MaRS

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

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.

In Municipal Mind, Toronto's Poet Laureate offers a blueprint for building sustainable cities in a global era, predicated on city soul. By weaving bold and savvy strategies for urban creativity and civic prosperity together with a reasoned appeal for mutual respect, understanding and interaction among citizens, he persuades us that - in the delicate balancing of universal values and individual needs - cities can do far, far, better. Municipal Mind offers up a whole new way of civic being and thinking that puts wonder before commerce and nothing before human encounter.

In today's information-rich environment, companies can no longer afford to rely entirely on their own ideas to advance their business, nor can they restrict their innovations to a single path to market. As a result, says Harvard Business School professor Henry W. Chesbrough, the traditional model for innovation--which has been largely internally focused, closed off from outside ideas and technologies--is becoming obsolete. Emerging in its place is a new paradigm, open innovation, which strategically leverages internal and external sources of ideas and takes them to market through multiple paths. Arguing that companies in all industries must transform the way they commercialize knowledge, Chesbrough convincingly shows how open innovation can unlock the latent economic value in a company''s ideas and technologies.

Since ancient times, people have believed that breakthrough ideas come from the brains of geniuses with awesome rational powers. In recent years, however, the paradigm has begun to shift toward the notion that the source of creativity lies "out there," in the network of connections between people and ideas. In this provocative book, Richard Ogle crystallizes the nature of this shift, and boldly outlines "a new science of ideas." The key resides in what he calls "idea-spaces," a set of nodes in a network of people (and their ideas) that cohere and take on a distinctive set of characteristics leading to the generation of breakthrough ideas. These spaces are governed by nine laws--illuminated in individual chapters with fascinating stories of dramatic breakthroughs in science, business, and art. "Smart World" will change forever the way we think about creativity and innovation.

The book, written by leading venture capitalist Alexander Wilmerding of Boston Capital Ventures, covers topics such What is a Term Sheet, How to Examine a Term Sheet, A Section-by-Section View of a Term Sheet, Valuations, What Every Entrepreneur & Executive Needs to Know About Term Sheets, Valuation Parameters, and East Coast Versus West Coast Rules. In addition, the book includes an actual term sheet from a leading law firm with line by line descriptions of each clause, what can/should be negotiated, and the important points to pay attention to

Robert Lawton Burns focuses on the key role of the 'producers' as the main source of innovation in this wide-ranging analysis of business trends in the manufacturing branch of the health care industry. Written by industry academics and executives, the book provides a detailed overview of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, genomics/proteomics, medical device and information technology sectors. Most importantly, it describes the growing convergence between these sectors and the need for executives in one sector to increasingly draw upon trends in the others.

Developing clean technologies is no longer a social issue championed by environmentalists; it's a moneymaking enterprise moving solidly into the business mainstream.

The iPod is a harbinger of a revolution in product design: innovation that targets customer emotion, self-image, and fantasy, not just product function. Read the hidden stories behind BodyMedia's SenseWear body monitor, Herman Miller's Mirra Chair, Swiffer's mops, OXO's potato peelers, Adidas' intelligent shoes, the new Ford F-150 pickup truck, and many other winning innovations. Meet the innovators, learning how they inspire and motivate their people, as they shepherd their visions through corporate bureaucracy to profitable reality. The authors deconstruct the entire process of design innovation, showing how it really works, and how today's smartest companies are innovating more effectively than ever before.

By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.

Kevin Werbach, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, spoke recently with David Yaun, an IBM executive, about the company's Global Innovation Outlook project. According to Yaun, "traditionally, companies have identified innovation with gadgets and gizmos, but that thinking is being transformed." The definition of innovation is being broadened -- it is becoming more open, collaborative, global and inter-disciplinary. "The barriers to innovation and collaboration have come down dramatically," Yaun says. This was the second in a series of interviews about themes to be featured at Supernova, a conference Werbach organizes in collaboration with Wharton in San Francisco.

The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of what's commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches.

Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations.

Discussions from a town hall meeting, designed to give citizens a chance to shape Canada's broadband will be recorded and presented to the Canadian Radio-television and telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as part of Toronto's Net Change Week activities. Brief mention of Net Change Week.

Mercatto a MaRS Tenant and is listed in the Toronto Restaurant Guide.

Ontario's provincial government celebrated top scientific achievements at the 2009 Premier's Innovation Awards. Mention of MaRS being the awards are co-sponsor.

MaRS is held up as an example of what an "old" city can do if they're ambitious and just decide to do something. Like when Toronto decided that it wanted to gain ground in the science knowledge economy. Nevermind that AGAIN MaRS is misrepresented as a biotech incubator -- I suppose there are worse things to be called. But still part of an ambitious, big-thinking plan to improve the science, tech and social outcomes of the economy. Amen.

Tim Rowe's blog takes a look at exploring what its future might look like by building "a showcase for future living. Mention of MaRS having the best biotech space.

Tim Rowe's blog takes a look at exploring what its future might look like by building "a showcase for future living. Mention of MaRS having the best biotech space.

"The three Ontario Trillium Foundation grants totalling $1,114,900, were announced today by the Hon. Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Mention of MaRS being one of the additions to three Ottawa organizations mentioned above."

Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein has been appointed the president and CEO of MaRS Innovation.

Lisa Torjman's blog on Net Change Week happening June 8-12, 2009 which is designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change.