In June 2013, I met with a group of Lauder students on a rooftop in Rio de Janeiro with a stunning view of Botafogo Bay and Sugar Loaf Mountain. After encouraging the students to look beyond traditional job opportunities and take risks that would allow them to “change the world,” one of the students asked me if I felt I had changed the world with my businesses that sold pool tables and baby products. The question was sincere, but it stung. Unbeknownst to him, I had been asking myself the same question in the previous months and had already decided I was going to make a change, but this student’s question increased my sense of urgency to take my own advice.

Image: https://beacon.wharton.upenn.edu 

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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Executives at a financial institution wondered how to fight complacency as they watched competitors start to catch up to their most important product—one whose success the institution never quite matched.

A logistics company faced diminishing returns from years of cost cutting. Managing vendors now consumed many of the gains from outsourcing. Fixing talent and quality issues meant that “low cost” locations were no longer so low cost. And just keeping pace with the latest IT developments meant constant budgetary struggles. How could it get more out of the cost-cutting investments it had already made?

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UCLA Crowdfunding Platform Launched An article in today's Los Angeles Times about the growing use of online crowdfunding to support scientific research highlighted the newly launched UCLA Spark, a university website that aims to attract critical fundraising support for innovative projects by UCLA faculty and official student organizations. Edward Miracco, a UCLA postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry, was quoted.

Egyptian innovation on campus is to receive a boost in the right direction following the opening of the country’s first university business incubator the American University in Cairo (AUC).

The AUC Venture Lab, established by the institution’s School of Business, will look to assist in the commercialisation of technologies coming out from the university, as well as supporting startups. As with other incubators, the Venture Lab will provide access to mentorship, working space, business training, and potential avenues of fundraising.

Image: http://www.globaluniversityventuring.com 

Moving to a new city can be exciting, but scary. Moving and relocating your company to a new city? That can take some adjustment. While a big move can really ramp up business, it can never hurt to be over-prepared. To make sure everything on your list gets checked off (twice), we asked a panel of 13 startup founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question.

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Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) Index assesses 27 European countries on how do they perform in innovation sphere and its subdivisions.

By monitoring innovation progress across the EU27 member countries, as well as Iceland, Croatia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia IUS attempts to build strong base to policy discussions and decisions at EU and national level. Measurement framework of IUS embraces in total 25 indicators serving as proxies for 8 innovation dimensions grouped into 3 pillars.

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In a way, it's fitting that Detroit plans to unveil its bankruptcy plan during "Detroit Week," a celebration of the entrepreneurs and innovators who are bringing hope and promise to the struggling city. While national news focuses on Detroit's bankruptcy, the events of Detroit Week, Feb. 17-23, highlight how the city's entrepreneurs are building a bright economic future and thriving cultural scene in the Motor City.

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If you’re a young entrepreneur interested in getting a head start on your business ventures, there are some special considerations to keep in mind. Given that you may not have much of a credit history, it may be challenging to secure financing. With a lack of business experience, you may have to work harder to be taken seriously. But success is still possible. Below are a few tips to help you on that path.

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One major key to crowdfunding success is by creating a good video that sells your campaign to potential donors. In fact including a video will up your chances of success to 50 percent, according to Kickstarter. You don’t need to be the next Steven Spielberg or have a huge budget to create an amazing video. All you need is that electronic marvel in your hand that creates bathroom-mirror selfies and endless Facebook posts of the food you are eating. With a good smartphone and a few tips, you can create a video that will help you raise money and get your startup dream off the ground.

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Just because you are an entrepreneur, or work in a startup, you can’t ignore the rules of building and maintaining relationships. Many despise these experiences in corporate environments, and leave for a startup, only to find that they have to be able to navigate a similar minefield there of workplace and business relationships to be successful.

If you're looking for an internship, head over to Facebook.

The social media company has the highest rated internships, according to Glassdoor. The jobs website, which offers reviews and commentary on workplaces all over the country, has compiled a list of the 25 companies that offer the best internship experiences, based on intern feedback. From Yahoo to Google to Apple, major tech companies managed to make it onto the list.

Image: FLICKR, SAM GREENHALGH 

“The internet revolution is similar to the industrial revolution,” said Nigeria’s ICT Minister Omobola Johnson at Social Media Week in Lagos. “President Goodluck Jonathan said that we missed out on the industrial revolution, we shouldn’t miss out on the internet revolution. Our lives revolve around technology today.”

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Illumina Inc. is launching what it bills as the world’s first genomics incubator, saying it has teamed up with technology billionaire Yuri Milner and Silicon Valley Bank to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in startups.

The San Diego maker of genome sequencing equipment said that it plans to offer aspiring genomics businesses both funding and access to lab equipment. Work would take place in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Your impact matters. Angel investors have never had more economic power and influence.  It's vital to stay on top of the latest trends in the rapidly shifting early-stage environment.

Join the world's largest gathering of angel investors for the 2014 ACA Summit in Washington, DC for top insights into this rapidly changing environment. Features include how social media is affecting the early-stage landscape, investment best practices, innovations in deal terms, exits - and how rules and legislation from Washington is affecting our world (and what we can do to change it).

Awhile back I blogged about Ashwin, one of my ex-students who wanted to raise a seed round to build Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) with a hyper-spectral camera and fly it over farm fields collecting hyper-spectral images. These images, when processed with his company’s proprietary algorithms, would be able to tell farmers how healthy their plants were, whether they were having trouble with diseases or bugs, and whether they had enough fertilizer and enough water.

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Maynard Webb looked out the window to the eBay parking lot. CNN’s van was still there, camped out, waiting for another site-wide outage.

By the time Webb stepped in as president of the company in 1999, the world’s largest auction site was going down so often it was a national news story. And as more and more dot-coms flamed out around it, it seemed doomed to fail. Webb’s job: turn things around.

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What actions can entrepreneurs take to not only raise money to finance their enterprise but as importantly—help L. American investors to see beyond the financial rewards of investing in just their company—& finance other ventures in the entrepreneurial community?

By achieving this outcome entrepreneurs not only secure their future, but they impact the DNA of domestic capital to invest the cash required to ‘Scale Up’ start-up communities.  While it’s challenging to startup a start-up community, it’s even more difficult to build the legs required for entrepreneurial communities to achieve sustainability.

Image: http://scalingupinnovation.com/?p=1071 

Occasionally I speak to a venture capitalist who expresses concerns with university spinouts arguing that the license agreements create too many issues for investors. They typically cite issues such as non-dilution, the threat of license termination and royalties impacting cash flow prior to achieving profitability. Some investors have told me that “no one will ever invest in a university spinout”.

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The Intelligent Community Forum announced today that the Mayor of Taichung, Taiwan, Dr. Jason Hu will give the annual “Revolutionary Community” keynote address at the 2014 Summit of the Intelligent Community Forum in New York City on June 5.  Now in his fourth consecutive term, Mayor Hu, a former Foreign Minister of Taiwan and an internationally known political figure, led Taichung to the 2013 Intelligent Community of the Year award. The Intelligent Community of the Year serves as the global model for cities seeking to build economic and social advantages based on broadband and information technology.