South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a leading scientific and technology research, development and implementation organization, is at the forefront of the country's quest to become a fully-fledged knowledge-based economy. WIPO Magazine recently met with the CSIR's President, Dr. Sibusiso Sibisi, to find out more about the organization's approach to innovation and the opportunities and challenges it faces in fostering a culture of innovation to deliver widespread economic and social benefit.

The CSIR is a multidisciplinary organization responsible for generating new knowledge, applying existing knowledge, and developing and leveraging technologies to generate positive socioeconomic impact in line with national priorities. “While we quite rightly speak about innovation as a means of stimulating economic growth, our innovation efforts must seek to improve the lives of all South Africans,” Dr. Sibisi stresses.

Here's an announcement provided by i-GATE:

The White House will welcome 13 Local Innovation Champions of Change who have committed themselves to creating a more open and innovative government through entrepreneurship. Whether making local government information and public data more accessible; creating local environments to encourage and support entrepreneurs; or developing workforce programs to provide residents with skills for the high-tech economy, these champions of change work tirelessly to build a better future for the citizens they serve, create jobs in their community, and ensure more efficient and effective government.

Have you suddenly been receiving a lot of endorsements?  There’s an explanation for that.

LinkedIn recently launched a new feature called Endorsements. The feature allows LinkedIn users to endorse their connections on a specific skill or area of expertise with one click, instead of needing to write a whole review.

And visitors are prompted to leave endorsements as soon as they go to the LinkedIn site.  Here’s what the new feature looks like:

1. Reason is highly over-rated.

2. If you need more data to prove your point, you'll never have enough data to prove your point.

3. Analysis paralysis.

4. You're going to follow your gut, anyway.

5. By the time you put your business case together, the market has passed you by.

Maybe you’re a startup founder who wants to rub shoulders with your peers, pitch investors in the hope of landing venture capital and talk to a lawyer about drawing up paperwork.

Maybe you’re a veteran researcher who’s got a side project that looks like it could turn into something big. Or maybe you’ve got little more than an idea on the back of a napkin.

Whoever you are, whatever the reason, whatever shape your idea is in, there’s at least one universal truth: it’s a good time to be an entrepreneur in Memphis.

The recent economic downturn and volatile financial markets have drastically reduced the retirement accounts of many current and future retirees. In a new study, a University of Missouri financial expert has found that many Americans choose to retire when the economic markets are peaking, an action that can, ironically, cause major problems for the long-term financial stability of retirees.

“Potential retirees often will first meet their targeted retirement savings goals during an up market and will be tempted to retire at that point,” said Rui Yao, an assistant professor of personal financial planning in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at MU. “The problem with this strategy is that the economy runs in cycles, meaning that after a peak, the market will take a downturn. People who have retired shortly before an economic downturn run a serious risk of losing a significant portion of their retirement savings, which will shorten the longevity of their retirement income. This could result in many retirees outliving their retirement savings and facing financial hardships toward the end of their lives.”

Most people think entrepreneurs are willing to take on more risk than the average person. I've often wondered if that's really true. After almost three decades of working with large corporations and entrepreneurs, I've developed a theory. Now, this theory hasn't been vetted with controlled experiments and testing. It is based solely on experiential and intuitive data drawn from my life experiences. For instance, I have 12 years of working with entrepreneurs as an early-stage venture capitalist; 19 years working for a large corporation (Bell Labs & AT&T) and consulting to their multi-national, multi-billion dollar customers; 10 years of mentoring entrepreneurs; and created a carve-out start-up within AT&T.

So many digital health startups, so little time.

That’s one of the challenges entrepreneurs face when it comes to finding a healthcare organization to try out their new technologies. But a pilot study is often the best way for these companies to validate their products and business models in order to move into full-scale commercialization. So how do you land a coveted partnership with Mayo Clinic or Massachusetts General?

Another way to put this very useful quote is, “Ready, Fire, Aim!” Not to say that you go off and start making decisions without any forethought, but better to take action than sit around waiting for something to happen. You have choices…

Wait for Opportunity

Generally speaking, there are two ways to approach life.  You can be passive.  You can sit back and wait for something great to come your way.  You can rely on luck and knowing how to spot opportunities when they fall in your lap.  The truth is, you may experience luck and have some success.  After all, some people may not even realize there are favorable circumstances right in front of their faces.

CHICAGO — Once a dormant area of empty warehouses, the River North section of Chicago has evolved into a nexus of dining, night life and, most recently, an aspiring rival to Silicon Valley. Its 45 square blocks are home to the headquarters of Groupon, the Chicago offices of Google and several hundred technology start-ups. Enlarge This Image

Now River North’s digital transformation is extending to one of the neighborhood’s most storied — and decidedly low-tech — commercial addresses. The Merchandise Mart, a Depression-era behemoth of limestone, concrete and steel that has long been synonymous with fabric bolts and furniture, is becoming a destination for the city’s digital set.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), Sept. 12, 2012 — Certain regions of the country continuously produce innovative, high-growth companies that have transcended the economic downturn of the last few years. Surprisingly, those regions include more than the expected locales like Boston and Silicon Valley.

"The Ascent of America's High-Growth Companies," a report series released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, reveals that high numbers of fast-growing firms are concentrated in unexpected regions and industrial sectors.

Being able to break into the city’s startup scene requires two things: networking and networking with the right people. Now, for you aspiring student entrepreneurs out there, the task sounds easier said than done. But the truth is that there are several seasoned CEOs, venture capitalists and the like who are more than willing — actually eager — to speak with students.

Although plenty of people in the Boston startup community would, no doubt, love to interact more with students, given the reality of how busy everyone is, we’ve selected only those who are actively engaged with young entrepreneurs.

Conventional research on raising capital focuses on the two usual suspects that inhabit balance sheets: equity and debt. But as authors Alex Edmansand William Mannremind readers in a recent Wharton research paper, selling non-core assets also fills corporate coffers with cash.

"Financing Through Asset Sales" probes the choice to issue equity or sell non-core assets such as a division or a plant. As a means of raising cash, under what conditions are asset sales or equity issues likely to add more value? Edmans, a Wharton finance professor and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Mann, a Wharton PhD candidate, have an answer.

A group of local entrepreneurs and investors that includes former Chrysalis Ventures LLC managing director Bob Saunders is planning to launch a business accelerator for health-related software firms. The accelerator would be called Health Catalyst. Their plans got a big boost Thursday when the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved a grant of $150,000 in Kentucky High Tech Pool funds for the project over three years.

Lead generation is not about how many numbers you dial or how many decision makers you talk to – ultimately it is a matter of building trust. Every time your sales team talks to a prospect, they have a chance to build trust so that the prospect will want to hear more from them.

At a time when prospects are feeling overwhelmed with too much to do, too little time, and too many bad cold calls, your sales team can stand out from the competition by learning how to build trust.

In an overcrowded market, startups need to stand out more than ever before. A bright idea will no longer carry a company; it's all about execution. To learn how to scale up — and what mistakes to avoid —  we spoke with Andy White, director of the Las Vegas Tech Fund, which is part of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's $350 million personal investment in the city. White is deciding how to allocate $50 million into about 100-200 startups, with investments of up to $500,000 each. Before moving to Vegas, he was the executive director at tech accelerator BoomStartup in Salt Lake City.

SAN FRANCISCO – Todd Park, chief technology officer of the United States, urged an audience at the Commonwealth Club of California recently to think about data in new ways, and suggested that to do so would first require setting that data free.

The value of data is something Park speaks about passionately. Open data and open innovation have the power to improve healthcare in America, he said, making his case before the Commonwealth Club audience on June 18 – where he also discussed who is the bigger geek, himself or President Obama. (Answer: the president.)

In a study – conducted for Outsourcing-Pharma.com – research analyst Sudarsan Pakaravoor said a lull in innovation for rare and orphan indications has led vendors to seek more innovative ways to work with industry.

He said the traditional industry, made up of a series of contract research organisations (CROs) and vendors is too “fragmented” and therefore the discovery process is divided.

“Can I comment off-camera?” is a phrase that we heard on nearly every stop of the Startup Canada Tour. Across more than 20 communities, no one wanted to go on the record about the fragmentation of the Canadian entrepreneurship ecosystem.

It’s one of the greatest barriers to the advancement of Canadian entrepreneurship, but we are too polite to talk about it. But the enterprise support community has seen the Startup Canada Tour and Town Halls as an opportunity to air their concerns. This entry is a summary of what we have heard from those on the inside and on the ground.

An entrepreneur is literally “one who creates a new business.” The best new businesses are ones that have never been done before, so mastering creativity and recognizing creativity are key skills and mind-sets. But how does one recognize and nurture creativity in a person or team?

Recently, I was reviewing a new book by Bryan Mattimore, “Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs,” which outlines well eight attributes of the most creative people, which seem to match the mind-sets of some of the best entrepreneurs I know. Investors look for these in the people they fund, and you should be looking for them in yourself: