Just as GE was launching its $200 million ecomagination technology challenge in July, preliminary results were also being released from the wide-ranging “GE Innovation Barometer” — an independent survey of 240 Brussels opinion leaders on innovation policies in the European Union. Today, the full results were published, coming at a time when the theme of innovation is a hotly debated topic across Europe as the EU has placed innovation at the core of its 2020 strategy and the European Commission’s much-anticipated Innovation Strategy report and action plans will soon be issued. Among the key themes that emerged from today’s report are the need to remove barriers to innovation; a call for more public-private partnerships; and a strong desire to develop policies that encourage more entrepreneurial risk-taking and venture capital investing. As one respondent said in the survey: “I see other countries like the United States as not so much having good policies on innovation but creating an environment that fosters an innovative spirit.” And as Nani Beccalli-Falco, President and CEO of GE International, succinctly said in the Barometer’s foreward: “We have a choice: to innovate or stagnate.”

Council chaired by Prime Minister to review progress of programmes implemented by the National Research Foundation and advise on the next phase of development.

The Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), chaired by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, will convene its 4th meeting in Singapore from 15 to 17 September 2010.

The theme of the 4th RIEC meeting is “Growing Singapore’s Economy through Research, Innovation and Enterprise.” The RIEC will review the progress of the range of initiatives implemented by the National Research Foundation (NRF) since the set up of the RIEC and NRF in 2006.

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? I have heard far too many answers to this question. Everything from being a risk taker, inventor, a small business owner, to being just plain crazy or lucky. But none of these things have anything to do with entrepreneurialism, and frankly neither does much of what I have read in business books. Even the always insightful Malcolm Gladwell, in a recent New Yorker article on the subject, only got it half right.

Being an entrepreneur is something far different than what most people think. It is not about behavior (whether risk-prone or risk-averse); it is not about business type (you can run a small business, a public company, a division of a company, or be an investor); and it is not about title (you do not have to be a CEO to be an entrepreneur). Instead, I see it as a personality trait. There are plenty of small business owners and start-up founders who do exceptionally well — but are not what I would consider entrepreneurs. Just like in big business, you can be a successful general manager without being an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial.

Consumers are flocking to smartphones and the downloadable software that runs on them as fervently as mobile-technology investors had hoped. But so far, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android users have shown a preference for applications that extend well-known Web properties, rather than apps that have appeared for mobile devices only.

Associated Press
Mobile application Shopkick, which allows consumers to check in with retail stores for coupons

In a recent report by The Pew Research Center and Nielsen Co., the most popular apps on all platforms are those made by Facebook Inc., the Weather Channel, Google Maps and Pandora Inc. – all mobile versions of well-traveled Web services and sites.

I had coffee with an ex student earlier in the week that reminded me how startups burn through so many early VP’s – but still have a hard time articulating why. Here’s one possible explanation – Job titles in a startup mean something different than titles in a large company.

I hadn’t seen Rajiv in the two years since he started his second company. He had raised a seed round and then a Series A from a name brand Venture firm. I was glad to see him but it was clear over coffee that he was struggling with his first hiring failure.

“I’ve been running our company, cycling through Customer Discovery and Validation and the board suggested that I was running out of bandwidth and needed some help in closing our initial orders. They suggested I get a VP of Sales to help.”

Yep. I’m going there again.

When I looked at the “Summer Davos” program, the panel I was most excited to attend was about the role of women in Asian workforces. The role of women in China is fascinating: Despite real problems of gender equality issues—not to mention the role karaoke bars play in business negotiations – women have also helped power China’s rise, migrating en masse to factories and aggressively learning new skills to climb their own socio-economic ladders.

And new research by the World Economic Forum shows that for the first time women and men are entering college at the same rate in China. And while only 20% of leadership roles in China are held by women, it does better than many Asian neighbors. In terms of professional equality, Japan lags far behind and India ranks as one of the worst. I was fascinated to talk about these differences, hoping maybe there was some sort of gender-equivalent of the “greenfield advantages” emerging markets face over the developed world.

I am often asked if I have found a secret - or at least a consistent answer - to successfully building businesses over my career.

So I’ve spent some time thinking about what characterizes so many of Virgin’s successful ventures and, importantly, what went wrong when we did not get it right. Reflecting across 40 years I have come up with five “secrets.”

No. 1: Enjoy What You Are Doing.
Because starting a business is a huge amount of hard work, requiring a great deal of time, you had better enjoy it. When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills.

In the beginning all businesses are just people playing out an idea. It’s never the other way around – there is no idea so big that it doesn’t need people to make it succeed.

Investors know this, hence the saying “Bet on the jockey, not the horse.” A great jockey is a great role model.

Like it or not, everyone looks to the entrepreneur as the jockey role model in a new business. Typically this energizes new startup founders, but some struggle trying to live up to their own, as well as everyone else’s expectations. In reality, nobody really expects anyone to be superhuman, but it can feel like that.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and KANSAS CITY, MO--(Marketwire - September 15, 2010) - Astia, a premier business accelerator that works with women-led start-ups, today announced it has received a $500,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The grant represents a commitment from both organizations to strategically work together to advance the participation of women in high-growth entrepreneurship.

The Kauffman Foundation is the world's largest foundation promoting entrepreneurship. Its research, expertise and programs provide critical support to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

"Entrepreneurs are arguably the most important actors in our economy: the creators of new wealth and new jobs, the inventors of new products and services, and the revolutionizers of society and the economy," said Lesa Mitchell, vice president of advancing innovation at the Kauffman Foundation. "Our commitment to Astia is to ensure that women are encouraged to participate in entrepreneurial endeavors and given the tools to succeed, which is essential to our national economy."

Small businesses with more than 12 or 20 employees have a big opportunity when it comes to sustainability: They can tap their employees’ expertise to find new and better strategies for going green.

A so-called “green team” is a committee of employees that meets regularly, typically during work hours, to help their employer bolster sustainability. The idea is that mobilizing employees around sustainability will not only spawn new strategies but also bolster employee buy-in.

Yet, green teams will fizzle or fall apart if they aren’t carefully implemented. Here are some ways small business leaders can ensure their green teams are effective.

Plenty of colleges offer cyclists places to lock up their bikes. But an institution will need to do more than buy a few bike racks to qualify as a "Bicycle Friendly University" under a program being unveiled this week by the League of American Bicyclists.

The program is designed to help institutions develop holistic policies on biking. A 90-question application requires colleges to assess how much support they offer cyclists—for instance, by providing bike maps of the campus and including information on cycling in freshman orientation.

Applying for a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum designation through the Bicycle Friendly University program will be "an education in itself," says Bill Nesper, director of the league's Bicycle Friendly America program. The campus program aims to encourage colleges to evaluate how useful on-campus bike paths can be, whether university parking policies and fees encourage or discourage cycling as an alternative to commuting by car, and how serious campus police are about bike theft and safe cycling.

Corporate venture capitalists often invest in start-up companies to identify the right businesses to purchase later. In fact, according to David Benson of Brigham Young University and Rosemarie Ziedonis of the University of Oregon, 20 percent of acquisitions made by the companies with the largest corporate venture capital operations were in businesses that their venture capital arms had previously invested.

Benson and Ziedonis find a surprising pattern in these purchases. In a forthcoming article in Journal of Financial Economics, they report that when companies purchased startups in their venture capital portfolios, shareholder value was typically reduced by $63 million.

This didn’t happen when the companies bought businesses in which they had not invested. In these acquisitions, shareholder value typically increased by $8.5 million.

Everyone has heard about the entrepreneurs who got started in a garage. Well, N.C. State University is looking forward to the day when people are buzzing about the cool new venture that got started in The Garage.

The Garage, you see, is a new 2,000-square-foot incubator space for student entrepreneurs outfitted for the university by Linux software company Red Hat.

The Garage's eight rooms include three lab spaces - mechanical, electrical and woodworking - for creating prototypes. To foster collaboration, most of the rooms are covered with whiteboards, and there are also three Smart Boards, which essentially are electronic whiteboards. And don't forget the kitchenette.

According to cognitive psychologist Robert J. Sternberg, creativity can be broadly defined as "...the process of producing something that is both original and worthwhile" (2003). Creativity is all about finding new ways of solving problems and approaching situations. This isn't a skill restricted to artists, musicians or writers; it is a useful skill for people from all walks of life. If you've ever wanted to boost your creativity, these tips can help.

1. Commit Yourself to Developing Your Creativity
The first step is to fully devote yourself to developing your creative abilities. Do not put off your efforts. Set goals, enlist the help of others and put time aside each day to develop your skills.

2. Become an Expert
One of the best ways to develop creativity is to become an expert in that area. By having a rich understanding of the topic, you will be better able to think of novel or innovative solutions to problems.

3. Reward Your Curiosity
One common roadblock to developing creativity is the sense that curiosity is an indulgence. Rather than reprimanding yourself, reward yourself when you are curious about something. Give yourself the opportunity to explore new topics.

The venture capital industry is widely expected to contract over the next few years, as limited partners grow increasingly impatient with under-performing firms.

But before you put a fork in the industry, it’s worth noting that a number of new venture firms are popping up across the nation. Since the start of 2009, we’ve counted more than a dozen first-time funds - impressive feats considering that even established managers are having trouble raising new capital.

What do these new funds have in common? Nearly all of them are entirely focused on the earlier stages, helping young start-ups get off the ground.

ABSTRACT The influence of globalization on institutions of higher education is one of the leading topics in educational policy today. As the nexus of innovation increasingly moves from labor-intensive ‘smokestack industries’ to ‘mind work’, education is becoming critical to policy discussions on economic growth. Tracing current discourse on the ‘corporatization’ of higher education, this article suggests that the challenge for reconceptualizing the university today is linked to changes in the global economy. Alongside discourse on a global knowledge economy, many scholars now point to the increasing importance of creativity and a creative economy. Examining higher education from the perspective of a creative economy, the author explores the need to better understand the linkages between democracy and innovation.

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Happy days are here again!

Happy days, that is, for the shareholders of companies that suddenly find themselves the beneficiaries of huge takeover offers. Or, better yet, bidding wars.

(Just ask the shareholders of 3PAR, which recently got nearly double the original price because HP and Dell got in a macho-man contest about who could pay more.).

HP for ArcSight, HP/Dell for 3PAR, Intel for McAfee, HP for PALM, BHP for Potash...the deals are coming fast and furious now. And there are more where those came from.

Approaching the venture capital community with the hopes of getting funding can be daunting. However, understanding where you are in the cycle can help prepare you for what to say – and more importantly, what VC’s want to hear to feel confident in their investment.

Having helped build four companies from ground up with two going on to IPO, I have had my fair share of VC engagement and have gleaned a few take-aways that entrepreneurs should focus on when engaging with VCs throughout the early life of a new business.

The Trunk Club is an Oregon-based startup that offers men a female personal shopper via Skype video. Shoppers consult with men online to determine their fashion requirements, then FedEx them a set of clothes for free. TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld describes the service:

Once a man (the service is only for men) gets his “trunk” of clothes, he tries them on via another Skype session,  gives his feedback to his personal shopper, and then decides which ones to keep. He can return any or all of the clothes at no expense to him. He only pays for what he keeps.