Two weeks ago I broke down the sectors and trends behind 2021’s three quarters of a trillion dollars of energy transition investment. Renewable energy was the leading sector, followed by electrified transport, taking in a total of more than $600 billion dollars. Most of that money flows to the financing of assets that will last decades (in the case of electric cars) or many decades (in the case of power generators).

Image: Sweden’s SSAB AB, with utility Vattenfall AB and miner LKAB, is developing fossil-free steel at a plant in Lulea, Sweden.Photographer: Mikael Sjoberg/Bloomberg

Business coaches seem as ubiquitous as leaves growing on trees in the spring. We either know someone in our inner circle who is a coach or are constantly bombarded online by them. Raise your hand if you've had to sit through a 30-second Youtube ad from a coach or you're getting inundated with messages from them in your LinkedIn inbox and Instagram DMs — or all of the above.  

Over the last couple years, resilience became the most important skill to learn in business. Often associated with the sporting world, resilience is defined as “the role of mental processes and behavior in promoting personal assets and protecting an individual from the potential negative effect of stressors.” Today, these processes and behaviors are critical to business success.

In my many years of consulting with business leaders and entrepreneurs, I have found that all of them realize the value of communication, in spreading the outbound message of mission and goals to their team and constituents. Yet, in their urgency to get things done, many forget to focus on really listening to input as an equally important part of their leadership role and image.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

When you're starting a new business, there are a lot of priorities to juggle and a lot of learning curves to overcome. Maybe you're great at marketing, but need to work on your finance skills. Maybe you have enough capital but aren't sure where to begin with production.

Learning from others who have been through this process is one of the greatest tools to use to your advantage as a new entrepreneur. Here, eight Young Entrepreneur Council members each share the one piece of business advice they received as a new entrepreneur that most impacted their entrepreneurial journey.

Image: Young Entrepreneur Council members share the best advice they've ever received. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS.

Apple’s augmented reality work is getting more real.

The company has kept its work on augmented reality glasses fairly well hidden, but the media and analyst reports of the existence of the new wearable device are getting more frequent. The current thinking is that Apple is working on an AR headset product (than may also support VR) for release next year. It’s also working on a more svelte pair of AR glasses to be released sometime after that.

Image: Rawpixel

I hear too often from business owners and entrepreneurs that they are bombarded by so many requests and problems, that they have trouble sorting out the daily crises from opportunities with a major payback for the business. In other words, how do you recognize the challenges that really need your leadership, versus the less critical demands that seem to always bubble to the top?

Throughout most of our job-seeking lives, we are required to demonstrate our skills as a precursor to employment. Our resumes list our previous companies and associated roles as evidence of our experience. Job interviews consist of recalling examples when we demonstrated our capabilities—everything must have been recorded in measurable successes, lest we have no “proof” of our accomplishments.  

So, when we decide to go it alone and launch a new entrepreneurial project, we can often find ourselves wondering if we are out of our depth—without proof of the ability to succeed outside of the structure of our deeds within another company, it is easy to doubt ourselves. We’ve been trained to be skeptical of any proposed capability that isn't measured by our resume. 

Seventy-five percent of the total value of US companies that have floated since 1995 has been created by venture-backed firms, including Alphabet, Facebook, and countless others. But how did an obscure investment strategy become the engine of modern innovation and where might it go next?

Sebastian Mallaby, author of an excellent new book, The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the history (and future) of venture capital.

In the pandemic era, many countries have primarily adopted Keynesian demand-side stimulus measures in their economic packages and budgets. India has stood apart by mainly adopting supply-side policy reform-rich budgets. The Union Budget 2022-23 continues this trend and incorporates structural measures with a 25-year outlook. While capital expenditure was needed to aid economic recovery and mitigate global monetary policies in the short-term, equally important was the need to chart a robust post-pandemic recovery path in the medium to long-term. Towards that, this Budget (in the background of other government and regulatory initiatives), provides policy signposts for a potentially globally competitive economy based on connectivity, creativity, circularity and cooperation.

What sparks paradigm-shifting and disruptive innovation in any business? It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible. As an entrepreneur in a startup, how do you know if you have this potential, and what are the steps to get from an innovation to a revolution?

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Balancing entrepreneurship with a full-time job takes a bit of strategic planning and substantial effort, but with the right system in place you can balance both without having to sacrifice one for the other.

I spoke with Cole Jacobs, an entrepreneur who balances two separate businesses while also working a full-time job as a manager leading a team of 800 employees, and he shared his tips for success.

When Covid-19 hit, many growing businesses weren’t prepared for the digital transformation required to keep the doors open. Overnight, they had to become experts at video conferencing, messaging platforms and collaborating online with colleagues and clients alike.

Not all were able to make the adjustment. Data gathered by the World Economic Forum highlights that as of April 2021, more than a third of America’s small businesses were still closed due to Covid-19.

In Egyptian mythology, there is a moment when a soul passes from this world into the next. In the Hall of Final Judgment, the soul stands before the God Osiris, the ruler of the Netherworld, who was also god of vegetation and the annual Nile flood and was closely associated with death, resurrection and fertility.

Image: http://www.ideachampions.com

A fresh face joining the helm of a leading lobbying organization for entrepreneurs is expected to bring Midwest perspective and representation to the fight to create more jobs through the innovation economy.

Joni Cobb, the founding president and CEO of Pipeline Entrepreneurs — a Kansas City, Kansas-based network of startup founders now led by executive director Melissa Vincent — this week was announced as chair of the board of directors for the Center for American Entrepreneurship.

“CAE understands that critical innovation comes from entrepreneurs — and that talented entrepreneurs reside in every part of our county, not just in the famed coastal hubs,” said Cobb. “It is an honor to be selected to lead such an impressive board of individuals who have spent their careers supporting entrepreneurship across the country and who share the belief that our nation’s public policies should encourage rather than deter our best and brightest entrepreneurs. I thank John and the entire board for their confidence in me to lead at such a momentous time for our country’s entrepreneurs.”

Image: Joni Cobb, Center for American Entrepreneurship

Today’s technological advancements have simplified our lives to the point where everything from email responses to social media postings can now be completely automated with the help of a scheduling software that leverages artificial intelligence.

Had the Covid-19 pandemic hit in the 1990s, businesses and people’s lives would have been more adversely affected, while the economic damage would have been astronomical.

Image: Digital art on display at the World Conference on Creative Economy held at Dubai Exhibition Centre in Dubai last year. Pawan Singh / The National

Do you know the secret of a great joke?

…

…

…

Timing. 

Naturally, this particular one-liner works better in verbal form than written, but even if it’s less funny here, that does not make it less true. Timing is vital. It shows you are reading the room — that you understand the inferences and implications of a discourse. It also shows that you know how to tell a story, which is one of the oldest and most crucial skills a human being can have. This ability goes far beyond communicating anecdotes; it’s how we share ideas and values… how we convey who we are. 

Many entrepreneurs I know are confused by the definition and need for an Advisory Board versus a Board of Directors. Some view both of these as a waste of time and burden on the CEO, while other founders surround themselves with insiders and cronies in an attempt to expedite and add credibility to their own interests. I suggest a few simple considerations will clarify the alternatives.

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Congress is aiming to reshape America’s workforce through new legislation that would direct more than $1 billion toward increasing diversity of the scientists, researchers and technologists who drive the innovation economy.

The measure includes $900 million for grants and partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, $164 million to study barriers for people of color in the field and $17.5 million to combat sexual harassment. They’re part of a expansive package of bills known as the America Competes Act, which lawmakers hope will ensure the United States continues to lead the global economy.

Image: https://www.cnbc.com

You’ve likely heard a lot about 5G lately. But what is it, exactly? 

5G is the latest standard for mobile internet networks.

Mobile telephone services have technically been around since the 1940s. But those systems involved dialing an operator on 80lb. car phones. And networks could only handle a few calls at once, since the Federal Communications Commission wouldn’t let them use much of the radio spectrum.