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Week of December 22 - 28, 2008 |
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Attacking the Recession with Innovation Britain’s National
Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts (NESTA) continue to
produce excellent studies that provide a 360° wide-angle view on the
role of innovation in modern society. Their latest report, plus an
accompanying blog, tackles the tough issue of how innovation can help
drive recession recovery efforts. When it comes to tackling the
recession via innovation, it’s time for “all hands on deck.” On its own,
the private sector cannot be the sole driver of new innovations.
Instead, innovations in all sectors—such as new approaches to providing
public services, and new investments in worker “upskilling”—will be
required. In addition, these efforts cannot operate in the traditional
top-down manner. They must be built around regional networks that build
collaboration among key players, while also reaching out globally to
connect to new sources of knowledge and market opportunity. |
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Small Business and the Credit Crunch
A new poll from the National Federation
of Independent Business Research Foundation takes a look at how small
businesses are responding to the current credit crisis. Not
surprisingly, surveyed business owners are glum, with thirty-four
percent agreeing that their business has been “significantly” affected,
and, within this group, twenty-six percent agreeing that the downturn
threatens their business’ survival. Access to credit does not yet seem
to be a pressing problem. Only 9 percent of respondent identified access
to credit as the principal challenge facing small business. Instead, the
largest group of owners (45%) cited lost sales as their primary concern,
followed by uncertainty over overall business conditions, which was
cited by 23 percent of respondents. |
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Challenges and Opportunities for Angels While full data for
2008 investments are not yet in, the picture from the Angel Group
Confidence Report is that total angel group investments in North America
are estimated to decrease by at least ten percent from 2007. Angel
groups appear to be focusing more on a few potential winners. The top
reason for the decrease was uncertainty in the market, followed closely
by a loss in member wealth. Despite the downturn, three-quarters of
those surveyed expect the number of investing opportunities to increase
in the coming year and roughly half are still optimistic that overall
investments will increase. So how do they plan to adjust to the current
economic climate? Forty seven percent plan to increase their
co-investment activities with other angel groups and 33 percent will
increase co-investment activities with other equity investors such as
early-stage venture capital firms or individual angels. |
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Given the seemingly unceasing tide of bad
economic news, Forrester’s recent projections for the information
technology (IT) market have to count as good tidings. Forrester is
projecting business and government IT spending to grow by 1.9 percent in
2009. This is a big drop from 2008’s growth rate of 4.8 percent, but
it’s still an (albeit small) increase. Forrester also projects a two
percent rise in 2009 software sales, and little or no growth in computer
equipment and IT services sales. This slowing performance is worrisome,
but it is still strong when compared to the major downturns that
occurred in the aftermath of the dot-com bust in 2001 and 2002 when the
IT market absorbed declines of 15 to 20 percent. The full report is available for purchase. |
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Virtual Worlds and Business Ecosystems The development of
virtual world technology, in programs like Second Life and Habbo Hotel,
has reached a point where these tools and concepts are beginning to
change the way that businesses operate. A new Athena Alliance study
contends that virtual worlds can become a critical platform for open
innovation, where designers, users, and other interested parties can
collaborate to develop, improve, and transform products and services.
The study’s author, Robert B. Cohen, notes that these virtual
collaboration platforms are no longer an “add-on” to other innovation
efforts. They will become a core activity that will change how
businesses are structured and managed. He concludes that US policy
makers need to better understand virtual worlds because this new
business model will greatly affect the global competitiveness of US
firms. New efforts to speed the deployment of virtual world
technologies, and training in how to use them are important first steps
in this work. |
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The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship is an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving entrepreneurship around the world. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. |
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National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
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stories © 2008 The Public Forum Institute
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