It’s no secret that succession planning is a major challenge for family-owned and -managed businesses. Experts have been warning about the issue for many years, but the message doesn’t seem to have sunk in. In many countries the percentage of family firms with a defined roadmap for succession is actually declining, according to recent reports.

Bringing research to life and seeing it translated into real-world impacts, such as bringing important innovations to patients, is a complex process, in which many innovators fail. Evaluations of FP7 and completed health-related Horizon 2020 projects found that an estimated 80% of the results lacked real progress in terms of valorisation and advancement towards the market. This is a missed opportunity as health innovation is one of the major drivers of future growth in the knowledge-based economy and innovation in healthcare is crucial for providing benefit to citizens, as well as meeting established European priorities.

August 28, 2019 – Halifax, NS – Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Building on Canada’s competitive advantages such as its strong export potential, its rapidly developing innovation ecosystem, and its skilled workforce, will help create regional economic prosperity and good, middle-class jobs. That is why the Government of Canada is enabling Volta to provide targeted programming to Atlantic Canadian startups as they move from early-stage to growth-stage, building the next generation of technology-based, global export businesses in Atlantic Canada.

Image: Toon Nagtegaal, an internationally renowned venture capitalist and consultant, is facilitating Volta LEAP, a new program from Halifax tech innovation hub Volta to prepare Atlantic Canadian founders to participate in major, international accelerator programs (Riley Smith). - https://www.miragenews.com

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. In fact, they need an early focus on developing their moral compass, as well as setting the right ethical tone. Building an ethical business is more than just compliance and meeting legal requirements, and it has big paybacks.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs are the nation's largest source of early stage, high risk research and development funding for small businesses. These programs provide more than $3.5 billion annually in competitive awards, enabling entrepreneurs to develop new technologies and ultimately facilitate the commercialization of innovation. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with and hear from SBIR/STTR leaders and experts, as they learn how to submit more competitive proposals and leverage available resources.

Here are seven pieces of wisdom and advice about the role of innovation in healthcare that executives from hospitals and health systems across the country shared with Becker's Hospital Review in August:

Sylvia Romm, MD, chief innovation officer, Atlantic Health System (Morristown, N.J.): "Often, the best ideas don't come from one institution; they are created when dedicated people from two or more institutions decide to work together to solve tough problems. In healthcare, where problems are extremely complex and people's lives are at stake, much of the innovation I have seen comes from ideas that have already been tested in one environment, but are then used in a new way or with new partners — that's where you can see real leaps forward, tackling new challenges and solving problems."

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. In my experience as a business advisor, one of the best ways to get all of these, is to publish a book on the technology, the journey, or some relevant lessons learned.

Product concepts are the lifeblood of your company. Flowing through your company’s system, like blood through the veins of a human body, new product concepts are the future of your company’s health and the source of its growth. Unfortunately, many companies lack a strategic planning process for innovation, or they manage it poorly. Too many companies insist that the early stages of innovation – when your idea may be no more than a drawing on a napkin – cannot be managed. What too many company’s lack is a strategic planning process that helps to identify winners, to reduce risk, and to manage investments in the early stages of development.

Investment in financial technology (“Fintech”) companies is growing dramatically. Global Fintech funding has risen to over $100 billion, fueled by large M&A deals and large rounds of financing. Investment in Fintech companies is expected to continue to grow significantly in the next few years as such companies offer outsized growth opportunities.

Your business can’t be all things to all people, and excel at anything. Every entrepreneur and every business needs a strategy to keep them focused. In fact, in this new world of pervasive interactivity, it’s time to rethink even how to develop a strategy. Strategy used to come from the inside looking out, but now it must come from a dialogue and engagement with constituents.

An Austin startup can 3D-print tiny homes in 24 hours for a fraction of the cost of traditional homebuilding — here's how Icon could revolutionize affordable housing

Image: Icon will 3D-print six more tiny homes at a property in Austin housing the city's homeless population. Katie Canales/Business Insider

Launching a product is hard to do.

"Less than 3% of new consumer packaged goods exceed first-year sales of $50 million — considered the benchmark of a highly successful launch," say Joan Schneider and Julie Hall, coauthors of "The New Launch Plan: 152 Tips, Tactics and Trends from the Most Memorable New Products."

That's part of the reason that the most heavy-hitting names in business — from Pepsi to Netflix, Microsoft to McDonald's — have had some of the biggest belly flops. 

Image: Chuck D's All-New Classic TV Clubhouse/YouTube

With critical thinking ranking among the most in-demand skills for job candidates, you would think that educational institutions would prepare candidates well to be exceptional thinkers, and employers would be adept at developing such skills in existing employees. Unfortunately, both are largely untrue.

The number of investments that venture capitalists will make this year in pharmaceutical and biotech companies is on pace to match last year’s record—and that money continues to shift into earlier-stage deals.

Venture firms invested in 609 drug development deals as of Sept. 30, 2019, compared with 808 deals for all last year, according to the latest data from firms that track VC investments.

Since 2016, more than half of the money invested in pharma and biotech each year has been in the riskier angel, seed, Series A, and Series B stages, according to the latest Venture Monitor, a quarterly report published by Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association.

Rapid and mass urbanization is compelling cities to map and streamline their resources to quickly scale integrated citizen services and improve the livability of cities. These issues require work process improvements, basic digitization, integration of datasets, development of standards and protocols – innovative ideas and solutions – tools that help develop new insights and deliver higher performance per rupee. In India these issues become even more complex as we deal with aging or lack of infrastructure, high population density, extreme weather conditions and other socio-economic and environment factors.

Entrepreneurship is often thought of as an area of business that sits separately from the corporate world, reserved for people who don’t quite fit the traditional corporate mould and want to be masters of their own destiny: the game-changers and rule-breakers.

So, why would the leaders of larger corporate giants pay any attention to entrepreneurship? What relevance does this field have to large, bureaucratic organisations? It may surprise you to learn that there are many lessons that can be learned from entrepreneurship which can help established businesses to adapt, grow and thrive.

We have 108 invited companies and 40 investors participating. Thank you to the Conference partners ASTRA Zeneca, BioHealth Innovation, JP Morgan, WSGR, Maryland Department of Commerce and NIST.

On this episode, Carolyn Yarina, CEO & Co-Founder of Sisu Global Health, chats about her Career, Sisu’s Technology, and Thoughts on Entrepreneurism with BioTalk Host Rich Bendis

Carolyn Yarina, CEO and Co-Founder of Sisu Global: Carolyn is a two-time founder/CEO with a proven track record of execution. She has raised nearly $3M from investors like Camden Partners & Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. Carolyn has been featured in USA Today, Forbes, TEDxMidAtlantic, and has received awards like Maryland’s Innovator of the Year, Baltimore Business Journal Tech 10, and Baltimore’s Top 10 BioHealth CEO.

Prior to Sisu, Carolyn founded a medical device non-profit working with rural mobile clinics in India. She raised over $100k in cash and in-kind services and was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Insider. While she was earning her Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Michigan, Carolyn was named Entrepreneur of the Year for her first company.

Center for Innovative Technology, VA | CIT, Oct. 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) extends their congratulations and continued support to Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University for being selected as recipients of The Virginia Research Investment Fund (VRIF) Grant Award of 1.5 million dollars over the next three years for unmanned systems innovation, commercialization and intellectual property (IP) development. The goal of this award is to stimulate industry growth in the unmanned systems sector by utilizing university resources, laboratories, researchers and test facilities for the development of intellectual property by institutions throughout the commonwealth.

Cutting back on sugary drinks is among the simplest and most impactful ways to benefit your health, study after study has shown. Now, a new paper shows just how much of an impact that easy change can have.

Over a period of four years, swapping just one soda or juice for an unsweetened choice—such as water, coffee or tea—every day could slash your risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 10%, according to a study published in the journal Diabetes Care. In addition, increasing sugary drink consumption by more than half a serving per day over a four-year period was subsequently associated with a 16% higher risk of type 2 diabetes.