Fostering innovation-led clusters

Excellent research and findings from the Economist Intelligence Unit, "Fostering innovation-led clusters; A review of leading global practices" here.  The research and approach are documented here.  Some of the key findings are:

• Government has a crucial role to play; so does the market.
• Clusters are about collaboration, not just locating firms in the same place.
• Talent is the single most important factor in developing successful clusters.
• Governments need to work to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Clusters work best when they are focused and can compete.
• Governments can do much to create an attractive business environment—and a good place to live.
• A strong local market will help attract R&D investment, but is not crucial for global success.

(Note: non-subscribers will have to purchase the report)

Venture Capital and It's Poor Future

From the Wall Street Journal, "Facing Up to Venture Capital's Slow Future" here.  Finally, the newspaper has got it right.

Thinking Next to the Box

Wall Street Journal talks about "Embodied Metaphors and Creative 'Acts,'" a forth coming book on Psychological Science by Angela Leung and six other authors.

"Just how potent is the metaphor "thinking outside the box"? Researchers built a 5-by-5-by-5-foot box to find out. 

"People pondering creative puzzles while being allowed to depart whenever they wished from a rectangular path had more creative answers than those hewing to the path or seated."

Test subjects were given a 10-question word-association test often used to measure one kind of creativity (sample item: What one word links "measure," "worm," "video"?). As they answered, participants sat inside or outside the box or sat in a room sans box.

People sitting outside the box answered more questions correctly than either of the other two groups (and the difference couldn't be explained by claustrophobia or confusion, both of which were measured). Creativity seemed to be spurred by acting out a familiar figure of speech, the researchers said.

In a variation, people pondering creative puzzles while being allowed to depart whenever they wished from a rectangular path had more creative answers than those hewing to the path or seated."

Procter & Gamble - Sorry, No Storm Clouds

I have had a great opportunity to work with multiple Global Fortune 100 companies.  A recent article about one of them, Procter & Gamble, in Wall Street Journal "Storm Clouds Loom on P&G's Horizon" here, put a smile on my face.

Of all the multinationals, P&G is one that has no "storm clouds" to worry about.  Having led innovation at P&G for five years, I know for a fact that the core of the company (product lines, R&D, and enabling organizations), its bank balance, its employees and values, yet most importantly, its leadership simply have shown again and again over the last 150 years that - it is not a survivor, it is simply a leader among CPG.

Solar Panels From Agriculture Waste

From Popular Science:

"His chemical cocktail extracts the photosynthesizing molecules from plant matter--including chlorophyll--and stabilizes them such that they can be spread on a glass substrate. Said substrate is coated in nanowires and titanium dioxide 'sponges' that help convert photons to electrons and then ferry those electrons away as current."

See the complete article here.