The U.S. patent system underwent an historic change this weekend.  No longer is it the “first to invent” who has the right to a patent.  Now the “first to file” a patent application will be awarded a U.S. patent.  The change is part of the America Invents Act and went into effect March 16, 2013.

Much of the rest of the world, including the European Union and Canada, has already been following a first-to-file rule.  The United States was an outlier in requiring proof of being the first to invent.  Critics long complained that America’s former system led to lengthy delays in reviewing patents, and to costly litigation that smaller businesses, especially, could not afford to fight.  In the past you were required to prove that you first invented the invention.

CONGRESS might be at loggerheads, the unemployment rate might be too high and America’s infrastructure might be crumbling — but Americans of all political viewpoints comfort themselves with the notion that at least they lead the world in high technology and always will.

It’s a pleasing, convenient idea. China can’t outrun the United States, because it’s not creative enough. It’s authoritarian. Democracy is central to innovation, according to this comforting scenario.

Lots of venture capitalists claim to add value to the companies in which they invest. But how do they do it?  And does it really produce better returns for their investors? We recently wrapped up a study on best practices of venture capitalists in creating portfolio company value through operational support, exploring exactly these questions.

We found that certain VCs are aggressively building out a focused portfolio operations skill set and recruiting more people with operational backgrounds. Based on a range of sources, we believe that most funds with well-developed portfolio operator models have top-quartile returns (typically above 20 percent IRR in the relevant time periods).

Ask yourself this question:  “Should I hire and nurture generalists or specialists to foster innovation in my organization?”  The  21st century answer better be “Yes.  I hired one just yesterday!”

There is much debate about whether the generalist or the specialist is a better leader for innovative communities and organizations. Most of this debate is simply a waste of time. The problem is that we tend to frame the issue as an arbitrary, either/or question, an issue of specialists or generalists.  Doing this obviously leads to arbitrary, either/or answers because the question itself makes arbitrary and often useless distinctions.  A better way to answer this question in a world of innovation, change, and constant paradigm-shifting, is to say: “Yes, of course organizations need specialists and generalists – but in the same person.”

Dr. Janice Presser, CEO, The Gabriel Institute

I better set a good example here. I take no credit for the word ‘suckritocracy’ but seriously, doesn’t it describe at least one place you’ve worked?

I heard it attributed to Edith Waltz, a sociologist who morphed into an IT director for Fortune 500 companies. In her experience those companies were not meritocracies. They were not even aristocracies, and they certainly weren’t democracies. They were, pure and simple, suckritocracies – where the people who suck are the ones who get ahead. And, apparently, in her experience, few people cared.

Call me Pollyanna, but I really meant it when I wrote The Gabriel Institute’s vision line – Making the Workplace a Better Place to Work.

So in that spirit, I ask you to join me in a revolution to banish suckritocracy from the workplace. Here are the three ‘rules of engagement’:

WHEN Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, describes his job today, he says he’s “a translator between two hostile tribes” — the education world and the business world, the people who teach our kids and the people who give them jobs. Wagner’s argument in his book “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World” is that our K-12 and college tracks are not consistently “adding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace.”

“WE need some gray hair” once referred to needing someone with more experience. But I haven’t heard that expression in a very long time.

In fact, many companies are intentionally reducing the average age of their work forces in an effort to save money. Younger employees are generally paid less and have lower health care expenses and retirement costs. As one executive remarked to me recently, “I don’t think anyone really likes this — we all know our own 50-year-old moment will be coming, too.”

IIT Delhi's Entrepreneurship Development Club held an E summit early this March and its speaker series brought a very underlying topic to focus. The topic of discussion was "Is the woman entrepreneur empowered in India?" Willing to take up business and contribute to the nation's growth, the role of women entrepreneurs in the country's economic development is inevitable and thus, empowering women entrepreneurship is quickly becoming essential for attaining the goals of sustainable development.

VENTURES AFRICA – Across nations, many firms and governments face the increasingly complex challenge of resolving international poverty, variations of political instability, and global climate change. With United Nations experts projecting the world population to reach 10.1 billion by 2100 some of these problems may worsen before they are improved. Both firms and governments are addressing these challenges differently, with firms investing highly in profitable innovation, and governmental organizations investing in less innovative but essential social services. This has created a gap for socially minded non-governmental organizations, which aspire to provide moderately innovative social services.

March was a good month for Google. Its market capitalization breached a record high $260 billion. Since its IPO in 2004, its shares have soared over 900%. The company’s success stems from its continuous innovation and it extraordinary management practices. Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President of Google’s People Operations, talked to me on Thursday on the sidelines of The Economist’s Innovation Forum at UC Berkeley about Google’s innovation secrets.

Canada announced today the implementation of the Start-Up Visa program in which foreign entrepreneurs can apply to starting April 1st.  Announced by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, the Canada Start-Up Visa program recruits foreign entrepreneurs whom are “start-up innovators” to make Canada as the start-up destination of choice.

"Canada is open for business to the world's start-up entrepreneurs," said Minister Kenney. "Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential drivers of the Canadian economy. That is why we are actively recruiting foreign entrepreneurs - those who can build companies here in Canada that will create new jobs, spur economic growth and compete on a global scale - with our new start-up visa."

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) brought together top senior-level research park professionals and revealed transformational trends and partnerships.  In a recent interview, Wayne O’Neill summarized the top 5 transformational trends as follows:  

1.  Increase in “EB-5″ Program - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers an Immigrant Investor Program, also known as “EB-5,”  to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. Under this program, certain EB-5 visas are set aside for investors in Regional Centers designated by USCIS based on proposals for promoting economic growth.

I get asked that question all the time. In meetings, on conference calls, while pitching a new client. The answer really shouldn't matter. I find myself wondering whether male entrepreneurs get asked the same question, and why the person asking me doesn't consider it rude.

Age is messy these days, especially when it comes to jobs. While anecdotally, older workers (those 55+) claim that there is a bias against hiring them, their unemployment rate holds steady at 5.8 percent, according to the Department of Labor. While American culture often glorifies the young, this isn't translating into young people getting hired. In fact, the unemployment rate for those aged 18-29 rose to a staggering 12.1 percent last December, up nearly a percentage point from a year before. And yet we're not having a national conversation about age bias, even as we increasingly talk about other forms of bias.

Six brand-spanking-new companies with very energetic and passionate founders started week one of our 12-week accelerator program on March 11. It’s a very exciting time for all of us in the Triangle Startup Factory, including our fabulous mentors, who volunteer their time to work directly with the founders. To celebrate our investment in their companies and to introduce them to the community, we hold an open house. It is one of my favorite events. Kind of like a debutante ball. Everyone smiles.

Everyone seems to like the aspect of being an entrepreneur that goes with “being your own boss” and “able to do things my way.” But sometimes they forget that this kind of freedom comes with a price of personal accountability. Accountability means “the buck stops here,” and “all the failures are mine.”

Too many people seem to do whatever it takes to avoid accountability, both before and after the fact. I suspect that this is largely caused by a fear of the unknown, and a lack of confidence in their own abilities. People with confidence problems and fear problems should avoid the entrepreneur role, since success without accountability is rare.

The days when you locked and loaded your career in school, and then blasted away down that same narrow path the rest of your life, are gone, never to return. Career survival today requires thinking and acting like an entrepreneur starting a business, staying nimble and resilient, willing to pivot, and supersensitive to the market realities of supply and demand.

Over the years I have spent mentoring entrepreneurs and startups, I often notice the similarities between successful professionals managing their careers and successful entrepreneurs building a business. Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn, helped me crystallize these similarities with his book “The Start-up of You.” Here are key survival skills for both lifestyles:

Tokyo continues to be the world's largest urban area with more than 37 million people, according to the recently released 9th Annual edition of Demographia World Urban Areas. Tokyo has held the top position for nearly 60 years, since it displaced New York. There have been only modest changes in the ranking of the world's largest urban areas over the past year. The top four urban areas remain the same, with Jakarta (Jabotabek) second, Seoul third and Delhi fourth. Fast-growing Shanghai, however, assumed fifth place, displacing Manila where the latest census data showed less population growth than had been expected (Table 1).

Startup companies looking for investment capital from venture capital firms have been having a tough time of late.

But that may improve as private equity/venture capital firms such as Draper Triangle Ventures and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse work to raise more money for investments.

“We are ready to start investing again,” said Mike Stubler, managing partner at Draper Triangle, one of Pittsburgh's most active early-stage venture firms, with more than $80 million invested in 26 companies in the region.

Whether I'm out on the speaking circuit, working with startups, back in Ann Arbor teaching MBAs, or just socializing in a coffee shop, I'd say there's one question I'm hit with more than any other. It comes in different forms, but the essence of the question is the same: "What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?” Over the years, my answer has evolved. But I’ve found myself settling on ten traits that are shared in common by virtually every truly successful entrepreneur I’ve met, observed or studied. The true rock stars are all:

Much has been said about Superkilen, but what it is exactly is hard to define. The kilometer-long expanse of color-blocked pinks, reds, and oranges in Copenhagen’s ethnically diverse Nørrebro neighborhood is part playground, part outdoor exhibition, part social experiment.

The collaborative creation of architect it-boy Bjarke Ingels, urban landscape architects Topotek 1, and artist collective Superflex features more than 100 pieces of “urban furniture” — neon signage from Russia, manhole covers from Israel, trashcans from around the world — to represent the 60-or-so nationalities of the neighborhood’s residents, as well as myriad examples of urban modernity: bicycle paths, pedestrian trails, and the most avant-garde of playground equipment. It opened last fall to showers of praise for its lofty goals of bringing together one of Denmark’s most diverse neighborhoods, starting with its children.