The biopharma industry continues to face challenges this year, with projected returns on investment in R&D at the lowest levels since our analysis began in 2010. However, there are opportunities to reverse this trend, which will require new ways of working and a complete digital transformation to unlock R&D productivity and deliver the next generation of scientific breakthroughs.

Image: https://www2.deloitte.com

Most digital strategies don’t reflect how digital is changing economic fundamentals, industry dynamics, or what it means to compete. Companies should watch out for five pitfalls.

The processing power of today’s smartphones are several thousand times greater than that of the computers that landed a man on the moon in 1969. These devices connect the majority of the human population, and they’re only ten years old.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has announced the first three projects for the state’s Innovation Campus Program, an effort to support the commercialization of academic research in key industries such as cybersecurity, data analytics and agricultural technology. The centers, in partnership with the University of Rhode Island and located in Kingston and Providence, will receive a combined $12 million from the state. The funding stems from a $20 million innovation bond approved by the state’s voters in 2016.

Not all complexity is bad for business—but executives don’t always know what kind their company has. They should understand what creates complexity for most employees, remove what doesn’t add value, and channel the rest to employees who can handle it effectively.

Despite widespread agreement that organizational complexity creates big problems by making it hard to get things done, few executives have a realistic understanding of how complexity actually affects their own companies.

“Know your numbers’ is a fundamental precept of a business ~ Bill gates”

You have the idea. You have the passion. A solid technical know-how of how to make your product.

You know you are just inches away from disrupting the market with your idea.

You know the requirements for starting a small business.

Time to take the plunge?

Wait! How well do you know your numbers? (Please do not call me a party spoiler. I know I asked a question before you could just hit “launch” button on your screen)

At first, the alley looked like many others: cinder block walls, neglected asphalt, and chain link fences that back up on beige single family bungalows.

There was one big difference, though. At the end of this unnamed alley between 122nd and 120th streets in Hawthorne, California is a subterranean elevator that can transport a small SUV underground. Oh, and that car-sized elevator? It's owned by Elon Musk. The guy helming Tesla and SpaceX. And the Boring Company.

Image: What it really looks like inside the Boring tunnel in Hawthorne, California. - IMAGE: BORING COMPANY

Health care stocks are among a handful of sectors bucking the broader market downturn in 2018. Biotechs, though down for the year, have suffered less damage than other stocks.

One factor that worked in favor of the biotech space: a record number of new molecular entity approvals in 2018.

Monetised indicator targets too often get in the way of value creation.

We recently had the opportunity to ask a large group of supervisory board members the following question: “If there is a trade-off between hitting this year’s targets and managing the company’s long-term health, which would you like your executives to choose?” About 86 percent of the audience said they would rather executives prioritise the company’s long-term health, in other words, value.

General Electric has filed paperwork for an IPO of its health-care unit, GE Healthcare, according to people familiar with the matter.

GE is working with JPMorgan Chase on an initial public offering that would likely come mid-2019, someone familiar with the plans told CNBC. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are also working with GE, according to Bloomberg News. The new public company would rank among the largest in the world.

Entrepreneurs seem more quickly frustrated these days when their “million-dollar idea” doesn’t turn into a sustainable business overnight. They don’t realize that it takes many skills to build a business under the best of circumstances, and today’s world of instant gratification doesn’t leave room for the patience and practice to develop these skills.

What are the keys to incredible scale and launching a venture that has real potential today?

Kevin O’Connor is one of those entrepreneurs and investors who is really in the top 0.5% of business experts who has not only created a billion dollar venture, but has been involved with more than one.

I had the huge pleasure of interviewing him on a recent episode of the DealMakers Podcast. He added a lot of insights and important takeaways for those looking to launch a startup that really has legs and can go places (listen to the full episode here).

Image: Kevin O’Connor - KEVIN O‘CONNOR

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner HR superstar ZJ Hadley admits she had a hard time finding jobs without a college degree. Instead, she began to rely increasingly on other abilities -- in networking, meeting people on a constant basis and, at times, stalking recruiters. 

If you are in the process of job-searching and feel underqualified, a willingness to learn is the number one indicator of success -- a takeaway that Hadley discovered from experience. The HR specialist describes her own time jumping through multiple hoops to land her first job, and from there, working hard to show recruiters that she can pick up new skills and exercise flexibility. 

Every entrepreneur has a “founder’s story” that serves to build the unique framework for why they are just the right person to solve a specific problem. For Aaron Chang, CEO of Renalert, that story began at Johns Hopkins University in the Masters of Bioengineering Innovation and Design program.  Rather than choosing an area of specialty from a book, the program has a unique method of teaching their students. The students are sent to the hospital on rotations with one, not so simple, task. Return with a bioengineering problem to solve.

Image: https://biobuzz.io

State Tech and Science Index - 2018

Image: http://statetechandscience.org

Into the future, technology departments and their management teams must address aging systems and resolve data and privacy issues, while creating client-facing technologies that drive enterprise value.  As emerging technologies take hold, so do new realities. 

5G will change the world

While artificial intelligence, augmented reality and IoT get all the attention, 5G is the red-headed stepchild of technology. 5G, the technology that  ill increase networking speeds by 10 to 100x, is so important that governments, such as the United States, China and South Korea, are in an arms race to launch it. The Trump administration even blocked a Qualcomm-Broadcom merger out of fear that it would propel China into the lead in 5G.

Becoming a self-made billionaire puts you in a league of your own. Of the approximately 585 billionaires in the US, about 360 have made their own fortunes. These are people who have made it big through hard work, sheer will, tenacity and being in the right place at the right time with the right idea.

We all want to know the secret to success. So, if you could sit down with a self-made billionaire, what kind of money advice would you seek from them? What were the key lessons they learned about managing their finances on the way to boundless fortune?

The key to innovation success is simple—innovation is nothing without exploration and exploitation. Innovation is the light every forward-looking organization is pursuing. However, the majority of organizations still use innovation as a buzzword or treat innovation as serendipity. Innovation management has an overall very low success rate. The reasons why innovation failure occurs vary widely, but to dig further, here are a few root causes of innovation failures and some management sentiment to cause innovation blues.

The best salespeople know they’re the best. They take pride in their art form. They separate themselves from the rest of the pack regardless of circumstance. So how do they do it? What’s their secret? Are you one of them?

Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk tweets that no one changed the world working 40 hours a week. He rarely sleeps or sees his kids and had a famously public meltdown. Apple’s Tim Cook is on email before the sun rises. And billionaire Mark Cuban worked until 2 am launching his first business and didn’t take a vacation for seven years.

As 2018 draws to a close, it’s hard not to look back with a surreal sense of time displacement. Was the PyeongChang Olympics really only this year? Or the midterms? Or the shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead? Watershed events tend to blend into each other with kaleidoscopic perplexity when the typical news cycle lasts only a few hours.