quickly. Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure is not interested in incremental developments that move the ball down the field a few yards at a time. It’s looking for medical breakthroughs.
What’s it like for a 20-year-old entrepreneur as he tries to gain the attention–and funding–of early-stage investors?
In the first of a series of reports that looks inside the world of venture capital and tech start-ups, WSJ’s Andy Jordan profiles a start-up called chatID as it goes through the TechStars accelerator program. It also highlights some VentureSource numbers on seed funding and looks at the shifting dynamics of early-stage funding.
Let us know in the comments what your experiences have been with acclerators and incubators, which are taking on a growing role in the start-up world.
In a year that saw a few highly proclaimed gadget introductions (the Amazon Kindle Fire, in particular) and some updates to high-profile staples such as Apple's iPhone and iPad, Scientific American takes a look at 10 gizmos that, if they did not land on your radar screen in 2011, deserve a look in the coming year.
This year's Gadget Guide runs the gamut—from tech that takes your fitness regimen to the next level to cameras that push optical limits to tools that help environmentally conscious consumers shrink their footprints.
