NEW YORK (November 2, 2012) – Although U.S. economic recovery remains modest, some cause for optimism can be found in the "manufacturing comeback" that has been bringing jobs back to regions where the shift to services has long been assumed. Policymakers interested in encouraging this trend often refer to Germany, where export-oriented manufacturing has remained a motor of economic growth in spite of high labor costs and strict labor regulations. Innovation capacity in Germany is often attributed to firms' embeddedness in a highly decentralized system of application-oriented universities and research institutions.

On both sides of the Atlantic, innovative manufacturers depend on universities to cultivate a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. From the U.S., Albany and Pittsburgh serve as examples of regions in which the economy has turned around as a result of successful university-industry collaboration. Dr. Robert E. Geer, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), University of Albany, SUNY, will present how the CNSE has established significant relationships and impact with SMEs and large companies. Dr. Marc Malandro, Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Management and Commercialization at the University of Pittsburgh, will discuss innovative practices between the University of Pittsburgh and companies in the region. They will be joined by a representative from Tokyo Electron (TEL), which established its first R&D center outside of Japan in 2003 on the campus of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University of Albany.

The Mayor’s Challenge is a contest run by Bloomberg Philanthropies to find the best ideas bubbling out of our cities--from data mining to turning foreclosed houses into urban farms. 0 Comments

It’s a theme that we’ve touched on over and over at Co.Exist: Cities are in a better position to enact real change than a stagnant federal government. Across the U.S., cities are coming up with replicable ideas that can change the way we all live for the better.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, a philanthropic organization created by New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, is fueling 20 of the best ideas with the Mayor’s Challenge, a competition for local governments to improve the way their cities work by taking on social and economic problems, improving customer service, enhancing accountability to the public, and making government work more effectively.

The definition of board effectiveness has shifted dramatically over the past decade. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis and numerous corporate scandals, a director now confronts not only complex oversight accountability, but also personal risk and liability. Clearly, this is a job not for the faint of heart.

As the supply of courageous board candidates dwindles, global companies are in need of battle-tested directors more than ever — board members who fully understand and can actively engage in virtually all aspects of an enterprise's operations. To be truly effective, a board needs directors who can work as a group to clearly define their role and mission, and in specialized individual roles, such as succession planning, acquisitions and capital allocation.

As part of our InDay Speaker Series, LinkedIn’s co-founder Reid Hoffman sat down with one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent visionaries, Marc Andreessen, to talk about software, platforms and career advice. It was standing room only, but I was fortunate enough to see it live. The entire hour was full of insights and advice. Here are five highlights that really got me thinking.

1. Software is eating the world. This is not a new argument by Andreessen, but he shared even more compelling examples to make his point. For example, he believes that the real magic of Apple is not its beautifully-designed hardware – but how its software ties you to additional Apple services and devices.

For the first time in history, nearly every citizen of a U.S. state will be given access to participate in their general election today via email and faxing. But this special event is overshadowed by serious doubts as to security of all types of electronic voting, much less relying on email.

The New Jersey Experiment

New Jersey's Christie administration made the announcement for the emergency policy change on November 3, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The idea is to permit registered voters in the Garden State to vote electronically using a system that Military and Overseas voters already use under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Actually, Jersey's emergency plan is even less restrictive than the state's existing procedure, which usually requires absentee voters under UOCAVA to mail in a signed affidavit.

When people think of the most innovative companies, they think of ones that are coming out with brand new and amazing technology. The push for self driving cars or augmented reality glasses can be a more compelling story than, say, a smaller iPad.  But one things highlighted in the Booz & Co. Innovation 1000 study and our conversation with author Barry Jaruzelski is that pushing technological boundaries is just one of the three successful paths to innovation.

The ability to network successfully can be one of the greatest assets in business. It allows some people to find incredible opportunities, while others just watch from the sidelines.

Effective networking isn't a result of luck -- it requires hard work and persistence. What does it take to be a super networker? Here are seven of the most important habits to develop:

1. Ask insightful questions. Before attending networking events, get the names of the people who are expected to attend and search social media sites like LinkedIn to figure out which topics they're probably most interested in. For people who are already in your network, don't assume you know everything they're up to. Find out what they're currently working on -- or perhaps struggling with. This attention to detail can go a long way at your next one-on-one lunch or dinner meeting.

When it comes to innovation, traditional measurement indicators used by businesses are rarely useful, and are usually lagging indicators - such as the number of patents or ideas. Innovation, on the other hand, is forward looking, and indicators used to drive innovation initiatives are all but absent.

One of the biggest challenges for innovation teams is at the front end of the product development process, when decisions related to new business models, technology oppotunities and intellectual property rights must be made, often in the absence of concrete data. Some aspects of innovation capability can be measured directly, but others are "soft" issues that involve human judgment. In these cases, subjective evaluations must be made that incorporates both quantitative data and qualitative data collected from individual views.

You don’t have to be likeable to everyone to be a great entrepreneur, just to the people who count. Of course, we can all point to apparent exceptions, like Ted Turner or Larry Ellison, who are sometimes seen as lions, downright predators, or even jerks. Yet I’m told that even these guys are considered quite likable by an intimate group of business and personal associates.

So likability is an elusive quality. It doesn’t mean always being perky and bright and constantly being happy. What makes each of us likable is distinct to us, and to some degree it’s in the mind of the beholder. But the basic drivers of likability are the same for most of us, and Michelle Tillis Lederman, in her book “The 11 Laws of Likability” has summarized these nicely:

BELMAR, N.J. — Of course the boardwalk had changed over the last 100 years: Carousels switched to electric from gas power, sunblock replaced baby oil, stuffed animals supplanted cigarettes as prizes at the booths where the barkers found new ways to wrangle dollar bills from the tourists who flocked to the Jersey Shore.

But mostly, it played the role of a constant, linking a century of summers.

Just the word “boardwalk” evoked timeless images of warm breezes, dates walking arm-in-arm, the sticky sweet of Italian Ice — “our carnival life forever” as the state bard, Bruce Springsteen, sings in a song, “Sandy,” that local radio stations have turned into the anthem of the Fourth of July.

Early reviews may have ranged from utter repulsion to faint praise, but "Start-Ups" creator Randi Zuckerberg welcomes the controversy.

With parts of the Northeast still recovering from the devastation of super-storm Sandy and the presidential election less than a day away, you’d be forgiven for not giving too much thought to the premiere of Bravo’s Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, the entrepreneurship reality series debuting tonight at 10 p.m. EST.

If you are thinking about it, you’re probably the exact sort of tech entrepreneur or journalist featured in the show, to judge from some of the commentary greeting the Randi Zuckerberg-produced reality series. To critics like Pando Daily founder Sarah Lacy who think she’s sold out the Valley’s spirit for Bravo’s cameras, Zuckerberg wanted to make it clear that while Start-Ups may be glossy and a bit soapy, at its core, it shares the goals of the world it’s set in. "We’re doing a lot of the same things that the entrepreneurship community is doing," she told Co.Create before the show’s debut. "Talk about disrupting a community! I think a lot of people have no idea of the grueling hard work that goes into putting a show together, like creating a start-up."

LONDON, November 5, 2012  --

• US drops out of global prosperity 'top ten' ranking for the first time. 
• US falls eight places in Entrepreneurship & Opportunity sub-index, as fewer citizens agree that working hard is the key to success. 
• Asia's emerging economies overtake US in Economy sub-index. 

As the race for the White House reaches fever pitch, the latest findings from the Legatum Prosperity Index™ expose a country in decline. In an unprecedented fall, America drops to 12th position in the worldwide prosperity rankings - with weakening performance across five of the Index's eight sub-categories.

Despite the huge amounts of money that the pharmaceutical industry spends on drug discovery, it is notoriously old-fashioned in how it actually makes its products. Most drugs are made in batch processes, in which the ingredients, often powders, are added in successive and often disconnected steps. The process resembles a bakery more than it does a modern chemistry lab. That could be about to change.

This summer, a team of researchers from MIT and Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis proved that a continuous production line that integrated several new chemical processes and equipment specially designed for the project could make a higher quality drug faster, and in a less wasteful manner.  This more nimble method may even create more opportunities in early drug discovery. In their continuous-manufacturing process, raw ingredients are fed into a parade of heaters, spinners, extractors, and sensors that relay the intermediates through chemical reactions. At the end, round, coated pills fall out.

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy recently announced the launch of a state “Innovation Ecosystem” intended to drive the development of products and technologies in Connecticut companies. Governor Malloy also announced that $5 million will be dedicated to the public-private partnership in order to get it started. These funds were allocated in 2011 for job creation and the project hopes to secure private sector funding in the future in order to sustain itself. The project designates Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, and Storrs as hubs to house resources and collaborative workspace. A state-wide system of networks will connect these hubs, foster collaboration, and allow access to these resources for every entrepreneur in the state. Efforts taking place within this ecosystem will be tracked and evaluated in order to determine the most effective use of investments. The project has the goal of increasing transparency and connecting entrepreneurs to tools within the network. This visible action will hopefully draw attention and lure additional innovation to Connecticut. The project is also intended to target young, start-up companies that can expand and provide new jobs. The program is being administered by Connecticut Innovations, the state’s partially public investing arm. See the press release or learn more about Connecticut’s Innovation Ecosystem.

Year after year, our Global Innovation 1000 study has demonstrated that it is not how much companies spend on research and development that determines success — what really matters is how those R&D funds are invested in talent, process, and tools. In addition to our recurring analysis of R&D spending trends, our eighth annual study of the world’s 1000 largest corporate R&D spenders focuses on the “fuzzy front-end” of the innovation process — the tools, mechanisms and networks companies use to generate ideas and effectively convert them into commercialization projects.

He was just 15 when he landed his first chunk of change from VCs. Now this high-schooler counts Ashton Kutcher, Yoko Ono, and Mark Pincus as backers.

Move over Brian Wong. You my have lost your title as the youngest-funded entrepreneur. The new contender is a 16-year-old kid who has raised $1 million for his news summary app. For the record, he was only 15 when he received his first chunk of that change.

Nick D’Alosio’s story starts like any high school kid’s might: on spring break. The London-based teenager was on vacation with his pals when he received an email from a group of investors in Hong Kong. D’Alosio admits he almost didn’t open it. “Who are these guys?,” he wondered. Turns out, “these guys” were from Li Ka Shing’s Horizons Ventures (the same Horizons Ventures that has invested in both Facebook and Spotify). Horizons wanted to know more about the news-summarizing app (then called Trimit) D'Alosio had built and released months earlier in the Apple’s UK App store.

Economic growth is front and center in this presidential election, but the two candidates haven’t spent much time talking about two of the most important drivers of the economy: science and technology. Science is not only at the root of our increasing prosperity but it is also the best tool we have to understand our own health, our planet, and our future.

Both President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have paid lip service to supporting science and technology. But as this fact sheet makes clear, President Obama, who has been endorsed by 68 Nobel prize-winning scientists, space leaders, and high technology executives, offers an impressive science policy record and vision for the future, while Gov. Romney’s shifting positions are all talk.

Ever hear of the dreaded “CEO Disease?”

It was initially diagnosed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, who discovered that the broad power and authority held by CEOs often leads to risk-averse and even truth-averse culture in which employees offer up nothing but “the good news of their perfection and the company’s success, no matter what the warning signs may be.”

Determined to find a treatment for this deadly affliction—sometimes also known as “the peril of the fixed mindset”—The Economist Intelligence Unit earlier this year interviewed 226 senior executives in hopes of discovering why some companies are so good at innovation while others, in spite of the very best intentions, are hopelessly woeful at it. (Survey respondents work at companies across the globe and in a wide range of industries; more than half of the companies have revenue of more than $500 million.

While most college students are suffering from understandable trepidation when it comes graduating and starting the job search in a recession, those that have their eye on eco-industry will be happy to hear that fields focused on reducing pollution, consumption, and waste, as well as creating sustainable products and services are growing.

And with the right qualifications and sensibilities where the future of the planet is concerned, you can participate in a movement that seeks to lower our collective carbon debt. But the prospects are even better than that. Not only can you take part in the eco-friendly movement; you can get paid for it. Here are just a few potential career choices that you may want to look into before you take your diploma and leave the ivory tower of higher education.

A few months ago Facebook’s initial public offering became the largest tech IPO in history initially valuing the company at over $100 billion. More than 70 percent of African Americans online have used Facebook or other social networks; however there were none on stage in the cast of newly minted billionaires ringing the NASDAQ bell. Many have raised the question of who is or will be the black Mark Zuckerberg? That question translates to who are the successful black technology entrepreneurs?

For the last year, there has been great debate about blacks in Silicon Valley’s technology industry. This argument was fueled by a CNN program called Blacks in America: The New Promised Land — Silicon Valley.