The first edition of TheCAP, Europe’s new cluster accelerator programme, took place 14-17 October 2019 at Frankfurt’s Provadis School of International Management and Technology. TheCap introduced participants from eleven European countries to practical tools and methods to take their cluster to the next level.

Image: https://www.climate-kic.org

Wisdom is one of those “I know it when I see it” qualities that are hard to define. But having wisdom and using it well is often the difference between good and bad decisions in business. The key to becoming wise is experience, but experience doesn’t automatically convert into wisdom. Experience provides the lessons that wisdom is based on, but it doesn’t guarantee that those lessons will be learned.

Once in a while you run into ideas which are refreshingly thought-provoking, while at the same time seeming to be resonating with your own view. This holds for the key statements in “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries”, a worthwile new book by theoretical physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall. Since its launch, “Loonshots” has been recommended by Bill Gates and Daniel Kahneman and frequently been featured or awarded by the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Nature, Scientific American, Forbes, Bloomberg, FT, HBR and others.

Image: From: Safi Bahcall, “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries” (2019)

Reduced stress. Increased awareness. More focus on the present. The benefits of mindfulness are well known by now, following the proliferation of corporate mindfulness training programmes in the past decade. Rooted in Buddhism and embraced by office workers, soldiers and athletes, mindfulness has been widely studied for its benefits on a person’s mind and emotions. Increasingly, researchers also find that developing a non-judgemental awareness of the present boosts empathy and other-focused perspectives, leading to more behaviours that benefit the people around you.

I look at leadership as a calling. When I think of the people I know who have genuinely moved an organization or a group forward, they all have one thing in common: Their role is not just a job for them. It’s an expression of their true self. They wear no mask at work; they don’t pretend to be anyone other than themselves. They consistently express authority and command, but as much over themselves as over anyone else, and always with the intent of contributing to a greater good. This is leadership as service.

Image: Photograph by baona

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- ID.me, the industry leader in secure online identification verification, today announced it has been named DC Inno's 2019 "50 on Fire" winner in the government category. The annual awards program celebrates the top 50 disruptors, luminaries and newsmakers driving innovation across the greater Washington, D.C. area.

"2019 has been a tremendous year of growth and innovation for ID.me. Over the last year, we've doubled our user base, strategically grown our partner network, successfully launched new products and secured two important patents," said Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me. "As a result of our investments, we've experienced record-setting revenue growth and added amazing talent to our growing team. It's exciting to be recognized for our accomplishments and to be included in such an impressive list of local innovators."

The sustainability of conventional corporate governance models has recently come into question. Directors are living in the midst of intense competition in a business environment disrupted by shifts in technology, macroeconomics and geopolitics. As a result, some of the critical questions that boards need to confront are: What transforms the business environment today? What are our risks and opportunities? Can directors continue to be effective without considering recalibration and renewal?

Headwinds ranging from an expected renewal of political wrangling over the price of prescription drugs to increasing pressure on sales of established treatments have largely, but not entirely, kept pharmaceutical companies from enjoying the increases of their biotech counterparts, as reflected in the share prices of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) consisting of pharma equities.

Two of three pharma ETFs showed year-over-year declines as of November 13, while the third showed an increase in the low single digits. That ETF was the NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index (DRG), which rose 2.8% year-over-year, to $608.31. By comparison, SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF (XPH) fell 12.7%, to $38.14, while iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE) dipped by 6.5% from a year ago, to $143.91.

!00 innovations making the world better, smarter and even a little more fun.

Image: https://time.com

My name is Clarke, and I have been a part-time Uber and Lyft driver for the better part of a year now.

I have given hundreds of rides to passengers from all over the world on the busy streets of southeastern Florida. People seem to like me, and I have maintained a 4.99 rating on both platforms.

I have learned a lot since I've started driving, including some things I wish I knew before I started the job. This gig has given me some funny stories, some heartwarming stories, and some horrible ones, but they all come with the job, and they all help to keep things interesting.

Image: The author, Clarke Bowman, drives for Uber and Lyft in South Florida. Clarke Bowman

A national nonprofit aimed at economic development policymakers and other professionals seeking to create a better future through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship will hold their annual conference in about Little Rock a year from now.

Jerry Adams, president and CEO of the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA), announced Thursday (Nov. 21) that the State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) will hold its annual conference in Little Rock on Oct. 13-15, 2020.

Last year, when SAP spent $8 billion to acquire the online research firm Qualtrics, a price that was roughly 14 times the company’s projected 2019 sales, SAP’s CEO defended the deal by citing a statistic. Companies that create a new category typically capture 76% of the total category market capitalization, he said. Since Qualtrics created the category in which it played, the CEO said, this deal would payoff despite the steep premium.

Choosing a college major isn't easy, but it may be a smart idea to choose one in an industry that's expanding. 

We looked at industries that are expected to continue growing in the next decade to determine which college majors will become increasingly desirable in the 2020s.

Industries related to technology, such as computer systems design and related services, are expected to continue expanding after a period of steady growth in 2019.

Image: Choosing a college major isn't easy, but it may be a smart idea to choose one in an industry that's expanding. Rogelio V. Solis/AP

In 2015, two New York-based designers conceived of a sustainable alternative to the ubiquitous city coffee cup. Tom Chan, then a sophomore at Cooper Union, developed Unocup—a spill-resistant, foldable cup made of paper—at his school’s Invention Factory summer program. During the six-week program, where students are challenged to design products that address a common need, Chan created some 800 prototypes for Unocup alongside his collaborator and cofounder, architect Kaanur Papo.

Image: courtesy Unocup

Dr. Mary Lowe Good, 88, the retired special adviser to the chancellor for economic development at UA Little Rock and founding dean of the university’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology, died this morning. She had been in hospice for several weeks.

Image: Mary Lowe Good

A job at Andreessen Horowitz is a pretty sweet gig.

The venture-capital firm made early investments in Facebook, Airbnb, and Lyft; it currently manages a total of $10 billion in assets.

When the firm's leadership interviews candidates for positions there, they want to know first and foremost that the person respects entrepreneurs, and that they know how hard it is to build a successful business from the ground up.

Scotland’s first “business decelerator” is set to take place this weekend in a bid to “inspire creativity and breakthrough innovation”. The training programme, which will take place on the Isle of Bute, promises to offer “an opportunity to decelerate from busy corporate roles to undertake deep personal reflection and development”.

Image: The training programme is taking place on the Isle of Bute. Picture: Contributed 

In 2008, Ryan Wenk and Kyle Cleeton, two MU business students, came back to campus from a trip to Wall Street in New York City. Excited about what they had learned, they came up with an idea of starting an angel investment club.

Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the known universe, thought to be released when a massive star collapses into a black hole or neutron star.

Now scientists have just discovered a pair of them more powerful than we could have imagined. In a trio of new papers published in Nature, two teams of astronomers report the detection of two gamma-ray bursts that each emitted energy readings over 100 billion times more powerful than visible light. In fact, one was a trillion times more powerful.

Housing affordability and dwelling shortages back to centre stage

The combined issues of housing affordability and dwelling shortages are once again emerging as key issues for the property industry, policy makers and the broader community.

Recent cyclical and relatively short-term movements in the property market – where we’ve moved from boom to moderation to a rebound again – have dominated discussion in recent years.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com