Picture this: A developer owns a plot of land in a gentrifying neighborhood. Under current zoning codes, and with current market incentives, the best bang they could get for their buck is to build high-rise luxury apartments. But this neighborhood doesn’t need luxury apartments. It needs a supermarket, and affordable housing for current, low-income residents. The existing zoning code isn’t designed to consider those needs. It just states that this plot is zoned residential.

Image: “Starry Night: Van Gogh Meets Leeds”, an algorithm painting by Tom Blackwell. (Image by Tom Blackwell via Flickr)

In Quirky, NYU Stern professor Melissa Schilling embraces what you might call the “great person” view of innovation. Many recent studies of innovation have focused on the importance of collaboration and social setting, and emphasized the ways in which good ideas are typically the product of many minds, rather than one. Schilling looks instead at eight individuals whom she calls “serial breakthrough innovators”: Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Dean Kamen, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk.

Image: https://www.strategy-business.com

Please join us on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 for a Healthcare Panel presentation and networking event at the INOVA Personalized Health Conference Center.

Investment into venture-backed companies is already on pace to experience another record-breaking year in 2018, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, the authoritative quarterly report on venture capital activity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem jointly produced by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Coming off multiple years of record fundraising, just over $8 billion was raised by venture funds in 1Q 2018, a slight decline from previous quarters. Despite the slow start, several billion-dollar mega-funds have since been announced, which are expected to boost fund size and capital raised as 2018 unfolds. The sustained momentum in venture fundraising has continued to fuel ramped dealmaking.

Just 17 percent of startups in the U.S. have a woman founder. Even worse, three percent of all venture capital is going to female-led companies. And yet, according to a study by First Round Capital, companies with a woman on the founding team are outperforming all-male companies by 63 percent. So why aren’t more women getting funded?

KIRKLAND, Quebec and TORONTO, April 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pfizer Canada is proud to announce an $800,000 contribution to MaRS Innovation to support the vision and mission of MaRS Innovation by providing funding for new ideas or technologies in the health sciences including; therapeutics, diagnostic and treatment tools, manufacturing technologies, and technologies that enable health sciences research.

The MaRS Innovation – Pfizer Translational Research Fund will be managed by MaRS Innovation and projects in the area of cardiovascular disease, inflammation, immunology, rare diseases, vaccines, and oncology will be prioritized.

Walking the wards of Singapore’s KK Women's and Children’s Hospital (KKH), you’re sure to notice one room in particular. Its entrance bears a painted legend that reads “The Amazing Room”, beside a large horizontal window depicting an illustrated scene from the world of Winnie the Pooh, complete with a golden pot marked “Hunny”. Inside, a playroom atmosphere prevails, with bean bags, a flat-screen television and a shelf full of children’s books. A few pieces of medical equipment are the sole clue to the room’s more sober-minded purpose as a setting for treatments and therapy. “The Amazing Room” is clearly designed to remind patients on the ward that they are also kids.

Having the best product won’t help your start-up without a focus on segmentation, targeting and positioning.

In Silicon Valley, it's often said that product is king. But if product is king, marketing is the queen and I’ve seen too many companies with great products fail miserably because of poor marketing. The problem is not the quality of their product videos, websites or apps but their inability to talk to the right people or tell those folks what they really need to hear.

What’s Working in Washington EXTRA is an opportunity for us to discuss an issue of particular interest to the region. We’re talking today about life science, biotechnology, medical devices, and how these industries are successful and well-represented represented here in the D.C. region. Joining us to discuss the growth of these sectors are two experts: Richard Bendis, president & CEO of BioHealth Innovation Incorporated, and Jeff Gallagher, CEO of Virginia Biotechnology Association, or VABio.

According to Deloitte’s latest Global Human Capital Trends report, 61% of companies are already redesigning their existing jobs to more readily incorporate AI and robotics into their operations.

Of those surveyed, four in 10 believe that automation will have a major impact on jobs, whilst 72% of HR and company leaders feel that AI is a topic of significant importance in business.

Christy Wyskiel, an investor, entrepreneur, and ecosystem builder, serves as Senior Advisor to President Daniels at Johns Hopkins University. She runs the group Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, which serves as the tech transfer, corporate partnership, and start-up arm of the university. In this episode of BioTalk, Christy and Rich discuss Tech Transfer, Innovation, Investment, Partnerships, Collaborations, and other important areas that she and JHU work on every day.

Image: http://www.biohealthinnovation.org

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. But what does that really mean? Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Ready to scale is when you have a proven product and a proven business model, about to expand to new geographies and markets.

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards. World Changing Ideas, now in its second year, celebrates businesses, policies, and nonprofits that are poised help shift society to a more sustainable and more equitable future.

Below, you can see the winners in 12 different categories. Each category was judged by a jury of prominent social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, thinkers, and designers, plus a Fast Company editor.

Image: Photos (from top left): Lia Diagnostics, Kind Foundation, Digifarm, Catherine Yrisarri/© Chasing Coral, courtesy Lauren Lee, Thor Trucks, Humanium Metal Initiative, GreyMatters, Kanpur Flowercycling, LA-Más, Ginkgo Bioworks, Eviation

Research suggests some ways artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, and blockchain are reshaping creative work.

New technologies are reshaping the way we live and work, and their effects naturally touch the creative economy—art, journalism, music, and more. As artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, virtual reality (VR), and blockchain continue to emerge as powerful forces, could they be used to greater benefit?

There might be many reasons why your job makes you miserable. Maybe your work is boring, your manager is terrible, or your company just has awful benefits or a crappy work culture. If you aren’t experiencing any workplace malaise, bravo! You’ve hit the jackpot.

But if you crave more satisfaction at work, you don’t necessarily need to find a new job or escape your boss. According to Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas, a happiness researcher at UC Berkeley, where she teaches a popular edX course called “The Science of Happiness” and serves as Director of the university’s Greater Good Science Center, we’re all capable of making ourselves happier at work–we just have to, well, work at it.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

Building a culture of continuous innovation holds significant rewards for enterprises that need to address constantly changing market environments and new competitive landscapes and also want to unleash the untapped potential of their broader employee base. While many companies have incentive programs for inventions and improvement proposals, their impact is often quite limited. In the following article, I would like to discuss some considerations and practices that are based on my experience of leading large organizations in the technology industry and have proven successful over the years.

When I taught elementary and middle school, I made it a priority to ensure my students were able to connect the information they were learning in class with the real-world. At the time, teaching in this manner was not widely accepted. However, I knew that if my students couldn't take what they learned in class and apply it to their daily and future lives, I was not doing my job as an educator.

It happens all the time: A group of managers get together at a resort for two days to hammer out a “strategic plan.” Done and dusted, they all head home. But have they produced a plan with a strategy?

At the start of my public seminars on strategic planning I ask attendees, who rank from board members and CEOs to middle management, to write down an example of a strategy on a sheet of paper. They look at me quizzically at first as they realize that this is a tough assignment. I reassure them that this is indeed a hard question and they plow ahead.

Entrepreneurs from Northern Ireland could get a huge cash boost for their business as cross-border body InterTradeIreland launches its Seedcorn Business Competition 2018.

There is a total prize fund of €280,000 (£244k) on offer from the competition, with firms getting a cash injection of up to €100,000 (£87k) to help them develop.

InterTrade said that with seed finance hard to attract, "this competition is an opportunity for ambitious start-ups to get their new ideas off the ground".

The programme also provides support and advice from investment experts through a programme modelled on a real venture capital process.

When a leading West Coast “think tank” examined how well colleges and universities are turning research into patents, companies and products, a somewhat surprising name appeared on the list.

Ranked 125th in the nation, in a neighborhood with Texas Tech, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, San Diego State, UW-Milwaukee and Oklahoma, was the WiSys Technology Foundation.

Based on issued patents, licensing agreements, licensing income and startups, the rankings by the California-based Milken Institute showed that WiSys – which was created to manage intellectual property on University of Wisconsin campuses outside Madison and Milwaukee – is coming into its own.