The Future of MOOCs
President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released a report late in December that was cautious about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) saying, "It would be premature to impose standards and regulations that might impair the power of competitive market forces to motivate innovation." While many are praising MOOCs for providing flexible modes of education, and the recent trend to offering credits and certificates through these online platforms, others are concerned about the quality of education delivered. On the other hand, new data from a University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education study show that massive open online courses (MOOCs) have relatively few active users, that user "engagement" falls off dramatically-especially after the first 1-2 weeks of a course-and that few users persist to the course end.
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Why Some Communities Have More Entrepreneurs
A new study out from researchers at Temple, Duke and the University of Missouri finds that the strength of local social networks and trust plays a major role in whether a city is able to foster a culture of entrepreneurship. If networks are strong, entrepreneurs can get the word out about their new businesses. And, strong networks and trust can help them earn the type of positive reputation that makes it possible to secure financing, gain employees and win customers. Richard Florida quotes the study to support his argument that entrepreneurship is less about unique and motivated people, and more about the social process of building teams in the context of an entrepreneurial community. Read MORE
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Managing Leap or Radical Innovation
I recently read a blog where the author complained that everything is being labeled an innovation, and that only really radical innovations should count. There clearly are two types of innovation: those that are radical because they obsolete existing products or address new markets, and those that modify existing products (think New Coke).
A recent study by the Product Development and Management Association found that radical innovations accounted for only 10 percent of the average company's portfolio of new products, down from 21 percent in 1990. This may be because the probability of failure of a radical innovation was estimated to be 80-90 percent, but profitability was estimated to be twice as high as product modifications.
This argues for an innovation system such as Innovation Engineering that can reduce the probability of failure dramatically, while accelerating the development of these more profitably products. More data from the study is HERE.
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Founder's Dilemma
I was talking with a serial entrepreneur the other day at lunch, and we were bemoaning that company founders don't always know how to leave their company gracefully. Many are capable of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." Today I found this five-year old article by Harvard Business School Professor Noam Wasserman that contains an explanation of this phenomenon. Essentially, he says, founders have to choose between being rich or being king. Here's his conclusion - it is so apt.
"Choosing between money and power allows entrepreneurs to come to grips with what success means to them. Founders who want to manage empires will not believe they are successes if they lose control, even if they end up rich. Conversely, founders who understand that their goal is to amass wealth will not view themselves as failures when they step down from the top job. Once they realize why they are turning entrepreneur, founders must, as the old Chinese proverb says, "decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time." "
The entire article is HERE.
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