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innovation DAILY

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.

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Many marketing organizations are still operating like it’s the 1990s — or even earlier. Duplicative marketing teams exist within the same company across multiple product lines. Digital marketing teams are centralized yet isolated from the broader organization. Marketing groups are splintered into communications, consumer marketing, brand marketing, and digital marketing units with no common thread in strategy and execution.

 

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Is it time for a CEO school to train leaders for the top job or is it even a profession one can be schooled in?

A participant of an INSEAD executive development programme recently challenged us to consider an interesting concept: “Your institution misses one very important programme – CEO school. Running a company is a profession just like medicine or flying an aircraft. You should train for that.” We had never thought of it as a profession. Intrigued we decided to find out what people who professionally manage companies think of their jobs, whether they consider it’s worth having occupational requirements for it, special curricula and, who knows, standard qualification exams?

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Most employees are going through the motions at their jobs. To re-engage them, leaders must translate organisational objectives into meaningful aims.

At a quarry, outside a village, worked twenty stone cutters supervised by a foreman. The foreman shouted at and abused them all day, forcing them to cut more stones. Even during lunchtime, he would keep an eagle eye, not allowing them an extra minute. 

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FORT COLLINS - Colorado State University set new research records in Fiscal Year 2014, reinforcing CSU’s role as a significant contributor to the state’s innovation ecosystem. CSU researchers filed 122 invention disclosures and were issued 49 patents, beating out the previous records of 119 and 27 respectively. The University also tied its record for license agreements. CSU Ventures, the technology transfer and commercialization agent for the University, negotiated 41 agreements with companies to license CSU technologies.

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Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel has been behind some prominent technologies: he cofounded PayPal and was an early investor in such companies as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tesla Motors. But he’s convinced that technological progress has been stagnant for decades. According to Thiel, developments in computers and the Internet haven’t significantly improved our quality of life. In a new book, he warns entrepreneurs that conventional business wisdom is preventing them and society as a whole from making major advances in areas, such as energy or health, where technology could make the world a better place—though he doesn’t offer detailed answers on how we might unlock such breakthroughs. Thiel spoke to MIT Technology Review’s San Francisco bureau chief, Tom Simonite, at the offices of his venture capital firm, Founder’s Fund.

 

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Laura W Geller

At one time or another, most of us have struggled to do the things we know we should. Whether it’s in our personal lives or at work, we fall short of a goal, not because it’s unattainable but because we fail to exert the effort required.

Katherine Milkman is determined to help us do better next time. In one of her most recent studies, the James G. Campbell Jr. Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania looks at what she and her coauthors call the “fresh-start effect”: the energy and determination we feel when we’re able to wipe the slate clean.

 

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Koean Startup Battle

Think startup hotspots and Korea isn’t exactly the first country to spring to mind. Thing is, the East Asian country is making some real progress when it comes to entrepreneurship and building a solid startup ecosystem. One of the most visible demonstrations of that is Startup Battle Korea, taking place today as part of the Global Mobile Vision conference in Seoul. These are the 10 companies taking part and aiming to disrupt the world, starting with Korea.

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speech

It’s a little flippant to say that building a billion dollar company isn’t easy. It’s a little bit like saying that winning an ultra-marathon isn’t easy. Just like an ultra-marathon though, there are certain things you have to get right if you’re to have any hope of even competing. But what are those things? How, in other words, do you even know what it is you’re supposed to be getting right? Well one person who has a few ideas worth listening to is Kevin Hale, a partner at American seed accelerator Y Combinator.

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exit

Silicon Valley talent comes from all over the world. Approximately 30 percent of software, semiconductor and computing companies in the US are founded by foreigners, and over 50 percent of tech startups in Silicon Valley are founded by immigrants. Consider this along with the fact that an absurdly high number of acquisitions in the tech industry (and acquisitions in general) happen right here in California.

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As a startup lawyer and strategic advisor in Silicon Valley, I find that a significant percentage of my overall time is focused on helping startup founders learn and manage the venture fundraising process and tactics.

One of the most common requests I receive from my clients (and many others in my broader network) is for introductions to venture capitalists. They also ask me for advice on how to ask for introductions from other connectors in their network.

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apple

While there’s debate over whether there’s a shortage of qualified tech workers, there’s one thing no one argues about: Tech companies pay their employees well.

We’ve heard of senior engineers getting a base salary of $160,000, with stock options and other benefits on top. Some interns are earning $7,000 a month, which amounts to $84,000 a year.

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Henry Doss

If there is anything certain about the experience of new college students, newly arrived at new schools, pursuing a new stage of life it is this:  They will be confronting one vexing question, every day.  This question will influence what they choose to study, and what they pursue outside the classroom.  Their parents will ask this question constantly; advisors, friends and teachers will ask this question, even when they’re not asking it.  It will be the one constant in their educational experience, the dominant concern.  It will trump everything else.  That question is:

 

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idea

South African business leaders are more likely than their global counterparts to encourage creative behaviours and disruptive processes to drive innovation, this according to General Electric's Global Innovation Barometer which also found that SMEs and start-ups are seen as key drivers of innovation. For more CNBC Africa is joined by Tim Schweikert, President & CEO of GE South Africa.

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Since its founding in 1780, the American Academy has served the nation as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge.

As one of the nation’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, the Academy convenes leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to examine the critical issues facing our global society.

Through studies, publications, and programs on Science, Engineering, and Technology; Global Security and Inter- national Affairs; the Humanities, Arts, and Education; and American Institutions and the Public Good, the Academy provides authoritative and nonpartisan policy advice to deci- sion-makers in government, academia, and the private sector.

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Www utah edu innovate Innovate 2014 LR pdf utm medium email utm campaign Innovate Report 2014 utm content Innovate Report 2014 CID 1c0297bacf2f502fe98e05cd51647821 utm source Email 20marketing 20software utm term READ 20REPORT

Within this report, you will find a celebration of innovation. These remarkable examples of suc- cess illustrate the unique spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration and discovery that permeates all areas of study at the University of Utah. The U is a place where professors and researchers are given the freedom to imagine ways to make a lasting impact on humanity and the resources to make those ideas real.

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wine

One sip of a perfectly poured glass of wine leads to an explosion of flavours in your mouth. Researchers at Aarhus University have now developed a nanosensor that can mimic what happens in your mouth when you drink wine. The sensor measures how you experience the sensation of dryness in the wine.

When wine growers turn their grapes into wine, they need to control a number of processes to bring out the desired flavour in the product that ends up in the wine bottle. An important part of the taste is known in wine terminology as astringency, and it is characteristic of the dry sensation you get in your mouth when you drink red wine in particular. It is the tannins in the wine that bring out the sensation that – otherwise beyond compare – can be likened to biting into an unripe banana. It is mixed with lots of tastes in the wine and feels both soft and dry.

 

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presidential innovation fellows

We recently welcomed the newest group of Presidential Innovation Fellows into the federal government. This diverse group represents some of the nation’s most talented and creative civic-minded innovators.

More than 1,000 candidates applied to serve the country in this unique capacity. From this pool of amazing and incredibly motivated applicants, we selected almost 30 designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and executives to bring their unique skills into government.

 

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How long can U.S. science lobbyists keep repeating the same message—that boosting federal funding for basic research and rMicrosoft Research (ROBERT SCOBLE/FLICKR/CREATIVE COMMONS)emoving barriers to innovation is a proven way to ensure economic prosperity—without tuning out their intended audience? And is there any reason to think that those who have resisted their pleas in the past will warm to their arguments this time around?

Image: ROBERT SCOBLE/FLICKR/CREATIVE COMMONS

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Jeff Margolis

When it comes to science and technology, just what is Illinois really good at?

The Illinois Science and Technology Coalition spent the past six months figuring that out, and some of the answers might surprise you:

• Medicine/biotech

• Advanced materials, such as metal alloys and polymers

• Nanotech

• Batteries/energy storage

• Biomass/energy

 

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