For being members of a discipline that prides itself on discovering the unknown, innovation practitioners have a secret lust of commonplace predictability and yearn for security as much as any human being. Seeing how they too often become the mistaken and hapless scapegoats for lack of core business growth, it is easy to empathize with this longing for belonging and recognition.

My latest post is online at City Journal. I actually wrote it prior to the Indy op-ed I just put up, but for scheduling reasons they came out in the reverse order. This contains some of the background information against which that op-ed was written. It’s about the resorting of population that’s occurring within US states in the Midwest. Here’s an excerpt:

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

In cities around the world, a growing movement is redefining the spatial geography of the innovation economy.

Innovation districts are evolving geographies of innovation anchored by R&D-intensive universities, medical institutions, and companies. Analysis now shows there are well over 100 innovation districts emerging globally in cities with vastly different economic starting points, regional advantages, and population sizes. Unlike traditional research parks and science corridors, these districts embrace the urban attributes of density, proximity, and accessibility—places where a “mash up” of economic strengths, physical assets and amenities, and robust social networks foster an open, collaborative innovation ecosystem.

Technologies developed at the University of California, Davis, enabled the foundation of 14 startup companies during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019.

“Research universities like UC Davis are a key source of vital innovation for numerous industries,” said Prasant Mohapatra, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis. “These startups are undertaking the important first steps in developing and refining the commercial potential of their inventions. It’s exciting to see such a wide range of entrepreneurial undertakings based on our campus innovations.” 

Image: Robert Fairclough, right, emeritus associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Neurology, and Vu Trinh, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, are co-founders of Sierra Biopharma. The company is developing a therapeutic treatment for the autoimmune neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis. (UC Davis photo) 

The innovation economy requires new tech and disruptive ideas. Melissa Smith, head of specialized industries for middle market banking at J.P. Morgan, breaks down the myths preventing entrepreneurs from launching their businesses.

Amazon committed last week to spend $700 million on retraining a third of its U.S. workforce. But the e-commerce giant’s effort, intended to equip workers with skills needed to compete in the new economy, drew mixed reviews from a group of tech executives and human capital experts gathered at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday.

No one disputed the value of retraining workers. But many in the group, convened to debate prospects of “the future worker,” questioned the scale of Amazon’s investment relative to the magnitude of the challenges with which workers—and employers—in the new, increasingly automated economy must contend.

The GII is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for innovation and their success. Israel has been climbing the ladder of the index since ranking 21st worldwide in 2016. Since then, Israel ranked 17th in 2017 and 11th in 2018 and, for the first time this year, reached the top 10.

“The introduction of something new” or “a new idea, method or device” is how the dictionary by Merriam-Webster defines innovation. No matter how we define it, I’m sure we all can agree that innovation disrupts the norm, introduces something so different that we are incapable of going back to the way it used to be.

One of the biggest challenges I find for new business owners is for them to move from working in the business to working on the business. You are so engaged in building and selling your product or service, that you “don’t have time” to focus on strategy and the next round of changes for the business to survive and grow. The result is a business plateau that hits you like a ton of bricks.

Lining the fjords of Greenland are remnants of Viking-era Norse outposts that flourished for less than 500 years before they were mysteriously abandoned. And now this lost culture is experiencing a second disappearance, triggered by climate change.

Of all the archaeological sites in Greenland, Norse settlements are at the most risk of rotting away as the Arctic warms, according to new research published Thursday in Scientific Reports. The study estimates that up to 70 percent of the organic material in these sites could decay by 2100.

Image: One of the archaeological sites included in the study is located at Kangeq in the archipelago outside of Nuuk in West Greenland. Credit: Jørgen Hollesen National Museum of Denmark

The publication record of health-care start-up companies doesn’t seem to matter to investors, according to an analysis of nearly 50 biomedical ‘unicorns’ — venture-capital-backed companies valued at more than US$1 billion.

The analysis1, led by health-policy researcher John Ioannidis at Stanford University in California, finds no correlation between a company’s market valuation and its publication record — defined as the number of peer-reviewed papers authored directly by a firm. That’s a cause for concern, the authors say.

I recently visited Egypt as part of a team led by the Departments of State and Agriculture, supported by the good folks at the AUTM Foundation. Egypt, like many countries, is looking at our model for integrating research universities into their economy. I was asked to speak about the Bayh-Dole Act and thought it was important to emphasize that there were many factors required beyond enacting a law to reverse an entrenched national policy.

In a presentation to a group of executive job seekers in transition, a recruiter made the point that after years of reviewing C-level résumés, she had noticed a commonality: None of these top professionals had escaped having some setbacks, rejections, or missed opportunities. This information surprised the audience of recent layoff victims, who realized that they were in good company when it came to career misfortune. The recruiter was right: Failures and regrets need not derail your career, and, in fact, can propel it forward if handled wisely.

Elon Musk grabbed a lot of attention with his July 16 announcement that his company Neuralink plans to implant electrodes into the brains of people with paralysis by next year. Their first goal is to create assistive technology to help people who can’t move or are unable to communicate.

If you haven’t been paying attention, brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that allow people to control robotic arms with their thoughts might sound like science fiction. But science and engineering efforts have already turned it into reality.

CLEVELAND, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- JumpStart Inc. has released its yearly economic impact report, tracking the outcomes of the startups and small businesses assisted by the organization and its collaborative partners — including the Ohio Third Frontier-supported Northeast Ohio Startup Network.

The report prepared by Silverlode Consulting, shows companies assisted by JumpStart and its partners generated more than $1 billion of economic output in 2018 (the total value of all goods and services produced) across Ohio and upstate and western New York, with $953 million in economic output in Ohio alone.

Venture capital fundraising this year by biopharma startups is on course to fall behind last year, though it will be above the figure for 2017. But the biggest story may be where that funding is going.

Silicon Valley Bank released its 2019 midyear report, “Trends in Healthcare Investments and Exits 2019,” on Thursday. So far, healthcare companies have raised $5.8 billion in the first half of this year, compared with $9.6 billion for all of 2018 and $9.1 billion in 2017.

Newswise — For the better part of a half-century, the epicenter of venture capital in the United States has been located about 30 miles south of San Francisco, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. In Menlo Park alone, you can find more than 40 venture capital firms scattered along a two-mile stretch of a single street. The concentration of venture dollars on Sand Hill Road is no surprise. After all, if you want to make money investing in startups, then you have to go where the entrepreneurs are. And for decades, this meant proximity to the first generation of successful tech startups — many of which are located between San Mateo and San Jose.

Ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century. The ability to persuade, to change hearts and minds, is perhaps the single greatest skill that will give you a competitive edge in the knowledge economy — an age where ideas matter more than ever.

The talent game for big employers is changing. In the past, organizations, and particularly professional service firms, could point to the door and remind any grumbling employees that it was cold out there. Today that threat might not have the same impact, as many high flyers themselves are choosing to walk out. While firms have traditionally competed with each other for talent, now they are competing with another alternative: going independent.

The words outcome-oriented are written on an old whiteboard in Guru’s Philadelphia office, inscribed so long ago that the ink can no longer be erased from the board. That’s exactly how co-founder and CEO Rick Nucci regards the company tenet: It’s inextricable from a startup that’s laser-focused on relentlessly delivering outcomes.

Of course, Guru isn’t the only startup that claims to be “results-driven” or “obsessed” when it comes to its customers. But Nucci takes this concept and kicks it into high gear. He and his team at Guru, which develops internal knowledge-sharing platforms for teams, are determined to build a product that proves its value to users.