R&B Special Feature: Introducing Something New? Where To Begin And How? (University of Texas)
We admire people and companies that are innovative, from Apple and Google to Uber or Airbnb. So, too, the City of Austin is getting on the bandwagon. They devote resources in the form of a Chief Innovation Officer (Kerry O’Connor) and a small innovation department to tackle some of our most intractable challenges like traffic, affordability and our educational system.
Innovation can take many forms but there are three principles I learned in a recent workshop given by Humantific, the City of Austin’s consultant in this area. (I took some license with their terminology for ease of understanding.)
R&B Special Feature: Maximising Innovation With Diversity (INSEAD)
Organisations in today’s era of hyper-competition are increasingly reliant on innovation to sustain a competitive advantage. This is particularly true for newly established start-ups, where ongoing innovation is fundamental to effective product market competition.
An important precursor to innovation is the ability to take knowledge from different areas and to recombine it in new and impactful ways. Teams are an important aspect of this process. Having people work in teams and sharing ideas can allow firms to create a more sustained pipeline of innovation than the “light-bulb moments of lone genius,” as noted by Aspen Institute CEO, Walter Isaacson. While the need for team-based innovation is widely acknowledged, less well understood is how multiple teams should be organised within a company in order to maximise innovation for the firm as a whole.
R&B Special Feature: The Puzzling Popularity Of Active Management
Evidence firmly suggests that for most investors it does not pay to seek the skills of an active manager. Yet the active funds industry remains large, with investors choosing to put far more of their financial assets in active rather than passive funds
Fund managers who actively pick stocks rather than passively follow an index of companies have long taken a beating. A long line of studies has shown that the majority of active mutual funds – weighed down by high charges and expenses – yield low returns relative to comparable passive funds. For instance, a study finds that in the past 23 years an aggregate portfolio of active equity mutual funds in the United States underperformed various benchmarks by about 1% a year.
R&B Special Feature: If Amazon Took Six Years To Break-Even, So Will They. [Will They?]
E-commerce’s fight against brick-and-mortar format is public enough. Especially with the rise in count of web-shoppers in India, dotcom outlets are fast becoming common nouns. But there is much left to overcome before they start making money
Too many cooks spoil the broth. Common wisdom tells us that it’s the “Too many” that is trouble. That’s precisely the problem with e-commerce in India today – “Too many”. The last two decades have seen a complete transformation in the Indian retail landscape. A whole new generation has moved from buying groceries from nearby mom-and-pop stores to supermarkets and convenience stores. High street shopping has given way to big, swanky malls.
PATEL ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION CENTRE AT CRII
The Patel Entrepreneurship & Innovation Centre at CRII promotes the establishment of specialist cells in coordination with the government and industry that provide multi-level training programmes to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) with a focus on encouraging the growth of MSME entrepreneurial activities across the nation, and to provide support through the value chain – infrastructural, consulting and intellectual – for existing ventures.
These entrepreneurship development cells also coordinate with other departments/cells at CRII to support entrepreneurial ventures with funding, consulting and regulatory support.
CRII PRATYAYOJAN (Centre for Conferences, Meetings, Events & Delegations)
CRII Pratyayojan (Centre for Conferences, Meetings, Events & Delegations) plans annual calendars of national and regional CRII forums, meetings and interaction sessions – both at the domestic and foreign levels – between the government and industry players to enable a more structured coordination
