Businesses everywhere have faced considerable challenges over the last few years. Not least the global pandemic, which has had a lasting impact on the way we work.

More recently, skills shortages and inflation have begun to affect organisations, presenting real threats to potential growth plans.

To maintain competitiveness, evolve and grow - all while managing their day-to-day, businesses need to look toward innovation.

For most people who choose to go to college and get a degree, the belief is that you will surely learn what you need to be successful in our career. However, even if you get a business management degree, you are not taught the single most important thing in managing employees. That is, how to hire one. And yet as you build your career, and perhaps even start a company, your ability to recruit and hire people will be perhaps the number one factor in your ultimate success. And there are costs associated with not hiring well, notwithstanding the impact on your career.

The mood was joyful at the Digital Banking Conference in Austin, Texas, last week. For many of the 1,000 attendees, this was one of the first events they had traveled to in more than two years. People were ready to network, share best practices and look at technologies that could improve the customer experience at their banks. Some were even contemplating whether or not to undergo a core conversion.

When the economy struggles as it is doing now, that’s a strong signal that things have to change, and it’s hard to miss. But most of us in business have to deal most of the time with weak signals, or change that is happening in a far more subtle way. These changes can be cultural, like the increasing need to be social, spawning Facebook and a hundred others, or technological, like the explosion of mobile devices around the world.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

CHAPEL HILL – With 563 active startups launched by its faculty, staff and students currently creating social good and economic impact, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill exemplifies the national trend: universities are becoming increasingly adept at spinning out startup companies. In turn, a growing number of success stories about university-based ventures dot the headlines. But, despite the numerous examples of ventures that find traction in taking campus-born ideas and research to market, the overall failure rate of startups in the wider world still lingers around 90 percent, with research showing that 21 percent fail in the first year and 70 percent by year ten.

Image: Pixabay image

A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a pitch on their current “million dollar idea.” The initial monologue usually ends with the question “How much money do you think this is worth?” In my opinion, ideas are a commodity, and are really not worth much, outside the context of a visionary leader who can execute.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Many business professionals and entrepreneurs I know are quick to attribute success of a peer to luck, rather than any recognition of a unique strategy or personal attributes. Over my many years as a business advisor and angel investor, I have become a firm believer in the opposite position, that you make your own luck, which drives business success, rather than the other way around.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Small autonomous mobile robots, such as drones, rovers, and legged robots, promise to perform a wide range of tasks, from autonomously monitoring crops in greenhouses to last-kilometer delivery. These applications require robots to operate for extended periods while performing complex tasks, often in unknown, changing, and complicated environments.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks recently called the transition from prototype to full-scale production within DoD’s acquisition process one of DoD’s biggest problems. And she’s not the only one who thinks so. Stefanie Tompkins, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, referred to it as a “full-contact sport.” But she also said that DARPA is working on one very specific pathway to help some technologies through the so-called “Valley of Death.”

NFTs and crypto don't get Bill Gates's approval.

The tech billionaire dismissed digital assets — particularly NFTs — as "100% based on greater fool theory" while speaking at a climate conference hosted by TechCrunch on Tuesday. In essence: the assets will only go up in price so long as enough investors are willing to pay more for them, making the assets void of any real value when investors aren't present.

Image: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Bio

As entrepreneurs, I think most of us have figured out that building a successful business requires some sacrifice. In fact, I'd say that anything you want to be successful at — whether it's mastering a sport, learning a new skill, getting in shape or having an awesome relationship — requires some kind of sacrifice. The key is to make sure that you're not making dumb sacrifices for your success, but smart ones.

Running just about any business, especially in the beginning, demands a lot of time and energy. It involves taking some risk and, for most of us, a heck of a lot of personal and professional growth. You quickly learn that you have to give up something to give your business what it demands from you if you want to succeed. And that's where the sacrifice comes in.

Eighty percent of Fortune 500 companies explain their interest in diversity by making some form of a business case: justifying diversity in the workplace on the grounds that it benefits companies’ bottom line. And yet, in a recent study, the authors found that this approach actually makes underrepresented job candidates a lot less interested in working with an organization. This is because rhetoric that makes the business case for diversity sends a subtle yet impactful signal that organizations view employees from underrepresented groups as a means to an end, ultimately undermining DEI efforts before employers have even had the chance to interact with potential employees.

Over 80% of hedge fund start-ups say securing allocator capital is the biggest barrier they face, as new Hedgeweek research unearths a nervousness about the current capital raising environment.

In a global survey of hedge fund managers of all sizes, 64% of respondents said attracting investor flows is the single biggest challenge that emerging and start-up managers face. But among emerging managers themselves – defined as those with AuM under $250 million and track records of under five years – that number was even higher, at 82%, suggesting capital-raising for start-ups is a bigger barrier than the rest of the industry realises.

There’s no way around it: We’re in a bear market, and layoffs are hitting startups across sectors. Even though many investors are sitting on freshly raised funds, VC purse strings have tightened.

At Canvas, we take an optimistic but measured view that capital will continue funneling to startups and founding teams that have what it takes to enter, then lead in the market that power the global economy like marketplaces, fintech, and healthcare.

SAN DIEGO — (June 14, 2022) — The licensing of university and nonprofit research has made a significant contribution to US gross domestic product (GDP), industrial gross output, and jobs over the last 25 years and underscores the importance of basic and applied research to the US economy, as well as the demand for public-private partnerships. The findings are based on an independent study released today and commissioned by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and AUTM, a global nonprofit that works to advance ideas from research institutions into the marketplace.

In my years of mentoring entrepreneurs, a problem I have seen too often is low self-esteem, and over-compensating through arrogance and ego. These entrepreneurs find it hard to respect customers or team members, and their ventures usually fail. As a team member, low self-esteem leads to low confidence, poor productivity, and no job satisfaction. Fortunately, both can be fixed.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Gallup’s new data on the global workforce in 2021 reveals that employees around the world are experiencing stress at an all-time-high level, and worry, anger, and sadness remain above pre-pandemic levels. These emotions are organizational risks: If leaders aren’t paying attention to employee wellbeing, they’re likely to be blindsided by top performer burnout and high quit rates. Today’s leaders must think beyond physical wellness to capture the broader dimensions of overall wellbeing, capture data on how their employees are doing, and make employee care a permanent part of organizational culture.

There’s no way around it: We’re in a bear market, and layoffs are hitting startups across sectors. Even though many investors are sitting on freshly raised funds, VC purse strings have tightened.

At Canvas, we take an optimistic but measured view that capital will continue funneling to startups and founding teams that have what it takes to enter, then lead in the market that power the global economy like marketplaces, fintech, and healthcare.

A staggering 1.8 million people worldwide lost their lives to lung cancer in 2020. The World Health Organization says that it is the second most common type of oncology.

According to a new study, the natural herbal ingredient berberine can effectively inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells in a laboratory setting.

The study was done by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), who, like their colleagues abroad, have been looking for lung cancer therapeutic possibilities. There is currently no cure for the condition.

The biopharma bear market has ended the financing boom of recent years and led the valuations of companies to plunge after years of soaring—conditions that may compel smaller biotechs to pursue merger-and-acquisition (M&A) deals with pharma giants, according to a recently released report.