Fostering Innovation in a Time of Economic Crisis

OECD has analysed the likely impact of the current crisis on long-term economic growth and the innovation-related actions in policy responses of its member countries.

WSJ: The Daily Start-Up: Emily Melton Moves Up On Sand Hill Road

Moving Down The Street- Emily Melton toiled for nine years at venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, investing in a bunch of Internet start-ups like Meebo Inc. and MyShape Inc. But she never reached partner status. Now, with DFJ downsizing expectations for its newest fund, Melton gets that chance at rival firm Mayfield Fund, which has seen three of its managing directors scale back their roles, VentureWire reports. Melton, 32, gives the Mayfield team a little bit of youth, writes the Bits blog. She’ll have an easy move, considering Mayfield is right down the street from DFJ on Sand Hill Road.

Middle East Entrepreneur Training Inspires Next Generation of Business Leaders

As part of this plan, the President offered several critical areas where we can build partnerships: women’s empowerment, education, technology, and health, to name a few. I want to highlight an especially important topic that I was excited to hear the President address in Cairo: The vital role that entrepreneurship plays in supporting economic development and opportunity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Science Progress: The Geography of Innovation

Innovation is the critical component of long-term economic prosperity, driving productivity growth and (if spread across key sectors of the economy) ensuring broad-based economic growth. Sparking innovation, however, requires capital (which is threatened by the current economic downturn), skilled-labor, scientific and technological advances, and creative collaboration between government and the private sector. Innovation cannot be dictated, but it can be cultivated.

Crowdsourced or Elite Unit Innovation?

A classic dilemma for companies is determining the best way to foster innovation. There are many good books with different approaches. Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma has influenced a generation’s thinking about innovation. He focuses management and entrepreneurs’ attention on the Big I: disruptive innovation.

Inspiring innovation: panel on reinventing theory and practice

Carnegie Mellon University's Pradeep K. Khosla will moderate a distinguished panel of innovation experts from 7 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 10 at the fourth annual Washington Speakers Series at the Cosmos Club at 2121 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C.

WSJ: It’s Official: Solyndra Is First Solar Co. Awarded Federal Loan

The Obama administration on Friday used the California site of a planned solar-panel factory to complete the first-ever loan guarantee for a renewable-energy project, a $535 million deal that will allow Solyndra Inc. to create hundreds of jobs.

The announcement, outlined by Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a region battered by an auto-factory shutdown, comes as Obama administration officials are hoping to show that investments in clean energy projects can help reverse almost two years of job losses.

Reversing assumptions can often lead to innovation

Innovation is key to future economic growth. New products and services are essential to the health of businesses. During the development process, it is important for organizations to understand and document their assumptions. It is also important to challenge each of those assumptions.

BusinessWeek: Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?

America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace losses from the current recession, then another 10 million to spark demand over the next decade. That's 15 million to 17 million new jobs. In the 1990s, the U.S. economy created a net 22 million jobs (a rate of 2.2 million per year), so we know it can be done. Between 2000 and the end of 2007 (the beginning of the current recession), however, the economy created new jobs at a rate of 900,000 a year, so we know it isn't doing it now. The pipeline is dry because the U.S. business model is broken. Our growth engine has run out of a key source of fuel—critical mass, basic scientific research.

Puncturing Equilibrium: Radical Innovation As New Market Emergence

In their review of the typology of radical economic innovation, entitled “When Is An Invention Really Radical? Defining and Operationalizing Technological Radicalness,” Kristina Dahlin and Dean Behrens (D&M) provide 3 useful criteria for defining a radical innovation, (Research Policy, Vol. 34, pp. 717-737, 2005).

BusinessWeek Interview: Google China's Kai-Fu Lee Debuts Innovation Works

Kai-Fu Lee became famous in 2005 when the engineering whiz left Microsoft, where he had created Microsoft Research Asia, to head search giant Google’s operation in China. Microsoft sued, charging that he violated a noncompete agreement, but eventually settled. This time, as Lee leaves Google, he’s sure to avoid a lawsuit, because he’s starting his own venture, which launches Monday morning in Beijing.

Basic Economics We All Need To Understand

Reading what follows may be of help if you are one who would like to have a better understanding of what the recent and future actions of our government may have on our economic future.