There's a lot of talk these days about the importance of innovation. All CEOs worth their low salt lunch want it. And they want it, of course, now.

What sparks innovation? People. What sparks people? Inspired ideas that meet a need -- whether expressed or unexpressed -- ideas with enough mojo to rally sustained support.

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Where are software startups these days? In San Francisco, California; Budapest, Hungary; Bangalore, India; Kigali, Rwanda; Skolkovo, Russia; and Shenzen, China. With the cloud boom, geographic boundaries are a thing of the past. Great companies can be built anywhere, selling apps and products to customers living anywhere.

Yet while the importance of geography is starting to dissolve, there are still times when a foreign business wants to set up shop in the U.S. Perhaps it’s because U.S. consumers feel more confident when purchasing online from a registered U.S. company. Maybe you want to sell your products on Amazon U.S., or use a payment gateway like Stripe that requires a U.S. bank account.

The newly released American Community Survey data for 2013 indicates little change in commuting patterns since 2010, a result that is to be expected in a period as short as three years. Among the 52 major metropolitan areas (over 1 million population), driving alone increased to 73.6% of commuting (including all travel modes and working at home). The one mode that experienced the largest drop was carpools, where the share of commuting dropped from 9.6% in 2010 to 9.0% in 2013. Doubtless most of the carpool losses represented gains in driving alone and transit. Transit grew, increasing from a market share of 7.9% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2013 in major metropolitan areas; similarly working at home increased from 4.4% to 4.6%, an increase similar to that of transit (Figure 1). Bicycles increased from 0.6% to 0.7%, while walking remained constant at 2.8%.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

I spent the day yesterday at the Disney Accelerator meeting with each of the teams and then had dinner with the CEOs and a lead mentor for each company. While I’m proud of all the Techstars programs, some of what I heard yesterday, especially around mentor engagement in the Disney program was remarkable. Our premise when we started doing branded accelerators with large companies was that we’d get deep mentor involvement from execs at the company we are partnering with. In Disney’s case, the access, exposure, and support of the Disney executives as mentors for the 11 companies in the program has been extraordinary.

The Small Business Administration is expanding its venture capital program for “impact investments” — the financing of businesses that generate social, environmental and economic returns, as well as profits. SBA’s Impact Investment Fund was created in 2011 as part of the agency’s already-existing Small Business Investment Companies program. The agency has been allocating $200 million in SBA-guaranteed debt to the Impact Investment Fund, which is then available to SBICs that are licensed as Impact SBICs. These SBICs commit to investing at least 50 percent of their capital in impact investments. Like other SBICs, they can get $2 of SBA-guaranteed debt for every $1 in capital they raise from investors, such as banks, pensions funds or wealthy individuals.

Finding the right person to marry obviously has an affect on your happiness, but new research shows that it also has a lot to do with your career success.

According to new research from Washington University in St. Louis, your spouse's personality influences your work life.

“Our study shows that it is not only your own personality that influences the experiences that lead to greater occupational success,” says lead author Joshua Jackson, “but that your spouse’s personality matters too.”

One of the outcomes of the 2008 global financial crisis was the “funding gap”. Banks were less willing to provide loans and investors moved capital into more stable platforms. In general, the market tolerated less risk.

In this new environment, raising capital became the greatest challenge for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). They needed new platforms. Enter crowdfunding.

In June 2014, Elon Musk released Tesla Motors’ patents “in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology,” as he wrote in a blog post on Tesla’s website. Musk wrote that he felt it was impossible for his company to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis, and that the world would benefit from more companies adopting his technology. 

Image: Tesla patent image from http://patft.uspto.gov/

This Paper is the second of three ‘State of Innovation’ Papers written by Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy1 for the British Council-led CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools) project 2012-14 (www.centres-eu.org). This paper was written following the second Centres conference, held in London in January 2013.

This Paper is the first of three ‘State of Innovation’ Reports written by Tom Fleming

Creative Consultancy for the British Council-led CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship

in Schools) project 2012-14 (www.centres-eu.org). This paper was written following

the first CENTRES conference held in Kraków, Poland in September 2012.

It’s a great time to be invested in venture capital funds. So, naturally, everyone is freaked out.

“Is now the time to double down, or to slam on the brakes?”

That was the question posed to me earlier this week by a portfolio manager who has investments in dozens of venture capital funds, including some of the industry’s most illustrious names. I’m not (quite) so egotistical as to think he would make multi-million decisions on my two cents, but the inquiry was sincere. This is an extraordinarily tricky time to be investing in venture capital, perhaps more so than at any other time in the past two decades.

“Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.” Those words, from early 20th century investor Roger Babson, are an accurate reflection of the watchful VC investing we’ve seen in the last quarter.

VCs are hesitant to place big bets on the untested start-up, often holding back until the later stage financing rounds to make a significant play. And they are more likely to hold on to their stock at the time of the IPO. 

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If knowledge is power, then predictive analytics promises the ultimate knowledge — that of the future. Such knowledge does not come easily, but the increasing density of digital information, deeper automated connections across companies, and increased storage and computing power create new options for enterprise leaders. For the first time in history, the predictive future — the increasing awareness and likelihood of potential future actions and outcomes — is within reach. No wonder, then, that executives have placed predictive analytics at the top of the executive agenda since 2012, according to a recent Accenture survey.

We know multitasking doesn't work. And yet we can't seem to help ourselves.

And while it may seem like having 20 browser tabs open helps you get more done, all it really does is divide your focus and slow down your progress on any given task.

At least that’s the notion behind Tabless Thursdays.

Increasing numbers of adults are throwing away their office chairs in favor of standing desks, believing that staying on their feet during working hours will improve their health. Should we be encouraging kids to do the same?

Yes, according to a study from three schools in Texas. It shows that when kids are given the opportunity to stand during classroom time, they burn more calories and seem to have greater attention span.

Image: http://www.fastcoexist.com

Some of the country’s top business schools are requiring potential students to be camera ready.

In an effort to virtually meet and select the best candidates, the MBA programs at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Yale School of Management, and the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management have added mandatory video essays to their applications.

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I never thought anything was unusual about my current working situation until I explained it to my dad:

“Well, I’m working at Hachette Monday through Thursday 9-5, I do work for Kate White on the commute back and forth, during my lunch break, and on Fridays, and I write for Levo and The Gloss (plus my own blog, for which I don’t pay myself) at nights and on the weekends.” He goes, “Wow, welcome to the new economy.”

Those are two words you might not expect from Mark Cuban, Shark Tank’s only billionaire judge. But he’s had his share. Take, for instance, when he tried selling powdered milk. It was a swift lesson in failure -- about as fast as reconstituting powdered milk with water. “I honestly thought it would make a killer business and it lasted minutes,” he says.

I get it. You want to be an entrepreneur. Enough of the drab cubicle or undersized office. Enough of the super-long meetings with the formal agenda. Enough of the -- ugh -- corporate cafeteria. On to the exposed brick walls, casual wear and foosball tables. Oh, and eventually becoming a zillionaire.

An Entrepreneur is an individual who starts and runs a business with limited resources and planning, taking account of all the risks and rewards of his or her business venture. The business idea is usually a new innovation, product or service, rather than an existing business model.

Such entrepreneurial ventures target high-returns, with high level of uncertainty. The entrepreneur is willing to put his or her financial security and career at stake to take risks on an idea, spending time as well as capital on an uncertain venture. (Who were the 10 Greatest Entrepreneurs?)

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