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Statement from the White House on the new Innovation Policy.  It is very comprehensive, covering everything from R+D, to regional clusters, to the Office of Social Innovation. A lot of smart people worked on this document. The grand challenges listed at the end are especially interesting.

Over the next decade, two out of every three companies will face the challenge of their corporate lives: redefining their core business. Buffeted by global competition and facing an uncertain future, more and more executives will realize that they must make fundamental changes in their core even as they continue delivering the goods and services that keep them in business today. "Unstoppable" shows these managers how to look deep within their organizations to find undervalued, unrecognized, or underutilized assets that can serve as new platforms for sustainable growth. Drawing on more than thirty interviews with CEOs from companies such as De Beers, American Express, and Samsung, it shows readers how to recognize when the core needs reinvention and how to deploy the "hidden assets" that can be the basis for tomorrow's growth. Building on the author's previous books, "Profit from the Core" and "Beyond the Core", this book shows how any company in crisis can transform itself to become truly unstoppable.

From Publishers Weekly\nChristensen (The Innovator's Dilemma) analyzes the strategies that allow corporations to successfully grow new businesses and outpace the other players in the marketplace. Christensen's earlier book examined how focusing on profits can destroy even well-run corporations, while this book focuses on companies expanding by being "disruptors" who are able to outpace their entrenched competition. The authors (Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School and Raynor, a director at Deloitte Research) examine the nine business decisions integral to growth, including product development, organizational structure, financing and key customer base. They cite such companies as IBM, AT&T, Sony, Microsoft and others to illustrate their points. Generally, the writing is clear and specific. For example, in discussing whether a company has the resources necessary for growth, the authors say, "In order to be confident that managers have developed the skills required to succeed at a new assignment, one should examine the sorts of problems they have wrestled with in the past. It is not as important that managers have succeeded with the problem as it is for them to have wrestled with it and developed the skills and intuition for how to meet the challenge successfully the next time around"; they then provide a real-life example of a software company. Similar important strategies give readers insights that they can use in their own workplaces. People looking for quick fixes may find the charts, diagrams and extensive footnotes daunting, but readers familiar with more technical business management tomes will find this one both stimulating and beneficial.

This is the first book to present innovation and entrepreneurship as a purposeful and systematic discipline that explains and analyzes the challenges and opportunities of America's new entrepreneurial economy. Superbly practical, Innovation and Entrepreneurship explains what established businesses, public service institutions, and new ventures need to know and do to succeed in today's economy.

The Next Steps program gives you the confidence and skills you need to take your business to the next level. Interact with a senior-level advisory panel of accomplished women entrepreneurs, and gain knowledge from peer mentors who have shared your business challenges. The six-module format allows you to take what you learn and apply it immediately.

New global R&D management challenges, trends and emerging patterns are presented in smooth theoretical and practical flow. Management models, innovations in intellectual property management, technology listening posts, leading R&D centers (and more) are discussed and depicted through an array of excellent cases ranging from Xerox to Daimler to Roche.

This book challenges the prevalent misconceptions about innovation, and lays out the tools and processes necessary for an organization to harness and execute innovation.

Worldchanging is poised to be the Whole Earth Catalog for this millennium. Written by leading new thinkers who believe that the means for building a better future lie all around us, Worldchanging is packed with the information, resources, reviews, and ideas that give readers the tools they need to make a difference. Brought together by Alex Steffen, co-founder of the popular and award-winning web site Worldchanging.com, this team of top-notch writers includes Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity, Geekcorps founder Ethan Zuckerman, sustainable food expert Anna Lappé, and many others. Renowned designer Stefan Sagmeister brings his extraordinary talents to Worldchanging, resulting in a book that will challenge readers to personally redefine the conversation about the future.

Towards 2020 Science, sets out the challenges and opportunities arising from the increasing synthesis of computing and the sciences. It seeks to identify the requirements necessary to accelerate scientific advances -particularly those driven by computational sciences and the 'new kinds' of science the synthesis of computing and the sciences is creating. Already this synthesis has led to new fields and advances spanning genomics and proteomics, earth sciences and climatology, nanomaterials, chemistry and physics. Towards 2020 Science acts as a 'pathfinder' to new research directions in science and computing. It contributes to, and informs, national and international scientific debate and science policy. It is also meant as just a start, a catalyst for more discussion; something that readers will find useful, inspiring and provocative.

MaRS Client, Axela, talks about moving from human protein testing into the agricultural markets -- the challenges and the opportunities.

The first half of the Review focuses on the impacts and risks arising from uncontrolled climate change, and on the costs and opportunities associated with action to tackle it. A sound understanding of the economics of risk is critical here. The Review emphasises that economic models over timescales of centuries do not offer precise forecasts - but they are an important way to illustrate the scale of effects we might see. The second half of the Review examines the national and international policy challenges of moving to a low-carbon global economy. Climate change is the greatest market failure the world has seen. Three elements of policy are required for an effective response.

The New Atlantis attempts to clarify the nation's moral and political understanding of all areas of technology-from stem cells to hydrogen cells to weapons of mass destruction. They hope to make sense of the larger questions surrounding technology and human nature, and the practical questions of governing and regulating science. Challenging policymakers who know too little about science, and pushing scientists who often fail to think seriously or deeply about the ethical and social implications of their work.

Five architectural teams face the challenge of reinventing a site considered to be Toronto's birthplace. Adamson Associates Architects is on the short listed firms. Mention of Adamson being responsible for the restoration and renovation of the MaRS Centre at College and University. The project included the reformation of the College Wing of the historic Toronto General Hospital and stitching that into contemporary buildings and public atrium space.

Toronto's Baycrest centre is staking a claim to a piece of the booming brain fitness market with a new company, Cogniciti, and a new generation of brain games aimed at helping baby boomers keep their minds sharp and boost their productivity in the workplace well into old age. Alvaro Fernandez, a researcher on aging, says the new games are designed to keep older brains nimble. Hon. Milloy states "The McGuinty government is proud to support the work that both MaRS and Baycrest are doing to improve quality of life and tackle the challenges of an aging population. Ontario is supporting innovators across the province to ensure this kind of success is the rule, not the exception." Dec 2, 2009

Design and technology visionary Bill Buxton will outline the challenges facing news media and the opportunities they present in the closing keynote at a trailblazing conference in Toronto on Jan. 30. The event is geared for journalists, decision makers and members of the public.The conference is being held at the MaRS centre.

Two hundred people from around the world gathered at The Business of Aging Summit in Toronto (co-hosted by MaRS Discovery District and the Province of Ontario), to talk about the challenge and opportunity of what was quickly dubbed the "silver tsunami". Dec 7, 2009

An article in OSBR by Lisa Torjman, Associate, SiG@MaRS and Jon Worren, Advisor, MaRS. The article talks about the factors contributing to the weak culture of entrepreneurship in Canada.

Brothers Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, co-founder and founder respecitively, of the Free The Children Foundation. They also launched another project a for-profit company called Me to We, which sells socially responsible products and offers young people trips abroad, channeling most of the proceeds back to Free the Children. Allyson Hewitt, Director of SiG at MaRS, provides her perspectives on the challenges that social entrepreneurs encounter.

ACE is a national charitable organization that is teaching and igniting young Canadians to create brighter futures for themselves and their communities. Working in partnership with business and higher education, ACE delivers experience-based programming that allows university and college students to move beyond the traditional path of post-secondary education. These students are challenged to address economic, social and environmental issues in their own entrepreneurial ventures and in their communities. ACE currently delivers two programs on over 50 university and college campuses across Canada with the involvement of over 1,700 student leaders and student entrepreneurs.

Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of MaRS Discovery District, is one of the five Canadian leaders in the field of social innovation who will share their insights on how to deal with the root causes of social challenges at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Treurnicht will be speaking on June 16 about the growing importance of multi-sectoral collaboration which promotes the mutual exchange of ideas, values, talent and capital across sectors.