Stories & Articles

Six Strange Things Worth Money Online. Quiet, Please: Unleashing 'The Power Of Introverts' Introverts, who prefer quieter, lower-stimulation environments, have trouble thriving in today's extrovert-oriented culture, says author Susan Cain.

iStockphoto.com hide caption toggle caption iStockphoto.com. Danny Rimer: What U.S. startups can learn from Europe. What China makes: 10 things the country is big on [Infographic] China makes everything and makes a lot of it.

Here are 10 things that China makes so much of that if production stops, consumers across the globe will find themselves missing out on certain creature comforts. Not that China will stop production soon. In July, the manufacturing sector went against projections of a contraction, with the Purchasing Managers’ Index going up to 50.3 that month instead of dropping to 49.8 as forecast initially.

A PMI of below 50 indicates contraction while a number above 50 means expanding activity. Small Business. Fundings & Exits. Coroflot — Design Jobs & Portfolios. Top Ten Ways To Make Yourself More Employable. Whether you work with computer databases or on a construction site, the job market over the past five years has been more than challenging.

Having to trawl through hundreds of job listings, applying for positions that thousands of other applicants have applied for and never getting a response, it can be soul destroying. But don’t be disheartened, the job market is really starting to look alive, and there are proactive steps you can take to make yourself more employable. Check out the top ten things you can do to make yourself more employable. #1 Improve your knowledge. Free Books and Reports on Open Innovation, Co-Creation and Crowdsourcing. Here you get an overview of valuable – and FREE – books and reports related to open innovation, co-creation and crowdsourcing.

Drop a comment if you know of other books, reports or longer articles that are available for free and worth sharing. Social Media for Corporate Innovators and Entrepreneurs: Add Power to Your Innovation Efforts by Stefan Lindegaard “How can my company use social media to bring out better innovation faster?” This is the key question that I explore in this book, which covers issues such as: Secret to Odorless Pooping in Public - Funny Video. Nature-Inspired Business Practices. What nature can teach us about doing business in a down economy. In wetter and mixed-species interior Douglas-fir forests, Douglas-fir and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) trees can be linked together by species-rich mycorrhizal networks.

This fungal network serves as a pathway for the transfer below ground of carbon from deciduous trees to regenerating Douglas-fir seedlings nearby. This is not a one-sided relationship, though. Douglas-fir support their birch neighbors in the spring and fall by sending back some of this carbon when the birch is without leaves. This back-and-forth (mutualism) flux of resources according to need may be one process that maintains forest diversity and stability. Biomimetic business idea: Manage stocks and flows through a linked professional network. Solar and aquaponics ventures share PSU/Wells Fargo cleantech prize at BEST Fest.

More than 100 cleantech enthusiasts hit a BEST Fest reception Wednesday night to get a gander at the six semifinalists in the Clean Challenge.

The contest awarded $25,000 to a commercially viable pre-revenue company launched through Portland State University student research. Click through for more photos from last night's event. Two companies that aim to produce solar industry items and restaurant-aimed aquaponic farming systems have split a $25,000 cleantech prize.

Ten Reasons People Resist Change - Rosabeth Moss Kanter. By Rosabeth Moss Kanter | 12:00 PM September 25, 2012 Leadership is about change, but what is a leader to do when faced with ubiquitous resistance?

Resistance to change manifests itself in many ways, from foot-dragging and inertia to petty sabotage to outright rebellions. The best tool for leaders of change is to understand the predictable, universal sources of resistance in each situation and then strategize around them. Here are the ten I’ve found to be the most common. Loss of control. Excess uncertainty. Surprise, surprise! Everything seems different. Loss of face. Find the 15-Minute Competitive Advantage - Rosabeth Moss Kanter. By Rosabeth Moss Kanter | 9:26 AM November 9, 2009 Just because this is a time of transformation doesn’t mean that it’s easy to sell transformational ideas.

Economic uncertainty has reduced the audience for bold, grand rhetoric. Besides, even in boom times innovation is risky. Innovators often have to ease anxieties by sounding conservative while doing something radical. We all want breakthroughs; it’s just that we can’t know exactly which of the bold new ideas will break through. As many technology companies have seen to their peril, you can leap much too far into the future by seeking revolution, not evolution, leaving potential users in the dust.

Consider Woody Allen’s comedy routine about the first landing of UFOs on Earth and our first contact with an advanced civilization (AKA advanced competitor). Call this the “15 minute competitive advantage”: changing in short fast bursts rather than waiting for the breakthrough that transforms everything. OregonBEST.