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.
Oreo might be trying to push its snack-sized mini cookies with this utterly brilliant way to dunk, but there’s no reason this hack can’t work with full-sized Oreo cookies as well — or any reasonably-sized cookie, for that matter. You’ll of course need access to a clean french press, but the other components — milk and cookies — should be easy to come by.
Image: http://www.gizmodo.com.au
Some sharks can likely tell which way humans are facing and tend to stay out of their field of vision, typically passing by or approaching people from the rear, new research suggests.
Although divers and shark scientists have noticed this tendency before, it hadn't been carefully documented, said Erich Ritter, a scientist at the Shark Research Institute in Florida. In a new study, published in December in the journal Animal Cognition, research volunteers kneeled on the seafloor for hours staring straight ahead, while interactions with Caribbean reef sharks were videotaped from above. About 80 percent of the time, reef sharks that came close to the subjects passed behind them.
Image: MrScubafan / YouTube
Here's an image no swimmer would want to see in real life: a massive tiger shark with its jaws open, as if ready to devour an observer.
Though the picture makes it look like the photographer was the shark's next meal, no one was ever in danger, said David Shiffman, a doctoral candidate in marine biology at the University of Miami's Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, who posted the photo on Twitter (but was not on the boat at the time the photo was taken).
Image: Cat Schultz, RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program
Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO of Dubai SME
At the World Entrepreneurship Forum last week in Dubai, leading figures came together to discuss the future of entrepreneurship in the UAE. Over a two-day event at the World Trade Center, policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs built upon existing debates about what entrepreneurs need to succeed and came to conclusions about what needs to change.
Image: http://www.wamda.com/
It’s hard to believe that nearly two years after it picked its inaugural class of entrepreneurs to respond to trends in healthcare. Now the health IT accelerator in New York Blueprint Health is gearing up for class number five.
Looking back on its first graduates, Dr. Brad Weinberg, who co-founded the program with Mathew Farkash, noted that seven of the original nine companies are still in business. Five are generating revenue. Looking at its alumni of 39 companies with which it’s invested, 36 of them are still in operation and 80 percent are turning a profit — a record he would challenge other healthcare accelerators to beat.
Image: http://medcitynews.com
The holidays are fast approaching and with them, the chance to catch up on your reading. The team at Business Digest has chosen our ten essential books of the year. Leadership, personal development, innovation…All your favorite themes are here! We wish you all the best for the holidays!
Image Courtesy of -Marcus- / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My husband and I were both working in the publishing industry 18 years ago when I had an idea to start my own business. I wanted to promote books online. I left a great job to follow my interests, but thankfully, my past employer became my first client. Within a year of starting FSB Associates, I had more work than I could do alone, so my husband took a huge leap of faith and quit his job to join me. Together we built a niche service company creating online awareness for books and authors through a seamless integration of social media and web publicity. We build brands and loyal communities of readers for authors, and create and design author websites to help authors build the foundation of their digital strategies. Many years ago, people advised me not to work with family — particularly a spouse — and that’s not bad advice, but for us, it works.
Image Courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It was crowded on the sidewalks in Hong Kong. Early morning commuters, shoulders tightly pressed against the strangers walking next to them, moved in a sluggish blob through each crowded intersection.
Image: http://mashable.com
HIMSS is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through HHS' Innovator in Residence program, to develop a strategy for nationwide patient data matching.
HIMSS is currently recruiting an innovator in residence to work toward an implementation plan for the near-term deployment of consistent patient data matching, building on the work of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and other healthcare partners.
Image Courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The cultural center on wheels can transform from office space, to open-air theater, to small screening room. When it opens in Ecuador, the Train of Knowledge promises to bring new voices to the civic conversation.
When old rail lines stopped running along the coast of Ecuador, the towns that had grown up around the train stations were mostly left behind by the outside world. Now, 12 years after train service ended, an old freight car is about to start running again, this time transformed into a mobile cultural center that visits remote communities.
Image: http://www.fastcoexist.com
We have known for about 150 years that people who enjoy their work are more productive. That is to say high satisfaction is correlated with high performance. And yet many organizations seem to go out of their way to make work alienating, frustrating, and unpleasant. This is evidenced in the depressingly low rates of employee engagement around the world. According to a recent AON Hewitt survey, four in 10 workers on average report being disengaged worldwide (three out of 10 in Latin America, four in ten in the U.S., and five in 10 Europe).
Image Courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Other_Architecture_g299-Guardians_Of_The_Light_p121276.html / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
As I looked through the latest 2012 American Community Survey data to see how transit use has grown or fallen in various cities since 2000, something else stuck out: How many bus riders there really are, even in the few big cities with large rail networks. While the urban transit stereotype may be a straphanger on a subway, there are actually only three large cities in the U.S. — New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. — where most commuters use rail.
Image: Daniel Schwen on Wikipedia
The hard-charging entrepreneur has become something of a trope these days. From Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg to Jack Dorsey, the image of the self-made man striking out on his own has become an updated, 21st century version of the old Horatio Alger myth.
But new research shows there's clearly more to the story than just individual skill, pluck, and ambition. The study, by Temple University’s Seok-Woo Kwon, the University of Missouri’s Colleen Heflin, and Duke University’s Martin Ruef, examines the relationship between self-employment levels and community support structures across America’s metro areas. Published in the December issue of the American Sociological Review, the authors argue that the strength of local social networks and trust — using the term “social capital,” popularized by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam — plays a major role in whether a city is able to foster a culture of self-employment and entrepreneurship.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Google’s $3.2 billion acquisition of smart thermostat startup Nest Labs should increase the intensity of interest in the home automation space and the broader Internet of Things market. With Google’s acquisition netting a fantastic return for Nest’s venture backers including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (who were clearly written off a bit prematurely), Shasta Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, we wanted to take a look at who are some of the most active venture capital and corporate investors in the emerging IoT innovation landscape.
From smart locks to WiFi-enabled doorbells, a range of new technologies are ushering in the rise of the “The Connected Home.” Like the movement to “quantify” the physical body using Internet-enabled sensors, startups focused on the connected home are providing services for your home ranging from security, temperature management and lighting controls and are doing it in ways that leverages data, hardware and internet and mobile software.
Image: http://www.cbinsights.com
High school students have always been informal entrepreneurs, but they’ve moved on from mowing lawns and babysitting to creating products and services that can compete in the open market.
The economy has also changed. No longer does a college education guarantee a secure, well-paying job, so students need to be equipped with the skills to be self-sufficient in this new marketplace — no matter what their post-graduation plans may be.
Image Courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Venture capital (VC) used to be a great place to put money. But in the last 15 years, it has been a lousy investment. 2013 was the strongest year since 2007 for VC, and there are promising developments ahead for 2014.
The problem with VC is that it is very risky. Typically, only one in 10 portfolio companies is a big winner; about three of them may make back the investment; and the rest go out of business. Only one in 10,000 funded startups end up being worth over $1 billion.
Image Courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Her shoes are made special, with scores of tiny spikes to grip the ice, and they never seem to last long enough.
The steel runners for her sled cost more than $6,000 and the airlines charge $100 each way to carry her equipment to international races.
When American bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator sat down and calculated her expenses leading up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics — eight months of training and competition — the numbers added up quickly.
Image Courtesy of nirots / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
China’s entrepreneurial landscape is integral to the country’s growth and economic success — 75% of new jobs each year and 68% of exports come from entrepreneurial ventures, says The EY G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer 2013 report. The in-depth report which surveyed 1500 entrepreneurs in twenty countries worldwide, across both the emerging and developed economies, was released in August 2013 and concludes that not only is China an “export giant” but it is also full of opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24046097@N00/228634577
Avanish Tiwary
An investor recently told us how so many young entrepreneurs just want to jump into an incubation program without knowing much about it, or worse, if they are ready for such a program. In his opinion, an entrepreneur should have some experience in running a business before enrolling for an incubation program. Working with incubators in an extremely early stage can be beneficial for your business but it is very easy for the whole exercise to be detrimental for your business as well, he opined.
Image: http://www.moneycontrol.com
