Implementation matters. That may be no surprise to executives who have lived through the challenges of actually executing strategies and major change programs. But what may surprise you is just how much impact implementation has on a range of measures of corporate health.

I've listened to thousands of fundraising pitches in my six years so far at Redpoint. Some with demos, some without. Some with hockey-stick charts, and others just an idea. I'll never forget one meeting when the founders presented an entirely hand-drawn deck on 12 pieces of paper. The extent of founders' creativity is hard to over-state.

When hiring data scientists, there’s nothing more frustrating than making the wrong hire. Data scientists are in notoriously high demand, hard to attract, and command large salaries — compounding the cost of a mistake. At The Data Incubator, we’ve talked to dozens of employers looking to hire data scientists from our training program, from large corporates like Pfizer and JPMorgan Chase to smaller tech startups like Foursquare and Upstart. Employers that didn’t have good hiring experiences in the past often failed to ask a key question:

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Earlier this year, Detroit hosted Techweek for the first time, an annual weeklong festival that brings together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts to showcase, celebrate and enable startup companies and innovators. As CEO of Stik.com, a tech startup that moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Detroit, and a Representative from the Detroit Metro area who co-chairs the House Caucus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, we share a vision -- making Michigan the startup capital of the Midwest.

A recent biography of Andrew Mellon pointed out that as the fourth son of a very successful father he was given the Mellon Bank to run, which he ran essentially as a venture capital fund.

His hits included Alcoa Aluminum, which headquartered in Mellon’s Pittsburg. Wouldn’t we all like to have that kind of winner?

The book also reported that it was possible that Mellon missed a bet and refused funding to Henry Ford, who took his ideas to Detroit.

Successful inventions often spring from the minds of individual inventors—we often think of Thomas Edison as the classic example. But innovation is a team sport, according to a new Harvard Business Review article by a team of researchers—Linda Hill, Greg Brandeau, Emily Truelove and Kent Lineback.

When I see gamification news in my email or on Twitter, it tends to involve an insurance company or employer wellness plan that wants to motivate behavior change, encourage patient engagement or track ability. But pharmaceutical companies’ interest in the space is increasing, particularly because companies are in search of a way to change patient behavior — especially for chronic conditions. DATATRAK — a data tracking business for clinical trials — sees gamification in a different perspective. It views gamification as a useful way to improve the execution of clinical trials among life science companies.

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The college town, one of America’s most appealing and unique features, grew out of the Age of Reason, and the concept of a regional, liberal-arts college nurtured by a small town has been intertwined with American history. Today, with enrollment dropping, the small, private college seems to be going the same way as the typewriter, the newspaper and the independent bookstore. While some colleges struggle to survive, the institution of the college town lives in suspended animation, ready to support whatever form its major employer may take. One thing’s for sure: the reinvention of the post-college town is coming.

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Ethan Zuckerman’s job is to see the Internet for what it is.

As the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media and the author of Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, Zuckerman studies civic engagement within digital infrastructures. He has made the case that we are not as connected as we appear to be.

Zuckerman’s research explodes what he calls the “myth of connectivity.” As he claims, “The world is more global. Our problems and economics are global. And though we are inundated with content, the media is getting less global.”

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KANSAS CITY, Mo., SANTA CLARA, Calif., and NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --  The Angel Resource Institute (ARI) , Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and CB Insights released the Q1 2014 Halo Report today, a national survey of angel group investment activity. The report finds median round sizes increased to $980K per deal, and pre-money valuations rose to $2.7 million in the quarter. Investments in Internet-related companies jumped significantly, while dollars invested in mobile and healthcare companies dropped.

A couple of months back, I noted that despite all the attention paid to Silicon Valley’s startup economy, overall entrepreneurship in the U.S. has been falling for more than three decades. Last week, economists Ian Hathaway and Robert Litan at the Brookings Institution highlighted a related trend: American companies are getting older. In 1992, 60 percent of Americans worked for companies that had been around for at least 16 years. Today, that share tops 70 percent.

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There are a number of obstacles preventing entrepreneurs from turning their great business ideas into a reality, new research finds.

Overall, nearly two-thirds of the North Americans surveyed said they consider themselves innovators, of which 72 percent believe they are sitting on an idea for "the next big thing," according to the 2014 North America Innovation Report from Philips.

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It's well-known that the US population is aging as the large Baby Boom generation shuffles off to retirement. Less well-known is that corporate America is aging as well.

Ian Hathaway and Robert Litan find overwhelming evidence that this is the case in a new study for the Brookings Institution: The share of companies that are more than 15 years old has increased dramatically since the early 1990s.

 Image: http://www.vox.com/ - Old guy, old company — typical America Scott Olson

The National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter) is accepting proposals for its Pathways to Innovation Program.   The Pathways to Innovation Program is designed to help institutions fully incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into undergraduate engineering education. The program is run by Epicenter, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Stanford University and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

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You have a beautifully designed website. Check. Targeted keywords on the website. Check. You have a way to capture email addresses on your website. Check. So why aren’t you getting more customers from your small business website? You might have a decent flow of people visiting your site, but if they’re not converting to sales, it’s time to look at the reasons why. Start by examining your bounce rate.

Networking is a skill that's critical for career advancement. While talking to strangers and approaching new people are challenging for most people, those tasks can be especially difficult for introverts.

Jacqueline Whitmore, an etiquette expert and author of "Poised for Success: Mastering The Four Qualities That Distinguish Outstanding Professionals" (St. Martin's Press, 2011), said that networking can be challenging for introverts because they are often better at listening than they are at making conversation with strangers.

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You're on your way to college, which everyone is telling you will be the best four years of your life. But as excited as you are to head off to school, you're in a bit of a snag: You're looking for a way into the American tech sector, but coding and programming aren't your thing.

Image: FLICKR, JAMES VAUGHN 

WASHINGTON –The U.S. Small Business Administration has received more than 800 applications from accelerators and incubators hoping to win one of 50 cash prizes of $50,000 each in the SBA’s first Growth Accelerator Fund competition. August 2 was the deadline to submit an application. Accelerators and entrepreneurial ecosystem models representing industries that include technology, health services, agriculture, fashion and food production from 49 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico make up the applicant pool.

Organizations from corporations to universities are looking for new innovations all the time. The reason is because they need to be sure to release new ideas to keep their audiences captivated. An innovation challenge can be the way to spark the ideas that can transform the organization.

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