Dr. Alexander Fleming is Founder and Executive Chairman of Kinexum, a company with diverse expertise in developing drugs, biotech products, medical devices and digital health technologies. He is also Executive Vice-President of Tolerion, a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying treatments for type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Dr. Fleming received his M.D. and internal medicine training from Emory, fellowship training in endocrinology at Vanderbilt and metabolism at National Institutes of Health, where he was a senior fellow. 

C.K. Prahalad wrote a highly acclaimed book in 2004 called the “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.” It pointed out the large markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid and encouraged corporations to address these markets for profit and growth.

There is a similar pyramid in entrepreneurship, and that is the reality of venture financing at the bottom of the pyramid.

Steve Jobs was the most astonishing business speaker of his time. Bill Gates once called him a “wizard” who “cast spells” on his audience. Fortune magazine proclaimed that his keynotes could set “hardened hearts aflutter.” Jobs is one of the few CEOs whose presentations have a dedicated Wikipedia page; his keynotes alone could spark a surge in Apple’s stock.

Large corporations and conglomerates, the engines of growth and vitality in the twentieth century, have lost their edge and their image. They have proven themselves unable to innovate, and they have lost more jobs than they create. My friends who “grew up” with lifetime careers in General Motors, Exxon Mobil, or even IBM, are now often too embarrassed to even mention it.

The world's population is aging fast, and these countries are proof.

Declining fertility rates and increased life expectancy have contributed to an overall global trend of aging populations worldwide. For the first time in recorded history, last year people over the age of 64 outnumbered children 5 years of age and younger.

The idiom, "you can't see the forest through the trees," highlights our propensity to let a narrow focus on details obscure our ability to see the big picture. This problem plagues leaders at organizations big and small. Just listen closely as executives say things like, "How can we meet our earnings forecast next quarter?" or "How do we drive success against our KPIs?" or "Let's not cannibalize our core business." While they fixate over the corporate trees they miss innovative competitors sparking new ideas that just might burn down their forests.

When it comes to first-round job interviews, you’ll probably answer some version of the question, “So, tell me about yourself.” Experienced hiring managers love asking this question. After all, it allows them to assess your communication skills, hear your narrative about the highlights of your career, and lay the foundation for follow-up questions. Your answers will ultimately shape their judgment on whether or not they will hire you.

An entrepreneur is literally “one who creates a new business.” The best new businesses are ones that have never been done before, so mastering creativity and recognizing creativity are key skills and mindsets. But how does one recognize and nurture creativity in a person or team?

Hillary Berman works in a different world from a lot of MBA holders. Instead of climbing the corporate ladder or making waves at a big-name consulting firm, she uses her master of business administration degree as owner of the Friendship Heights-based firm Popcorn & Ice Cream to help small businesses create effective marketing campaigns.

Image: Getting an MBA makes sense for some, but not all, career paths (Daniel Fishel (For Express)) 

In 2018, U of T ranked among the top five universities in the world for launching a business. Incubators and accelerators facilitate the launch of most businesses; an incubator launches an idea into a startup, while an accelerator helps an existing business grow and develop. If you want to launch your own business, here’s a guide to U of T’s 11 incubators and accelerators.

Image: Incubators at U of T cater to a range of disciplines and provide services to students, alumni, and staff. PHOTO by ROBERTA BAKER  - https://thevarsity.ca

Hold on to your jean jacket!

Millennials have been blamed for tanking everything from cereal to real estate, but the generation now is being credited for bolstering a variety of industries.

CB Insights just released a list of a dozen types of companies that are flourishing with help from millennials. Wanna know which industries should be lifting a glass of hard seltzer to toast Gen Y? Grab a plant-based frozen burrito and read on.

Where a person is born can shape the languages they speak, their life expectancy, and even how much they talk with their hands or smile. But how does it affect how they build a company? Does someone from South Africa have an entirely different approach than someone from Russia? It turns out that in some cases, they do.

Drug prices are once again a major focus of public policy in Washington D.C. President Trump has stated that reducing drug prices is one of his highest priorities.1 The administration recently issued new regulations requiring manufactures to list the price of their drugs in television ads.2 Congress has already passed the Know the Lowest Price Act and the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act, both of which try to promote transparency in prices.3 The Senate Special Committee on Aging recently conducted a series of hearings on drug pricing.4 And the Senate’s bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act would reduce government spending on drugs by an estimated $100 billion over the next decade.5

This has been the year of the ransomware attack. Compared to the same time last year, ransomware attacks were up 500 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to Malwarebytes Labs. While all organizations can fall victim to this threat, a recent series of incidents shows that state and local governments are particularly lucrative targets.

Our seas are in deep, deep trouble. They house an extraordinarily diverse eco-system of marine life, and are crucial to the well being of land-based ecosystems. And as of this moment, they may as well be the Wild West for corporations and governments to pillage as they please. Deep sea mining, lawless over-fishing, an outpouring of plastic and chemical pollution, shipping noise, disruption of floating seaweed beds, and changing temperatures caused by global warming are just a few of the clear threats to our seas. The high seas make up 61% of the ocean, and 73% of its volume. They matter to our whole planet and our future depends on them.

Image: https://time.com

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Babson College the best entrepreneurship school for the 23rd consecutive time.

This recognition highlights Babson’s continued leadership in entrepreneurship education and honors the achievements and successes of the entire Babson community.

“The world and workplace are rapidly evolving, and higher education, along with nearly every other sector, is being disrupted. As the best school for entrepreneurship, Babson is uniquely positioned—even obligated—to shift the paradigm and lead the change that today’s environment demands.

From what we see on TV, online and scrolling through social media, startup founders are young, male and living in Silicon Valley. But according to various studies the average first-time entrepreneur is in their 40s. The Kauffman Foundation found that older people started more businesses than younger people in recent years, and another study by the organization found that nearly 70 percent were married and 60 percent had at least one child when they launched their first business. The motives include everything from getting rich to not wanting to work for someone else.

Like the discoveries of gravity and radiation, the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich phenomenon – which recently sparked huge crowds across the U.S., supply shortages, at least one case of customers demanding the sandwiches at gunpoint and up to $23 million in free publicity – happened mostly by mistake.

On Thursday, Microsoft and AstraZeneca announced they are joining forces to launch the AI Factory for Health, a European accelerator for AI-focused digital health startups. The three-month accelerator is designed to continue their development in artificial intelligence, cloud computing to push the boundaries of science.

Image: https://hitconsultant.net

Sometimes it can feel like you are destined for entrepreneurship. Maybe you find yourself to share many similarities to some of the best entrepreneurs of today. Or you have this vision for a business that you can’t get out of your head. Committing to an entrepreneurial lifestyle can be intimating and you may be looking for a sign that you should follow this path. If you aren’t sure if the entrepreneurial life is right for you, here are eight signs that you have what it takes.