University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University could safely be classified as "friendly competitors." Operating in the same city, the two institutions "compete" for the funding and recognition as major research forces in the state. Both are affiliated with large medical systems, anchored by two of the highest-earning hospitals in the state.

But it seems they have found common ground in at least one mission: trying to grow state's tech ecosystem and better support the startup community.

Image: Six teams each won $125,000 from Maryland Technology Development Corp. to launch their new incubation ideas. MORGAN EICHENSEHR

Every context requires different talents and skills, so leaders must stay deeply aware and learn to adjust themselves along the way.

Whether you are a leader of today or tomorrow – and no matter your field – thinking consciously about leadership is essential, as this will affect your choices, decisions, and performance.

In my research and teaching, I spend most of my time with very senior global C-suite executives taking courses like INSEAD’s Advanced Management Programme. Yet, when we begin a deep conversation about leadership, I like to show these highly experienced executives a simple picture of pathways in the forest.

Douglas Liu, Senior Vice President Global Operations at QIAGEN, joins Rich Bendis on the inaugural podcast of BioTalk with Rich Bendis. This new podcast series features conversations with some of the most accomplished and exciting business, academic, and government leaders in the biohealth industry. Learn from these leaders about issues which can help you grow your business. What are the current trends? Where are industry sectors headed? How do we increase access to capital in our region? Rich and his guests dive deep into these topics and much more.

Eighty percent of new businesses fail, and often for reasons that were completely avoidable. Others fail because of a lack of organization, preparation or a good understanding of what takes to run a successful business. 

Unfortunately, I have experienced plenty of that failure myself. 

When that happens afterward, there is always that feeling of regret for things that, in hindsight, you would do differently if you had the opportunity. 

Here are seven regrets that many failed Business Owners experience.

Exercising is the best way to increase the body’s strength, flexibility and overall physical and mental health.

But to reap all the benefits of physical activity, it needs to be paired with mental training, and luckily there’s a workout that helps us strengthen our cognitive skills, too.

Initial coin offerings have become very popular over these past few months. Dozens of new projects attempt to raise money every single month. We asked a few ICO teams why they decided to take this particular approach rather than seek VC investment. Their answers are pretty interesting to take note of.

Venture capital, an investment vehicle to help promising startups commercialize, is having a heyday in the startup nation. The Israel Advanced Technology Industries database lists no fewer than 148 VCs in Israel.

Most large Israeli VCs diversify their investments across proven sectors such as cybersecurity, communications, life sciences, information technology and semiconductors.

Original ideas and innovation cannot always arrive on our doorstep like a fast food takeaway or an overnight courier service. But most creative professions - science and technology innovators included - emphasize speed as the prevailing driver of growth. In order to create sustainable growth in science and technology, Turkey should look to prolific innovators and ‘slower’ innovation models.

Innovation was at the heart of Malcolm Turnbull’s agenda in 2016. Repeated ad nauseum in the lead up to the election and supported with a $10.1 billion investment, innovation was the shiny new basket the Australian Government was putting all of its eggs in.

But since the coalition scraped through last July, we’ve barely heard a whimper about this crucial transformation of the Australian economy (plenty though on the evils of burqas and same-sex marriage!)

China is now the biggest foreign player in Africa. It's Africa's largest trade partner, the largest infrastructure financier, and the fastest-growing source of foreign direct investment. Chinese entrepreneurs are flooding into the continent, investing in long-term assets such as factories and heavy equipment. Considering Africa's difficult history of colonialism, one might suspect that China's activity there is another instance of a foreign power exploiting resources. But as author Irene Yuan Sun vividly shows in this remarkable book, it is really a story about resilient Chinese entrepreneurs building in Africa what they so recently learned to build in China--a global manufacturing powerhouse.

Image: https://hbr.org

“Precision medicine gives us the chance to marry what’s unique about America – our spirit of innovation, our courage to take risks, our collaborative instincts – with what’s unique about Americans – every individual’s distinctive genetic makeup, lifestyles, and health needs. In doing so, we can keep ourselves, our families, and our nation healthier for generations to come.”

JUNDEE, Australia—Hundreds of feet underground here, scientists are experimenting with a technology that could transform how mining companies dig out rocks in dangerous, pitch-black caves: fully autonomous drones.

The drones would fly without any pilot assistance into areas too risky for human miners. Using a rotating laser similar to those on autonomous cars, they would create three-dimensional maps more detailed than what is available now, helping miners excavate more gold and other commodities that might otherwise be missed.

American workers are worried about their career futures, and they are ready to quit if need be.

This is according to the findings of an October 2017 survey released by the American Psychological Association’s Center for Organizational Excellence, which found that nearly half of U.S. workers are worried about how their jobs are changing. And, without supervisor support for career development, less than half are motivated to do their best work.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — It’s easy to think, from the headlines, that the future of health care is being forged on Capitol Hill. But the traditional centers of power and influence are losing ground — and talent — to the fertile, sometimes chaotic, environs of Silicon Valley.

What happens when top biomedical scientists and health policy experts head west? What do they find in California? And what lessons do they draw?

Your business can’t be all things to all people, and excel at anything. Every entrepreneur and every business needs a strategy to keep them focused. In fact, in this new world of pervasive interactivity, it’s time to rethink even how to develop a strategy. Strategy used to come from the inside looking out, but now it must come from a dialogue and engagement with constituents.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

When you think of Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne come to mind, and perhaps even the nation’s capital, Canberra, but not Newcastle, a historic city with a booming port and an industrial pedigree.

Yet the beachside city is Australia’s seventh largest and growing, both in population and ambition, as it reinvents itself for the 21st century.

Image: https://nextcity.org

Johns Hopkins University will launch a new interdisciplinary institute aimed at developing the mathematical theories that will hasten the analysis of the massive amounts of data being used to study everything from the inner workings of the human cell to the structure of the universe.

A client I previously worked with to introduce and embed Lean Startup as their innovation methodology emailed me this morning. She asked:

Can the Lean Startup be used for operational fixes and improvements and what are the limitations of the methodology?

It’s an interesting question, so I’ve shared my response below.

But first, as a quick reminder. Lean Startup is a methodology for innovating in a more entrepreneurial way using hypothesis driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. The core of the approach involves releasing rapid prototypes (known as minimum viable products or MVPs) to get real world feedback from customers. Then using these insights to determine whether to: iteratively improve; pivot (course correct by changing fundamental hypothesis); or kill the project. 

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that uses Blockchain technology for secure payments and storing money electronically, without requiring a bank or a person’s name. Satoshi Nakamoto created this cryptocurrency back in 2009. The biggest advantage of Bitcoin is that it’s not under control of central authority, government or private company, so people are free from paying transaction fees. It can be used for booking a hotel or flight, or purchasing products online, as many online stores and companies accept Bitcoin now.

Today, there are 1354 Bitcoin ATMs in 55 countries around the world and about 5.8 million users that have digital wallets. The price for one Bitcoin at the moment is $5,602 and it’s growing continuously, proportionally with the interest for digital money.

Image: https://bitcoinplay.net

In 1900, German chocolate company Hildebrands produced a series of postcards imagining the wonders of life in the year 2000. The optimistic renderings envisioned people in Victorian fashions enjoying lives of boundless leisure and comfort enabled by a century of technological advancement. The predicted innovations range from accurate (live broadcasts of plays) to absurd (cities covered by weather-proof glass roofs) to depressingly plausible in the near future (summer holidays at the North Pole).

Image: Movable sidewalks. IMAGE: HILDEBRANDS/PUBLIC DOMAIN