As you think about your company’s benefits options, keep in mind that it’s not simply a benefits package, but a lifeline for your employees’ physical and financial stability. To decide what benefits your company should provide, you need to first understand what your employees want and need. Also, keep in mind that today’s workforce is diverse, not just in ethnicity or gender, but also in age, ranging from 18 to about 70. Just as gaps between generations are more apparent when it comes to embracing new technologies, work-life balance and social interaction, they also have different needs when it comes to insurance coverage and benefits packages. Yet, the 2014 Aflac WorkForces Report found that almost half of small businesses (44 percent) say their benefits package is a one-size-fits-all approach.

Image: Free Digital Photos

The removal of top predators has been called “humankind’s most pervasive influence on nature,” and it is as detrimental in the sea as it is on land. Consumers prefer predatory fish like grouper, tuna, swordfish and sharks to species lower on the food chain such as anchovies and sardines, providing strong incentives for fishermen to catch the bigger fish. Going after the more valuable predators first, fishing them until there aren’t enough left to support a fishery and then moving on to species lower in the food chain, a pattern sometimes observed in global fisheries, has been called “fishing down the food web.”

Image: Hermanus Backpackers via Wikimedia Commons

Emergency officials clad in HAZMAT suits rushed a health care worker with “Ebola-like” symptoms to Bellevue Hospital in New York City, Thursday, the hospital announced.   Bellevue Hospital is one of eight hospitals in New York State that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has designated as “Ebola ready.” The facility will care for confirmed cases from any of the 11 public hospitals in the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) and any suspected cases among patients who fly into John F. Kennedy or LaGuardia airports. The patient, who recently visited one of the West African nations ravaged by the Ebola outbreak, may put the hospital’s new safety protocols to the test. Preliminary results from a medical evaluation will confirm in the next 12 hours whether or not the patient has Ebola, the hospital said. Scientific American asked HHC spokesperson Ian Michaels to explain what it takes to be ready to care for potential Ebola patients.

Image: Bellevue Hospital in New York City is one of eight designated 'Ebola-ready' hospitals in New York State. Credit: Bellevue Hospital

The economic uncertainty that continues to plague countries around the globe has contributed to an increased focus on innovation and the commercialization of research – and rightly so. Innovation drives prosperity. Unfortunately, this focus can lead to the questioning of the value of basic foundational research. That debate presents a false choice, and it’s only by understanding why, that universities’ contributions to the world will be fully realized.

Image: Free Digital Photos

Last week I joined a group of faculty, instructional designers, administrators, librarians and academic technology specialists at the University of North Florida Academic Technology Innovation Symposium. The symposium represents the type of localized exchange of best practices and pedagogical experiments that is vital to university communities, with ideas on display ranging from Google Glass to 3D printing (like the chocolate-holding keychain pictured above.) I was there to talk about extending models of gamification to consider agency and story-telling as key parts of the classroom experience.

Image: http://chronicle.com

According to the recently released Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's 2013 United States Report, the best time to become an entrepreneur is between 35-44.

Click to enlarge The survey of 5,698 working-age adults found that at that age, we're hitting a sweet spot of confidence: We see ourselves as having more opportunities and more capable than during our twenties, while fearing failure less.

Image: http://www.fastcompany.com

Version One Ventures has closed its second fund.

The early-stage fund venture capital firm for technology startups has raised $35 million for Fund II. The Vancouver-born VC firm says it will spread the capital across up to 25 companies at the Seed and Stage A stages.

Sean Robbins, the new head of Oregon's economic-development agency, said Friday that he plans to remake the state's business strategy. He said the state will shift from a focus on out-of-state business recruitment to "growing our own companies."

Image: “Startups, entrepreneurship create the most jobs – helping the existing companies we already have expand,” new Business Oregon director Sean Robbins told a sympathetic audience at the Portland Incubator Experiment's demo day Friday. (PIE image) 

Everybody talks about the importance of innovation. But history has proven that having one big idea isn’t enough. Long-term success depends on an entrepreneur’s ability to operationalize that big idea, while continuing to develop new products and processes. In the past, businesses have relied on a lot of trial and error to come up with new ideas. Today, data is driving innovation. The convergence of the Internet of Things with advanced technology solutions is putting meaningful data into the hands of decision-makers at the exact moment they need it. Consequently, using data to guide innovation, whether disruptive or incremental, will transform the global marketplace in ways we are only beginning to understand.

When interviewing with a startup, job seekers need to consider that the founders are looking for someone who will best complement their recipe for success.

Startups create millions of jobs each year — so what does this mean for job seekers? While it's true that startups offer a wealth of job opportunities, the startup lifestyle isn’t for everyone, and not everyone is a fit for every up-and-coming business. If you ask any successful startup founder about hiring habits, there are certain traits they look for when adding to their team. Below, nine startup founders and business leaders offer their advice for job seekers looking to enter the startup world.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Change is hard. I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. In both cases, it’s easy for them to become frustrated and give up, since most have never been trained in change management, and don’t even know what questions to ask.

More than a decade ago, I made a career pivot from corporate communications director to almost-all-commission recruiter. I took uncalculated risks and managed just about every aspect of the transition in a haphazard manner. Fortunately, I got lucky. It all worked out.

Image: FLICKR, RIBARNICA 

At an age when most kids may be thinking about the next new video game, Noah Cahoon, 13, was thinking of how to expand his father-son business, Paper Box Pilots. Recently, Cahoon was featured on the ABC pitch show, Shark Tank, where he was offered $35,000 for a full half of the business from Kevin O’Leary, a big name in the toy industry. And O’Leary was not the only shark to bite.

Image: http://smallbiztrends.com 

I’m a startup CEO and I drive for Uber.

It’s 9:30PM on a beautiful October Sunday in Austin and I am sitting in my car with Uber’s partner app lighting up my iPhone.

The last six months have been crazy. In May, I graduated from The University of Texas with a pair of master’s degrees, and two days later I joined the Seed Sumo startup accelerator.

Image: Image Credit: Uber 

I’ve been having this PR discussion with three separate portfolio companies at once so I thought I’d just publish my thoughts more broadly. I have written many times about PR so if you want a deep dive on the “how” of PR you may enjoy reading some of these posts.

Image: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com 

As a partner at Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Casper de Clercq has seen countless digital health startups try to get solutions off the ground. He’s also seen many fail.

According to de Clercq, 60 to 70 percent of digital health startups are likely to fail because they are unclear about their go-to market strategy, and don’t have a good understanding of who’s ultimately going to pay for their product.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

The University of California recently announced its entry into the venture capital arena with a $250 million commitment to spinning promising technologies out of its top-notch, 10-campus system. Perhaps every major research university in the US — collectively, recipients of over $40 billion in federal research funding yearly, not to mention the inflows of corporate research funds — wishes to emulate Stanford’s success in capitalizing on the market successes of university-developed technology (think Google).

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Entrepreneurship isn't for the faint at heart. Founders must forge their own path, gather resources and take on huge financial risks – all in the hopes of avoiding the fate that 80 to 90 percent of startups suffer: failure.

So to be successful, entrepreneurs really have beaten the odds – especially young entrepreneurs. Starting with almost no wealth, network or business experience, many create more success in a few years than most people do in their entire lifetime.

Entrepreneurs are a breed of their own. While many people fantasize about breaking free from their 9-to-5 to be their own boss, few people actually follow through. This is because the entrepreneurial lifestyle might look great from the outside, but is filled with speedbumps, challenges, and plenty of stress.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

As founder of the Ig Nobel awards, Marc Abrahams explores the world’s most improbable research. In this thought-provoking (and occasionally side-splitting) talk, he tells stories of truly weird science — and makes the case that silliness is critical to boosting public interest in science.