Rush or reticence? Patience or punishment? Clemency or condemnation? Post or postpone? Now that the dust is beginning to settle around the Jussie Smollett incident, I wanted to take this week to reflect on what has happened. I’m not talking about the specifics of the case—bizarre as they may be—but rather what has happened to us as a public and what allowed this story to become what it did.

When news surfaced that a racist/homophobic/MAGA-fueled attack had been perpetrated against Jussie Smollett, a black, gay man, many spoke out in support of the “Empire” actor (including myself and my wife).

At the dawn of the Renaissance there was a strong sense of living in the end of days. Obscured by the shadow of the Middle Ages, the desire for a renewed identity, shaped by both humanitarian and scientific learning, was in its infancy. Artists and scientists began the work of dismantling of everything that for centuries had been taken for granted. The Italian Renaissance contributed significantly to breaking down the boundaries – those of ideas as well as those of geography or demarcated by political power. The new entrepreneurship coming into for…

India is changing and so are its women. The more Indian economy changes, more the challenges which entrepreneurs face change too. The challenges unique to woman entrepreneurs undergo similar changes in line with changes in Indian society. We are no longer a society averse to professional & financially independent women like we were a couple of decades back. As we celebrate International Women’s day this month, it is essential not to delve into the specific challenges which woman entrepreneurs face but get into something more constructive. With my experience and study of other successful women, 5 tips for women who want to be successful, who want to make a mark and for women of substance who can inspire the future. 

Last year may have been the beginning of the end for plastic. It may have taken a while for the average person to wake up to its dangers, but many were shaken into action by the images and videos of plastic’s impact on the natural world that flooded the media in 2018.

No matter where you look, so much rapid change is happening that even how companies manage their talent strategy is shifting. Gone are the days of HR managing workforce planning with an Excel spreadsheet. To remain not only competitive but relevant, more companies are turning to detailed workforce plans, and younger generations of managers are much more likely to be putting these plans in place. As they do, and as they ascend to more senior roles, they’re reshaping the future of work.

Meetings at the office are so productive and efficient, said no employee ever. Surveys show that nine out of 10 workers admit to daydreaming while sitting in meetings, and 25% of the time is spent on irrelevant issues. But what if there was a way to make these mandatory huddles more meaningful – and shorter? Steven Rogelberg, a professor of organizational science, management and psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has some techniques to help managers do just that. He joined the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on Sirius XM to share some tips from his new book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)

The share of H-1B applications approved by United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) in FY 2018 was well below the levels in FY 2017 and FY 2016, and new data from the first quarter of FY 2019 shows a continuing downward trend. In FY 2018, there were nearly as many H-1B visa denials (61,346) as there were in the previous two fiscal years combined (29,856 in FY 2017 and 23,032 in FY 2016), while there were more denials of H-1B applications in the first quarter of FY 2019 (24,851) than in any previous quarter since FY 2015. Furthermore, the number of cases challenged by the government has tripled since the start of the Trump administration.  

Practice saying sed non hodie. It means “but not today” in Latin. (Pronunciation: sed known hoe-dee-ay.) Why say it in Latin? Because it sounds better. It sounds scientific. And if you’re saying it in Latin, nobody else can understand the terrible, horrible, dangerous sentiment you’re expressing.

Image: Image credit: Viktor Koen

Last week, Google Cloud Platform’s new CEO Thomas Kurian announced to attendees of the 2019 Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco that GCP would move aggressively to compete with other public cloud computing leaders starting with Azure and AWS. GCP will do so by hiring additional sales talent and grow revenue from enterprise customers by focusing more on individual industry segments, as well as amplify its outreach to channel partners.

In this age where every person feels the need for a relationship with people they do business with, introverts like me might seem to be at a distinct disadvantage. Most of us just don’t have the urge to proactively get out and talk to new people, face-to-face, online, or through an app. This is equally hard at work, especially when many of our peers may be remote, anywhere in the world.

Todd Olson has built and scaled multiple startups from the ground up. In the process, he’s raised over $100 million in capital, and negotiated various exits.

In our recent exclusive interview on the DealMakers Podcast, he dropped a lot of success clues on what it takes to bounce forward when a venture fails, how to survive the vesting period as an employee, how to find the right investors for your startup, and plenty more.

Image: Todd Olson - TODD OLSON

Decades of research has demonstrated how junior employees benefit from being mentored. Guidance from senior colleagues has also been shown to enhance mentees’ job performance and satisfaction. We know far less, however, about how mentoring might benefit mentors themselves.

We were interested in understanding how mentoring might help mentors who work in stressful occupations. Prior research has suggested that mentoring can improve the emotional health of mentees when a close, trusting relationship is established. We wondered if mentors would receive the same mental health benefits from the relationship.

On this segment of Advice From the Pros, startup expert, George Deeb discusses the steps you should take before pitching your business to a venture capitalist.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

You know when you’re pitching a venture capitalist oftentimes you’re leading with your business and kind of what you’re all about. You’re really excited about that because that’s your baby and that’s really the story you want to share.

Image: https://www.myasbn.com

Vint Cerf, who co-designed the early protocols and architecture for our modern internet, uses a parable to explain why courageous leadership is vitally important in the wake of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

Imagine that you are living in a tiny community at the base of a valley that’s surrounded by mountains. At the top of a distant mountain is a giant boulder. It’s been there for a long time and has never moved, so as far as your community is concerned, it just blends into the rest of the landscape. Then one day, you notice that the giant boulder looks unstable—that it’s in position to roll down the mountain, gaining speed and power as it moves, and it will destroy your community and everyone in it.

Image: Photos: Matthias Cooper; Flickr user Creativity103

The United States leads the world in novel biomedical innovation, thanks in large part to its strong research universities, talented researchers, efficient drug approval processes, and a pricing system that enables companies to earn sufficient revenues to reinvest in future generations of innovation. Yet two other factors are indispensable: First, world-leading public and private investment in life-sciences research and development (R&D) activity, with these public and private investments playing unique yet complementary roles in America’s life-sciences innovation system. Second, effective technology transfer and commercialization policies that enable federally funded basic life-sciences research, often taking place at U.S. universities, to lead to research discoveries and inventions that can be patented and licensed to private-sector entities, which then undertake the risky, complex, and expensive process of bringing innovative new medicines and therapies to market. Underpinning this successful ecosystem is bipartisan legislation that gives universities rights to intellectual property (IP) generated from federal funding: the Bayh-Dole Act. Since its introduction in 1980, the act has played a catalytic role in stimulating innovation across many sectors, and especially in the life-sciences. However, calls made by some to use Bayh-Dole “march-in right” provisions to control drug prices threaten to undermine this successful ecosystem and reduce the pace of American biopharmaceutical innovation.

With the reality of LinkedIn, Facebook, and dozens of other websites profiling you, the old-fashioned written resume is an artifact of a hiring practice that is now superfluous. The real “resume” that you have to live with is everything that you or anyone else has posted about you on any site on the Internet. You can’t hide, since no Internet presence is now assumed to be a negative.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The Fabrication City concept puts manufacturing back in the hands of communities — using 3D printers. It could have far-reaching implications for economic development, environmental sustainability, inclusion and other benefits. The use of 3D printing provides cities with opportunities through their local innovators and entrepreneurs.

When researcher Kiran Marathe decided to map the diversity of jumping spiders in the Eastern Ghats, he knew what he needed to start the research – funding for field equipment, transportation and accommodation in several areas along the ghats to the tune of Rs 12 lakh. Kiran is no stranger to field research having already discovered new species of cicadas in a similar combing operation in the Western Ghats in 2014. But this time around, to raise funds, he decided to try a new method – crowdfunding.

An all-too-common question I get from startups and small businesses is “Which is the right social media platform for my business?” Is it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or one of the other 200 active platforms vying for attention these days? The right answer is that not all of these are worth your attention, but it’s probably more than one.

Every technology goes through a Development Phase before entering its Application Phase. The tech-advancements below are all entering the Application Phase. They are ready to be used as innovation tools — and to be used to solve your company’s and your customers real world challenges.

Innovators in large multinational organizations, as well as small and mid-sized firms are discovering creative ways to deploy these technologies to acquire new customers, enhance existing products, increase employee productivity, and otherwise invent the future.