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Morning Advantage: Three Ways the U.S. Election Could Get Ugly

Harvard Business Review

The city of Wuxi in Eastern China has launched a high-profile, high-tech business incubator to lure back Chinese brainiacs who’ve gone abroad to study and work in science and engineering. How the Chinese Deal With Failure (Christian Science Monitor).

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The Problems With Incubators, and How to Solve Them

Harvard Business Review

Inexperienced friends and family (and, increasingly, crowdsourced investors) lack the ability to gauge the viability of a business, or to mentor naïve entrepreneurs. This knowledge gap, I have come to believe, is best filled by savvy incubators. However, there are over 7,500 business incubators around the world.

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When Big Companies Support Start-ups, Both Make More Money

Harvard Business Review

Now imagine if eBay went beyond providing a technology platform and entered the field of business incubation in a meaningful way, It’s an idea that could have a huge impact. In the start-up world, there’s a big focus on business incubators such as YCombinator–perhaps too much focus. Most stagnate.

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How the U.S. Can Rebuild Its Capacity to Innovate

Harvard Business Review

It’s a lesson for countries around the world: Once manufacturing bids farewell, engineering and production know-how depart as well, and innovation activities eventually follow. For good reason: these firms are diverse, resilient, and geographically distributed engines of innovation. It’s that the U.S. based companies.

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Getting Buy-In for Innovation that Doesn’t Fade at the End of the Quarter

Harvard Business Review

You’ve prepared a business plan for a promising new entrepreneurial venture. You’ve got funding and the blessing of your CEO and Board to go ahead with this high-profile “experiment” Your venture could be a growth engine for your corporation’s otherwise large but slow and steady core business.

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The Core Incompetencies of the Corporation

Harvard Business Review

Imagine, if you will, a car engine so woefully inefficient that only 13% of the gas it consumes actually combusts. Most of the recommended remedies—idea wikis, business incubators, online collaboration, design thinking, “authentic” leadership, et al —are no more than minor tweaks. That’s the sort of waste we’re talking about.