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Week of June 14 - June 18, 2004Welcome to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship and e-News, an electronic newsletter sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City for followers of the entrepreneurial economy. Through e-News, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues. To subscribe, visit www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/join/ Did you know that links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde? Bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news. Current and archived issues of e-News are available online at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/news/enews.htm |
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Where it’s at in Biotech Creating a biotech cluster seems to be the Holy Grail for public officials the world over, but it’s much easier said than done. That’s one message that you’ll find between the lines in a new study from the Milken Institute entitled
America’s Biotech and Life Sciences Cluster: San Diego’s Position and Economic
Contributions. As the subtitle suggests, the research focuses on San Diego, but it also compares that region to the 12 other leading biotech centers in the US. This list includes places like Boston, Seattle, Washington, DC, Raleigh-Durham (NC), San Jose, and Philadelphia. The study actually ranks these biotech clusters by a variety of measures including R&D inputs, risk capital availability, human capital resources, and local economic impacts. The result is a composite measure that finds San Diego to have the strongest biotech cluster in the US, just barely edging out Boston. Raleigh-Durham and San Jose are up and comers and possess significant strengths, especially in the areas of human capital |
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Europe’s VCs on the Rise Lately, we’ve been regularly covering recent good news from American venture capitalists (VCs). Now, it seems that European VCs are joining the parade as new data from the European Venture Capital Association
(EVCA) confirm that venture investing in Europe is also enjoying a hot streak. 2003 turned out to be the 2nd best year ever for European VCs. Over 29 billion Euros were invested, a 5.2% increase over 2002’s totals. While the American VC sector is very focused on high tech, European investments are more diverse. Consumer products companies topped the list in 2003, receiving 19.4% of total investments. England is still the preferred location for investments (receiving 25% of the total), followed by France, Germany, and Italy. European firms also tend to invest in more companies (more than 10,000 were backed in 2003), and provide smaller levels of investments (an average of 2.8 million Euros per investment). Over the same period, American VCs invested a total of $18.2 billion in 2,715 companies. |
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Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 100 The latest edition of
Entrepreneur magazine—which contains its Hot 100 (the 100 fastest growing new firms)--is out on the newsstands. This year’s winner is
Arbitech, a computer products distributor based in Laguna Beach, CA. This year’s list also names a Woman Entrepreneur of the Year: Liz
Elting, CEO of New York City’s Transperfect Translations. Overall, the findings show some interesting trends. Compared to previous Hot 100 lists, this year’s firms are older (in business for 37 months compared to past average of 29 months) and larger (employing an average of 48 employees compared to an average of 31 for past lists). The firms are also starting with less money—average start-up costs were $416,000. This is a large drop from last year’s average of $565,000. Not surprisingly, Hot 100 firms are confident. Ninety-two percent of CEOs are optimistic about the economy’s direction, and, more importantly, they are backing these words with deeds by significantly increasing spending on marketing and technology. |
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Improving Training Options for Small Businesses Because they are so maniacally focused on building their businesses, entrepreneurs often lack the time and resources to effectively support training activities for their workers and themselves. Newly proposed House legislation, the Technology Retraining and Investment Now Act of 2004 (HR 4392), seeks to address this challenge. This bill is part of a major effort led by House Republicans to enhance the competitiveness of American firms and their workers. HR 4392, which was the subject of recent hearings in the House Small Business Committee, would provide a tax credit for 50% of the cost (up to $8,000 per individual) of training in the use of information or communications technologies. The Committee hearings included testimony from leading business organizations as well as advocates for entrepreneurship education, such as Mike Caslin of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship
(www.nfte.com). Many witnesses applauded the measure, but also noted that other steps must be taken to enhance the skills of American workers. Other suggestions included allowing more flexible use of worker retraining funds, expanding support for community colleges, and restoring funds for key federal programs like the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). |
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Human Capital for Small and Emerging Firms While we’re on the subject of training, we can recommend a new study from the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Businesses (better known as RISEbusiness). The study,
Connecting the Workforce Investment System to Small and Emerging
Businesses, was completed with support from the US Department of Labor. Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and other training providers have traditionally worked well with larger employers. This report examines how they can better interact with smaller firms, and it recommends that both state and local WIBs make a more concerted effort to reach out to smaller firms. At the federal level, the report recommends that the Department of Labor work more closely with small business intermediaries such as Chambers of Commerce, and various Small Business Administration (SBA) programs, like Small Business Development Centers. In general, both the public and private sector need to communicate better. On the public side, government agencies must do a better job of marketing their programs and services to business. But, at the same time, small firms must participate and actively collaborate with key workforce development personnel. |
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Symposium Tackles Conflicts of Interest Among Researchers The issue of disclosing conflicts of interest among government researchers has recently been gathering momentum, with both Congress and the National Institutes of Health actively engaging in reviews of their policies. This subject was also the focus of a AEI-Brookings Joint Center symposium this week entitled “The Future of the Triple Helix: Finding the Balance Among Government, Industry, and Academic Research Relationships.” The symposium was moderated by Robert Litan, director of the Joint Center and Vice President for Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation, and featured a panel of several leading experts in the field of biomedical research and regulation. While the report – funded by a research grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City – focuses specifically on the life sciences field, it provides a set of guiding principles and management and policy suggestions regarding the general disclosure and management of relationships among the various sectors. |
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