At its heart, the tech industry is about the new. Today, tech giants succeeded because of what was new yesterday. The flip side is that the new ages into the old more quickly in tech than in most other industries. And so companies that dominated tech even a decade ago can appear to be aging quickly. Such is the picture of the tech industry after a week of earnings reports that saw giants like Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), and IBM (IBM) discuss their financials in the first quarter of 2013. While the individual results and subsequent reactions among investors varied, one thread ran through all three: Each is struggling to manage older businesses in decline even as they push into promising new areas like cloud computing.

Angel investors are unphased by bubble hype as 2012 valuations remain unchanged versus 2011. Median deal size down slightly from 2011, but trending up in Q4. Mobile doubles its share of investment dollars, while Healthcare slips to #2 behind Internet. California loses share. April 16, 2013

The NIH is the premier biomedical research center for the world. Its 27 Institutes and Centers employ approximately 18,000 employees doing a vast array of jobs, all supporting efforts for a healthy nation. For information on the NIH mission, goals, and Institutes and Centers, visit NIH Overview.

The Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination (OTAC) in the Division of Extramural Research Activities (DERA), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is seeking outstanding candidates for the Health Scientist Administrator (Business Development Specialist) position. The OTAC is charged with accelerating the translation of basic discoveries and innovations into new diagnostics, devices, and therapeutics, and facilitating the development of new technologies via Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) initiatives. The Office facilitates identification of emerging areas of translational opportunities and provides functional integration by developing interdependent teams that leverage resources and intellect across the NHLBI, and with other NIH Institutes, agencies, and organizations. The OTAC enhances communication and coordination between existing programs, develops and coordinates strategic initiatives and Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs), and identifies and capitalizes on synergies to meet and enhance program goals.

Looking at executives who have realized their ambitions, we get the idea that if we can ape their habits, we'll realize ours, too. As the Guardian notes, the pastime's a little ridiculous--like "looking to a novelist's desk placement for the key to good writing"--but also, we must say, useful.

To wit: when Stephen King tells you to put your desk in the corner, you listen. So maybe there is something to our most productive obsession.

So a handful of these successful execs, from telecom to finance, shared a few anyone-can-do-it tips for managing the unmanageable schedule:

En el marco del evento de presentación de los 15 finalistas del boot camp Inventa tu futuro que realiza la Secretaría de Economía, la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en México, la Fundación México-Estados Unidos para la Ciencia, a través de su programa TechBA; y CONACYT, el reconocido emprendedor e inversionista, Richard Bendis impartirá la conferencia: “Claves para acelerar el emprendedurismo con innovación hacia el desarrollo de mercados globales”.

La conferencia magistral de Richard Bendis se enfocará en las tendencias globales sobre cómo fomentar exitosamente la innovación y los ecosistemas de base empresarial y resaltará las mejores prácticas que están funcionando hoy en día. También abordará los elementos clave que los emprendedores deben tomar en cuenta para construir exitosamente un negocio tecnológico de alto crecimiento y lo que los inversionistas buscan para identificar un negocio verdaderamente relevante en el mercado y que sea atractivo para la inversión. Asimismo, discutirá la importancia de construir un ecosistema de innovación vibrante que sea respaldado a través de asociaciones público-privadas.

The University City Science Center has launched the sixth round of its QED Proof-of-Concept program. QED, the first multi-institutional proof-of-concept program for the life sciences and health IT, brings together academic invention, market insight, and commercial guidance as researchers are paired with business advisors to perform technical proof-of-concept validation for life science, healthcare and health IT technologies with high commercial potential.

Over the next seven months, QED will offer advisory support and the chance for direct project funding to researchers from 22 different institutions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware as they position their technologies for product development and private investment.

Most could, and many do:

organize, manage, and assume the risks of a business or enterprise  1

employ productive labor 2

supply risk capital as a risk taker and control the business activities...owns the majority of shares in an incorporated venture. 3 

I love the idea of making email suck less.

As a reporter, email is one of the most important tools of my job: for communicating with sources, my editors and colleagues, companies I cover, receiving news tips, and more. Admittedly, my current email work flow is pretty awful. And I know I should get better about managing my email, especially on my phone, where I check it roughly 500 times a day. Still, I can’t get myself to let go of my bad habits.

Most people know that the way to stay healthy is to exercise and eat right, but millions of Americans struggle to meet those goals, or even decide which to change first.

Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that focusing on changing exercise and diet at the same time gives a bigger boost than tackling them sequentially. They also found that focusing on changing diet first — an approach that many weight-loss programs advocate — may actually interfere with establishing a consistent exercise routine.

Their findings will published online in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine on April 21.

For economic and community developers, a new “best of” and “top places” ranking season is underway.  While it may not be as popular as basketball’s March Madness, there is no doubt that economic and community performance rankings attract a lot of attention. They are of great interest to the media, elected officials, the business community and residents at-large. But rankings are only one part of a very complex economic performance story. Compounding their use and reliability is the fact that not all adopt the most rigorous, relevant or transparent methods.  And positive or negative scores do not impact all business investment decision-making in the same way.

This infographic shows the pharmaceutical companies that listed the most patents last year.

The companies with the most drug patents listed last year are Novartis, Lilly, Merck,Allergan, Sanofi Aventis Us, Astrazeneca, Glaxosmithkline, Pfizer, Veroscience, andWatson Labss.

The competition for top tech talent been called everything from a high-stakes game to a bloodthirsty battle. Some have even suggested software developers get loudmouth Hollywood agents to represent them, a la Ari Gold, a salient point given that unemployment in that sector is a measly 2.9 percent.

But the bid for tech talent in the bastion of geekdom that is Silicon Valley is a serious pursuit for two women who are shaping startups and high-growth companies, one individual, and one connection, at a time. Fast Company sat down with Shannon Callahan, who runs the talent network for Andreessen Horowitz (aka A16Z), and Juliet de Baubigny, partner at Kleiner Perkins, to get their take on hiring trends, essential skills to land the right job, and what makes a candidate stand out in a sea of hopefuls.

"Every business could be creative."

I talk to so many people about the lack of creativity in companies in America. Part of creativity is contrarianism. Creativity battles common wisdom. Because if there's common wisdom, there's an opportunity. In my own experience, whatever was a good idea was a bad idea to most people.

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Council of Canadian Academies, I am pleased to announce the release of the report of the Expert Panel on Socio-economic Impacts of Innovation Investments.

Innovation Impacts: Measurement and Assessment, represents the work of a 13-member panel of experts, chaired by Esko Aho, Senior Fellow, Harvard University; Consultative Partner, Nokia Corporation; and former Prime Minister of Finland. It catalogues the portfolio of Ontario innovation investments, presents an extensive academic and public policy literature review of leading-edge measurement methodologies, and explores the best international practices in impact assessment. The Panel developed a new conceptual framework that is helpful for understanding innovation impact measurement and assessment at the program level and within the innovation ecosystem respectively. Ultimately, the report's insights will be a valuable tool to support decision-makers in formulating polices and deciding how to best support innovation in the future.

Low-cost wireless communications offer a practical alternative to traditional wired systems in Africa, and further development of such communications can help overcome research challenges on the continent, a workshop has heard.

Around 30 young scientists, engineers and scholars from 16 African countries attended the Workshop on Wireless Networking for Science in Africa, in Trieste, Italy, last month (11-22 March) to learn about wireless technology.

New York City business leaders hoping to tap a mayoral successor in the mold of Mayor Michael Bloomberg turned last year to the one industry they believed could capture the hearts and minds of voters: technology. Among the names that came up, according to several sources, were Kevin Ryan, founder of e-commerce powerhouse Gilt, and Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures—two leaders of a tech scene that was barely on the radar in previous mayoral elections.

"Early this year, the European Research Commission designated its two “Flagship projects:” Graphene, based at Chalmers University in Sweden, and the Human Brain Project, directed by EPFL. Two of the four other finalists for this funding, for which teams from 26 European countries competed, were also coordinated in Switzerland: Guardian Angels (co-direction between EPFL and ETH Zurich) and FuturICT (ETH Zurich).

It might seem surprising that a country as small as Switzerland was able to hold its own against so many other teams in the final reckoning. One of the most important reasons for this is the remarkable autonomy of our academic institutions. Teaching and research are not organized centrally in Switzerland, as they are in many other European countries. Cantons fund the country’s universities, and the Federal government provides a large envelope – on the order of 2 billion Swiss francs (€1.6 billion) per year – to its two Polytechniques and affiliated research institutes. These institutions then have the independent responsibility to decide how to manage their budgets.

More and more MBA students are choosing to found or work at start-ups instead of interning at big firms. Can fledgling firms provide students the resources and support that big business can, or is getting in on the ground level enough?

Could entrepreneurship be taking the place of internships? 

An increasing number of MBA students are foregoing traditional summer internships in favor of a start-up experience, reports Bloomberg Businessweek.

I get confused with quotes sometimes – one points at a direction and the other seems to point at the opposite. However, the above quote is meant to set the pace for this exciting account of a touching account of entrepreneurial experience which I have the copyright to share with everyone willing to pick up a thing or two in their personal sojourn into entrepreneurship.

With the an estimated 150,000 new websites and 7.3 million new pages added to the Internet every day, the biggest challenge for every entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. I can attest from experience that publishing a regular blog to properly showcase your offering, even before you have it, is a most cost effective approach in time and money.

The biggest excuse most startup founders mention is too much to do building a product, mapping strategy, investors, etc. For blogging to work, you need to do it consistently and frequently, at least once a week, or the value evaporates. I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. But here are some key reasons for giving it a priority early: