For the second year in a row, Texas metropolitan areas dominated the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index, with the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area at No. 1. A business-friendly climate, a vibrant tech industry, and little exposure to the housing bubble and the financial services industry helped keep Texas cities and many of their peers on stable ground during the economic downturn.

The 2010 top performers (with 2009 rankings) among the 200 largest metros are:

• Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX (2)
• Austin-Round Rock, TX (1)
• Huntsville, AL (8)
• McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (4)
• Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, WA (n.a.)
• Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (25)
• Raleigh-Cary, NC (10)
• Anchorage, AK (40)
• El Paso, TX (14)
• Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (5)

Download the Report

PARIS — Welcome to France! As my train emerged from the tunnel linking Britain to the European continent, the announcement came: “As a result of a general strike, certain rail and other services will be disrupted.”

Labor unions are mobilized, high school kids are out in force, oil refineries are struggling and more than one million people have taken to the streets as France rises to confront the government’s decision to lift the retirement age to 62 from 60. Yes, you read that right: to 62 (and gradually at that.)

The movement amounts to the broadest social challenge faced by the center-right government of President Nicolas Sarkozy. It comes as European governments from Britain to Spain — and even the lost socialist paradise of Sweden — struggle to refashion cradle-to-grave welfare systems undone by a double whammy: aging baby boomers and plunging post-crash tax revenues.

The U.S. Army is testing a prototype "watch" that's lightweight and thin and has a full-color display. This display is built on flexible materials encased in a rugged plastic case and can be worn on a wristband to display streaming video and other information. It uses newly developed phosphorescent materials that are efficient at converting electricity into red, blue, and green light, which means the display needs less power to work.

Most phones, laptops, and TVs today use liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) controlled by electronics built on glass. To make more energy-efficient displays that are controlled by flexible electronics, which are lightweight and won't shatter like glass, many companies are turning to organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The pixels in OLED displays replace the layers of electronics and filters in LCDs with organic dye molecules that emit light in response to electrical current.

Our culture organizes itself around winners and losers. Corporations reflect this competitive nature to the core of their Capitalist doctrine. Sports analogies abound across the enterprise straight through to the HR department always on the lookout for the most amount of superstar for the least amount of money.

Social media has every industry trying to understand the concept of community. Nature and our environment continues to demonstrate to humanity that there is far more cooperation going on than competition. There is tragedy looming at both ends of our political spectrum and some people are realizing that we are all in this together.

This new report brings a fresh and needed perspective about global economic competition. Innovation has become a kind of Holy Grail in 21st century economic competition and countries are adopting a range of policies to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies and innovations. Those policies can vary widely. The best of these policies help a given country and benefit the global economy as a whole while others are more designed like a zero sum game. Still others are short-sighted and end up hurting the very country seeking dominance. "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (and the Self-destructive): A Policymaker's Guide to Creating Effective Innovation Policy," breaks new ground in examining countries' innovation policies and lays out recommendations to discourage neo-mercantilism and to promote beneficial competition.

Read the report.

The French Consulate in Boston is pleased to announce the launching of the French American Innovation Day (FAID) website, which is a flagship annual seminar supported by the French Embassy's Office for Science and Technology.

The 2010 edition will address major public health issues as well as the devastating neurodegenerative disorder, Alzheimer's disease.

Moderated by two outstanding scientific directors, Prof. John H. Growdon (MGH/Harvard, U.S.A.) and Prof. Philippe Amouyel (Pasteur Institute of Lille , France), the seminar comprises 6 interactive sessions which will explore the latest research and innovative therapeutic strategies.

The 2010 FAID will gather the most prominent experts from France and United States who are specialized in Alzheimer's disease.
The seminar is free but seats are limited. Register now !

(poetsandquants.com) -- When you think of the world's best business schools, you inevitably think of two great rivals: Harvard and Stanford.

For decades, Harvard has long been known as the West Point of Capitalism, the breeding ground of the corporate elite, while Stanford has smartly used its Palo Alto location to serve as a highly productive incubator for Silicon Valley.

Harvard is hoping to change that simplified view.

"There is a great myth about some other institutions and the degree to which they represent entrepreneurship," says William A. Sahlman, who teaches entrepreneurial finance at Harvard. "It's total fiction. We have a higher proportion of our faculty and a higher number teaching entrepreneurship than other schools have faculty."

Don’t get so busy with the day-to-day hustle in your business that you forget to focus your marketing activities on keeping your pipeline filled. To help you reach your monthly sales goals, I have created a list of 7 marketing techniques you should revisit in the fourth quarter of each year. They are designed to ensure that you focus on revenue-generating activities in your small business.

Securing intellectual property, networking and finding funding are pivotal for an entrepreneur, but it is the extra amenities that can take a new company to the next level, says a Purdue Research Park official.

Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation, published the article "Entrepreneurial Success" in the International Economic Development Council Journal. Research shows that startups can have a greater success rate if they are based in a site that provides amenities such as shared business centers, business diagnostic programs, venture capital opportunities, human resources, and marketing and communications assistance.

"The tangibles such as business plan, patents and funding are important, but we've found that companies that have strong business support in place have a greater chance for long-term success," Hornett said.

“The only team I’ve seen that did things differently was Holland at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. Since then everything looks more or less the same to me…. Their ‘carousel’ style of play was amazing to watch and marvellous for the game.”

The words are those of Carlos Alberto, captain of Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning team, and they come from an interview published in the 50th anniversary issue of World Soccer magazine. The former Santos right-back is one of a number of greats - including Pelé, Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona – to have granted interviews to the magazine about the changes in the game over the last 50 years and their answers repeatedly return to the same complaints: that in becoming faster and more athletic, football has lost some of the artistry that was once central to its raison d’être.

This chart from a recent GP Bullhound presentation augurs well for those of us working in/with technology startups. It shows that the number of tech M&A deals has been steadily increasing since a low point in Q3 2009. Note also that digital media exits have steadily increased throughout the period shown.

It was a big news day out of Harvard Business School Thursday. Hot on the heels of the announcement of  Tata’s $50 million gift to fund a new building on the campus, Harvard also heralded the launch of the first lab for innovation and entrepreneurship funded and developed by the Business School.

With the goal of spurring innovative ventures across the university, at Harvard Business School, and in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood, the Harvard Innovation Lab will open in the 2011 fall semester.

“For the University as well as for the economy and our nation, the importance of innovation cannot be overstated,” says Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust when announcing the launch. “It is also of utmost importance and great interest to our students and faculty, many of whom are inventors and entrepreneurs. This lab will foster team-based activities and deepen interactions among both aspiring and experienced innovators across the schools of Harvard.”

One of the joys of the startup world is the freedom from the trappings of the corporate grind. But Amit Chatterjee, CEO and founder of Hara, a provider of environmental and energy management solutions, says there’s actually a benefit to working in a larger company in this entrepreneur thought leader lecture given at Stanford University. Putting in time at a big company – or more than one – gives you valuable experience in strategic and critical thinking at a time when you’re not personally responsible for the financial risk.

Three months ago, things were looking up for startups seeking venture capital. Now it seems that optimism was misplaced, according to the latest Moneytree Report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

Venture funding has followed an unsteady path to recovery since the economy collapsed at the end of 2008. Venture rounds plummeted at the beginning of 2009, and though they’ve been climbing since then, the climb hasn’t been consistent. Investments fell in the first quarter of 2010, rose dramatically in Q2, and now they’ve fallen again.

So here’s the big number: During Q3 (July to September), venture firms invested a total of $4.8 billion in 780 deals, according to the report. That’s a 31 percent drop from the $6.9 million invested in Q2, and it didn’t even match the $5.8 billion invested during Q3 of 2009.

When a start-up needs to raise venture capital, the chief executive usually handles the fund-raising process of pitching the business to investors.

But for clean-technology companies that require massive amounts of capital to challenge huge incumbents in energy and fuel supply, fund-raising is often a constant effort that involves a number of potential investment partners, especially corporate and government players. It can be so time-consuming and cumbersome that these companies should consider hiring a special executive solely to handle the fund-raising, said Marc van den Berg, managing director at VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Montgomery County now has a one-stop center to help entrepreneurs and researchers turn their ideas and inventions into commercial products.

The Welcome Center for Federal and Academic Technology Transfer, housed at the Shady Grove Innovation Center in Rockville, features an interactive portal to access services and resources available locally. There are brochures and other materials on technology transfer from the county's 19 federal labs.

This week, the center kicked off a speaker series, coordinated by the county's Department of Economic Development, planned for the second Wednesday of each month. Ali Andalibi, a program director with the National Cancer Institute's Small Business Innovation Research Development Center, spoke Wednesday about NCI's latest efforts with the SBIR program.

I have just arrived in Abu Dhabi and have been at the Emirates-Aspen Innovation Summit. It has inspired me, and left me persuaded that what they are doing is incredibly important.

Essentially, the Emirate has recognized that innovation does not translate into economic growth on its own. Government helps. They want to grow, and they have taken it upon themselves to learn the alchemy of policy, institutions, and governmental support which will keep them growing. The initiative is the brainchild of Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates' Ambassador to the United States, a brilliant Georgetown University graduate who has a clear vision of where his country should be going.