Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
A retired CEO, Jerry was a sad, aging man who reflected constantly on the emptiness of his life. Listening to him, it became clear to me that he had never had any interests outside work. And the prospect of spending time at home with a partner who seemed to have turned into a stranger made him all the more depressed.
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Broadband and wi-fi internet are revolutionising cities and regions. Even rural communi- ties around the globe are finding that they do not have to be left in the dust, if they adopt and adapt this technology.
The problem for rural communi- ties is that networks that distribute this technology to metropolitan areas are not being developed across many landscapes. Some small towns refuse to be held back, however.
Stratford, Ontario – population 32,000 – is one such town. Known largely for its annual Shakespeare festival, recently the community invested heavily in ubiquitous broadband connectivity provided by underground fibre-optic cabling and a wireless mesh network. The smart grid goes 70 kilometres around Stratford. “It has two trans- former stations that feed the city, which back each other through a series of computer-aided circuits,” says Stratford mayor Dan Mathieson.
In a survey launched this month, the Pew Research Centre finds that most Americans now believe that the US plays a "less important and powerful role" in the world than it did 10 years ago.
The result is hardly a surprise. It doubtless reflects widespread perceptions of foreign policy miscalculation, as well as ongoing weakness in the US economy. Perhaps less well appreciated, however, is that a similar judgment could also be made in assessing the relative importance of the US in global science, technology and innovation.
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It's an increasingly tired meme that we need more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) graduates. Of course we do. Research shows we need more qualified workers to accommodate an economy that's increasingly reliant on engineering skills.
But there's something else we need: English majors. Why? Because as important as the technology is that powers our lives, businesses also depend on humanities-oriented communicators to articulate why the technology matters.
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As housing prices and rents soar out of control in tightly regulated cities like San Francisco and New York, many people have called for a significant loosening of zoning rules to permit greater densification. Many policies contribute to unaffordable housing, including rent control, historic districts, eminent domain abuse, and building codes, but zoning puts an absolute cap on dwelling units per acre thus is generally part of any solution to the supply problem. What’s more, as recent commentators have started to notice, even many of America’s most dense cities are predominantly zoned for single family homes, calling into question the need to dedicate so much space to a single housing typology.
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The U.S. experiences cycles in liquidity because, well, we just aren’t that creative. In 2006 to 2007 we saw waves of consumer tech IPOs, then the inevitable ebb, followed by the flow of enterprise tech IPOs from 2010 to 2013. But while high profile brands like Twitter and FireEye dominated the news, did you know that 38 healthcare firms went public, compared to 28 in technology? In 2013 we saw healthcare IT investments break records, exceeding $1.9 billion in total investments. And digital health has only scratched the surface: I believe that healthcare IT IPOs will quadruple enterprise tech IPOs this year.
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I had been holed up for six hours in a dark conference room with 12 managers. It was a group-coaching day and each executive had 30 minutes to describe in detail a cross-cultural challenge she was experiencing at work and to get feedback and suggestions from the others at the table.
It was Willem’s turn, one of the Dutch participants, who recounted an uncomfortable snafu when working with Asian clients. “How can I fix this relationship?” Willem asked his group of international peers.
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Access to capital and robust deal flow are the dual engines of entrepreneurial growth.
According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report, in 2013, the state of Oklahoma ranked 44th in terms of venture capital investment dollars.
What’s really unfortunate is that we are trending in the wrong direction. In 2008, there was $17 million in venture capital invested here; last year it had fallen to $8 million, with the vast majority of that investment being deals in which i2E invested.
While most states seem to have returned to pre-financial crisis levels over that last five years, venture capital investment in Oklahoma declined more than 50 percent.
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The world's largest companies have rallied to support and fund new technology startups, TechCrunch reported.
This has not always been the case. CrunchBase data showed that only Google Ventures, the investment arm of search giant Google, has been the only major backer of startups. Now; however, large corporate names like Siemens, Coca-Cola, Warner Bros and even a nationwide association like the National Association of Realtors have an accelerator program, the report said.
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WICHITA - Wichita State officials are negotiating with several technology companies to create an innovation campus with a goal of bringing new technology jobs to Wichita in the future. University president John Bardo told faculty and students Monday that the innovation campus would be a four-building complex on the southeast corner of the campus, The Wichita Eagle reported.
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IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 25, 2014) - The University of California, Irvine today announced the creation of the UC Irvine Institute for Innovation, an interdisciplinary and campus-wide center focused on integrating research, entrepreneurship and technology to create real-world applications that benefit the public and drive the economy.
The institute is envisioned to be "an epicenter of innovation in Orange County by creating a vibrant, interconnected and self-sustaining community of students, scholars, industries and entrepreneurs," said UC Irvine Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor Howard Gillman.
As startup accelerators continue to propagate, founders are left wondering if these programs really help entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Is the effort worth giving away equity, investing time, and creating incremental costs? Do accelerators really help new companies “jump the line” and speed their development?
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Are you considering selling your business? Is it already on the market? Do you think you have what it takes to be a true serial entrepreneur, building startups from scratch and selling them for profit with an Elon Musk-like Midas touch (well, minus the exploding Tesla engines, of course)?
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BARCELONA, SPAIN — We hear a lot of talk about wearable tech being the future, but most of the solutions are devices that require leaping into a new usage context, a learning curve that many are reluctant to take on.
However, the new smart hearing aid from Resound Linx is that rare piece of wearable tech that is not only practical, but immediately usable by anyone with a hearing impairment. Officially launched globally on Monday, the wireless Bluetooth device was developed by Denmark-based GN ReSound.
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In many cases, a startup is only as good as the people behind it. The success of a business can heavily depend on whether the people involved are doing their jobs well.
As the founder of two tech startups, entrepreneur Lynn LeBlanc has learned that a successful business needs a strong, highly skilled team right from the start.
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Most people typically think of Lego as toys, however these multi-colored building blocks are so much more than just playthings.
The Danish company has created over 560 billion parts since 1958. As children, Legos helped inspire the way in which we viewed the world. We could be an architect, city planner, or inventor.
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After Microsoft closes its purchase of Nokia’s devices and services businesses in the coming weeks, Nokia’s chief technology officer, Henry Tirri, will be part of a new organization. The new outfit, known as Nokia Advanced Technologies, will be expected to take better advantage of Nokia’s vast patent portfolio and its richly financed R&D organization (see “Can This Man Work Magic?”).
HIRE THE WRONG PEOPLE
A common pitfall for startups is bad choice of personnel, Mr. Martín-Villa says. As he recalls, one of Wayra’s most exciting startups, run by two British brothers, involved the use of near-field communication technology allowing mobile phones to access Wi-Fi in stores without the need for passwords. Good idea, but instead of iterating and developing their product, the brothers were found to be using the money for heavy partying instead. Then there’s the issue of numbers. Any project is too much for one single person, no matter how gifted; three-people teams seem to works best, but three-way splits of stock at 33% each could also cause problems, since three people are unlikely to contribute equally. This often leads to messy breakups.
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If you want to get ahead of the pack in placing your technology bets, following venture capital money is a good strategy. Venture capitalists spend months parsing pitches from eager young start-ups, trying to figure out which have the potential to be the next Facebook, Google or WhatsApp. Right now VC investors are particularly flush with investment ideas and dollars.
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A few years ago, Penn Medicine — the umbrella group that includes the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and the University’s Health System — set out to improve its patient satisfaction rates. Like many health care organizations, Penn Medicine’s senior managers and clinicians were typically in charge of thinking up new ideas. But for this particular challenge, a top-down approach wouldn’t work. The hospital needed fresh thinking from the front lines –including doctors, nurses, clerical staff and transporters, who had an intimate understanding of patients’ experiences.
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