Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
I'll never forget the moment when I saw my company's bank account dwindle to a mere $5,000. No matter how fervently you believe in the mission of your startup, there's something cold and harsh about a ledger that can make you question all the decisions that led up to that moment.
Thankfully, I have a different perspective today. My company's revenue increased by 20 times between 2019 and 2021, and I'm confident that we'll continue this positive trajectory.
Innovation isn’t the role of a team or a function. It’s the way an organisation operates, the way its people think and how they go about their day-to-day. But how does a business create a culture in which its people challenge the status quo, actively pose new ideas and work together to be part of the solutions? How does it reach across the entire organisation and not just small, ambitious pockets?
Emma Jackson, client innovation manager at Mills & Reeve, explores some of the ways organisations can achieve an innovation ecosystem:
Image: Client innovation manager at Mills & Reeve, Emma Jackson
Mention digital marketing and, within minutes, buzzwords like search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing will be mentioned. Both are more than buzzwords. They are integral parts of successful digital marketing for most current brands.
Chances are, if you are running a business that uses digital marketing, you are already using both. SEO will drive traffic to your website, while you use content marketing in your blogs and on your social media channels. But here is the question: are both tactics working well together? If not, you may be missing out on a great opportunity to help your brand grow.
When you’ve sent out application after application to companies without hearing back, it might not be a reflection of you. More likely, it’s that your credentials are not appropriately customized for a particular role.
I often say a job posting is like a request for a proposal, and your résumé is the sales pitch. No good salesperson would send the same pitch to different clients, so why would you submit the same document to different jobs?
The truth is, that to put your best foot forward, you need to tailor your résumé for each job—or at least the jobs you’re most interested in. You might be thinking, “I don’t have the time for that!” To clarify, this is not a full rewrite of your résumé, rather a few strategic modifications to align it to specific details in the job description.
While most leaders now know that tech is a vital part of business, many are wondering what they really need to know about technology to succeed in the digital age. Coding bootcamps may appeal to some, but for many leaders, learning to code is simply not the best investment. It takes a long time to become a proficient coder, and it still doesn’t give you a holistic overview of how digital technologies get made. The good news is that most leaders don’t need to learn to code. Instead, they need to learn how to work with people who code.
Customers these days are smarter than ever, and that means your slick sales pages and flashy social posts are coming under a new type of scrutiny. Beware these fatal marketing mistakes or watch your capital dwindle as your sales stagnate ... or worse.
Acquiring a company can be a fast-track to profits, but it can just as easily thrust you into a dishearteningly expensive uphill battle. Here are six crucial considerations that can save you from betting on the wrong entrepreneurial horse (and losing it all in the process).
In the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold and it became clear that the emerging public health threat was also a threat to businesses and the economy, policymakers responded by providing emergency funding aimed at keeping businesses and the economy afloat.
Human error is one of the biggest risks in cybersecurity. All it takes for an intruder to gain access to a network is for an employee to mistakenly enter their login credentials to a phishing website or to click on a malware attachment to start a breach that can cause millions of dollars worth of damages.
From what to wear to what to tackle first at work, we make thousands of decisions every day. Some are trivial, like choosing oatmeal instead of avocado toast. But other decisions can have serious consequences for yourself or others. When making those choices, it can be easy to get caught up, methodically weighing all your options. While it can feel like a sensible process, it can also cause you to miss out on opportunities. Sometimes you just need to make the call.
Image: Photo: DVIDSHUB/Seaman Kyle Gahlau/Flickr
When most people envision entrepreneurial success, they think of Mark Zuckerberg conjuring a global network the world can’t imagine living without, or Steve Jobs putting a sleek iPhone into the hands of millions of people.
Stinky piles of worm-infested garbage rarely come to mind.
Image: Photo courtesy of Stas Knop via Pexels
Two of the most cited reasons for car commuters shunning smaller vehicles like bikes, scooters and motorcycles are safety and weather. But the Nimbus One with its fully-enclosed design and car-like safety features is trying to solve both of those issues at once.
That’s the big idea, as the company says the Nimbus One “combines the convenience and cost of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car”.
The world has come around to see we need to produce energy as responsibly as possible. However, there is one major hurdle that we face when it comes to producing energy through renewable sources; intermittency!
With the rise of the gig economy and with many companies adopting flatter, more flexible organizational structures, now is the perfect time to refocus on what good leadership looks like. Because, in our rapidly changing workplaces, leadership will apply to more people than ever before. You may be overseeing a project that requires you to coordinate several team members. Or you may be a gig worker collaborating with other gig workers. Or you may be occupying a traditional management role. Whatever your job title, this precious ability to bring out the best in people will be a vital part of success.
Activating the immune system at the site of a tumor can recruit and stimulate immune cells to destroy tumor cells. One strategy involves injecting immune-stimulating molecules directly into the tumor, but this method can be challenging for cancers that are not easily accessible.
Image: Activating the immune system at the site of a tumor can recruit and stimulate immune cells to destroy tumor cells. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)
Real innovation in the business world is still rare. As I’ve said before, everyone talks about innovation, but the majority of new business plans I see still reflect linear thinking – one more social network with more features, another smartphone app for marketing, or one more platform for faster e-commerce. Historic changes and great successes don’t come from linear thinking.
Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com
A new technology developed by UZH researchers enables the body to produce therapeutic agents on demand at the exact location where they are needed. The innovation could reduce the side effects of cancer therapy and may hold the solution to better delivery of Covid-related therapies directly to the lungs.
Scientists at the University of Zurich have modified a common respiratory virus, called adenovirus, to act like a Trojan horse to deliver genes for cancer therapeutics directly into tumor cells.
Image: View of the tumor from the inside. A piece of the tumor was made completely transparent and scanned in 3D with a special microscope. The components labeled with fluorescent colors were rendered in a rotatable 3D representation on the computer (red: blood vessels, turquoise: tumor cells, yellow: therapeutic antibody).
Israeli researchers have discovered a method to predict earthquakes 48 hours ahead with 80% accuracy, as detailed in a peer-reviewed study published in the scientific journal Remote Sensing in May.
How did they work it out? By studying changes in the Earth's ionosphere, the sliver of atmosphere which meets the vacuum of space, the Ariel University and Center for Research & Development Eastern Branch research team was able to evaluate potential precursors to several major earthquakes that occurred in the past 20 years.
Image: Moon and Earth’s Atmosphere (credit: NASA)
People across the nation and across the world are burned out, exhausted and depressed. And the talent revolution (aka the great resignation) is perhaps the best evidence things are far from ideal in the world of work.
Burnout isn’t new, and news of burnout isn’t really news. So why is it still an issue, and what can we do about it? There are solutions—for employees, leaders and organizations in terms of rethinking work and reimagining organizations.
