Innovation is a powerful tool, not only to create competitive organizations, but also to improve the daily lives of people in developing countries and emerging markets. Innovations can in many cases make a critical difference and contribute to empower people and make the world a more equitable place to be.

InnovationManagement spoke to GBS Bindra, Global Innovation Director at Logica and a passionate believer in the power of innovation.

- In my personal opinion you and I are sitting in this room, talking, in this environment, eating what we are eating, only because our forefathers had innovated and hence me and you coming from different backgrounds are chatting. Both of us have flown to be here. Clearly there has been enormous development that has taken place in the last centuries, and having been beneficiaries of this development, we owe it back to this world to encourage innovation even more, for the world to become a much more equitable world. Equal in a sense that people around the world will have equal opportunities and access to knowledge, to food and to resources.

A very fresh and innovative approach to open innovation is coming from Quebec, Canada: The Problem Conference.

The core idea: Turn a conference upside down. Instead of presenting "solutions" and "best practices" to impress the other participants with your successes, present your hardest challenge. Present what you could not solve, and ask openly for help! The (beginning of the) solution then will be co-created with the participants.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A problem-solving program created by The Bryan School of Business and Economics and The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship has helped Triad small business owners survive and thrive in the midst of the economic downturn.

In 2007, UNCG’s Bryan School and The Nussbaum Center created the Entrepreneur Assistance and Education Program (EASE). The program matches interns with technical expertise in accounting and marketing with small business owners in need of those services. The program has created 22 jobs and generated an additional income potential of at least $1 million annually to the Piedmont Triad region.

Those results have gotten the attention of the University Economic Development Association, which has named the EASE program one of three national finalists for the 2010 Award of Excellence in the business assistance and entrepreneurship category. The award will be given November 9 at UEDA’s Annual Summit in Reno, Nev.

Global competitiveness report delivers a low grade for our country, placing it well behind the U.S., Japan, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week announced the selection of five projects to build and strengthen "innovation ecosystems" meant to accelerate the movement of cutting-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies from university laboratories into the market.

This is the first time the DOE is funding this type of university-based commercialization effort.

The ecosystems are designed to foster collaborative environments, bringing together key players from universities, the private sector, the federal government and Department of Energy National Laboratories to identify and develop new clean energy technologies and help them succeed in the marketplace.

Statistically no one gets venture capital. The ratio of the number of companies started each year vs. the number of companies funded is minuscule. For most companies it’s just plain unrealistic. So, how do the 99.9 percent of startup businesses get funded?

The financing strategy is bootstrapping in stages based on iterative phases of success and only doing what must be done to get to the next phase with minimal capital. This is a resourceful and practical approach:

• Start with the customer
• Establish the critical path items for at least the first stage of the company or project
• Define what it takes to validate the market and prove the company’s ability
• Develop a list of where and from whom you can get the resources needed (i.e. who has a reason to care about my company’s success)?
• Assess – “Can we bridge the gap with friends and family and personal investment?”

The purpose of 1Hour2Plan.com is to help you grow your business by getting your team on the same page and focusing on your most important priorities. Using our proven web based planning tool, you and your team will develop the six essential elements of a business growth plan. Research shows that planning is the most reliable predictor of business growth. Business planning does not need to be complicated to be effective. In the next hour, you will develop a clear and compelling business growth plan that fits on a single sheet of paper and will help your organization stay focused and productive for years to come.

States must increase the number of college degrees awarded each year in the United States, every year, by a total of nearly 280,000 if the nation is to meet the Lumina Foundation for Education's goal of increasing the proportion of American adults with a college degree to 60 percent by 2025.

In a new report, "A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Achieve a 'Big Goal' for College Attainment," which the foundation is scheduled to release today, Lumina officials called their own goal "realistic and attainable." The foundation cited increased attention at the federal, state, and institutional levels to raising college-completion rates—including proposals in several states to base higher-education spending decisions on performance—as promising developments for Lumina's efforts to significantly improve educational attainment.

A year after offering a plan to turn around Michigan’s economy, Business Leaders for Michigan now seeks to spur and better commercialize innovation by partnering with the state’s top three research universities.

The partnership with the University Research Corridor, know as Accelerate Michigan, will seek to “champion” innovation and entrepreneurship and increase capital available to young companies.

The initiative stems from benchmarking data that shows that Michigan ranks highly in generating intellectual property at research universities — fifth overall nationally, with research-and-development spending of $1.40 billion in 200 that rivals North Carolina’s Research Triangle — though it lags many states in commercializing those innovations.

Contrary to common perception the ideas of open innovation have been around for a very long time. These open innovation efforts however were not institutionalized. The first institutions to nurture open innovation are the universities. As compared to many commercial open innovators they have been eager ‘open innovators’ for decades. The traditional technological exploitation vehicle employed by universities is the spin-out company. A spin-out company will generally be a separate legal entity created to own and exploit an intellectual property resource. These created companies are therefore legally independent from the university.

Innovators Forum features Michael Gerber as he outlines the four different mind-sets of the entrepreneur, and gives a synopsis of the E-Myth concept. Read the blog at www.CiscoInnovators.com

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) – The Small Business Administration (SBA) on Monday announced that it will support economic development in the United states through "Innovative Economies," a new pilot program.

The program will support job creation efforts and small business participation in regional economic collaborations (or clusters) between small businesses, the public sector, economic development and organizations.

"Today we are announcing funding support for 10 regional economic clusters. SBA’s support will help expand the opportunities and the role small businesses play in these regional collaborations, which are enhancing the ability to create jobs locally and compete on a national and global scale," SBA Administrator Karen Mills said.

Volcanados?

These volcanic water spouts spun off Kilauea volcano's eruption cloud during a 2008 blast. More than just a pillar of smoke, eruption clouds are, themselves, cyclonic, spinning around a vertical axis and mimicking some behavior patterns usually seen in storm cells, including the ability to give birth to smaller cyclones, water spouts and dust devils.

This photo was taken by Stephen & Donna O'Meara and is part of the Extreme Exposures exhibit running at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, starting October 23.

Via Bad Astronomy

One common complaint I hear from biotech entrepreneurs is that negotiating a license agreement with a university can be a nightmare. There are universities—some of them within the very top echelons of academia—that are infamous for having technology transfer people who are described as very difficult to work with.

It’s not that surprising that these two factions of the life sciences ecosystem—the intellectual property generators in academia and intellectual property seekers in companies—clash over their perceived value of this key asset.

Angel investors are an intimidating bunch, but for many entrepreneurs the potential boon to a startup business that an angel investment can represent makes them a necessary evil. Ok maybe evil is not the right term,
but the angel investment process can be scary. Here are 3 facts that you should know about angel investors from the report titled, "What Entrepreneurs Should Know About Angel Investors."

30% of Angel Investor Groups Invest in Companies Within a 2 Hour Drive - This can be a scary reality for companies that are based in a rural setting. Even if you are located in a major metropolitan area there is no guarantee that there will be an angel investor group close by to apply for funding. If you are not sure where the nearest angel investor group is for your business, make sure to visit both the Angel Capital Association and the Angel Capital Education Foundation website for a directory.

All great businesses start with a bright idea. The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine today release their eighth rankings of 25 top graduate and undergrad university programs for budding entrepreneurs, whose bright ideas can turn into successful businesses.

The rankings are posted online at Entrepreneur magazine's website, with facts about each university. The schools will be featured in the October issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

The Princeton Review selected these 50 programs from about 2,000 surveyed, saying they satisfy multiple criteria within three main categories: students and faculty, academics and requirements, and enriching experiences outside the classroom.

When you think about starting a company, you’ll have plenty of sleepless nights.

On some evenings, you’ll be thinking about the problem you want to solve. On others it’s whether you’ll need funding. How you’ll generate revenue and how you’ll eventually turn a profit are more good fuel for insomnia. But before you can address any of these concerns, you need to make another critical decision: Just who’s going to address them with you.

Picking the right co-founders is arguably the most important step you can take in starting your business. It’s even more important than picking the right VCs, because it ultimately sets the DNA for your company. Here are a few things that I’ve learned about picking the right co-founders and working with them.