A recent PwC study looked at a large rise in global R&D spending in 2018, more than a 17% gain over 2017. Many pundits shared the article as evidence of an innovation revolution despite the warnings in the article. Silly, huh?

The piece states, “rising R&D spending is an indication that companies are committing to the future, and should portend future growth in productivity.” Yet the authors of the study caution that there exists no direct correlation between a company’s R&D spending and its innate and overarching ability to innovate.

My view on the social responsibility of companies was heavily influenced by Milton Friedman, who insisted that the business of business is to make a profit while obeying the law. But it seems like hardly anyone agrees with him anymore, if they ever did. What’s the right way to think about “doing good” when working with my team on our strategy?

With a mission of caring for thousands of patients across multiple facilities, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) knows any innovation in care is worth it. Across 10 facilities that comprise almost 900 beds, VAPAHCS has the task of managing the care of 85,000 veterans, which means making the best of all that advanced health IT has to offer.

(Bloomberg) -- When Julio Ribeiro began tapping venture capital firms last year for his Sydney-based medical technology startup, he feared it would be a hard slog. Instead, Inventia raised A$10 million ($6.8 million) in a matter of months and ended up turning some U.S. investors away.

The strong interest came from an unlikely quarter -- venture capital firms backed by local pension funds. The typically risk-adverse money managers are embracing the sector as they diversify investments to generate higher returns. Funds including Host-Plus Pty and Telstra Super Pty helped VC firms raise a record A$1.3 billion last year, up from A$200 million in 2014 before pension interest took off, Australian Investment Council data show.

Image: https://finance.yahoo.com

Consumers and businesses alike are fascinated by the lore surrounding the culture of innovation – from the college dropout who started a personal computing revolution in his Los Altos garage to the programmers whose video game bust was a messaging platform boon.

Certainly, the lone genius and their surprising, sometimes earth-shaking inventions are breathtaking to behold. But for innovation to be useful to most enterprises, especially established ones, there needs to be a deliberate plan to find and shape ideas for their markets (existing and emerging), rapidly vet value and scale accordingly. In turn, these big organizations can serve as lifeblood for startups, whose existence may rest on finding the right partners and customers quickly to create an interconnected market.

It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of day-to-day business. It is often difficult to find time in your day to take a step back and look at the whole picture. That can lead to a loss of the creativity that helped you launch and grow a successful business in the first place. Worse, you start to lose sight of key market trends, evolving customer needs or opportunities for innovation.

As a kid, I believed you had to do things that far surpassed the ordinary if you wanted to be extraordinary. I saw others succeed due to long-term vision, an incredible work ethic and a willingness to take risks. I figured I would hit my entrepreneurial milestones in record time as long as I went the extra mile.

It's true that being a successful entrepreneur involves drive, discipline and a willingness to go above and beyond. What I didn't understand is that those traits are wasted if you don't also maintain a healthy mindset. You can push yourself to the brink of exhaustion and strive for greatness, but you'll burn out if your brain isn’t balanced.

Another day, another start-up making headlines about its transformational technology that's set to disrupt a traditional sector, or its scientific breakthrough that will change the treatment standard for a horrible disease. "Sounds great!" you may be thinking. "Where do I invest?" Unfortunately, you can't.

Where will the next high-profile development project land? That’s a bit hard to say. After all, the proverbial crystal ball exists only in fairy tales and a couple of the “Harry Potter” stories.

That said, there are plenty of good ways to make informed assessments of the various American states and their suitability for big-headline business projects. Just ask the experts who help guide those businesses in their location decisions. They know what characteristics matter, and which places excel in those various traits.

You can tell when an audience has stopped listening to you during a presentation. Phones come out, and attendees surreptitiously text underneath the table. Instead of leaning forward and nodding along with your points, they begin slouching or tapping their feet. The more brazen may even start whispering to one another.

As the US faces a higher education affordability crisis, students from other developed countries don't pay anything for college.

Of the 36 developed, democratic countries that currently make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), seven of them subsidize tuition for public colleges and universities.

After years of equivocation on climate issues by politicians and leaders around the world, young people have had enough.

That’s the message from the young leaders of Friday’s global climate protests, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to climate “strikes” around the world in anticipation of a U.N. summit in New York.

Seed capital or seed money refers to the initial funding used to start a new business or product. It can be a sum of money obtained from the founder’s personal assets, family or friends. Entrepreneurs across the world rely on seed funding to aid and support their ventures.

PIERCE COUNTY, Washington – Technology is growing at a fast pace and the younger generation needs strong STEAM skills science, technology, engineering, art and math to keep up with it. Learn the skills needed to solve problems, gather data and evaluate conditions with free STEAM activities from the Pierce County Library System.

According to the U. S. Department of Commerce, STEAM occupations are growing at a rate of 17%, while other occupations are growing at 10%. In order to prepare tomorrow’s innovators in this growing industry, they need to learn STEAM skills beyond what was taught in the past.

Birds across the U.S. are disappearing, though many of us probably haven’t noticed.

Over the past half century, North American bird populations have undergone a quiet crisis, with scientists estimating the continent to have lost 29% of its total avian population, as revealed a new paper published in the journal Science on Thursday. That’s a loss of nearly 3 billion birds in the last half century.

Deciding to be an entrepreneur is a lifestyle move, and should be part of a long-term strategic plan. You shouldn’t be making this decision just because you are mad at your boss, or you would like to be rich, or someone else thinks you have a good idea. In these changing times, if you already have a startup, with no plan, maybe it’s time to think ahead for a change.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Every autumn the Arctic undergoes a radical metamorphosis. As the sun dips below the horizon one last time—not to rise again until spring—the icy seascape darkens, the temperatures plummet, and the sea ice swells into a brutal fortress, so thick that no icebreaker can penetrate it. Research vessels flee south, desperate to avoid getting trapped during the fearsome season. But this year scientists—and a few lucky journalists, including me—will dare to do just the opposite.

The European Investment Fund, aka EIF, has just released a super interesting working paper based on the results of its second VC Survey, which asked venture capital general managers about their state of business and market activity, as well as their general perception of the European VC market as a whole.

The EIF has helpfully summarised 10 key findings from the paper, but you might want to download the full (free) report for more detailed reading.

A six-figure investment in a Wisconsin startup marks the latest effort by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the nation’s oldest technology transfer office, to adapt to the changing innovation landscape. The investment, from the new WARF Ventures project, will help PROMISS Diagnostics in Milwaukee advance a technology to diagnose ovarian cancer from blood samples.

Image: Mike Partsch - https://news.wisc.edu

Over the past decade, India’s startup ecosystem has burgeoned into the world’s third-largest in terms of market size. And that has attracted a lot of investor attention towards new businesses and innovations coming from India. It is a well-known fact that any new idea needs the right market timing and the resources to take it to market. Arguably, the most crucial of these is funding. And this is especially true during the early stages when even getting talent onboard is dependent on funding.