Over the next decade, learning to operate in a business world with disappearing borders will become a necessity for companies that want to be competitive.

The face of business continues to be redefined by digital technology, and on a very large scale, which will mean emerging ecosystems of interconnected businesses will transform how companies serve customers and fulfill human needs.

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TRENTON, NJ (October 3, 2017) – The availability of two new programs that will provide grants to street level businesses in designated commercial areas of Trenton and other Garden State Growth Zones (GSGZs) was announced today by the New Jersey Economic Authority (EDA) in partnership with the City of Trenton. Created through the New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) of 2013, GSGZs include Trenton, Atlantic City, Camden, Paterson and Passaic.

Administered by the EDA in collaboration with GSGZs, the Business Lease Incentive (BLI) and Business Improvement Incentive (BII) programs are designed to support the growth of new and expanding retail and service businesses in targeted commercial corridors. In Trenton, businesses located in the downtown Broad Street and State Street business corridors are considered eligible. A detailed map of eligible locations is available via www.njeda.com/pdfs/GSGZ_Trenton_Map.aspx. 

Recognizing access to capital is a challenge for growing startups in New Hampshire, the Live Free and Start Advisory Council is hosting two events in November aimed at both aspiring and seasoned investors, including a matchmaking event for early-stage growth companies, regional investors and tech influencers.

The Northern New England Women’s Investor Network — a coalition of aspiring and seasoned women investors from New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont — will hold its inaugural educational event from 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, at the 100 Club in Portsmouth.

How inclusive or exclusive should organizations be when developing their employees’ talents? In a world of unlimited resources, organizations would surely invest in everyone. After all, as Henry Ford is credited as saying, “the only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” In the real world, however, limited budgets force organizations to be much more selective, which explains the growing interest in high potential (HiPo) identification. An employee’s potential sets the upper limits of his or her development range — the more potential they have, the quicker and cheaper it is to develop them.

When it comes to high-tech startups, we hear a lot about the so-called “rise of the rest.” As the nation’s leading centers of high-tech industry—places like the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Boston, and Seattle—have become increasingly expensive to live in, the argument goes, talented techies, entrepreneurs, and startups are moving to less expensive places like Portland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Nashville, Las Vegas, and others.

Here, we put the German capital of Berlin under the spotlight to find out why exactly the city is currently so in-vogue.

More importantly though, we will identify the advantages for  tech companies – who are largely responsible for Berlin’s recent Renaissance – being based here in Britain rather than Germany.

Since the 1970s, Silicon Valley has been a place of innovation and promise where driven individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit could realize their visions, even if those visions emerged from their parents' basement or humble garage. Apple and Microsoft were amng the earliest of these companies with humble beginnings. And, since then, giants like Google and Amazon have followed in their wake, also rising to global prominence.

Most assaults on public/private sector R&D partnerships are launched by those who believe patents are inherently bad and that through some undefined magic publicly funded inventions will be developed if they were only made freely available.  However, every couple of years attacks come from another, more threatening direction — claims by well placed, but inexperienced “experts” that if their pet theories were adopted technology transfer from the public sector would sky rocket. One idea being promoted is that universities should double or triple the number of their inventions to justify continued federal funding, thus triggering a spike in commercialization rates. In reality the only  spike would be in patenting dubious inventions to pad the numbers, leading to depressed licensing rates as portfolios were filled with junk.

A digital health report from Rock Health showed that women-led companies and geographic diversity continued to build in the third quarter. In the three months through September 30, of the 84 companies that raised $1.2 billion, 16 percent were led by women.

Women-led companies that received investment in the third quarter reflect a wide range of digital health subsectors. Although women’s health is among them, it is one of several. Other include care coordination with Chicago-based ExplORer Surgical, cofounded and led by CEO Jennifer Fried. The business raised $3 million to advance its operating room care coordination and analytics business.

Hot-air balloon pilot Richard Varney typically spends his weekends transporting tourists around central Massachusetts in a huge, multicolored balloon. But on a recent Sunday, Varney drove to a local community college and learned to fly a different type of aerial vehicle. “I want to try something new,” he said as he watched an instructor demonstrate how to steer a $2,000 drone equipped with a camera. “This could help me launch a side business tak

Image: VERONYKA JELINEK - https://www.technologyreview.com

There is a small but growing trend among some Silicon Valley executives called “biohacking.” The term refers to extreme fasting not for the weight loss or health benefits, but for the productivity benefits.

Its proponents include Phil Libin, the former CEO of Evernote and current CEO of AI studio All Turtles; Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross; and Loic Le Meur, the cofounder of the LeWeb tech conference. Participants in biohacking swear off all foods for between two to eight days at a time followed by similar time lengths of time where they eat normally. During their fast periods, they’ll only consume liquids like coffee, tea, and water.

Pushing aside the Kansas-Missouri “border war,” a bi-state effort has earned a federal grant that will help create a $5 million fund for startups, which could begin investing as early as 2018.

The Enterprise Center in Johnson County announced Monday it secured a $150,000 Economic Development Administration Seed Fund Support grant. The grant — which is the realization of more than three years of research, coordination and writing — will be allocated to staffing and administrative expenses to raise the $5 million seed fund.

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Following our recent event “Distributed Futures; Blockchain, tokens and ICOs”, Partner Carlos Espinal shares thinking around the recent increase in successful ICOs and what that means for the future of venture.

With the number of successful ICOs (initial coin offerings) that have been completing in the last 12 months ($1.5Bn raised in 2017 alone), some have declared venture capital on its dying legs.

Image: http://seedcamp.com

Many people seem to have the sense that ethics are spiraling downward in business, and unfortunately most startup professionals and entrepreneurs I know don’t believe they can make a difference. They don’t realize that if they don’t take an active role in the solution, they really become part of the problem.

I do believe that most business people want to do the right thing, but many just don’t have the skills to develop an unemotional ethical position, or confidence to act on their ethical beliefs, or simply are not sure how to go about making a difference in their daily actions, without jeopardizing their own career.

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The line between innovation and invention is growing more blurred with every passing day. In this video, Glenn Llopis, author of The Innovation Mentality, confronts the issue by addressing how reinvention and doing business more strategically can bring innovation to businesses.

Rather than assuming that shiny new tool or product is the best way to grow your business, Llopis suggests you look within your business for fresh strategies. In this digital age with little to no attention spans, it is your responsibility as a business leader to disrupt the status quo by innovating from within.

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. But a long list of obstacles always seems to be getting in the way of realizing this potential. Startup accelerator programs have been touted as one path to faster progress. Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital. We wanted to examine whether the boost that accelerators give in emerging market contexts is different from similar programs in North America or Europe. Our research shows that the effects of acceleration are remarkably similar for entrepreneurs across countries and even continents. Unfortunately, mismatched goals between investors and entrepreneurs as well as a potential cultural bias may both prove to limit the positive effect that accelerators have in emerging market contexts. Regardless, accelerators still have an important role to play that can help position entrepreneurs for success.

There is non-stop chatter about how millennials are a completely different breed of consumer, but that conversation often ends without an explanation of how to get on their radar. It’s well worth your time and effort to connect with millennials, though -- they are America’s largest generation.

There are several simple rules that can help your business easily connect with millennials -- here are five that can be implemented by any business.

Why nondisruptive creation is as important as disruption in seizing new growth.

In their just released book, BLUE OCEAN SHIFT, Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, creators of Blue Ocean Strategy, deliver the definitive guide to shifting yourself, your team and your organisation to new heights of confidence, market creation and growth. They show why nondisruptive creation is as important as disruption in seizing new growth, what leads to one over the other and why you’d be unwise not to understand this.

INSEAD Knowledge (IK): Chan and Renée, congratulations on your new book, Blue Ocean Shift, being released today. It’s already been labeled a next ‘blockbuster’ and chosen by Apple iBooks as the best business book of the month. In a nutshell, what’s it all about?

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When Vanity Fair created the New Establishment, in 1994, it reflected the shift in power from a genteel Wasp establishment led by East Coast bankers and statesmen to a swashbuckling set of media-age moguls more comfortable in Hollywood than in mahogany-paneled clubs. By the end of the 1990s, as the Internet ushered in a new Information Age, there was another shift: the list began gravitating more to the technologists of Silicon Valley. In its latest evolution, the list is now becoming increasingly populated by a new wave of innovators and rebellious entrepreneurs who are less interested in stewarding great industries than in overturning them.

If you didn't know better, you might think that your keys have a mind of their own. How else would they wind up sandwiched between your couches' cushions half the time when you swore you left them on the counter?

Thankfully, the team over at KeySmart has taken measures to prevent such predicaments by upgrading its popular key organizer with Tile™ Smart Location technology that traces your keys' every move. With the integration of this tracking device on top of its standard handy features, the KeySmart Pro can easily replace all of the unruly knick-knacks jangling around in your pockets or purse. 

Image: KEYSMART