Unlike most conferences, the BIF Summit has no theme beyond presenting remarkable stories of transformation. Why? The BIF organizers know that the participants themselves will discover patterns, aha’s, and insights that make sense for them. I work for BIF, but like everybody else at the Summit, I have to — and always do — discover my own insights each time. In this series I’ll share my top insights from BIF2016, including BIF2016 storyteller videos. You can explore the entire set of BIF2016 videos here.

For ten years or more, China has been a uniquely powerful engine of the global economy, regularly posting high single-figure or even double-digit annual increases in GDP. More recently, growth has slowed, prompting sharp falls in international commodity prices and casting a shadow over the near-term prospects for developed and emerging markets.

Pittsburgh is often touted as a Rust Belt regeneration success story, the post-industrial city whose bets on the knowledge economy—institutional investment, entrepreneurialism, technology—paid off and thrust it into the future. One of the city's major universities, Carnegie Mellon, played a huge role in that rebirth, creating jobs, fostering student entrepreneurs, and attracting tech companies like Google, Intel, and Apple. The latter two have research venues in CMU’s Collaborative Innovation Center; a CMU professor was the founding director of Google’s Pittsburgh office. CMU played such a huge role, in fact, that the New England Board of Higher Education named it a "savior" school, one that dramatically improved the economy and quality of life of its hometown.

Nineteen. That’s the number of new drugs approved by the FDA thus far in 2016. With just over two weeks to go, there is little hope for a stellar year like 2015, which yielded 45 approvals.

What gives?

According to a new report by Deloitte’s Centre for Health Solutions, large biopharmaceutical companies are struggling to convert on their R&D investments.

By one measure, annual projected pharma R&D returns have decreased to 3.7 percent, down from 10.1 percent in 2010. Those numbers represent 12 large, publicly-traded biopharma companies tracked by Deloitte since 2010.

Every organization needs strategic thinkers. In a 2013 Management Research Group survey, when executives were asked to select the leadership behaviors that were most critical to their organization’s future success, 97% of the time they chose being strategic.

This is because people who are able to think strategically add value in four ways. First, by being forward-looking, they help ensure that an organization is fully prepared for a difficult-to-predict future. Second, their big-picture perspective helps a firm avoid major problems and conflicts by connecting the dots and seeing the interrelationships between business elements. Third, their external focus keeps everyone aware of emerging trends in the economy and the industry. And fourth, they have a global perspective.

In their bid to host the 2024 Olympics, Washington business leaders plotted a transformation of the region into a more accessible, economically powerful and inclusive place, one that would glisten on the world athletic stage.

Washington’s bid for the games died in the fall of last year. But since then its boosters have wrestled with a question: What if they went through with many of their plans anyway?

What will the factory of the future look like?

The answer is all around us, informed by the revolution in new technologies, advanced materials, and machine trends that have shaped modern life.

Factory automation today is at the equivalent maturity of the mainframe era of computing just before the personal computer revolution. But new automation-enabling technologies, including 3D printing, new energy sources, wireless solutions, advanced sensors, and ubiquitous Internet connectivity will fuel what many call Industrial Revolution 3.0.

Greater Washington, December 14, 2016 – A group of leading CEOs and entrepreneurs today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the Greater Washington region – from Baltimore to Richmond – to address the critical economic issues facing the region and ensure it remains one of the world’s best places to live, work and build a business. The new Greater Washington Partnership (Partnership) will advance inclusive, actionable solutions that strengthen the regional economy and position Greater Washington as a leading global region and center for commerce and innovation.

A group of 17 high-powered CEOs led by Russ Ramsey, Ted Leonsis and Peter Scher are forming a new organization aimed at spurring economic growth in the often disconnected region spanning from Baltimore to D.C. to Richmond.

The Greater Washington Partnership will focus on improving infrastructure, transit and workforce development and better branding what has become known as a "megaregion” or “super region” as a hub for business and innovation.

State boundaries matter for all sorts of reasons. The state you live in determined how much your vote counted in the 2016 election. It shapes what kind of benefits your employer might offer you, what taxes you pay, what kind of schools you can attend, and much more.

And yet, most state boundaries were drawn during the 17th to 19th centuries, says Garrett Nelson, a historical geographer at Dartmouth College. “Why should we think that areas which were drawn up for horses and buggies still make sense for interstates and telecommuting?”

A city of commerce and entrepreneurism, Amsterdam has long been a melting pot and meeting point for people to come together and ferment world-changing ideas. Recent changes to Dutch law allow innovative entrepreneurs to receive start-up visas in the Netherlands. All they need to qualify is an innovative business idea and an experienced facilitator/mentor. “Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands has stressed that the country has huge potential to be the next European startup hub, saying it is suitable for talented foreign entrepreneurs to start, build and internationalize their businesses…. “The most important thing is that the government does not get in the way of entrepreneurs,” the prince said, highlighting that the government policy does not only serve the interests of big companies.” (yonhapnews.co.kr)

If you’re reading this, then you probably know the feeling - You’ve reached a certain point in your company’s growth where everything is looking good: you have the right people, the right product, and everyone is happy. Then, you realize that this comfort isn’t going to last forever. Scaling up is a scary step, because it’s easy to be too ambitious and undermine the progress you’ve already made. As the founder of your company, you are responsible for the vision, management, and structure of the business—not the day to day work that keeps the company running. With this in mind, how do you scale and not fail? Don’t worry—we’ve pulled together the essentials of successfully scaling your business.

Since launching the Open Government Initiative in 2009 and the Open Government Partnership in 2011, governments worldwide have become more accountable while exponentially increasing their access to solvers. Download this infographic to find out how open government and open innovation are related.

Whether it’s a gift for the holidays or a present to yourself, every purchase is the result of myriad choices on the part of the shopper — what color, which size, how big or how fast. While these are often conscious decisions, there are also numerous external factors at play every time you visit the mall or log on to Amazon. In a recent paper, Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn examines the impact of one of those potential influencers: Display design and how it affects our perceptions of variety. 

These innovations, and so many more, are disrupting their industries, and they were all created and commercialized in the Kansas City region, with the help and connections of Whiteboard2Boardroom (W2B). From water purification to medical devices, from engineering to biodiesel, W2B provides a very early look at innovations on their way toward commercialization, helping identify homegrown innovations and match them with entrepreneurs who can take them to market.

As social creatures, we seek out opportunities to connect with others. The internet is particularly effective in helping us do that.

As a child growing up in the United States with foreign parents, every summer we would visit my mother's family in Israel. There I would marvel at the artists on MTV Europe. And every four years, my Chilean father would hole up in our New Jersey basement to watch the Mundial on Univision — a cultural phenomena in other parts of the world, but unknown to our American neighbors.

Rivers meander. Lakes grow and shrink. Engineers build dams and farmers flood fields.

In the 30-year animation* above, Bangladesh's Brahmaputra River sweeps unpredictably across the landscape. Much of the world's water is in constant motion.

Scientists with the European Commission’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, working with Google engineers, have used millions of satellite images to illustrate how rivers, lakes and other bodies of water have changed over three decades.

The term “company DNA” is sometimes used as a shorthand for an organization’s culture and strategy — a metaphor for what makes it unique.  But there may be more to the metaphor. Understanding your company’s DNA can help you know what you can and can’t do, and how to achieve agility and authenticity in a changing world.

We know from biology that DNA contains the instructions an organism needs to develop, function, and reproduce. It is formed at conception and does not change.

The starting point for achieving value in any health care system is to measure outcomes. Although this can present leadership challenges related to shifting strategy, culture and operations, it certainly isn’t rocket science. There are hundreds of provider organizations the world over that have already implemented outcomes measurement, and this number increases every week. Regardless, many providers still believe that measuring outcomes is too difficult to do.

Is it an art installation? Aliens making contact with humans? 

Well, it's none of those, but this mysterious looking object that washed up on a New Zealand beach is pretty creepy to the unfamiliar, nonetheless. The nightmarish creation was discovered by Melissa Doubleday, who snapped pics of the oddity and posted it on a local Facebook group. 

Image: MELISSA DOUBLEDAY