We all know jobs have been lost in the downturn. The question is how to encourage innovative, entrepreneurial new companies that could arise and create new jobs.

Is your state helping you win in today's idea-driven economy? A new study from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reveals where the new economy is taking off, and where states are lagging in assisting 21st Century entrepreneurs. It also makes concrete suggestions for how states could help get the entrepreneurial wheels turning faster.

Many small businesses struggle to compete against bigger, more visible, and better-resourced companies, but it’s even tougher to survive when what you sell is basically a commodity. That’s why I’m so impressed with the scrappy independent booksellers who have wholeheartedly embraced the philosophy that it’s not the “what” of business that really matters but the “how.” I can buy a copy of Faithful Place by Tana French, my new favorite mystery writer, just about anywhere, but my strong preference is to head to my local independent.

Competition encourages entrepreneurship
by placing focus on concepts that can transform markets and human lives

Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation is looking for women scientists and engineers in the United States who have ideas that could change the world. Kauffman Labs has launched the Women in Science and Engineering Business Idea Competition to tap a growing pool of these highly educated women who have the potential to start scalable science- and engineering-related ventures.

The entrant with the best idea for transforming an industry and significantly impacting lives will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to TED 2011.

For more information  

Global Innovation Game, a social game for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and people who think big, is sweeping Facebook, Twitter, and the world.  Also known as GiG, the Global Innovation Game is a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) and provides anyone the opportunity to give their innovations and entrepreneurial thoughts to the world.

GiG is a competition of ideas and strategy that will connect GEW participants from around the world, encouraging them to collaborate, share, mentor, and compete with one another.  The game allows for virtually anybody to provide solutions for our world's biggest problems:  How would you bring medicine to those who need it most?  How would you harness the wind, water, sun and earth to create a more sustainable future?  How would you make the daily commute efficient?  How would you provide clean water and food to nourish the hungry? 

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has invested in Santa Barbara based FindTheBest, a comparison engine founded by DoubleClick cofounder Kevin O’Connor. This is the first outside funding for the new startup, and one of the first investments made by Kleiner’s sFund, announced in October. Randy Komisar from Kleiner will join FindTheBest’s board of directors.

So what does FindTheBest do? “It’s Kayak for the other thousand things,” says O’Connor.

Want to compare smartphones, and filter by reviews, price, carriers, etc.? Go here. Or take a look at ski resorts and filter by vertical drop and average snowfall. Users can also edit and add data on their own as well. The site is just starting to also take direct user ratings.

Einstein once said, “imagination is better than knowledge.” It is more important to see possibilities than to know the facts.

Dan Roam, in his book Unfolding the Napkin, wrote:

“Problems don’t get solved by the smartest or the fastest or the strongest; they get solved by the one who sees the possibilities.”

Dan also added…

“Yes, we need to have the intelligence to pick the best option; yes, we need the speed to get it done on time; yes, we need the strength to make it happen and stay on course. But the hardest part of all – finding the solution – depends only on our ability to see what’s in front of us and imagine as many ways as we can to deal with it.

Since 1986, every brainstorm session I've facilitated has included a large poster of Albert Einstein. I don't remember exactly how this tradition got started, but I'm glad it did.

Somehow, Einstein's smiling countenance inspires everyone in the room -- no matter what their social style, gender, title, or astrological sign.

The only thing I find more fascinating than this is the incredible amount of powerful quotes he left behind for us to contemplate.

1. "The only real valuable thing is intuition."

2. "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

3. "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

4. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

5. "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."

Thanksgiving is over, and winter is rapidly approaching. And ideas, like seasons, come and go.

But over the past few months, we've seen some brilliant, new business concepts -- ones that have staying power.

Each day, we scour the web for these daily million dollar ideas and have you vote on them.

We've compiled a list of fifteen favorites from the fall.

I recently had the good fortune to attend a session on landing page optimization at PubCon.com, the annual conference about search, social media, Internet marketing and website operation. I learned a lot, so I thought I’d share the 14 top takeaways from the session with Small Business Trends’ readers.

Amit Chatterjee, CEO and founder of Hara, pinpoints a shift in the startup game. It used to be that young businesses tapped their national market completely before heading overseas. Now, says Chatterjee, the focus is to approach multiple global markets simultaneously - for Hara, this meant reaching out to the UK, the Middle East, and Japan from the company's start.

According to the last INSEAD Global Innovation Index 2009-2010, all South American countries are ranked below the 40th position. To improve the innovation situation in the region there are three main focus areas to be addressed: encouraging a culture of collaboration and the use of social media, encouraging intrapreneurs, and to introduce Management 2.0. Other key issues are Internet penetration and the Enterprise 2.0 concept.

Dr. Alexander Ostervalder talks about the systematic approach to business model innovation. He suggests using architectural strategies when planning new business models, such as prototyping and sketching. He also stresses the importance of a strong facilitator who can enforce rules during the innovation process.

The number of doctorates in science and engineering earned by foreign students at American universities shrank last year by 3.5 percent, the first drop in more than five years, the National Science Foundation reported.

The decline came despite an overall increase in the total number of doctorates issued by American universities, up 1.6 percent over 2008 levels, as well as a net increase in the science and engineering fields, up 1.9 percent over 2008, the NSF said in an annual review.

Doctorates earned by science and engineering students holding temporary visas fell to 12,217 in 2009, from 12,686 the year before, a likely reflection of factors that include tougher economic conditions worldwide, an NSF analyst said.

DES MOINES — Siouxland Chamber of Commerce president Debi Durham is expected to be introduced today as the next director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Gov.-elect Terry Branstad, who will return in January for a fifth term after a 12-year break, has called a news conference at 9 a.m. today in Des Moines to announce Durham as his choice to lead the 115-employee department.

Branstad's transition team declined Monday to confirm the selection. Durham, who was traveling to Des Moines, could not be reached for comment.

Durham, 50, who has headed the Siouxland Chamber and its economic development division, The Siouxland Initiative, for the last 15 years, is a “logical choice” for the position, said state Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City.

You know it’s getting weird when Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser is the voice of reason concerning the burgeoning economic warfare within the metropolitan area between Kansas and Missouri.

Although more than a few people think the disarray that the mayor created within the city’s economic development agencies helped make Kansas City particularly vulnerable, he is right in wondering why local civic organizations haven’t been raising Cain on the topic.

“Where is Missouri? Where is regionalism? Where are the civic and business groups that claim to have Kansas City’s interests first?” Funkhouser asked a couple of weeks ago when The Star first reported that Kansas was dangling a $50 million incentive package to lure AMC Entertainment out of downtown.