The Pacific archipelago of Palau is regarded as one of the best diving locations in the world, with hundreds of varieties of fish and coral found within its reefs. In an effort to protect those natural treasures from harmful chemicals, Palau recently became the first country to ban many types of sunscreen.

Amid growing anxiety about the world’s oceans, advocates hope that Palau’s law—which follows a similar measure by the state of Hawaii—may be just the first swell of a new legal wave.

In the past few years, artificial intelligence has advanced so quickly that it now seems that hardly a month goes by without a newsworthy AI breakthrough. In areas as wide-ranging as speech translation, medical diagnosis and game play, we have seen computers outperform humans in startling ways. This has sparked a discussion about what impact AI will have on employment.

By Tom Still

MADISON, Wis. – Six weeks ago in the art-conscious town of Santa Fe, N.M., a somewhat eclectic group of technologists, architects, city planners, fabricators and artists of all persuasions got together to talk about the future of art and how it can transform public settings. 

Given that southwest city’s affinity for all things creative, perhaps that’s not surprising – except the gathering of about 170 people from around the world revolved around CODAworx, a young Madison company.

As the midterm elections loom, one of the key talking points is a booming economy and low unemployment numbers.

However, when it comes to America's largest companies, a growth in full-time employment doesn't appear to be accelerating as much as the Republican Party would like us to think. And while retail and fast-food establishments have seen an increase in seasonal and part-time employee counts, America's stalwart technology companies, such as IBM ($NYSE:IBM) and Hewlett-Packard ($NYSE:HPQ), appear to be stagnating and even shrinking their full-time workforces.

I just finished a new book by Stephen J. Cloobeck, “Checking In: Hospitality-Driven Thinking, Business, and You”. As a self-made entrepreneur and former chairman of Diamond Resorts International, he asserts that the five biggest companies by market value today, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, aren’t really tech, but hospitality companies.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Milwaukee, Wisconsin  – November 6, 2018 – The University Economic Development Association(UEDA) announced winners of its annual Awards of Excellence program during their Annual Summit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Leading initiatives from across North America competed in a six-month process, including application, peer review, live presentations, and, ultimately, selection by attendees of the UEDA Annual Summit as category leaders. The Awards of Excellence Program recognizes organizations who are transforming their campuses into engines of economic prosperity through leading edge initiatives in six categories: 1) Innovation; 2) Innovation + Talent; 3) Talent 4) Talent + Place; 5) Place; and 6) Place + Innovation. This year, in conjunction with the reveal of their new brand, UEDA added the Editor’s Choice Award. The Editor’s Choice Award is given to a recipient of each of the categories. What makes this award so special, though, is that it is not selected from the finalist of the category, but the winner is chosen from all those who sent in proposals.

Athens, Greece has been named the 2018 European Capital of Innovation for the innovative ways in which it has overcome social and economic challenges and turned them into new opportunities. 

The €1 million iCapital first prize was announced at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal on 6 November, with five other European cities receiving runner-up prizes of €100,000.

TAMPA — It’s been not quite a year since Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik outlined a multi-part plan to nurture innovation in the Tampa Bay area, and while progress since then has been promising, it’s still the "second or third inning" of a long-term effort, he said Tuesday.

"We have momentum," he said after speaking to about 400 participants at an innovation summit sponsored by Dreamit Ventures, the startup accelerator in which he invested $12 million last year. "It’s early stage momentum, (but) there is a detectable excitement in this region about where we can go in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship."

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, some of the most valuable real estate in the city of 113,000 can be found clustered around the Kendall Square station along Boston’s metro, the T. This cluster of labs, research centers, and corporate offices, located within a 10-minute walk of the rail station, has been called “the most innovative square mile on earth,” according to a Boston Consulting Group report from 2009, and a birthplace of the biotech industry.

In his introduction to Working, the landmark 1974 oral history of work, Studs Terkel positioned meaning as an equal counterpart to financial compensation in motivating the American worker. “(Work) is about a search…for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor,” he wrote. Among those “happy few” he met who truly enjoyed their labors, Terkel noted a common attribute: They had “a meaning to their work over and beyond the reward of the paycheck.”

Who are you?  Billy Gene Shaw: I’m an entrepreneur who went from living at my parents’ house with over $50,000 in debt to building a multi-million-dollar business four years later. Now, my school teaches other entrepreneurs how I did that: by getting customers online using Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Image: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Buying holiday gifts for coworkers can be tricky. Your decision will depend on how well you know the person and what their interests are. However, there are some safe bets you can turn to in order to give them something fun and useful.

It’s hard to overstate how much business success relies on better, faster decision making. Bain &  ompany research found that decision making effectiveness drives 95% of business performance. The UK Institute for Employment found that decision practices impact 50% of employee engagement. Your company’s decision practices have a huge impact on how your business and your employees perform.

How are the world’s leading innovators able to out-smart and outperform their competitors year after year—and in a few cases, decade after decade?  The 2018 Global Innovation 1000 study, conducted by Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting group, looked back at 15 years’ worth of data on R&D spending trends and financial results, and found the answers in a very select group of companies that are able to consistently launch market-winning new products and services and beat their industry peers on seven key financial metrics—all the while spending their R&D dollars more efficiently. We call this very select group of leading companies high-leverage innovators.

Image: https://www.forbes.com

How are the world’s leading innovators able to out-smart and outperform their competitors year after year—and in a few cases, decade after decade?  The 2018 Global Innovation 1000 study, conducted by Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting group, looked back at 15 years’ worth of data on R&D spending trends and financial results, and found the answers in a very select group of companies that are able to consistently launch market-winning new products and services and beat their industry peers on seven key financial metrics—all the while spending their R&D dollars more efficiently. We call this very select group of leading companies high-leverage innovators.

The British newspaper the Daily Mail once ranked the greatest technological inventions of the 21st century in order. The shortlist included the iPhone, Facebook, YouTube, and 4G, all of which have markedly changed our way of life. These technologies have redefined the workforce, too. Learning a specific skill or trade is no longer enough in an economy driven by technology, and employees are expected to be tech savvy as well. What’s more, new technology has created many new occupations. Below are eight new jobs that have resulted from technological advances. 

 Image: https://hr.cpjobs.com

Five principles are useful in guiding CEOs in their third, fourth, and fifth years on the job.

There is a wealth of research into how new CEOs should successfully transition into the leading role. Less frequently studied is how top CEOs outperform competitors during the second act of their tenures. In this Inside the Strategy Room podcast episode, McKinsey’s Sean Brown talks with senior partner Rodney Zemmel and associate partner Matt Cuddihy about the five themes that emerged from their research into how leading CEOs managed the middle part of their tenures.

Salt Lake City is a picturesque place to retire where you can golf and enjoy winter sports. The economy is great with plenty of outdoor activities and volunteering opportunities to keep you busy.

Finnish and American researchers in evolutionary biology conducted an online experiment and survey which reveals that women prefer and are more likely to invest in their daughters and men in their sons. The study was designed to test the impact of parental resources on offspring sex preferences.

Specifically, the authors sought to test the Trivers-Willard hypothesis which predicts that parents in good conditions will bias investment towards sons, while parents in poor conditions will bias investment towards daughters.

Let’s face it: Everyday business writing can be hard. Facing down a blank page or screen, you want to get your point across to your colleagues or audience, but it’s sometimes a painful process if the words don’t come naturally.

Image: Kinga Cichewicz/Unsplash