Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

Economist Intelligence Unit Research on Innovation Clusters

in entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership, Podcast

the success factors of innovation clusters

Why does Silicon Valley sustain innovation? What distinct behaviors drive that?

While it’s wrong to want to create ones own Silicon Valley, all innovation ecosystems share common traits.

On this episode of the Big Bang podcast I interview Adam Green, senior editor in the Thought Leadership department at the Economist Intelligence Unit, sister company to The Economist newspaper, on innovation clusters.

Adam is the lead researcher for the Economist Intelligence Unit research on innovation clusters. The report info graphics and short documentary explore innovation clusters globally, discusses their key success factors, and looks at how they change over their life cycle. We have looked at examples from Bangalore, London, Boulder, Singapore and Estonia, with interviewees from the likes of Imperial College, the London School of Economics and techUK. We’ve been particularly interested to show how innovation clusters themselves evolve, and the challenges that success can bring.

Below are some questions we discussed:

  • What is one trait that determines success of an entrepreneurial ecosystem?
  • What are the critical components of an innovation ecosystem?
  • What is the key component to start with if no other components are present?
  • What cultural characteristics are necessary for an innovation ecosystem to function?
  • What evidence, individual and/or organizational, will tell us that this culture is developing?
  • How can we adjust and improve an innovation ecosystem to increase its effectiveness?
  • How do innovation clusters change over time?

It was an insightful conversation, and hope you find it useful.

Let us know what you think on Twitter @jorgebarba and @adrianpedrin.

Watch the live recording:


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Intro audio is by Arturo Arriaga, outro audio is Candyland by Guy J.

Are all problems worth fixing?

in Innovation

I admit that I’m of the particular mindset of looking out into the world and find flaws— glitches in the system— and construct logical paths in my mind to fix them.

And, if I can start crafting a solution with a blank slate the better. Who doesn’t like thinking about what’s possible!

But, are all problems worth fixing?…

Ideas that must die Pt.1

in entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership, Podcast

all good ideas must die

So far, in this podcast, we’ve discussed the possibilities of ideas that if created would improve the world. On this episode we flip the script, rather than asking if a new idea is a good one, we ask whether it’d be better if some of the ideas we cling to were killed off.

All good ideas must die (so that great ideas might live). With that said, similar to how you kill stupid rules to innovate, what ideas, if eliminated, would improve our life?…

What your startup makes should give your customer superpowers

in entrepreneurship, Innovation, Marketing

One of the hardest things to do when defining what your business does is explaining it in the simplest of terms; the key challenge is distinguishing between features and benefits. The reason that this is so vitally important is that, in the words of User Onboarding: “People don’t buy products; they buy better versions of themselves.”…

What the leader of the future looks like

in entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership

the future organizationThe leader of the future is very different than the one we are used to talking about. How so? Consider three things:

  1. The digitization of the enterprise;
  2. Women are leaving the workforce in droves to start their own businesses;
  3. Millennials have replaced boomers as the largest segment of the workforce.

…

One trait that determines success of your entrepreneurial ecosystem

in entrepreneurship, Innovation

pay it forwardThough most everyone agrees on what the basic components of an entrepreneurial ecosystem are, it is a myth that simply having those components will result in game-changing innovation.

For example, think about Silicon Valley, the use case for all innovation ecosystems; why and how does it sustain innovation? Sure, culture is one component. But, what distinct behaviors drive that? I believe the most important one is a “paying it forward” attitude. …

Timing: The single biggest reason why startups succeed

in entrepreneurship, Innovation

Why do startups like AirBnB, Uber, Space X succeed while other fail? Is it the team? Funding? Timing? Idea? Business model?

You, and most people, will think it’s all about the idea, the team and execution. It’s neither. According to serial entrepreneur Bill Gross, it’s all about timing.…