During the past 25 years I've seen a lot of innovation task forces come and go. Some of them looked good at the beginning and died a slow death. Some of them looked bad at the beginning and died a quick death. And some of them actually succeeded.

And so, at the risk of giving your task force one more task to do, please take a few minutes to review the following guidelines.

They will save you time. They will save you headaches. And they may even save your company...

20 TIPS FOR INNOVATION TASK FORCES

1. Quit now if you're not really into it.

2. Make sure everyone else on the task force really wants to do the work.

Waterloo - The Hon. John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, announced June 20 that the provincial government will invest $72.6 million in the Global Innovation Exchange facility at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo campus. This is the largest single capital investment in the university’s history.

This signature, $103-million project is an integral part of Laurier’s Campus Master Plan. The GIE will allow the university to meet the growing demand for enrolment in Laurier’s business and math programs, and expand the university’s ability to deliver integrated and engaged learning opportunities to students at the local and global levels.

Once again charter and magnet schools in Texas hold the reigns as the top public high schools in the country.

Newsweek released its ranking of the best public high schools in America, using a panel of experts and reaching out to more than 10,000 high schools in the country.

Newsweek asked schools to submit four-year graduation rate, percentage of 2010 graduated who immediately enrolled in college, various test scores, student to teacher ratio, and stats about advanced placement courses.

n a European University Association report on 'Global university rankings and their impact', published last week, 13 global ranking systems were scrutinised, including the high-profile Shanghai Academic and Times Higher

Education lists.

Such rankings only cover around 3% of the world's universities (17,000) and the ratings reflect university research performance "far more accurately than teaching," because the indicators used to rank teaching are "all proxies, and their link to the quality of teaching is indirect at best," according to the report.

Going international is a big growing up step for US startups, and an important one. The Internet is global and most fast-growing startups like Twitter, Zynga and Foursquare see most of their growth outside the US.

Unfortunately, the common practice by which startups go about translating their product is through crowdsourcing: getting your own international users who already use the product in English to translate it for you. Facebook was the first big startup to do this and they've been endlessly imitated since then.

In a recent blog post on internationalizing startups, Andreessen Horowitz Partner John O'Farrell endorses this approach. The post is a great read for startups that want to go global, but on this particular point, he's just dead wrong.

Google just had one billion unique visitors in May, according to comScore.

Wow.

By the way, this is one for the "bubble bubble" people: in 1998, there were around 100 million people online. Now there are billions. A reason why internet company valuations are high is because the market is big.

Whether you don’t like writing about yourself, you’re not sure what goes there or because the whole thing just makes you feel plain awkward, writing the business About Us page is a task that intimidates many small business owners. You think you know what you want to say, but then you get to that blank WordPress page and you suddenly forget how long you’ve been doing this, why you love it or, sometimes, even the company name. But your About Us page doesn’t have to be something you dread. Instead, craft a page that you’re proud of and that helps communicate exactly who you are and what you represent to your customers. It’s easy!

One lesson we’ve all learned from the social media revolution is that people like doing business with people they know. And that’s the power of crafting a good About Us page. You give your customers a look into who you are, who your company is, and you build the trust they need to move forward with your business.

I was reading Mark Suster's latest blog post (actually its a presentation embedded into a blog post) and I came across this slide.

I don't know what the source of this data is and I don't know if this is just M&A exits or if it includes IPOs as well. It really doesn't matter for the basic point that Mark is making with this slide.

Based on the NVCA statistics on the venture capital industry, there are on average 1,000 early stage financings every year. I suppose a few of those 1,000 financings are for the same company, but I doubt that many are. So we can use 1,000 as an approximation of the number of companies that get funded in a given year.

It's hard to believe the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is just two years old: already we have seen the potential of high-risk, high-reward research to both our energy and economic future. The Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Report highlights the creation of ARPA-E, how the agency's investments are supporting transformational technologies in energy, and a synopsis of the projects it has funded to date.

Recruiting some of the best minds in science and technology, as well as tapping the market expertise of business communities, ARPA-E has funded 121 projects in amounts ranging from roughly $400,000 to $9 million, with an average award value of $3 million. These clean energy technologies have the potential to transform our Nation's energy future. For example, ARPA-E-funded efforts are enabling batteries for transportation -- beyond lithium-ion -- that could make electric cars cheaper and go much farther distances than today’s batteries.

LANSING, Mich. — In a state that has long suffered from one of the nation’s highest jobless rates, new GOPGov. Rick Snyder wants to import — literally — fresh competition for some of the best job openings the state has to offer.

Mr. Snyder, a newbie politician but an experienced entrepreneur, is looking overseas to incubate a stronger economic culture by actively seeking highly skilled immigrants to work and create businesses in his state, which has been slammed in recent decades by job losses in its traditional manufacturing base.

Entrepreneurs are usually highly creative and innovative, but many innovative people are not entrepreneurs. Since it takes a team of people to build a great company, the challenge is to find that small percentage of innovative people, and then nurture the tendency, rather than stifle it.

A while back I read a book titled “The Rudolph Factor,” by Cyndi Laurin and Craig Morningstar, which is all about finding the bright lights that can drive innovation in your business. The story most specifically targets big companies, like Boeing, but the concepts are just as applicable to a st

China prepares to open bullet train service from Beijing to Shanghai by July 1, this nation’s steadily expanding high-speed rail network is being pilloried on a scale rare among Chinese citizens and news media.

Complaints include the system’s high costs and pricey fares, the quality of construction and the allegation of self-dealing by a rail minister who was fired earlier this year on corruption grounds.

But often overlooked, amid all the controversy, are the very real economic benefits that the world’s most advanced fast rail system is bringing to China — and the competitive challenges it poses for the United States and Europe.

Every entrepreneur has their own idea of what it takes to become successful. GulfNews has pulled together a short list of traits they believe entrepreneurs need to succeed. What do you think it takes to succeed?

1. Timing is nothing

Dubizzle founders, J.C. Butler and Sim Whatley, wish they had had the wisdom to launch more and test less. “Regardless of whether it’s features or categories or expansion, it’s better to get something out the door and test the response to it, rather than to spend all your time trying to perfect something and change it later anyway. Especially when it came to our recent regional expansion, we would have loved to have been in all these 14 countries years ago.”

It wasn’t as if everyone was avoiding the word “building,” it’s just that the Life Sciences Research Institute (LSRI) is so much more.

Dalhousie President Tom Traves called it a “business and incubation centre,” a “one-stop life sciences shop.” Colin Latham, chair of the LSRI steering committee, dubbed it a “research village.” And Martha Crago, Vice President Research for Dalhousie, referred to it as a “potent anchor” and a “district of discovery.”

Whatever you want to call it, the Life Sciences Research Institute is unique for Halifax—a beautiful, light-filled facility where scientists, students and entrepreneurs will work together. The idea is that through collaboration and discussion, they will be able to move research seamlessly from the lab to the commercial sphere.

It seems that the economy’s engine is starting to churn again.  More importantly, technology and Internet companies seem to be coming alive as well.  Startups founded a few years ago are now taking center stage with a series of high profile IPOs. The last time we experienced a wave of startup growth, minority entrepreneurs were largely left out of the picture.  In a time and country where the number of minorities is growing significantly each year, we cannot watch this happen again.  As a member of DreamIt Ventures, a Philadelphia-based startup accelerator, it is my job to make sure history does not repeat itself.

DreamIt operates accelerators for startups.  We work with great and talented entrepreneurs to help them build great companies. Our accelerator was designed to be the startup program thatthe founders wish existed when they started and sold their first companies. It creates a collaborative environment in which fellow entrepreneurs can share ideas, inspire each other, and push each other to higher levels of success. Accelerator participants receive excellent coaching and mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs.   They receive legal and accounting services when needed without having to burn precious cash.  For the startups’ founders this also means an opportunity to refine their business models and ultimately pitch their companies to an investment community of angels and venture capitalists.

Back in March, Brian Halligan (our CEO at HubSpot) wrote a great post around his observations on why Sequoia wins at the VC game. Brian's assessment was based on HubSpot's experience raising our Series D and was spot-on. Sequoia is agile, yet disciplined. They are aggressive yet reasonable. They've taken the classic venture capital playbook and out-executed just about everyone. Incredibly impressive.

With all of their success though, Sequoia has a right to stay paranoid (#8 on Brian's list). The VC industry is undergoing some massive changes and is in the process of being disrupted by a new breed of investors that are attacking the edges of the market and competing with a new, differentiated approach. Google Ventures, a co-investor alongside Sequoia in HubSpot's Series D, is one such firm. Google (GOOG) has a history of reinventing industries and questioning conventional wisdom – and they're trying to do it again with their approach to venture capital.

TORONTO, June 23, 2011 /CNW/ - An economic strategy to ensure the sustainability and success of Ontario's commercial bioscience sector was announced today. Implementation of the strategy is underway, according to OBIO™, the CEO-led industry organization.

Developed by multi-stakeholder Ontario Bioscience Economic Strategy (OBEST™) teams in seven regional bioscience clusters, the strategy comprises nine priority initiatives. Of these, five are for implementation by the industry; four will be implemented by the industry partnering with government.

Dr. Daniel Billen, Chair of the OBEST Advisory Board and General Manager, Amgen Canada, said: "We have put the onus on our industry to implement this strategy and on government to put supportive policies in place. Together, these will enable Ontario's bioscience companies to complete the virtuous cycle of economic growth, jobs and improved health for all."

With the economy still struggling, it may seem like an impossible time to start a do-good social venture. It can be hard enough to operate any business profitably — let alone one that also tries to improve the world. But some observers believe that the tough times may be increasing interest in social ventures.

“I get the sense that the recession actually has resulted in more people taking interest in investing in companies that are doing the right thing right from the start,” said Wes Selke, investment manager at Good Capital, a social-impact venture capital firm in San Francisco. As one indicator, at least three social-impact funds have raised more than $100 million in the last couple of years: Ignia Fund, Leapfrog Investments and MicroVest.

Marrying mission and money in one business can be tricky. This guide focuses on commercial, profit-making businesses and entrepreneurs who want to build self-sustaining social ventures, a term that encompasses nonprofit and profit-making companies as well as some new types of legal hybrids, like an L3C, which stands for low-profit limited liability company. These ventures are commonly thought of as enterprises that serve a so-called triple bottom line: people, planet and profits.

In a report published by United for Medical Research, a consortium of science and research medical organizations, Dr. Everett Ehrlich found that extramural research supported by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2010 (FY10) led to the creation of 487,900 quality public and private sector jobs and produced over $68 billion in new activity across the country. According to the report, An Economic Engine: NIH Research, Employment and the Future of the Medical Innovation Sector, the $68 billion in new economic activity would represent over a 150 percent single-year return on public investment (approximately $26.6 billion was awarded by NIH in FY10), counting total economic output from the research as revenue. Ehrlich also found that NIH supported research is an "important source of income and employment" for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

HONG KONG — In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said the United States needed to "out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world" to remain competitive and "win the future." In his short history, though, Obama has not proved very adept at turning brave words into action.

Is the U.S. finished as an economic superpower? Its optimists assert that the U.S. retains critical cutting-edge advantages. Adam Segal, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has written a thoughtful book asserting that American innovation can overcome the challenges from rapidly growing Asia. He draws a distinction between what he calls, "the hardware of innovation" — meaning the amount of spending on research and development, the number of engineers and scientists, patents and publications — and the "software," which he terms as "the political, cultural and social institutions and understandings that help move ideas from lab to marketplace."