Every new venture that survives the first five years starts to drift away from their entrepreneurial thinking, and assumes they have achieved the path to longevity. In fact, even within Fortune 100 companies, almost 90 percent have encountered growth stalls or flirted with failure, or worse, in the last 50 years. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup.

Last week—like every other week since the beginning of the novel Coronavirus outbreak—brought multiple, significant updates. Two of the biggest pieces of news from the last week brought some confusion with them. The first was the naming of the virus and the disease it causes. The second was the report of a recent spike in case numbers. Here, we delve into these recent updates, to further explain some of the perplexing details.

More than 25 million copies of the late Stephen R. Covey’s book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," have been sold. It remains a best-seller three decades after it was first published (1989).

The second habit of highly effective people is to “begin with the end in mind.”

That simple insight has probably done more to increase national productivity than many impressive technologies.

I know it has helped me avoid wasting endless hours flailing around because I learned to clarify the end in mind — to define the objective or problem — before taking action to solve it. This may sound obvious, but my experience is that most people are not disciplined about it; they attempt to generate solutions before they have defined the problem.

It's a good thing when state leaders recognize the strategic importance of innovation in job and wealth creation. It's also a good thing when a state considers legislation to help address capital gaps. Oklahoma's Technology Business Finance Program (TBFP) Seed Fund is a nationally recognized best practices example of legislated early stage capital that has stood a 20-plus year test of time.

HOBOKEN, N.J., Feb. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Accelerator programs have exploded around the world as the new startup growth institution, spawning successes such as AirBnB, DropBox, Reddit, Stripe, Zenefits, Uber and Pillpack, - many to billion-dollar valuations.

More than 6 million entrepreneurs start a new business in the United States every year, but for every Airbnb, Uber or Reddit, a staggering number of startups don't "make it". Up to 20% of startups don't survive the first year alone. Up to 50% are no longer alive by year 5, and up to 90% ultimately fail. Startup accelerator programs aim to help startups circumvent the different challenges, dilemmas, and pitfalls at different stages of the startup journey - improving their odds of 'making it'.

Project-based services generate a high percentage of revenues for companies with large, multi-skilled mobile workforces. Yet many companies are willing to take a hit on their quoted margins for these services so that they can get a foot in the door to sell products or more profitable, longer-term maintenance services. Getting a foot in the door is a good idea, but a company can do it without taking a financial hit on its project-based services.

A symbolic passing of an economic-development baton took place last week.

Wake Forest University announced Thursday that it has removed its name from the Innovation Quarter it helped found about 25 years ago in downtown Winston-Salem.

Wake Forest School of Medicine governs the 1.2-million-square-foot innovation district under the auspices of the university. Both groups stress that the name change does not reduce their financial and infrastructure commitment.

Image: https://www.journalnow.com - Andrew Dye

In this world of constant change, new technologies, and a thousand cultures, it’s evident and somehow comforting to me that the basic rules for business prosperity really haven’t changed in the last hundred years. Business success is still more about the people than the technology or idea involved. As an angel investor and a mentor to entrepreneurs I still see this every day.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The State of the Valley conference, Joint Venture’s annual “town hall” meeting on Friday had plenty of the usual superlatives about the positive aspects of life in Silicon Valley. As Joint Venture CEO Russell Hancock said, we’re living in “the most prodigious regional economy in the history of regional economies.”

I made illustration of Corona virus today. 😍 I hope scientists and doctors can find a cure soon and I wish everyone who was affected to get well and recover soon! hashtag#sciart

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Business partnerships have traditionally been agreements to drive more transactions than either company could do alone. The new paradigm, driven by disruptive technologies, cloud-served supercomputing, and the new generation of young adults with global empathy, is partnering and giving something now for a competitive advantage in the future.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The concept of degrowth dates back to the 1970s, when a group of French intellectuals led by the philosopher Andre Gorz proposed a simple idea: In response to mounting environmental and social problems, they suggested that the only real solution was to produce and consume less — to shrink our economies to cope with the carrying capacity of our planet. The proposal was considered by many at the time to be too radical. But with today’s the climate crisis, debates around degrowth have been reinvigorated, and many major figures such as Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis and Anthony Giddens have, to varying degrees, expressed support for the idea.

Job growth remains up. So do wages and other metrics. So why does it all feel strange?

A top leader at the University City Science Center spoke on Capitol Hill this week to send federal legislators a message: The "Valley of Death" startups face is real, but lawmakers can help them find a way out by directing more government funding to “innovation intermediaries,” like the Science Center.

Image: Dr. John Younger, vice president of science and technology, testified before a congressional subcommittee about the "Valley of Death" faced by startups. U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Feb. 10, 2020 -- Linda Larrimore has been getting chemotherapy every other week for 6 years to treat and manage colon cancer.

The chemotherapy is keeping her health stable, so it’s well worth it to the mother and grandmother to regularly get the treatment. Usually, she spends the 4½ hours every other week reading, watching TV, or chatting.

Image: https://www.webmd.com

Most family business founders aspire to build a firm that will last for generations to come. Sadly, that’s a rarity: According to Gallup, less than one-third of global family firms outlive the founder, and a scant 12 percent make it to the third generation.

Inadequate succession planning is often blamed for low rates of generational transfer. However, succession is only one facet of a much broader slate of policies and practices that promote longevity in family business. The term for this brand of business discipline is institutionalisation. Without it, family firms are defenceless against the threats to leadership, governance, talent management and decision-making that unavoidably crop up for all organisations that survive past the early developmental stages.

Silicon Valley has long been known for its “ask forgiveness, not permission” and “move fast and break things” attitudes, but lately it’s had to reckon with the consequences of that mindset. Examples from Uber to WeWork suggest that this modus operandi exposes fast-growing firms to significant risks.

A map showing the spread of confirmed coronavirus cases in Singapore is going viral in the country.

As of Thursday, the country has recorded 58 cases — making it the country with the highest number of confirmed cases in the world outside China, which has nearly 60,000 cases.

Singapore authorities confirmed eight more cases on Thursday, The Straits Times reported.

The number of infections in Singapore also come just before those on the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship quarantined in Japan which has found 218 infections since last Monday.

Image: https://www.businessinsider.com

For new college students, choosing a major can feel like a decision that shapes one's life trajectory. But a degree in computer science is no guarantee that you'll create the next billion-dollar startup, and a philosophy degree won't necessarily keep you from starting a business. 

The best and brightest CEOs in tech come from a wide-range of educational backgrounds.

Starting a business can be very challenging. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, about half of all new businesses fail within their first five years. There are countless factors that can undermine a company’s chances for success and ultimately doom it. While most of these factors — such as those related to product quality, pricing, and planning — can be blamed on poor management, a business’s chances for success can also depend on outside factors.