When you are a busy founder, startup executive or tech investor, life is all about focusing on the activities that provide the most leverage toward achieving your objectives. As Tim Ferriss has taught us, anything that isn’t a leveraged activity should be outsourced. My recent trip to Ghana as a guest lecturer at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) got me thinking about how we entrepreneurs and tech investors could best leverage our time when it comes to giving back to the startup community and society in general. I hope to someday be able to financially impact a community to the extent that they name a hospital after me, but until then, it will have to be more leveraged, time-based activities.

When thinking about developing new technologies, universities bring valuable resources to the table.  Among these are:  research – basic and otherwise; access to funding; access to the latest, most up-to-date knowledge base; access to physical assets (i.e. technology, specialized equipment, etc.) and more.

Universities that spin off research to companies to create viable products and services is a win-win situation.  It sounds easy but can be difficult to achieve, which means the full potential of some technologies are never fully realized.

Rockville-based Human Genome Sciences Inc.    , which rejected a $13-per-share takeover offer from GlaxoSmithKline PLC as too low, has accepted a $14.25 per share offer from its lupus drug development partner. The handshake brings to a close a monthslong, sometimes tense struggle for control of the company.

Glaxo (LSE: GSK) announced Monday that Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) had agreed to its offer to acquire the company in a $3.6 billion squirt transaction that values Human Genome at $3 billion net of cash and debt.

As elections approach and there is a lot of debate on which is the best road to a robust economy with more jobs, policymakers should take time to listen to the message of the just-released Kaufman Foundation videos on the benefits of high-skilled immigration. With Washington being unwilling to separate the obviously different issues of high-skilled immigration and how to handle illegal immigrants, a net job gain strategy remains hostage to politics as usual in the nation’s capitol.

History shows how many of America’s great job creators have been, since the beginning of the nation and until today, immigrant entrepreneurs. As Robert Litan noted in a recent op-ed, they are the main characters in the great American success stories—such as in AT&T, U.S. Steel, Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, Pfizer, Coors Brewing Company, H. J. Heinz Company, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, MGM and Goldman Sachs.

Singapore has been ranked the most innovative country in Asia and the third worldwide after Switzerland and Sweden in INSEAD’s recently released Fifth Global Innovation Index (GII). This represents Singapore’s second consecutive year at the top of the index. Singapore’s regional rival, Hong Kong, was placed in the eighth position, making it the only other Asian city within the top 20 positions.

The 2012 GII analyzed 141 countries based on seven broad categories that measure innovation capabilities and output namely:

Though intensely talked about, open innovation remains a subject matter that both fascinates and creates apprehension among business professionals. In the following interview, Henry Chesbrough, the father of open innovation according to Wikipedia, has sat down with IM.se to discuss a few key aspects of this largely new and challenging innovation model: its evolution, its applicability and most importantly, its essential role in facilitating knowledge creation for the future. He teaches at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and Esade Business School in Barcelona.

Ten years ago, an obscure professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh wrote a book called "The Rise of the Creative Class."

Although Richard Florida's theory was criticized, misunderstood and provoked more than a little academic jealousy, he forever shifted the lens through which we see the tectonic shifts in our economy and society.

Even with the dot-com crash, 9/11 and Great Recession, the creative class is solidly part of mainstream thought. This cohort of highly educated people in technology, science, arts and culture, media, entertainment, and knowledge-based jobs in management, health care and law that are remaking our world. This realization that analytic and social skills are much more valuable than in the past.

Within the startup realm, there is a big difference between having an innovative product versus an innovative business. Some startups have a new technology, but stick to a tried-and-true business model. Others take an existing product, and give it new life with a creative business model. The most competitive startups do both, all the time and every time.

In today’s competitive world, with its accelerating rate of change, no competitive advantage lasts long. According to Josh Linkner, in his book “Disciplined Dreaming,” we have entered the Age of Creativity, in which each incremental gain is zeroed out as global competitors quickly copy and adapt. The only sustainable competitive advantage is creativity.

As more startups migrate their companies to the cloud, it can be difficult to gather the entire team for a productive collaboration session. Not only does everyone need to be in the same place at the same time, but they’ve got to come prepared with their creative juices, focused mindsets and positive attitudes.

However, with endless digital distractions that thrive in browser tabs and fit into the palms of our hands, keeping everyone on the same “page” isn’t easy. But regardless of whether your team members are working remotely or in the cubicles around you, a handful of online tools can ensure that your next brainstorming meeting will be full of fresh ideas and effective communication among your employees.

One of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies is “The 39S teps,” a 1935 spy thriller, based on the 1915 John Buchan novel of the same name, that takes the audience on a cross country chase from London to Scotland and back. While only briefly appearing, one of the key characters is Mr. Memory, a London music hall performer portrayed by Wylie Watson and depicted in the photo at the top of this page. As we learn with protagonist Richard Hannay only in the final scene,i Mr. Memory is the vehicle used to smuggle vital military secrets out of the country; in spite of their overwhelming intricacy, with skill he memorizes them down to the last detail. 

Download the PDF

One of the greatest challenges facing the EU is how best to design and adapt cities into smart intelligent and sustainable environments. Almost three quarters of Europeans live in cities, consuming 70% of the EU's energy. Congestion costs Europe about 1% of its GDP every year; most of it is located in urban areas. Smart urban technologies can make a major contribution to tackling many urban challenges. By launching a Smart Cities and Communities European Innovation Partnership (SCC) the European Commission aims to boost the development of smart technologies in cities – by pooling research resources from energy, transport and information and communication technologies (ICT) and concentrating them on a small number of demonstration projects which will be implemented in partnership with cities. For 2013 alone, € 365 million in EU funds have been earmarked for the demonstration of these types of urban technology solutions.

The lore is that news doesn’t really break at Allen and Co’s Sun Valley mogul retreat, but it definitely gets made. Everywhere you look there’s an interesting pairing of successful individuals hanging out, which is what you’d assume would happen at a convergence of hundreds of the most powerful media, entertainment and technology elite.

A conversation here can often turn into tomorrow’s front page headline or top Techmeme hit. From Sheryl and Sergey taking a stroll, to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie chilling post bar with Activision’s Bobby Kotick to Peter Thiel and Palantir’s Alex Karp grabbing a coffee between panels at the lodge, one finds themselves in a constant state of wanting to find out about what everyone’s talking about.

Email overload has become a hot topic lately. An average person now gets over 100 emails per day, and an average corporate employee over 200. Companies are looking for ways to replace email or just turn it off.

Google counted 24,000 mentions of “email overload” last year. Just within the last week there were 2,000. At this runrate, we should see over 100,000 mentions in the coming year – that’s a 5x growth in “email overload” buzz. (By the same methodology, mentions of “solar power” should decrease 3x next year).

Paul Graham, Pando Daily, and many others suggest email should be reinvented. They claim that the simple one-to-one communication protocol it was designed to be is no longer effective. MG Siegler, Nick Bilton and even some companies suggest quitting email entirely.

Women who want to lose weight should faithfully keep a food journal, and avoid skipping meals and eating in restaurants – especially at lunch – suggests new research from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The findings by Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues – from the first study to look at the impact of a wide range of self-monitoring and diet-related behaviors and meal patterns on weight change among overweight and obese postmenopausal women – are published online in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the Journal of the American Dietetic Association).

In the startup world, venture capital is often viewed as the penultimate goal, yet for many startups bootstrapping is often the reality. And self-financing puts the emphasis on business credit.

If you’re a small business owner, navigating the lending world today can feel like one big Catch-22 loop. Traditional lenders and commercial banks are typically reluctant to loosen their purse strings until you’ve proven yourself with a strong credit history. But that begs the question: how can you develop a good record when no one will lend to you in the first place?

Boredom is surprisingly stressful. And when we're busy, but still bored, it's even more so. How many of us feel this way? I do, and I suspect you might too.

By the looks of it, my own working life should actually be quite exciting. I travel twice a month to such exotic places as Kuala Lumpur, Doha, New York, and Helsinki to teach bright executives. I write books and articles, give interviews for newspapers and radio. I get to meet interesting people from society's upper echelons. I have been lucky enough to win some fairly prestigious awards. I get to spend months living full-time with teams of high performers in such unique environments as elite sports and war hospitals. I have more projects in the pipeline than I can shake a stick at. I am busy. And I am bored.

British Columbia is introducing a system of vouchers to help technology companies involve new recruits in research and development, Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell said Friday.

The $7-million "commercialization voucher program" is intended to give small and medium-sized companies access to funds - either $15,000 or $50,000 - they can use to offset some of the cost of hiring researchers to advance projects focusing on commercialization of technology products, services and processes.

Every incubator has a formula, and most of those formulas involve throwing “spaghetti” of some kind against the proverbial wall to find out what will stick.

Trouble is, most of the time, the entrepreneurs are the spaghetti themselves. And if they don’t “stick,” they’re tossed out in the snow.

But YouWeb has a very different approach, one that places a lot of value on the individual — not the team, not the idea, not the proto-company.

When I describe crowdfunding to my friends that aren’t totally tuned in to the business scene in Canada, I usually get two immediate reactions.

The first one is that it seems like a great idea; “Why not let startups try and raise money in small amounts using the reach of the Web, similar to charity or political fundraising campaigns?” The second one is surprise that it’s not currently legal to do so: “What do you mean a business can’t collect money from people willing to give it to them?”

Conference Call Information:
Toll Free Dial-In Number: 1-888-946-3511
Passcode: 14675
To register for the call, send an email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Deadline & More information:
The application deadline for cities wishing to be considered is July 23.
• More information about the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Visioning Challenge