Investing In Innovation

Shortly after taking office in 1993, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore called for a shift in American technology policy toward an expansion of public investments in partnerships with private industry. The authors of this volume were invited by the Clinton administration to take a hard, nonpartisan look at how successful the new policies have been and to propose ways to make their programs more effective. The first summary report of the team's recommendations was called the "hottest technology policy property on Capitol Hill."This book, an expansion of that report, offers a new set of technology policy principles. The authors use the principles to evaluate many federal research programs and to make recommendations for change. This volume will set the terms of the debate over the national research and innovation policy for years to come.

In this seminal article, innovation experts Clayton Christensen, Stephen P. Kaufman, and Willy C. Shih explore the key reasons why companies struggle to innovate. The authors uncover common mistakes companies make—from focusing on the wrong customers to choosing the wrong products to develop—that can derail innovation efforts, and offer a better way forward for management teams who want to avoid these obstacles and get innovation right. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice. The Harvard Business Review Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world.

A survival guide for the FinTech era of banking FinTech Innovation examines the rise of financial technology and its growing impact on the global banking industry. Wealth managers are standing at the epicenter of a tectonic shift, as the balance of power between offering and demand undergoes a dramatic upheaval. Regulators are pushing toward a 'constrained offering' norm while private clients and independent advisors demand a more proactive role; practitioners need examine this banking evolution in detail to understand the mechanisms at work. This book presents analysis of the current shift and offers clear insight into what happens when established economic interests collide with social transformation. Business models are changing in profound ways, and the impact reaches further than many expect; the democratization of banking is revolutionizing the wealth management industry toward more efficient and client-centric advisory processes, and keeping pace with these changes has become a survival skill for financial advisors around the world. Social media, big data analytics and digital technology are disrupting the banking industry, which many have taken for granted as set in stone. This book shatters that assumption by illustrating the massive changes already underway, and provides thought leader insight into the changes yet to come. Examine the depth and breadth of financial technology Learn how regulations are driving changing business models Discover why investors may become the price-makers Understand the forces at work behind the rise of FinTech Information asymmetry has dominated the banking industry for centuries, keeping the bank/investor liability neatly aligned—but this is changing, and understanding and preparing for the repercussions must be a top priority for wealth managers everywhere. Financial Innovation shows you where the bar is being re-set and gives you the insight you need to keep up.

Our innovation economy is broken. But there's good news: The ideas that will solve our problems are hiding in plain sight. While big companies in the American economy have never been more successful, entrepreneurial activity is near a 30-year low. More businesses are dying than starting every day. Investors continue to dump billions of dollars into photo-sharing apps and food-delivery services, solving problems for only a wealthy sliver of the world's population, while challenges in health, food security, and education grow more serious. In The Innovation Blind Spot, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Ross Baird argues that the innovations that truly matter don't see the light of day—for reasons entirely of our own making. A handful of people in a handful of cities are deciding, behind closed doors, which entrepreneurs get a shot to succeed. And most investors are what Baird calls "two-pocket thinkers"—artificially separating their charitable work from their day job of making a profit. The resulting system creates rising income inequality, stifled entrepreneurial ambition, social distrust, and political uncertainty. Our innovation problem makes all our other problems harder to solve. In this book, Baird demonstrates how and where to find better ideas by lifting up people, places, and industries that are often overlooked. What's more, Baird ultimately outlines how to create long-term success through "one-pocket thinking"—eliminating the blind spot that separates "what we do for a living" and "what we really care about."

An invaluable resource for current and aspiring technology investors, Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation provides an in-depth understanding of the tools and models needed to succeed in this competitive and highly fluid business environment. Building on a comprehensive introduction to fundamental financial and investment principles, the text guides the reader toward a robust skill set using enterprise valuation and preferred stock valuation models, risk and reward, strategic finance, and other concepts central to any venture capital and growth equity investment. Two features of the book stand out from other sources on the subject. First, it pays special attention to the enterprise valuation methodology for high-growth companies. What drives the value of a company that has little physical assets, losing money now but has a small chance of achieving great success in several years? How do you create estimates for sales, profit and return on capital when little data is available? The book answers these questions using a discounted cash flow model that is tailor-made for technology companies (DCF.xlsx downloadable from the instructor website), and the comparables model. Second, it highlights the most valuation-relevant feature of VC term sheets, namely the use of convertible preferred stock. The book shows the reader how to use a user-friendly and automated valuation model of VC preferred stock (available at www.vcvtools.com) to value various types of preferred stock and to visualize how term sheets split the values of the firm between entrepreneurs and VCs. Accessible, comprehensive, and assuming only basic knowledge of venture capital, this text offers essential guidance for successful VC and growth equity investing in any market.

This Element explains how corporate financialization,through predatory value extraction, undermines investment in innovation in the US.

This book illustrates the impact that a focus on environmental and social issues has on both de-risking assets and fostering innovation. Including impact as a new cornerstone of the investment triangle requires investors and clients to align interests and values and understand needs. This alignment process functions as a catalyst for transforming organizational culture within an organization and therefore initiates the external impact of the organization, but also its internal transformation, which in turn escalates the creation of impact. Describing how culture is the social glue permeating all disciplines of an organization, the book demonstrates how organizational alignment can be achieved in order to allow strategic speed, innovation and learning, and provides examples of how impact can be achieved and staff mobilized It particularly focuses on impact investing, impact entrepreneurship, innovation, de-risking asset, green investment solutions and investor movements to counteract climate change and implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting culture, communication, and strategy.