in•venn•tion of the day… on stealth mode
Image
If we can put a man on the moon, how come we can’t…
Oops.
I guess someone finally did invent a disposable french press. Discovered at Grahamwich, on State Street in Chicago. What’s next, clean energy? Affordable health care? Wrinkle-free dockers?
in•venn•tion of the day… on getting things done
Image
Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit
Celebrating the launch of Ruhstaller, a new brewery named after Sacramento’s first premier brewer (Captain Frank Ruhstaller, 1881) by one of our former students, J-E Paino (proprietor), along with Peter Hoey (brew-master).
Announcing the The Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
It's great to announce that our Center for Entrepreneurship, started over five years ago with a shoestring and a great set of network partners, today becomes the The Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Given the difficult economic times of public universities, this endowment and institutionalization (literally) means the center-now-institute will be around and able to continue helping students and researchers make a broader difference in this world.
The Business of Low-Carbon Innovation
Working with the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, I’ve just completed an study of companies that have already successfully developed and launched new low-carbon strategic initiatives. The resulting report, “The Business of Innovating: Bringing Low-Carbon Solutions to Market,” was released today. The study documents the challenges and best practices to inform other businesses developing their own low-carbon innovation strategies. Innovation is challenging regardless of company or industry but, as the study found, low-carbon innovation has distinct challenges—and requires particular capabilities—that reflect the distinct nature of the technologies, opportunities, and environments involved.
What our leaders tell us about our selves
Steve Jobs died. The outpouring of sorrow and admiration is nothing short of stunning, and more than most heads of state would engender. Jobs deserves credit for so much that Apple (and Pixar) have wrought, and a tribute to his purely technological contributions would be plenty. But there is something intensely personal—something that speaks to us more than the phones, or laptops, or iPads—that in passing shakes us to the core and asks what we want of our leaders and of ourselves.
Entrepreneurs and Society: Kauffman Foundation’s “3 Things” video
The Kauffman Foundation just posted a nice sketchbook talk by CEO Carl Schramm (embedded below), summarizing the good and vital research the company has supported that looks at the role of entrepreneurs in society. These numbers should guide both policy and personal decisions.
Misguided Policy: Following venture capital into clean technology
The Solyndra debacle raises significant questions about how to best pursue a clean tech revolution. As I argued before, most of these questions will go ignored in the scramble for political advantage but several others are raising the same questions (E.G., Real Solyndra Scandal). A good post by Bruce Krasting actually brings testimony from an engineer with Solyndra that makes the company look very much like any other venture-capital backed business—consuming cash as fast as possible to grow as quickly as possible to meet a rapidly closing window of opportunity.
In particular, the Department of Energy’s recent loan guarantee program, through which Solyndra received its loan guarantees. has backstopped roughly $2 billion to venture-capital backed clean tech startups with the honorable motive of fostering a clean tech revolution. In a search for means to foster a clean tech revolution, the Obama Administration made venture capital a cornerstone of its energy policy. Yet, despite venture capital’s leading role in clean technology this past decade, we don’t really know when it works well and, as importantly, when it doesn’t.
Last spring, my colleague Martin Kenney and I completed a research paper that looked at the boundary conditions underlying venture capital’s success and its appropriateness in pursuing a clean tech revolution: “Misguided Policy: Following Venture Capital into Clean Technology.” The paper looked directly at the funding of Solyndra, Tesla, and other new ventures. It is forthcoming in California Management Review but, given the circumstance, wanted to introduce it here.
Download Hargadon Kenney 2011 CMR Misguided Policy Following Venture Capital 110726
Andrew Hargadon 