After an extensive search, the Gates Foundation has given millions to this futuristic power-generating toilet from CalTech--with the hope that it can be the solution to sanitation problems around the world.

Today is World Toilet Day. That’s not as silly as it sounds. Two and a half million people around the world don’t have access to clean toilets, which means they are at risk for a number of diseases--diarrhoeal diseases, in fact, kill someone every 20 seconds. More people die from poor sanitation than measles, malaria and HIV/AIDS combined.

I know entrepreneurs who have suffered from the dreaded premature execution syndrome often associated with the ready-fire-aim approach. Yet I believe that many more have benefited from this approach, especially in early startup stages. If your product is highly innovative, and speed to market is critical, you won’t get it right the first time anyway, no matter how cautiously you plan.

The ready-aim-fire traditional approach works best in more mature markets, where your strategy is to add features and value to competitive products, or address an underserved new segment of the marketplace. These are the environments where you really need extended planning to ensure proper positioning before launching the product.

It all starts with an idea. Over time, your idea gathers momentum, causing a cascade of emotions in the process that very few non-entrepreneurs will ever get to experience. Anticipation, excitement and even terror are just some of the words that immediately come to mind; it’s a veritable (self-inflicted) emotional rollercoaster. But deep down you know, your idea will be a success. My idea for Tourism Radio started in 2005 – probably before then actually, as I had been involved in the tourist industry for some time already. Today, my idea operates on three continents and works with some of the world’s leading brands; creating location-based audio experiences for their clients. I’ve been both financially and emotionally invested in the company for seven years. But am I still an entrepreneur, or have I crossed over to the realm of a real businessman? A little bit of both I think.

What do British rock band Marillion, Barack Obama and Hurricane Sandy have in common?

To discover the answer, we need to return to the hazy days of the late 90s rock scene. In 1997, fans of the Buckinghamshire band raised $60,000, underwriting Marillion’s whole US tour. The band had no involvement whatsoever with this achievement but have since used this method to tour and produce albums. This was one of the first forms of a movement called “crowdfunding”.

Ever since President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in April, entrepreneurs and investors have been buzzing about the promise of new paths to start-up capital. But the clock is ticking for the regulators charged with implementing the law, and with little more than a month left before their deadline, several key questions remain unanswered.

“There’s a lot of work left to be done,” Gregory C. Yadley, partner at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick in Tampa said during a Washington forum at the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. “The law is better than it might have been … but there are lots of loose ends, a lot of inconsistencies.”

This week, investment firms filed their 13F forms and disclosed their long positions in stocks. And as usual, one of the most anticipated 13F belonged to the Oracle of Omaha, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett. Since everyone has been focusing on what Warren's been doing, we though we'd add something to the conversation and show you where he was doing it.

The Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) is a novel but increasingly important role in many organizations. To explore the role of the CSO, we conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with CSOs across a number of industrial sectors. Secondary data in the form of company reports, strategy documents and presentations was used to complement the interviews.

From the outset of our research, it was clear that there was a variation in CSO roles, focused on two dimensions. The first dimension was the stage of the strategy process in which the CSO was involved. Our findings identified a significant demarcation between whether the CSO was focused on the formulation of the strategy or the execution of the strategy.

Although the English language plays a central role in today's international business environment, workers in many countries are still struggling with basic communication skills, according to a new report.

The English Proficiency Index for Companies 2012, published on 13 November by Education First, a privately owned education company, shows employees around the globe broadly struggling with English.

The survey was conducted among 115,000 employees and 1.7 million adults in 24 countries and spanned a broad range of companies with an annual turnover ranging from under $1 million to over $100 billion.

Practice makes perfect. People master collaborative innovation as they convene people on the critical conversations and as they navigate the day in a life of innovation challenges. What’s next? What possibilities do we see for further progress? What possibilities do we see for leadership? In this article, innovation architect Doug Collins shares insights for the advanced practitioner: people who have become familiar with the blueprint for collaborative innovation and seek to hone their craft further.

Google’s effort to install a blazingly fast, gigabit-per-second fiber Internet service in the two-state metropolis of Kansas City—a speed 100 times faster than the national average—is a radical new business direction for the company, and perhaps provides an unorthodox model for how to rewire parts of the United States.

At one level, the project reflects Google's desire to keep developing new businesses by giving people ultrafast speeds and then offering experimental services like Google TV. But if Google’s business model for actually getting fiber built pans out, it may usher in a new era for privately built broadband.

If you're a city leader, you want to spur job creation -- and that includes making your city attractive to the people who actually create jobs. Those people are your local entrepreneurs.

Many leaders know that entrepreneurs embody a special kind of worker -- they are risk takers who help create jobs for others. What leaders may not know is that when it comes to wellbeing, entrepreneurs are substantively different from other workers. They embrace a lifestyle of healthy choices, physical wellness, trustworthy workplaces, and intellectual curiosity that distinguishes them from their counterparts. These differences outline a playbook for community leaders to follow if bringing this special class of worker to your city is part of your agenda.

Say the words “personalized medicine” to people from various walks of life, and you’re like to get one of about four different reactions.

A. “Personalized medicine? What’s that?” (Usually spoken by 99 percent of patients.)

B. “Personalized medicine will bankrupt the country with expensive new diagnostic tests, and overrated targeted drugs.” (Usually spoken by health economists.)

Being generous can mean sharing your feedback, your knowledge, and your credit with people--but most importantly, it can mean the difference between a good leader and a great one.

What is true generosity?

We tend to think of generous people as those who share material wealth: giving to charity, buying expensive gifts, or taking the in-laws out for dinner. In business, we think of generous leaders as those who provide a way for their people to share materially in the success of the company--through raises, profit sharing, or a bonus system. All of these things can be good, but they are only part of true generosity. Truly generous leaders share the wealth on many levels. For example, they are quick to give others credit for their good efforts and new ideas. They’re also generous with their knowledge, sharing information with those who need it and teaching others around them how to do what they themselves do well. They are generous with their faith in people; they tend to assume best intent (although they are not naïve) and believe people are generally innocent until proven guilty.

The idea of trying to gauge a state’s “innovativeness” strikes some as a flawed exercise. The word innovation seems to connote success, but as everyone knows, some innovation leads to failure. Critics question the validity of crediting a state for being innovative just because it’s quick to jump on a new idea, regardless of the policy’s particular merits.

Still, the issue of state innovation has long interested political scientists and the subject is experiencing a resurgence among scholars. The underlying question is why some states are quick to adopt new policies while others usually hold back and let their neighbors test the waters. In order to be convincing, this type of analysis requires setting aside value judgments and simply looking at patterns of behavior.

Executives at venture-backed companies need to know what drives their investors, and that’s harder to decipher these days.

It’s especially true for start-ups with seed-stage financing, says Michael Skok, a partner at Boston-area venture firm North Bridge Venture Partners. A new class of angel and early-seed investors as well venture firms are all looking to invest in early rounds, but in subsequent financings they often have different expectations about the amount of work required, he said during a panel discussion Thursday at the MIT Sloan CFO Summit in Newton, Mass.

“There are a number of investors who obviously have seen extraordinary results in particular cycles…and they’ve got very high expectations and they come in with those expectations and they’re willing to write large checks in some instances to go after large opportunity,” he said. “One has to go back to basics and say, why are they really in this?”

Getting rid of stress may be easier than you think. Try one of the following solutions or employ all six to enjoy stress-free, or at least less-stressed, living.

1. Don't take things so personally. Part of what creates stress is thinking that what other people do is something that is being done to us, or is a reflection of us or our actions.

2. Change your expectations. If you expect a co-worker to always be nice and they continue to be cranky, you'll be disappointed. You are choosing to be disappointed when you expect others to do something even when you have evidence to suggest that the behavior is highly unlikely.

GREATER DES MOINES - The Partnership has been working diligently throughout the past year to develop new digital marketing tools to promote Greater Des Moines and Central Iowa. The Partnership strives to be at the forefront of today’s technology and works diligently to find the most efficient way to market the region. Today, the Partnership is proud to announce the development of an Economic Development mobile tool, a brand-new Prospect Book, and Prospect Packet.

The Economic Development mobile tool has been created by local startup company, Entrepreneurial Technologies, as a tool to provide users with a snapshot of Greater Des Moines. The tool will educate users on Greater Des Moines’ business climate, rankings, key industries, economic development news, and companies that choose to do business in the region.

Two years ago, IBM launched the Smarter Cities Challenge – a philanthropic initiative designed to provide our most valuable resource, the problem solving skills of our employees, to address some of the most pressing urban challenges. Today, we are delighted to announce the 2013 Smarter Cities Challenge grants. In this year’s application pool, sustainability was the most popular challenge posed by cities, and we look forward to tackling those challenges alongside perennial priority subjects like economic development and transportation.

Background—We analyzed the terms of venture financings for 117 companies headquartered in Silicon Valley that reported raising money in the third quarter of 2012.

Overview of Fenwick & West Results

Venture financings in 3Q12 continued to show solid price increases from their prior round, but 3Q12 was not as strong as 2Q12.

• Up rounds exceeded down rounds in 3Q12, 61% to 17%, with 22% of rounds flat. This was another strong quarter, but not as strong as 2Q12 when 74% of rounds were up, 11% down and 15% flat. This was the 13th quarter in a row in which up rounds exceeded down rounds. 
• Series B rounds were especially strong, with 92% of Series B rounds up, and Series E (and later) rounds were relatively weak, with only 44% up. However 64% of the Series B rounds were software and internet/digital media companies, while only 39% of the Series E rounds were from those industries, and as described below, software and internet/digital media were the strongest industries.

LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas has announced a new fund to support KU research projects that are near the commercialization stage and have the potential to become marketplace solutions in the near future.

The new Proof of Concept (POC) Fund will provide funding to mature KU research projects for one year to make the technologies more attractive for private investment, ideally within 12 months of being awarded funding. The fund will support projects in all areas of technology – including electronics, software, communications and engineering – that aren’t eligible for proof-of-concept funding through KU’s Institute for Advancing Medical Innovations (IAMI).