Michigan’s economic development is on track despite cutbacks, but more needs to be done to boost training to improve job skills, according to three of the state’s top workforce and housing leaders.

Since the 2009 economic crisis, Michigan’s healthier economy has surged, and its unemployment level plunged. But the state still trails other states in several key areas, including per-capita income and educational attainment.

In the global economy and at home, executives identify geopolitical issues as the greatest risk to growth. The concern is especially acute in Europe and North America, according to McKinsey’s latest survey on economic conditions,1 where respondents see geopolitical instability as both a short-term threat and a long-term problem. Even so, their overall economic outlook has brightened in the three months since our last survey.2 Developed-market executives are more upbeat about the state of the economy than their emerging-market peers, yet more conservative in their expectations for China’s growth prospects—about which executives in China are the most bullish.

Ford Motor Co., the 112-year-old automaker, has sought a record number of patents in 2015 as Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields pushes the company toward Silicon Valley-style innovation. The company applied for 5,872 patents so far this year, a 36 percent increase from all of 2014, in areas including autonomous cars, wearable devices and ride-sharing, according to a statement Tuesday. Ford said its filings related to electrified vehicles have almost tripled in the past five years, including more than 400 last year.

This summer in Addis Ababa, 12 organizations including the World Bank Group launched a call for increased innovation in international development to solve the world’s most complex challenges, including the new sustainable development goals.  There is a need to invest in new technologies and innovations that have the potential to deliver both social impact and economic returns. One of the ways the Bank Group is tackling this challenge is through “innovation labs” that help integrate emerging technologies into our work. We’ve had a lot of questions about how we define and integrate innovation in a large institution. Here are some answers:  

The last few months have been tough for pharmaceutical companies, and the political environment in Washington isn’t likely to improve in the coming year. Total healthcare spending in the U.S. has begun to rise after several years of slow growth, primarily the result of increased coverage of individuals through Medicaid and private plans subsidized by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).



But much blame goes to a rise in prescription drugs expenditures: the annual analysis by actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finds that retail drug spending  climbed a hefty 12.2% in 2014, largely due to big outlays for new hepatitis C treatments, along with only moderate expansion of generic drug prescribing as fewer blockbusters lost patent protection.

In November 2015, the Global Innovation Forum, chaired by Brand Genetics, brought together speakers and attendees from some of the world’s most innovative businesses. Over the course of two days we all shared innovation experiences, challenges, anecdotes, and learnings. From the wealth of learning Brand Genetics has distilled six key themes to help you deliver future innovation success.

The year is ending.

The year is beginning.

This happens around this time on a regular basis. Each and every time it does we’re all inundated by people telling us how to review the year now ending and prepare for the year to come. Some talk about personal growth and renewal. Others urge reflection on your business and preparation for what is ahead.  A lot of advice is ladled out on how to survive the parties and keep your waistline from expanding.

In a new analysis, researchers explore whether people live longer because they avoid disease or because they possess some anti-aging secret

If you live to be 100, you’re in a special group, one that longevity scientists are eagerly studying for clues to battling aging. But are these centenarians long-lived because they don’t get the diseases that fell the rest of us—heart problems, diabetes, dementia, arthritis and more—or because they are protected somehow against the effects of aging? Based on the data so far, most experts have concluded that centenarians get to where they are because they have some anti-aging secret that shields them against the effects of aging. That’s because studies found that centenarians had just as many genes that contribute to disease as those with more average life spans.

Though virtual reality is still far from mainstream, 2015 was a big year for the industry as new headsets were introduced—some full-featured and powerful, some simple and portable—and companies announced new ways to control and capture VR imagery, too. Throughout the year, investors poured money into companies developing the technology, content creators figured out how to make everything from films to advertisements in VR, and millions of Americans experienced virtual-reality technology for the very first time.   

As "on-demand" companies compete to deliver our food, run our errands, do our laundry, and even pack our suitcases, pundits are wondering whether we’re really this lazy. Our best advice? Ignore them—at least when it comes to obligatory holiday gifting.

Thanks to a long season of very liberal venture-capital funding, there are many ways that you can get your gift wrapping done without lifting a finger (when it comes to tape and scissors, that is—you may still have to tap your smartphone). We have compiled them here. All you have to do to get started is answer a simple question: Just how lazy are you?

For startups, one of the most challenging aspects to really getting the ball rolling is raising enough capital to open the doors and begin winning clients. Venture firms want you to prove traction – or gain some clients – to prove that your concept really is a potential hit. But for some, you may need that capital in order to simply open the doors and gain your first few clients. It’s like the chicken and the egg: what comes first? The clients or the funding to get those clients?

Countries around the world continue to look at Silicon Valley as a model for creating their own innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems – or the next Silicon Valley. But less talked about in this conversation is that companies often incorporate in Delaware, a state on the east coast of the USA. Even companies like Facebook, though headquartered in California, are incorporated in Delaware. In fact it is claimed that 83 percent of all U.S. initial public offerings were incorporated in Delaware in 2013.

According to the Invest Delaware web site, the state ranked first in the nation for business friendliness, with its straightforward incorporation process, an expert corporate legal community, and award-winning courts, including the Delaware Court of Chancery and the Delaware Supreme Court. The cost of doing business in Delaware is 9.3 percent below the U.S. national average, and it doesn’t charge sales or inventory taxes, plus it offers many tax credit opportunities.

Depending on the sort of entrepreneur, employee, freelancer, or company leader you might be, the year ahead holds varying degrees of promise and pitfalls. Some of the changes afoot are already affecting some more than others.

But optimism is itself a strategic asset—as long as it's backed up by a strong grasp of the facts. With that in mind, here's a look at some of the business trends that seem most likely to impact professionals of all stripes in the year ahead.

Many people take the New Year as an opportunity to start fresh in a new job. The good news is that there will be plenty of openings to suit a wide range of seekers as CareerBuilder reports that over 100 occupations in the U.S. have more job posting activity than hiring month to month and a recent report from a record 78% of hiring managers anticipate more hiring in the first half of 2016 compared to the second half of 2015.

Travel presents itself as a glamorous endeavor, but the reality is often anger-making and tedious. Thank goodness there are designers around the world working to fix problems such as cumbersome carry-on luggage, poor lighting in hotels, and more. Click through our slide show to see nine stories about clever ideas for improving the travel experience.

IDEO’s origin story sometimes sounds like a myth or a fable, but it’s actually true. David Kelley founded the company with a simple goal: to create a workplace made up of his best friends. In the beginning he did, in fact, bring in some of his closest buddies to launch the Silicon Valley firm that would become IDEO. More than 30 years later, we’re a global design company that employs more than 650 people. Obviously, we didn’t get to that size by hiring only our friends. But David’s early intention still greatly informs the way we work. There are, in fact, four elements of our culture that came directly from his founding statement. We think they’re essential factors in keeping employees engaged — not just at our company, but at any company.

State and local governments will begin disclosing financial information about tax abatements under new guidance from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The requirements take effect for financial statements for periods beginning after December 15, 2015.

Tax abatements are defined by GASB as agreements between one or more governments and an entity or individual that reduce the taxes the entity or individual would otherwise owe, and in which the business or individual promises to take a specific action that contributes to economic development or otherwise benefits the governments or their citizens.

Every young person knows this scenario: our parents ask us (for what feels like the hundredth time) to teach them how to call Aunt Julia on FaceTime, or attach photos to an email, or use the TV remote control. You roll your eyes, show them how to do it, and marvel that they can’t solve something that’s so freaking simple. Or … maybe you’re that technology illiterate person. You’ve accepted the fact that you’re inherently bad with tech and there’s nothing you can do to change it. Well, here’s some good news for everyone: according to a recent study, people’s mindsets about learning technology may affect their ability to use it—and if you have the right mindset, you may actually get better at technology.

Image: Flickr user Meg Stewart

On a chilly winter morning at the 3W coffee shop in Beijing's Zhongguancun Inno Way, a hub for entrepreneurs in Haidian district, a few men in suits sat around talking about how the Internet has changed the food delivery business.

He Jinlong, 24, stepped into the cafe around 10 am. Like the other young people sitting there working on their laptops, he was also "trying to find a quiet place, where I can think through the business that I will launch sooner or later," he told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Image: A man walks down Beijing's Zhongguancun Inno Way, a hub for entrepreneurs in the city's Haidian District. The area has become less popular as the capital market has cooled. (Photo: Global Times/Chen Qingqing)

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation has announced its 10 nominees for the 2015 Luddite Awards (named for the British anti-technology movement of the early 1800s). For the "Worst of the Worst Innovation Killers," the FCC makes number eight on the list, right between Wyoming outlawing citizen science (7) and the fight against genetically improved foods (9). The FCC was nominated for its decision to reclassify Internet access as a Title II common carrier service, something ITIF opposed.