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.
Although Samsung didn’t make any major waves during its afternoon keynote address, the company was feeling more lively on Monday evening during the keynote address of Samsung co-CEO BK Yoon. Samsung on Monday announced the new SmartThings Hub, which has been designed as a complete hub for the so-called “Internet of Things.”
Innovation hubs are popping up from Addis to Amsterdam and Boston to Bangalore. Fuelled by ideals of openness, community and collaboration, hubs aim to be the next orgware for innovation—beyond business incubators and R&D labs. Managers, policymakers and investors have taken note, but are grappling with how to engage. What makes hubs so appealing and can they teach innovation managers anything new?
The “sick man” of Europe may very well be all of Europe. Since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, growth has been generally slow and painful, and the danger of prolonged stagnation in Europe is a very real possibility. The euro has dropped to its lowest value in nine years. With Europe accounting for 25% of global trade, its recovery is imperative to the health of the global economy. The forecast for 2015 is looking dismal, only marginally better than 2014.
Understanding our own personalities, and those of our collaborators can be a powerful productivity tool for innovation. In this blog, I’ll discuss some preferred personality assessment tools from psychology, and how they can help us to create more productive innovation teams, and become more effective individuals.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Telling CEOs these days that leadership drives performance is a bit like saying that oxygen is necessary to breathe. Over 90 percent of CEOs are already planning to increase investment in leadership development because they see it as the single most important human-capital issue their organizations face.1 And they’re right to do so: earlier McKinsey research has consistently shown that good leadership is a critical part of organizational health, which is an important driver of shareholder returns.2
LAS VEGAS — Samsung chief executive Boo-Keun Yoon said that his company will invest up to $100 million in the developer community for applications for the Internet of Things.
This category — where everyday devices become smart and connected — is a big theme at the 2015 International CES, the tech trade show where Yoon gave one of the opening keynotes today.
There has been a lot of buzz around the increasing overlap between the automotive and consumer electronics worlds. But perhaps the simplest and most striking way to get a sense of this dynamic is to take a walk around the CES show floor. The massive booths of the auto manufacturers — which have dramatically increased in scale over the past few years and now approach production levels historically reserved for major auto shows — are the most obvious examples. But OEMs are not the only ones using CES as a venue to showcase in-car technology. There are plenty of other players in the ecosystem, including hardware and software suppliers, telco carriers, aftermarket device and accessory manufacturers, and content providers –- all vying to carve out their space in the value chain.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Early last year, I found myself sitting across from Caryn Marooney in Facebook's cafeteria talking about how startups get noticed. What is that ineffable quality that separates the successful media darlings from the companies no one ever hears from again? It's a huge question, and Marooney — now head of Facebook's tech communications and past founder of the OutCast Agency — had good answers. She's been at it for a while, getting press that has distinguished dozens of startups (including eventual giants like Salesforce). Talking to her, it hit me how special this situation was, and how valuable the advice — based on real experience, wins, losses and lessons.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Update: Frog Design has just unveiled their complete list of Tech Trends for 2015. Make sure to check it out for 11 other trends Frog thinks will hit big this year!
Around this time every year, global innovation and design firm Frog predicts what the biggest trends in tech will be in the coming year. In 2014, Frog predicted that drones, augmented reality, and self-driving cars would all be big trends (and they were mostly right). For 2015, Frog sees 3-D printers and hydroponic gardens in every kitchen, and smart T-shirts and wearable fitness AIs as some of the major tech trends of the year. Here's how four of Frog's designers see 2015 in tech playing out.
The hollow Cola tree growing in a remote area of southeastern Guinea was once home to thousands of bats routinely hunted and killed by the neighborhood children. It was also a popular spot to play. A year ago, one child in particular lived within fifty meters of the tree: a two-year-old boy who died in December 2013 and later was identified as the first person in west Africa known to have developed Ebola. The tree was one of the few that loomed over his home village of Meliandou, a hamlet of 31 houses. The question that now haunts researchers: were the tree’s occupants behind how that small boy contracted the virus in the first place?
Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Ann Froschauer
Venture capital exploded in 2014, with bigger deals and more eye-popping valuations than anytime since the dot-com boom. So what happens next, and which opportunities will define 2015?
We asked several venture capital investors to reflect on the past year and give us their outlook for the next 12 months. Next in our series is Liam Donohue, founding general partner of .406 Ventures. Mr. Donohue talks about the new sources of capital for startups, differentiating between great companies and those that are overhyped, and perceptions of VCs by early-stage entrepreneurs.
Image: Liam Donohue, founding general partner of .406 Ventures
With 41 novel drug approvals under the regulators’ belts last year, 2014 represented an 18-year high for the Food and Drug Administration – including a record number of okayed meds for orphan diseases, the Associated Press says:
FDA drug approvals are considered a barometer of industry innovation and the federal government’s efficiency in reviewing new therapies. Last year’s total was the most since the all-time high of 53 drugs approved in 1996.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — North Carolina's new Commerce Secretary wants to allow small investors to help fund in-state entrepreneurs through crowd funding.
"We have hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs in this state. And crowd funding is a mechanism by which small entrepreneurs can go raise $1 million to $2 million easily without all of the bureaucratic morass of traditional securities laws," Sec. John Skvarla said shortly after attending an economic forecast forum put on by the N.C. Chamber and N.C. Bankers Association.
Image: Gov. Pat McCrory and Commerce Secretary John Skvarla speak to reporters on Jan. 5, 2015, after addressing an economic forecast forum.
On January 1, 2015, pursuant to the Invest Tennessee Exemption (ITE), crowdfunding in Tennessee became legal, granting Tennessee-based companies and investors increased access to capital and broadened opportunities to invest. Federal crowdfunding rules, however, are stalled again—now delayed by more than 700 days past the deadline required by 2012’s Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act). The Chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Jo White, indicated that the SEC is “actively working through” the proposed crowdfunding rules, but nothing would be finalized until late 2015. Thus, the rules will not be available to companies and investors until early 2016.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Productivity experts have long recommended limiting the number of times you check email, and researchers from the University of British Columbia recently provided a scientific reason as to why.
In a two-week experiment, they asked one group of adults to check their inbox three times a day for a week and another group to check as often as they could. The next week, the instructions for groups were reversed. During the study, participants answered questions about stress levels, and the results weren’t that surprising: Those who checked their email less often felt less stressed.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
If you haven't broken your New Year's Resolutions yet, chances are you will soon.
But why do we fail to reach the goals we set for ourselves? Gary Latham, Professor of Organizational Effectiveness at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, has studied the psychology of goal setting and says there are several reasons for our failure to follow through with our resolutions.
Startups face huge challenges. But we can help.
We’ve helped scores of them grow by putting their CEOs in front of a live audience of investors, tech executives and media at our annual Emerging Companies Summits.
It’s amazing what that recognition—along with expert advice from our panelists—can do. Winning our $100,000 prize for the most promising GPU-based venture doesn’t hurt, either.
Image: CEO on Stage: Startup executives face a panel of experts at the Emerging Companies Summit. - See more at: http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2014/12/15/accelerate-your-startup/#sthash.lVlGkOKq.dpuf
Right around now, we’re all making a list and checking it twice. I could do without the cold, but the holidays are the perfect hour to help yourself. All year we wait for the chance to tell our closest friends and family what we want. This year, I decided to do things differently.
Instead of focusing on what I might get, I’m considering what I can give.
We all have a job to do, a self to become. The purpose of life is to discover your calling. The meaning of life is to answer that call. Pick up and pay it forward. You can only give what you got, but you must know what you have first.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
To build a transformative new company, entrepreneurs need more than a big idea. The job often takes years of focus and grueling work. So when founders look to raise money to help grow their businesses, they traditionally look to venture capitalists with battle scars, longtime investors who’ve built their own companies and seen it all before.
LAS VEGAS — Electric vehicles may be getting more mainstream, but the logistics of the recharging process make them impractical for many, even in larger cities.
Energy startup Gogoro aims to solve this problem by creating a system that allows people to quickly swap their electric vehicles' batteries rather than waiting to recharge. The company unveiled its plan for a network of high-performance electric smart scooters and portable battery stations Monday at CES in Las Vegas.
