Here are 7 things geniuses can teach us about being more creative: 1. Work hard Hard work (often more than 10,000 hours worth) is vital. Via Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Ghandi: …the lessons that the rest of us can learn from individuals who are highly creative. I culled three: (1) Creative individuals spend a considerable amount of time reflecting on what they are trying to accomplish, whether or not they are achieving success (and, if not, what they might do differently).

If you are familiar with this blog, you know we often discuss the progress or obstacles in various entrepreneurship ecosystems. We have also discussed the paucity of data around the world to best inform decision makers keen to smooth the path for their aspiring entrepreneurs. Current thinking suggests that startup communities need to be led by entrepreneurs and today we take note of a new global survey of entrepreneurs. Released earlier this month, the Global Entrepreneurship Week Policy Survey, which was designed to shed light on key questions for policy discussions on high-growth entrepreneurship from the perspective of entrepreneurs themselves.

OMG, dont b a #writingfail. Here are concrete ways your company can elevate its communication game--even in 140 characters or less.

Mark Twain once noted that “to get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement.”

I find it hard to believe the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn considered writing a struggle (though he must have--he also said, "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.") Today, with so many publishing platforms, many people fancy themselves writers. But I know how difficult it is, even for those responsible for writing, tweeting, and speaking on behalf of companies, to find the right words and the right place for them. Good writing is, indeed, all too rare.

Where should biotech start-ups look for funding in the venture capital desert that is becoming the new normal?

The panel The New Kids on the Biotech Block: Trends in Early-Stage Financing kicked off the 11th Annual BIO Investor Forum and focused on non-traditional early-stage investors and deal structures.

Moderated by Jeron Eaves, a senior practice executive with Campbell Alliance, the panel highlighted companies that have secured financing from creative sources, like patient advocacy groups and venture philanthropists, as well as companies that have negotiated non-dilutive financing from traditional pharmas and VCs using innovative deal strategies.

The BHI Commercial Relevance Program (CRP) incorporates a pre-proposal submission at a minimum of one-month prior to full proposal submission that facilitates expert peer reviews from commercial reviewers with in-depth scientific and market knowledge.  Resulting reviews will provide the applicant with a set of recommendations and tips for troubleshooting their proposal for federal funding.   In too many instances, small companies blindly submit federal proposals without careful consideration of the structure of their research plan, commercial application, business strategy, and detailed budget and accounting.   All of these critical components must come together to paint a complete picture of a well-executed research project that will assist a company strategically in its effort to commercialize a product.  When small companies fail to take all of these factors into account, they naturally develop a negative record with the funding agency, hurting future opportunities.  This occurrence is the worst possible outcome for small companies, and all the more reason to be thorough and strategic at the outset.

Income from University of Iowa inventions has plummeted faster than at all but a handful of U.S. research institutions, an analysis of national data shows.

U of I licensing revenue dropped from $43 million in 2009 to $6 million last year, the comparison period, because of a single expired drug patent. Revenue ticked up slightly to $7.3 million in 2012.

To read the original article: Universities' research revenue falls while push for patents increases | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com

The AUTM 2012 Leadership Forum took place Nov. 13-14 in Napa, CA. The event provided a great opportunity to connect and discuss taking a leadership role in accelerating commercialization.

Our keynote speaker, Richard Bendis, Founder and CEO of Innovation America, gave the opening keynote address: The Global Innovation Imperative. Bendis discussed the evolving role of universities in driving the innovation ecosystem around them. He discussed the importance of universities in regional innovation clusters and how critical it is for them to be active participants in private/public partnerships that are leading the growth of innovation-based economic developing in their regions.

Download the PDF: The Global Innovation Imperative

In my job as a recruiter I’ve been reviewing resumes of marketing and communications professionals from all over North America. I’ve seen a lot of resumes… good, bad and frankly… just useless.

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about how no one really knows what is supposed to go on a resume. After screening hundreds of applicants in just the last month, I’ve put together some “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for your resume – a list of tips to help your resume get past me, the recruiter, to your goal: the hiring manager.

Startups are the hubs of innovation. But who are those intrepid souls who take on the risk of founding a company, and who indeed are the people who work there? The founder is not always the proverbial 20-something college dropout. In fact, the founder of a startup is more likely to be a 35- to 44-year-old white male who was previously a CEO of a company.

That is the conclusion of CB Insights, a venture capital and investment database, which attempted to answer the question. The data in the infographic based on those conclusions is a bit old and dates back a couple of years, but it has interesting nuggets of information nonetheless.

Today, Europe’s leaders are discussing a $1,000 bn budget framework for the EU, and for the first time, there are budget lines for social entrepreneurship – although you may have to find them with a very large magnifying glass.

Social entrepreneurship and government have long had more than an arm’s length distance between them, and the feeling was mutual: the movement drew much initial energy from its bottom-up — and privately funded — approach that remains a contrast to many government-led efforts both in development aid and domestic social services.

Twenty years ago, I wrote a book called The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret. In it, I discussed several terms new to the business community, specifically about how they could help grow a business.

One term that seemed to have multiple meanings concerning business growth was “networking.” For some, networking was about compiling a huge database of names, usually by collecting business cards. Others saw networking as the opportunity to get in front of people and personally prospect for business. Still others perceived networking as nothing more than schmoozing and boozing, with no specific intention except to be seen and socialize.

Former entrepreneur Mark Suster drops a much-deserved bomb on those who glamorize start-ups. But even he wouldn't mind another go. The reality checkers were out in force yesterday. The New York Times ran an article about the lottery-esque economics of app development, focusing on a couple who earned less than $5,000 from eight apps that cost them $200,000 in lost income and savings to create.

While people expect fair pay for their services, we all know that money isn't king. Nevertheless, when it comes to business we all too often act as if it were. We think purely in terms of salaries, bonuses, and people's positions on the org chart. While we pay lip-service to the idea that people may have non-financial motivation for their work — acknowledgement, appreciation, pride in accomplishment, enjoyment and so forth — we spend all our time working out how to incentivize our workforce with financial rewards.

What an awful way to think about people! Yes, money and status matter, but it can be inhibiting soul-destroying and morally corrupting for managers when companies place too much emphasis on them At some point, after all, doesn't exaggerated pay feel like a bribe?

Since the 1970’s, universities have become more actively involved in this part of the process as well. In a study for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Fred Block and Matthew Keller note that in 1975, academic institutions accounted for only fifteen of the year’s 100 “most technologically significant new products,” as selected annually by R&D Magazine. But over time, academic institutions’ share of these promising new technologies has increased dramatically; in 2006, academic institutions accounted for 70 of the innovations listed in the R&D 100.

WE’D seen it before: the Piazza San Marco in Venice submerged by the acqua alta; New Orleans underwater in the aftermath of Katrina; the wreckage-strewn beaches of Indonesia left behind by the tsunami of 2004. We just hadn’t seen it here. (Last summer’s Hurricane Irene did a lot of damage on the East Coast, but New York City was spared the worst.) “Fear death by water,” T. S. Eliot intoned in “The Waste Land.” We do now. 

There had been warnings. In 2009, the New York City Panel on Climate Change issued a prophetic report. “In the coming decades, our coastal city will most likely face more rapidly rising sea levels and warmer temperatures, as well as potentially more droughts and floods, which will all have impacts on New York City’s critical infrastructure,” said William Solecki, a geographer at Hunter College and a member of the panel. But what good are warnings? Intelligence agents received advance word that terrorists were hoping to hijack commercial jets. Who listened? (Not George W. Bush.) If we can’t imagine our own deaths, as Freud insisted, how can we be expected to imagine the death of a city?

It’s official. The viral phenomenon that is ‘Gangnam Style’ today overtook Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ to become the most watched video in YouTube history. The video for the song, by Korean artist Psy, has now been watched over 805-million times, one-million times more than Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ video. According to search tool WordStream, ‘Gangnam Style’ currently receives 4 062 video views a minute, while ‘Baby’ gets 550.

Twelve years ago, the Queen City Angels were five guys who would meet at restaurants to talk about investing in local startups and who, group chairman Tony Shipley jokes, hadn’t gotten the memo that the dot-com bubble was about to burst.

Now three funds and 54 diverse companies later, the validation-stage and seed-stage investing group – the first of its kind in Ohio – has survived the dot-com bust and two recessions. Its 49 members have invested $33 million of their own money into regional startups, which has been leveraged into additional capital in excess of $200 million from other investors, and created 254 jobs.

Deerfield, IL — Technology transfer leaders gathered from around the world at the AUTM Leadership Forum in Napa, Calif. to discuss creative solutions, new ideas and the future of technology transfer.

One of the highlights of the Leadership Forum was a Novel Initiatives Competition. Ten organizations gave presentations on their most innovative technology transfer programs, and attendees voted to select a favorite.

Let's have a moment of thanksgiving for Bill Gates.

Two reasons.

More than any other entrepreneur, Bill Gates is the reason you're using a personal computing device to look at this story right now. For that, he became the world's richest man. Now, Gates is no longer the world's richest man because he's busy spending his money trying to save the world from disease and poor education. When someone who has done, and is doing, such an incredible things – and has something to say – it's worth listening.