Traditionally, the majority of entrepreneurs have been logical thinkers, problem solvers, with full attention to details. These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Yet I see a big shift from the knowledge age, with its left-brain foundation, to a critical focus today on visualization, creativity, relationships, and collaboration, which are more in the domain of right-brainers.

Ecosystems have become an important topic for business leaders. The pace of change in contemporary business environments means that the creation of value and decision making cannot be centralized. This is particularly true when it comes to innovation. Leaders need to accept that they don’t always have the winning ideas and focus on creating an ecosystem that allows winning ideas to consistently emerge. In two decades of strategy consulting and research with over 100 companies, we have learned that building such an ecosystem requires developing capabilities for exploring new ideas, experimentation, accepting failure, and working with external partners.

It’s 9:00am on a Monday and you just arrived at work. Your to-do list for the week is long: answering emails, making client calls, attending meetings, researching a client’s needs, writing a proposal, updating a project plan, reading about new developments in your field … the list doesn’t seem to end.

We all want to win the never-ending race for great, effective, profitable new ideas. We want these ideas without a huge effort, without a huge risk and without a huge investment. We also want ideas with impact, that are rapidly actionable and ideally that utilize mostly existing resources and relationships.

I recently bought a book that I was really excited about. It’s one of those books that’s created a lot of buzz and it was highly recommended by someone I respect. The author’s pedigree included Harvard, Stanford, McKinsey and a career as a successful entrepreneur and CEO.

Why are meteor showers like the Perseids so common? Turns out, space isn't as empty as you might think. It's littered with debris that forms those spectacular meteor shower we look forward to each year.

Solar eclipses are rare and you can never predict when an aurora will illuminate the sky. But there's one cosmic light show we can always count on. Meteor showers. They happen around the same time each year and have been doing so for centuries. But despite their brilliance and beauty it doesn't take much to make a meteor shower. You just need three ingredients, the sun, Earth and a comet.

Social entrepreneurship is gradually transforming into mainstream entrepreneurship. Over the past few years, we have seen an upsurge in the number of social initiatives. In fact, social entrepreneurs all over the world are increasingly realizing that they have the expertise, knowledge and persistence to make a huge impact on the lives of the people in their society and also across the globe. 

The overwhelming majority of the VC funding, 80%, is being imported into the region from investment firms located elsewhere.

Image: Philadelphia Alliance for Capital & Technologies CEO Dean Miller discusses the capital investment landscape during the 2019 Regional Biotechnology Conference. JOHN GEORGE

Getting things done effectively in a startup requires total individual and team accountability. You can’t afford excuses and multiple people doing the same job. In my view, “taking responsibility” is the core element behind accountability. Many people hear responsibility as an obligation, but I hear it as “the ability to respond.”

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Ecosystems have become an important topic for business leaders. The pace of change in contemporary business environments means that the creation of value and decision making cannot be centralized. This is particularly true when it comes to innovation. Leaders need to accept that they don’t always have the winning ideas and focus on creating an ecosystem that allows winning ideas to consistently emerge. In two decades of strategy consulting and research with over 100 companies, we have learned that building such an ecosystem requires developing capabilities for exploring new ideas, experimentation, accepting failure, and working with external partners.

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. Employees are still too often thought of as a commodity, to be acquired “just in time” for the lowest cost, and managed as a disposable asset.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

While would-be entrepreneurs are often dazzled by stories of large venture capital investment, those Silicon Valley fairy tales are the exception not the norm. According to Fundable, only .05 percent of startups are funded by venture capital, and only .91 percent receive angel investment. In fact 57 percent of new companies are funded by the founder.

The economic development group housed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business is launching a new accelerator project to help more early-stage Arkansas firms gain access to federal research funds to commercialize their business ideas.

Universities frequently play an integral role in providing activities, research, and products that positively affect or support local, regional, state and national economic development or strategic goals.  In higher-education’s efforts to align its participation in innovation and entrepreneurship systems, universities’ incubators, accelerators and fund programs are essential in assisting their faculty, staff, or students in the services and support needed to create startups, bring products to market, or provide critically needed funding. Following on our recent review of research universities and their partnerships with industry, as well as our ongoing review of state activities in 2019 (see our stories on higher education and commercialization programs, free tuition offerings, climate change, clean energy, and broadband), this week we report on new university incubators, accelerators and funds launched in 2019.

Primary evangelist: Sean Parker

Thesis: Young founder-CEOs should not be replaced by professional managers or lose board control, because they’re uniquely suited to run companies in the internet and mobile era.

Inherent flaw: This setup overcorrects the previous norm of replacing founders after raising a series A funding round. Subsequent “innovations” gave founders super-voting control as a matter of course and let them sell shares during funding rounds with no effect on their power.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

China’s venture-capital boom, which spawned some of the world’s most valuable technology companies and dozens of rags-to-riches entrepreneur tales in recent years, has come to an end.

Machine learning will dramatically improve health care. There are already a myriad impactful ML health care applications from imaging to predicting readmissions to the back office. But there are also high-profile, expensive efforts that have not achieved their goals.

As a business advisor, I strongly believe that continuous innovation and design thinking are the keys to long-term viability and success. A recent survey of design professionals shows strong agreement, but 92 percent expressed some lack of confidence in their organization’s design vision. They are always on the lookout for ways to prepare current and future design leaders.

“Design thinking” is a methodology used to solve complex challenges, such as the ones faced by every business in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive environment. A design mindset is not product-focused - it’s solution focused and action oriented towards creating better customer experiences and value. In businesses, this requires a new internal culture and leadership.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The culture of overwork – with the expectation of incredibly long hours and interrupted vacations – is often criticised for its negative impact on workers and organisations. Workers suffer from burnout, are not as productive as they think they are and make mistakes, as research has made overwhelmingly clear. Because of this, overwork can cut into a company’s bottom line. But as the evidence against overwork mounts, understanding why it is still so widespread becomes even more important.

Developing and implementing an open talent strategy—one that engages contract freelancers in a structured way within your company—is an exciting step that puts organizations out front of innovation. But it can feel like shaky territory for some parts of businesses, notably IP, legal, and other key stakeholders whose job it is to uphold the business’s integrity while pursuing innovation and growth.