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You may have never heard of Joseph Schumpeter, an eccentric Austrian economist who taught at Harvard in the 1930s and '40s. But to those of us who study the strategic and financial dynamics of innovation, he is far more influential than his peers John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman. Schumpeter is the guy who made the entrepreneur the engine of growth for an economy, and several Nobel Laureates since have suggested that he was right on most counts.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

If you haven’t yet heard of venture-builders — also called tech studios, startup factories, or venture production studios — let me introduce them to you: They’re organizations that build companies using their own ideas and resources.

Unlike incubators and accelerators, venture builders don’t take any applications, nor do they run any sort of competitive program that culminates in a Demo Day. Instead, they pull business ideas from within their own network of resources and assign internal teams to develop them (engineers, advisors, business developers, sales managers, etc.).

Image: Heisenberg Media 

Imagine you’ve been offered a way to purchase $1 lottery tickets for a penny each. How many would you buy? If you were operating based on rational self-interest one could argue that you would buy as many tickets as possible. How could you refuse an opportunity with so much upside and so little downside? Similarly, the role of the dealmaker is to find a way to drive the “cost” of the deal down to as close to zero as possible — so the decision maker can’t possibly refuse to buy that ticket.

We hear a lot about the Innovation Economy, but what exactly does this mean?

It’s based on the idea that knowledge, entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration all come together to fuel economic growth. In the Innovation Economy, research turns money into knowledge, and innovation turns knowledge into wealth.

If you’re a woman trying to raise venture capital, you might start to feel like you're living in a man’s world. Research shows women investors only make up 4.4% of the industry, which may be partly to explain why women-led businesses only get 4.2% of venture capital funding. But research also shows that male entrepreneurs are 40% more likely to get VC funding than female founders.

Image: via Vixxenn 

Many years ago I worked for a small organization that was effecting change on a national level. It was known for excellence, vision, and world-class leadership. It had a clear mission and strategy. With my acceptance into this organization came the respect of my friends and family for the achievement of such an honor.

It might be something you have hanging on the wall of your office or just on a Post-It next to your computer. It’s that go-to motivational quote—a touchstone that gets you fired up when you’re having a bad day or just need a little boost. Here are the quotes that fire up some accomplished leaders and why these words resonate with them.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Twelve athletes will embark tomorrow (Jan. 16) on an extraordinary feat — to run across the United States from California to Maryland, more than 3,000 miles, completing a marathon a day, nearly every day for the next four and a half months.

And scientists plan to tag along, capitalizing on this unique opportunity to study the impact of ultra-endurance running on the human body.

Image: http://www.livescience.com/ 

Comcast might be the most-hated company in America. Even in an industry that generally rates poorly with consumers, it still regularly fares worse on consumer-satisfaction measures than any other company except Time Warner Cable, which it is in the process of trying to acquire.

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. Too many entrepreneur “wannabes” never get past the idea stage, or strike out randomly in many directions, hoping that their passion will convince people to follow them and make their business grow.

SAN FRANCISCO — The biotechnology industry tends to be overshadowed by the razzle-dazzle of high-tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google, particularly in the Bay Area.

Now, though, the biotech business is experiencing an almost unprecedented boom of its own. Money is flowing into the industry as never before. Stock prices are high, and drug approvals are up. And perhaps most important, some of the new drugs represent major advances against diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis.

Image: Michael Miller, Gilead’s director of clinical virology, in the company’s antiviral lab in Foster City, Calif. Money is flowing into the biotech industry as never before. Credit Peter DaSilva for The New York Times 

For many unemployed young people, the job hunt is a dismal pursuit.

Books about resume-writing state the importance of “standing out,” but it’s hard to showcase your achievements when everyone around you has comparable triumphs. Even that stellar academic history becomes a minimum requirement when colleges are handing out As at record highs. You’ve listed many accomplishments, but from the perspective of a potential employer, you look exactly the same as every other applicant.

Image: FLICKR, WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY PEGGY STEWART  

In a video presentation on David Eagleman’s Kickstarter fundraising Web page, the 43-year-old neuroscience professor removes his shirt. There’s a legitimate reason: He’s showing off a prototype of a high-tech vest that he thinks will help us expand human perception beyond the limits of our five senses.

Eagleman is keenly aware that the theatrics will make his pitch stand out. “In the second half of the talk I do the full monty,” he quips. “So just wait for it.”

Image: David Eagleman and Scott Novich explain their technology, Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, a vest that communicates sound to the brain. - http://www.washingtonpost.com

In the summer of 2013, Pamela Shavaun Scott started having "24/7 severe headaches" — so severe that she couldn't sleep. It wasn't before December that she heard for sure that it was a brain tumor.

Initially, when Scott had an MRI, radiologists seemed unconcerned when they discovered a mass over an inch in diameter. About three months later, after another MRI, doctors said that it had ballooned about half a centimeter, a sign of malignance. Scott's husband, Michael Balzer, requested her DICOM files, which are commonly used for medical imaging.

Image: Pamela Shavaun Scott with a 3D-printed rendering of her skullIMAGE: MICHAEL BALZER

Starting up is a challenging journey. The odds are stacked up against you. The chances of failure are significantly higher than success. And that is true the world over.

This is because the startup is dealing with a number of risks – concept, market, product, etc., and the founders have to navigate all these odds to be able to succeed. As my friend RehanYar Khan, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners, says, “For a startup to succeed, various functions such as product development, pricing, technology, operations, customer service, marketing, finance and HR management have to be cohesively performed. Execution of each of these elements has a direct impact on the performance of the venture.”

Providing good service has never been easy. And service expectations are only rising: unprecedented technological change and access to data have made customers better informed and more demanding than ever, while the rise of social media gives them more power to publicize their experiences—making each customer interaction more important.

On January 22, ICF will name its Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year, shrinking the list of the Smart21 down to the finalists for Intelligent Community of the Year.  We will be honoring local and regional governments that have – among other things – boosted the innovation rate of their economies.  That makes this a good time to ask a fundamental question.

 

Over the past 100 days the people have spoken. In several important cities they decided to lift their voice and open the exits for several incumbents.  New mayors and elected officials were sworn in among several Intelligent Community Forum Foundation cities, including three Intelligent Communities of the Year, Toronto (2014), Taichung (2013) and Taipei (2006).  These champions replaced familiar, popular and controversial leaders.  The most notable for me was in Taichung, Taiwan.   

 

An unfortunate aide affect of becoming more successful in what you do is people talking badly a out you, criticizing your work or even making fun of you.

A few weeks ago, I had an article published on a well known website. I was so proud to be front page and really liked the article I had written, after feeling proud of myself and my work I did something I don’t normally do or even advise my clients to do. I checked the comments under my article. Someone called me “Mr big shot” and pointed out my grammatical mistakes, another person mocked some of my views and someone with  very questionable profile pic told me I came across unprofessional.

Image: http://under30ceo.com