Microsoft was working on e-books and tablet PCs a decade ago. So why did it never get around to releasing them? Why, with so many intelligent and talented employees, is it falling behind Apple in innovation? Dick Brass, who was a Microsoft vice president for seven years, explains how Microsoft’s lack of systems that support innovation lead to risk-avoidance and internal struggles that crush great ideas before they ever make it into the marketplace.
The boy who harnessed the wind — a 14-year old who decides to design and build a windmill to bring electricity to his remote village in Malawi. A deeply human story of initiative, ingenuity, and independence.
An article by Vivek Wadhwa at TechCrunch explains why “VCs follow innovation, they don’t lead.”
The National Venture Capital Association claims in their Venture Impact report that companies like Microsoft and Google “…would not exist today without the funding and guidance provided during their early stages by venture capitalists.”
But what about the entrepreneurs who, as Wadhwa puts it, “risk their life savings, max out their credit cards and put their families in the back seat?”
CEE has moved into the new world of social networking, now having Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship: Website: http://www.ethicsandentrepreneurship.org/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/pages/Rockford-IL/Center-for-Ethics-and-Entrepreneurship/33385773294 Twitter: RC_CEE
Department of Philosophy, Rockford College: Website: http://www.rockford.edu/?page=Philosophy Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockford-IL/Rockford-College-Philosophy-Department/120214339280 Twitter: RCPhil
(Thanks to Anja Hartleb-Parson and Shawn Klein for activating these features.)
Barry Linetsky, consulting partner at The Strategic Planning Group, discusses Walt Disney’s principles of achieving business success in this short essay (PDF).
Entrepreneurship and finding your passion in life sometimes happens from being inspired by great achievements by others. So check out this series of great science, engineering, and technology stories.
Small Business Trends contributor Jim Krukral has a nice short video on how to use the microblogging platform Twitter to promote your business. Krukral also offers a free toolkit for making high quality web videos.
A must watch: Using awesome images and video, Charles Elachi, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, recounts stories from NASA’s Mars Rover project.
Business Week has launched its own social networking site called Business Exchange. The site is still in beta but definitely worth checking out. Business Exchange “allows users to create business topics, collaboratively aggregate content from the entire Web and connect with other business focused users around these topics.”
The New York Times Education Supplement reports on 23 Student Innovations. Among them, Cooliris, a browser extension that transforms your browser into a 3D wall for viewing images and videos on the web; a walking device for patients in intensive care; and The Next Big Sound, a website where users can vote on upcoming music artists.
Microsoft was working on e-books and tablet PCs a decade ago. So why did it never get around to releasing them? Why, with so many intelligent and talented employees, is it falling behind Apple in innovation? Dick Brass, who was a Microsoft vice president for seven years, explains how Microsoft’s lack of systems that support innovation lead to risk-avoidance and internal struggles that crush great ideas before they ever make it into the marketplace.
