The introductory section of KPMG’s Doing Business in Russia report focuses on Russia’s investment climate and sets the tone for those who wish to do business there. This section also provides insight for those not familiar with the country and its recent developments on the innovation and modernization front while offering tips to those who seek to live and work in the country.

An introduction the Russian economy today

Property Magazine International recently reported that Russia’s economy continued to recover in the first half of 2011. This falls in line with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov’s expectation for the GDP growth to reach pre-crisis levels by 2012, as noted in KPMG’s report.

Every time I hear about a new startup that is in stealth mode, I wonder what problem they are hiding from whom. Of course they pretend that they are trying to avoid alerting competitors prior to launch, but too often it becomes an excuse to move slowly in a world that’s all about getting to market fast.

I believe stealth makes sense for large companies who can be sued for “pre-announcing” a new product to stall the market or kill a competitor. It also makes legal sense to never disclose the details of your patent application, before the product is ready to ship. But otherwise, startup companies should seek out publicity and the open sharing of information, from day one.

If you caught yesterday’s post, you know that your small business needs a website. If you missed it, well, maybe go give it a read now. Because it’s the truth. Your website is how your business will be able to build a presence, a brand and authority online. It’s also how you ensure that you’re getting in front of your target audience instead of hiding from them in a sea of obscurity.

Or at least it is if you design your site correctly.

While there’s a lot that can be said about how to design a business website, I thought I’d focus on some best practices for one of the most important pages on your site – your business home page.

THE motto of the Starfleet Academy, the nursery of future leaders and humanitarians in the fictional universe of Star Trek, was "Ex astris, scientia". Peter Diamandis, a billionaire who set up the X-Prize Foundation to spur innovators into tackling grand technological challenges, has turned the credo around. He wants to use knowledge to reach for the stars—both literally, by promoting private human spaceflight, a cause particularly dear to Mr Diamandis, and figuratively. Together with fellow techno-utopian Ray Kurzweil, he created what he calls “a Starfleet Academy for the world's biggest challenges”.

Last November 9 at 2 a.m., I received a phone call from a hospital in Southern California. "Your mother needs an emergency operation," said the voice on the line. "Your father had chest pain while at her bedside and both are in ICUs. We have no idea what medications they take, what allergies they have, or what problems they have been treated for. Can you help?"

This is medicine today. A sea of paper and fax machines, information silos, privacy barriers, and unconnected data. And yet, we know the public is ready for a better system. According to a 2010 Harris Poll, four in five Americans believe any doctor treating them should have instant access to their medical record online.

A new California law that comes before Governor Jerry Brown today could make it easier than ever to combine business with social mission, a welcome respite for those seeking to harness the engines of capitalism in the service of good deeds.

While growing ranks of entrepreneurs are combining business and social missions—think Toms Shoes or Method cleaning products—current law makes it difficult for them to raise money and control their enterprises.

That’s changing around the country, and California could be the next frontier, if advocates of social business ranging from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group to apparel giant Patagonia have their way and create a new legal category for what they call Benefit Corporations.

A new way to harvest footfall energy could someday let shoes generate enough power to keep cell phones and laptops topped up.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have come up with a microfluidics technique that scavenges considerably more energy from human footfalls and converts it into electric power. Previous attempts to make energy-harvesting shoes have yielded less than a watt of power, but the new approach could lead to a shoe-mounted generator that produces up to 10 watts, says Tom Krupenkin, a mechanical engineering professor who led the work.

The characteristics listed below are adapted from a blog post by Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter title Five Powers that Get Ideas off the Ground (thanks to Judith Clegg for the pointer).  Lists of characteristics like this are useful as reminders of how we should behave and to provide frameworks for self analysis and coaching of others, but they are not exhaustive or prescriptive.  There is no shortage of advice floating around these days, including on this blog, and as I’ve been assimilating and dispensing it all over my eleven years in this industry I’ve come to the conclusion that the best approach is to develop a framework for pretty much everything that is important to your line of work and then use that as the basis against which to analyse new advice.  Some of it should be rejected, and some of it should cause subtle adjustments to your framework and then occasionally there may be a radical adjustment to the framework, but beware of those.  A lot of this process will be subliminal and the more experienced and successful you get the less you should be expecting to adjust your framework.

The founders of Internet startup Airbnb were accustomed to rejection. Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk peddled to venture capitalists their idea for using the Internet to help people rent out a room, or even a couch, to frugal travelers. All of the venture capitalists took a pass. But after receiving funding as well as mentoring from incubator Y Combinator in 2009, the startup exploded. Airbnb -- the name was originally Airbed and Breakfast in a reference to the use of airbeds for guests -- has listings in 16,000 cities around the world and has booked more than two million nights.

What those early VCs missed was a burgeoning trend in what is now called "collaborative consumption." At the core of this trend is the idea that technologies like the Internet and smartphones can help consumers monetize assets that they own -- their home or car, for example -- in ways that were previously difficult or downright impossible. "There are two forces converging," says Wharton marketing professor David Bell. "First is the notion that it might be better to have access to something than to own it outright. And the second is the realization that people have slack resources. So that car you own may sit idle for 22 hours a day. The grease that makes the whole thing work is social media and technology, like iPhone applications that can create markets that didn't exist before."

Four entrepreneurs teamed up with Stanford, Berkeley and tech influencers to learn why startups fail.  They studied 3,200 startups and came away with a 67-page Startup Genome Report. In 90% of failed startup cases, 70% failed because they scaled prematurely. "Startups need 2-3 times longer to validate their market than most founders expect. This underestimation creates the pressure to scale prematurely," a lead researcher tells TechCrunch.

If you want proof that the immediate rewards of the MBA degree have declined, look no further than the past ten years. From 2001 to 2010, the costs of getting the degree have significantly outpaced starting pay at every one of the top 20 U.S. business schools.

An analysis by Poets&Quants of school estimates of the cost of attending a two-year program and median starting salaries of new MBA grads show that large amounts of value have eroded from certain programs. The analysis did not take into account the fellowship grants that would reduce the costs of getting a degree.

When Oklahoma received approval for $13.2 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) funds, we announced three new funds. Each fund is designed to address the capital needs of entrepreneurial companies at various stages of innovation and growth.

StartOK Accelerator Fund creates funding opportunities for companies that are in the early stages of bringing products to market. GrowOK Fund targets later stage companies that need capital to expand.

The third fund is the OKAngel Sidecar Fund.

As its name suggests, a sidecar is capital that “rides” alongside the capital invested by angel groups and angel investors.

The executive director of Mississauga's Research, Innovation, Commercialization (RIC) Centre is lauding a report that calls for, among other things, the establishment of a leadership group to strengthen innovation in the city. The report, entitled An Action Plan for Innovation in Mississauga, contains 10 key recommendations. Four were ranked as the top priorities, while five ranked second and one third. The first recommendation calls for establishing a Mississauga Innovation Leadership Alliance (MILA) comprised of "leaders from the private sector, post-secondary institutions and the City that can provide strategic direction, support and commitment to overseeing initiatives designed to strengthen the innovation economy in Mississauga."

Since it began, Kickstarter* has been home to musicians and film makers looking to fund their projects. It has now become a hotbed of innovation as designers, inventors and entrepreneurs tap into the vast “crowdfunding” community to realise their ideas.

The concept of crowdfunding is simple: If lots of people chip in, a project can raise the funds it needs to go ahead. It’s an idea that has seen considerable success in music and film, possibly because such artistes often have a close relationship with their fans. Independently-minded musicians such as Ani DiFranco, for example, have been building direct relationships with fans for years.

All things end – some happily, some less so. That’s especially true in the startup world. Preparing for the possible sale of your startup’s intellectual property early on might seem ridiculous, but it’s the best way to obtain the full value of your investment. It not only gives you time to create something of value, it also lets you address any weaknesses before reaching out to prospective buyers.

Step one: Take stock of what you’ve got. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your portfolio. Address any weaknesses by seeking a certificate of correction for minor errors, or by requesting reissue or reexamination of those patents.

CNBC reports the information technology (IT) sector is “where the jobs are.” And the Los Angeles Times writes that tech jobs in San Francisco are a “rare bright spot in the nation’s troubled economy.”

EMSI’s most current data, however, paints a slightly less rosy picture.

It’s clear that IT and tech jobs have mostly bounced back since the recession (or barely saw employment dips in the first place). But not every tech-related profession is faring well; jobs in computer programming, for example, have failed to reach pre-2008 levels.

There’s no shortage of articles that examine the qualities of a successful entrepreneur. But after working with countless entrepreneurs and business owners over the years, I have a slightly different take. Succeeding as an entrepreneur is more than just great ideas and execution. You’ll also need to develop the personality traits that will anchor you and keep you sane amid a hectic lifestyle. After all, your happiness is a top priority, right?

Before you make a big change and quit your nine-to-five, conduct a careful self-assessment. Do you feel you have these qualities?

Can work without a playbook. When you run your own business, you call the shots. This can be both a blessing and a curse. To thrive in this environment, you’ll need to feel comfortable navigating some uncharted (and often rocky) waters without guidance. If these aren’t your strengths right now, know that you’ll need to learn them pretty fast.

Utah made headlines by generating more startups in 2009 than MIT on ¼ of their budget. Interest and activity in university spinoffs continues to grow. A number of new initiatives have launched recently to promote the commercialization of university technology and more specifically the development of startup companies.

Texas is a building a $7 million, 20,000SF accelerator facility, the Center for Research Commercialization. The CRC will provide green and biotech startups with access to Texas State faculty and labs.

Streetline Inc. has been selling its parking-sensor technology for only a year and it has just 30 employees, but International Business Machines Corp. is depending on it and hundreds of young start-ups like it to reach ambitious financial targets.

A parking-guide application from Streetline, one of several young start-ups leveraging relationships with IBM. By 2015, IBM expects to add about $30 billion to its 2010 revenue of $99.9 billion, a challenging goal considering it grew its annual sales by around $10 billion over the past decade.

To get there it is relying on relationships with venture capitalists and start-ups to find promising technologies within four growth areas: emerging markets, business analytics, cloud computing and what IBM calls “smarter planet,” which focuses on using digital intelligence to make processes like city traffic run efficiently. Some of these partnerships will eventually turn into acquisitions.