Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
Job prospects are looking pretty good for graduates this year–the first cohort of gen Z to enter the workforce with a diploma or degree.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), unemployment rates for high school and college graduates are closing in on prerecession levels. Wages are beginning a slow climb as well, particularly for those with a college degree. Among young college graduates, average wages are $19.18 per hour—only 1.4% higher than in 2000.
Image: Flickr user Alan Light
It's hard to be more impressive than Gina Bianchini. She has a stellar resume: her undergraduate and MBA degrees are from Stanford, she's worked at Goldman Sachs and she has launched multiple successful companies. But if anyone can measure up, it's her former co-founder Marc Andreessen — the billionaire and leading Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose Andreessen Horowitz portfolio includes billion-dollar companies like Airbnb, Facebook and Box.
Image: Photo by Andrew Toth Gina Bianchini, founder and CEO of Mighty Networks
Would you be happier with more money? Only up to a point, and that threshold depends on where you live, shows new research provided by Gallup to TIME. In Atlanta, happiness peaks among people making about $42,000 a year—the lowest price tag on happiness among cities analyzed. But in Seattle, New York City, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, it takes roughly $105,000 a year to reach the same level of happiness.
If you’re a small business owner with staff, at some point you’re going to have to deal with a sticky, employee-related situation. Whether it’s an employee who’s always out sick, staff who look for sneaky ways to abuse benefit privileges or team members being careless on social media, your people may make choices that don’t suit your business—including what they wear to work.
Leadership is not just for leaders anymore. Top companies are beginning to understand that sustaining peak performance requires a firm-wide commitment to developing leaders that is tightly aligned to organizational objectives — a commitment much easier to understand than to achieve. Organizations must find ways to cascade leadership from senior management to men and women at all levels. As retired Harvard Business School professor John P. Kotter eloquently noted in the previous issue of strategy+business, this ultimately means we must “create 100 million new leaders” throughout our society. (See "Leading Witnesses," s+b, Summer 2004.)
Image: https://www.strategy-business.com
We open today on a familiar scene: After a long day of back-to-back meetings, Bob arrives home to find his wife, Jane, who also has just returned from work, starting to prepare dinner. As Bob rolls up his sleeves to begin chopping carrots, they talk about their day.
Bob: I am just exhausted.
Jane: What did you do today?
Bob: I was in meetings all day.
Jane: Yes, but what did you do?
We hear the term “innovation” everywhere and are made to believe in its importance. For many of us, innovation means providing ideas out of the blue, leading to significant discoveries and achievements. However, there's more to it than that.
What Is Innovation?
First, we need to decide on a definition. Innovation isn’t solely represented by new devices, ideas or methods, but also by the process of uncovering new ways to do things. It can also pertain to modifying business models and adapting to changes to achieve better products and services.
MIAMI — One of the first sea-level rise maps Broadway Harewood saw was a few years back, when climate activists gathered in his neighborhood to talk about how global warming would affect people in less-affluent South Florida communities. Harewood had a realization, one that he illustrates with his hands. One hand represents the city of Miami Beach. The opposite hand, moving like the incoming tide, demonstrates how the seas will eventually rise, potentially bringing the coastline of South Florida closer to Miami's historically black neighborhoods — properties like his investments in Liberty City that sit on comparatively higher ground.
A group of Philly investors came together in a forum during Tech Week in Philadelphia to address questions about their investment criteria, the implications of accepting their investment and the love-hate relationship with angel investors. They spanned all stages of investment from SRI Capital at the seed stage, Safeguard Scientifics at the Series A-C stage to the later stages with NewSpring Capital.
May 4 is World Password Day, an event designed to promote good password habits online because weak logins like "123456" and "qwerty" continue to top the lists of the most common passwords.
The frequent use of weak passwords isn't from a lack of information, however. Results from a Pew Research Center cybersecurity quiz show most people do know better when it comes to password security, but they just choose not to follow best security practices.
A big multinational company recently sent me a speaking client who “lacked leadership presence.” Looking at her resume, that seemed odd. She was accomplished. She was energetic. She was focused. What was she missing?
When we met, I quickly realized that her voice sounded rather nasally. So I asked her a question: “Do you have a hearing problem?”
Some people seem to have all the luck. They’re in the right place at the right time. They’re top of mind and chosen for the best assignments. And they just happen to make connections that end up advancing their career.
While luck seems like a random concept, it’s actually something that can be learned and increased, says Stephen Simpson, author of Get Lucky Now: The Proven 7 Secrets of Successful People. “If you open yourself up to the concept of luck, it often seems to find you,” he says. “A closed mind is one of the worse mind-sets to have.”
“You can tell from the way I speak I had a stroke about eighteen months ago. I’ve been learning how to speak English again, and you’ll see I still can’t come up with the right words sometimes.” The most influential business thinker on earth looked up and smiled apologetically. He stood with his hands in his pockets. His hair was neatly parted on the side. He was very tall. “I have a tendency to speak to the floor,” he said. “It’s because if I look at you, you distract me.”
Image: Christensen’s work has revolved around one simple question: Why is success so difficult to sustain? Photograph by Platon
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We have to go out to a really nice place for lunch…with good wine…to celebrate Number 100.” The email that began this way arrived a few weeks ago. I responded with a resounding “yes”.
But every Tuesday, I do something special…for my readers and myself. I send out a message about something relevant and helpful to those of you who lead organizations, manage others, and struggle to fight through the myriad of things working against you as you build a successful organization and company that realizes your vision. It’s a sobering task. It brings me back to earth.
As a new graduate, everyone from your slightly older BFF to your favorite college professor has most likely lined up to give you their best advice for being the very best at your first job. But even with all their amazing and wise tidbits, a few things could still take you by surprise.
Depending on the nature of the pre-meeting outreach you conduct with participants, it can promote team collaboration and help:
The latest technological breakthroughs can sometimes seem to emerge from nameless, faceless companies. But behind every corporate logo are individual people shaping the future. Some are executives, others are programmers or researchers chasing world-changing achievements. Then there are the rule-makers, whose decisions can have far-reaching consequences for the future. The 20 people on this list are the most influential people in the technology world right now, as extensively debated by TIME's tech team. Who did we miss?
Image: http://time.com
Do you need Venture Capital to grow fast?
Conventional wisdom says yes.
VCs would like you to believe yes.
But it’s not true.
Watch this inspiring 1 minute video and learn why:
New startups are cropping up all across the world on a daily basis. The startup craze is real and the entrepreneurs running these startups have a fierce drive to succeed. Several startup leaders have to make the crucial choice between looking for funding or bootstrapping their business. Accelerator programmes serve as a middle ground and are often the perfect choice for budding entrepreneurs who are looking for new networks, investment, and mentorship. But before opting for an accelerator programme, startups should weigh the pros and cons that go with it. Sometimes, you will have to give up a large chunk of equity in exchange for limited investment, at other times you might have to relocate to take advantage of a specific accelerator. Airbnb and 9Gag are two companies that have benefited greatly from accelerators.
Underlying the festivities at Warren Buffett’s annual bash for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders over the weekend was a sobering fact: finding the next big thing is hard.
The Berkshire CEO spoke at length Saturday about his failure to pounce on opportunities in tech stocks, the challenge of lining up large deals, and his frustration with a cash pile that’s approaching US$100bn.
Image: Warren Buffett (image c/o Fortune Live Media, licensed as CC BY-ND 2.0)
