Oracle was founded in 1977. While it’s not exactly GE or IBM, which date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries respectively, it is old enough to be experiencing a fair bit of disruption in its own right. For a good part of its existence, it sold databases to some of the biggest companies in the world. But today, as the market changes and shifts from on-prem data centers to the cloud, how does a company like Oracle make that transition?

EDA's University Center Economic Development Program makes the vast resources of universities available to the economic development community. The University Center Program allows institutions of higher education to establish and operate University Centers (UCs) specifically focused on helping to build regional economic ecosystems that support innovation and high-growth entrepreneurship.

The UCs, which EDA considers long-term partners in economic development, are required to devote the majority of their funding to respond to technical assistance requests originating from organizations located in the economically distressed portions of their service regions.

Image: https://www.eda.gov

Most of us, at some time in our lives, have had jobs in which we felt unfulfilled, mistreated, or without purpose. And those feelings are strongly reflected in the holistic value we derive from our jobs and probability that we stay on versus quit. But what, if anything, can firms do to address workers’ dissatisfaction and prevent turnover? We decided to test whether a simple intervention — asking workers for feedback — might be successful at reducing quit rates.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has statutory authority to establish federal Government-wide policies to implement the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. SBA recently issued a significantly revised final SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, which is effective May 2, 2019. See 84 FR 12794. Below we highlight the major changes implemented in the revised policy directive.

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology announced 15 key findings from a final version of a new “green paper” on maximizing U.S. innovation from government-funded research.   

Incorporating extensive feedback from industry, academic and government stakeholders, the NIST report describes options for enhancing how federally funded inventions move from the laboratory to the marketplace by:  

Our Global Talent Competitiveness Index explains the importance of cities in innovation.

If asked “What’s the most talent competitive city in the U.S.?” few Americans would name the top of our global list: Washington, D.C. (1). Often considered to be a (political) quagmire, the greater metropolitan area actually has a tremendous amount to offer. With an excellent environmental quality, major universities, an impressive number of physicians in the area and, of course, the presence of international global organisations, the greater Washington area provides a complete environment for talent competitiveness.

To say ‘business ecosystem’ or ‘innovation ecosystem’ is to commit the teleological fallacy. That means assuming a purpose where there is no purpose.

Charles Darwin said species evolve to adapt to changing environments. Natural ecosystems – species and their environments – have no ‘purpose’; they just are.

Now, if you believe in a creator deity, you might hold that biological ecosystems do have a (divine) purpose. We’ll come back to this point.

These days, my vote for the most misunderstood and misused management concept goes to “corporate purpose.” Back in 1973, the concept was crystal clear to Peter Drucker, who declared with admirable concision in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices: “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” Since then, however, the definition of corporate purpose has mutated into pretty much any reason for being in business that isn’t explicitly connected to making money.

Over the last year, home prices have risen in 49 of the biggest 50 metro areas in the United States.

At the same time, mortgage rates have hit seven-year highs, making things more expensive for any prospective home buyer.

With this context in mind, today’s map comes from HowMuch.net, and it shows the salary needed to buy a home in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas.

Image: https://www.visualcapitalist.com

Rhode Island fell more in the latest national innovation ranking than every other state except Alabama. According to Bloomberg’s U.S. State Innovation Index, California and Massachusetts are ranked first and second respectively, but Rhode Island was in steep decline over the past three years.

Rhode Island is ranked 23rd in the 2019 ranking — far behind Connecticut which is ranked fourth.  Most concerning is that Rhode Island fell seven positions in the ranking from the 2016 Index — the last time Bloomberg released the Index for innovation.

An argument has been brewing on Capitol Hill and elsewhere that boils down to the theory that US taxpayers are fronting billions of dollars’ worth of public research that translates into early-stage products that are later sold to companies, go on to win FDA approval and then reap millions or billions in sales, although the government never sees a dime of those earnings.

Along with the problem of rich parents buying their kids’ way into universities of their choice, do we also have a problem with business schools focusing on entrepreneurship education that is targeted to rich kids, rich schools, and venture capital?

What's common among Richard Schulze (Best Buy), Richard Burke (UnitedHealthcare), Glen Taylor (Taylor Corporation), Earl Bakken (Medtronic), and Bob Kierlin (Fastenal)? They are all Minnesotans (Burke moved from Georgia to Minnesota). They built unicorns from startup. They were not born rich. They saw entrepreneurship as opportunity, not risk.

Entrepreneurship has been seriously glamorized.

Everywhere you look, people are extolling the values of hustling, grinding, and burning the candle from both ends. If you just put in the work, the story goes, you’re going to be riding in Lambos and rolling in money.

Yeah, maybe.

The reality is that entrepreneurship is an emotional roller-coaster–it’s either going to kill you or make you stronger. Most entrepreneurs out there are wrestling with this flux day in and day out. No doubt, the lifestyle can be exciting. The work can be incredibly fulfilling. But it can also be insanely stressful at times.

Image: Photo: Danka & Peter/Unsplash

Salary negotiation is a pivotal step when you're interviewing for a new job. It’s your chance to get paid what you’re worth (or get closer to that figure), and could establish your financial trajectory at your new company for years to come.

According to a 2018 survey from Robert Half, only 39 percent of people polled said they'd asked for more money upon receiving their latest job offer. In other words, more than half of all new hires accepted whatever they were offered, with no attempt at negotiation.

Michigan State University students now have an opportunity to dabble in the rollercoaster world of startup funding thanks to a new partnership between Red Cedar Ventures and the Broad College of Business Center for Venture Capital, Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance.

Launched this week, the Student Venture Capital Fund will invest up to $50,000 per year in early-stage companies led by MSU students and faculty, or housed at the university’s venture center. Finance students will take on due diligence responsibilities to get a taste of the industry’s risks and rewards.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Some of Ohio’s most prominent names in business, tech and venture capital will advise Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s new state government innovation initiative.

Husted’s office on Monday launched the website for InnovateOhio, the expansive but poorly understood new government department which Gov. Mike DeWine tapped Husted to run shortly after taking office in January. Prominently featured on the new site is a video in which Husted describes his vision for InnovateOhio, which aims to use technology to improve Ohioans’ lives and streamline government operations.

Image: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, seen here in this file photo, is leading the new InnovateOhio state government initiative. (Tony Dejak, Associated Press)

Qualcomm Technologies has announced the launch of a smart cities program, aimed at providing a central directory of smart cities solutions based on Qualcomm technology.

The Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program will be a one-stop shop for governments, municipalities, cities, and enterprises to choose their providers for technology, according to the tech giant.

A common challenge founders face when they outsource to a software development company is tracking the performance of developers. Since you cannot really monitor the outsourced team on a full-time basis, it is critical to know whether your investment in hiring developers is justified.

Performance, being a qualitative trait, poses measurability challenges. There is no single metric which would lead you to a definitive answer. Knowledge about the goals to track and the areas to focus on can bring you closer to performance measurement of the outsourced developers as a whole.

IN February, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat presented a budget to further cement Singapore's position as a regional node of technology, innovation and enterprise and to strengthen its position as "Asia 101' for global MNCs looking to expand into Asia's growing markets and as "Global 101" for Asian companies ready to go global.

Lenny Mendonca: I could not be more thrilled to be here at LAEDC, a place that helps people achieve the dream that they came to California for. LAEDC is a role model for regional cross-sector collaboration that focuses on ensuring that the region works for all. These are challenges in front of us that we need to tackle.

I’m here to explain the framing and perspective that I bring as our new Governor’s chief economic and business advisor, and how I think about these challenges and what we might be able to do about them.