How Governments Can Encourage Innovation

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17. září 2004 7 ze 412 PART I How Our Actions Create Our Reality and How We Can Change It 17. září 2004 8 ze 412 1 "GIVE ME A LEVER LONG ENOUGH . A N D SINGLE-HANDED I CAN MOVE THE WORLD" From a very early age, we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole. When we then try to "see the big picture," we try to reassemble the fragments in our minds, to list and organize all the pieces. But, as physicist David Bohm says, the task is futile—similar to trying to reassemble the fragments of a broken mirror to see a true reflection. Thus, after a while we give up trying to see the whole altogether. The tools and ideas presented in this book are for destroying the illusion that the world is created of separate, unrelated forces. When we give up this illusion—we can then build "learning organizations," organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. As Fortune magazine recently said, "Forget your tired old ideas about leadership. The most successful corporation of the 1990s will be something called a learning organization." "The ability to learn faster than your competitors," said Arie De Geus, head of planning for Royal Dutch/Shell, "may be the only sustainable competitive advantage." As the world becomes more interconnected and business becomes more complex and dynamic, work must become more "learningful." It is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organization, a Ford or a Sloan or a Watson. It's just not possible any longer to "figure it out" from the top, and have everyone else following the orders of the "grand strategist." The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization. Learning organizations are possible because, deep down, we are all learners. No one has to teach an infant to learn. In fact, no one has to teach infants anything. They are intrinsically inquisitive, masterful learners who learn to walk, speak, and pretty much run their households all on their own. Learning organizations are possible because not only is it our nature to learn but we love to learn. Most of us at one time or another have been part of a great "team," a group of people who functioned together in an extraordinary way— who trusted one another, who complemented each others' strengths and compensated for each others' limitations, who had common goals that were larger than individual goals, and who produced extraordinary results. I have met many people who have experienced this sort of profound teamwork—in sports, or in the performing arts, or in business. Many say that they have spent much of their life looking for that experience again. What they experienced was a learning organization. 17. září 2004 9 ze 412 The team that became great didn't start off great—it learned how to produce extraordinary results. One could argue that the entire global business community is How Governments Can Encourage Innovation How Governments Can Encourage Innovation By: OpenStaxCollege A number of different government policies can increase the incentives to innovate, including: guaranteeing intellectual property rights, government assistance with the costs of research and development, and cooperative research ventures between universities and companies Intellectual Property Rights One way to increase new technology is to guarantee the innovator an exclusive right to that new product or process Intellectual property rights include patents, which give the inventor the exclusive legal right to make, use, or sell the invention for a limited time, and copyright laws, which give the author an exclusive legal right over works of literature, music, film/video, and pictures For example, if a pharmaceutical firm has a patent on a new drug, then no other firm can manufacture or sell that drug for twenty-one years, unless the firm with the patent grants permission Without a patent, the pharmaceutical firm would have to face competition for any successful products, and could earn no more than a normal rate of profit With a patent, a firm is able to earn monopoly profits on its product for a period of time—which offers an incentive for research and development In general, how long can “a period of time” be? The Clear it Up discusses patent and copyright protection timeframes for some works you might have heard of How long is Mickey Mouse protected from being copied? All patents and copyrights are scheduled to end someday In 2003, copyright protection for Mickey Mouse was scheduled to run out Once the copyright had expired, anyone would be able to copy Mickey Mouse cartoons or draw and sell new ones In 1998, however, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act For copyrights owned by companies or other entities, it increased or extended the copyright from 75 years to 95 years after publication For copyrights owned by individuals, it increased or extended the copyright coverage from 50 years to 70 years after death 1/6 How Governments Can Encourage Innovation Along with protecting Mickey for another 20 years, the copyright extension affected about 400,000 books, movies, and songs [link] illustrates how the total number of patent applications filed with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the total number of patents granted, surged in the mid-1990s with the invention of the Internet, and is still going strong today Patents Filed and Granted, 1981–2008 The number of applications filed for patents increased substantially from the mid-1990s into the first years of the 2000s, due in part to the invention of the Internet, which has led to many other inventions and to the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act (Source: http://www.uspto.gov/web/ offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/us_stat.htm) While patents provide an incentive to innovate by protecting the innovator, they are not perfect For example: • In countries that already have patents, economic studies show that inventors receive only one-third to one-half of the total economic value of their inventions • In a fast-moving high-technology industry like biotechnology or semiconductor design, patents may be almost irrelevant because technology is advancing so quickly • Not every new idea can be protected with a patent or a copyright—for example, a new way of organizing a factory or a new way of training employees • Patents may sometimes cover too much or be granted too easily In the early 1970s, Xerox had received over 1,700 patents on various elements of the 2/6 How Governments Can Encourage Innovation photocopy machine Every time Xerox improved the photocopier, it received a patent on the improvement • The 21-year time period for a patent is somewhat arbitrary Ideally, a patent should cover a long enough period of time for the inventor to earn a good return, but not so long that it allows the inventor to charge a monopoly price permanently Because patents are imperfect and not apply well to all situations, alternative methods of improving the rate of return for inventors of new technology are desirable Some of these possible alternative policies are described in the following sections Policy #1: Government Spending on Research and Development If the private sector does not have sufficient incentive to carry out research and development, one possibility is for the government to fund such work directly Government spending can provide direct financial support for research and development (R&D) done at colleges and universities, nonprofit research entities, and sometimes by private firms, as well as at government-run laboratories While government spending on research and development produces technology that is broadly available for firms to use, it costs taxpayers money and can sometimes be directed more for political than for scientific or economic reasons Visit the NASA website and the USDA website to read about government research that would not ...Reputation Why it matters and how you can manage it From banking to oil, technology to automobiles, industry reputations have been hard hit in recent years. Some were deserved and others were not. All had financial implications for the companies involved – and their shareholders. Key findings: • Organisational reputations have currency as evidenced in share value, operational costs and market opportunities. • Social networking has reduced the organisation’s control over its reputation. As a result, the pressure on organisations to understand how they are being presented and what they need to do internally has increased significantly. • Reputation is created from within. As such, its definition and quantification can and need to be incorporated into both strategic and operational planning and oversight. • Assessed correctly, reputation is an innovation driver and can open the organisation to new markets and market opportunities. • Quantification of reputation comes, most easily, from an analysis of errors of omission and commission – which, when addressed, provide clear direction for organisational improvement and increased employee morale and productivity leading to greater shareholder value and broader market opportunities. 1 | Reputation: why it matters and how you can manage it About CIMA CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, founded in 1919, is the world’s leading and largest professional body of management accountants. With more than 172,000 members and students operating in 168 countries, CIMA works at the heart of business, in industry, commerce, public sector and other not-for-profit organisations. Partnering directly with employers, CIMA sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its qualification, professional experience requirements and continuing professional development to ensure that it remains the employers’ choice when recruiting financially trained business leaders. CIMA is committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of members and students and to maintaining public confidence in management accountancy. For more information about CIMA, please visit www.cimaglobal.com About the author Leslie L. Kossoff FRSA is an internationally renowned executive advisor, writer and speaker specialising in strategic alignment and corporate turnaround. For over 20 years, she has assisted organisations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 50s in the US, EU and Japan across industries and sectors. Some of her clients include Fidelity Investments, Sony, Kraft Foods, Seiko/Epson, the UK National Health Service and the US Department of the Navy. Leslie has held executive positions in the aerospace/defence and pharmaceutical industries. She is the author of Leadership Quantified, two books, over 100 articles in journals including the Financial Times, Investor’s Business Daily and CEO and is a highly regarded speaker at conferences worldwide. Dr W. Edwards Deming, the founder/creator of the Western Quality Movement said of her, ‘She is, quite simply, one of the best at implementation.’ Leslie is the founder and former director of the Institute for Quality and Productivity Improvement at California State University, Long Beach and was a founding board member of the Global Women’s Leadership Center at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. She currently sits on the Boards of the Enterprise Trust, Cordville Capital, the Russia Research Network and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (www.kossoff.com). Reputation: why it matters and how you can Interest Rate Options A discussion of how investors can help control interest rate exposure and make the most of the interest rate market. 2 The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) is the world’s largest options marketplace and one of the largest securities exchanges in the United States. CBOE was founded in 1973, creating the world’s first standard- ized, listed equity options. CBOE’s success has been accomplished by leadership, innovation and its commitment to individual and institutional investors worldwide. CBOE continues to push forward with new products and new tech- nology that help meet the needs of the investing community. 1-877-THE-CBOE www.cboe.com 3 Making a move in today’s financial markets. Whether you invest in stocks, mutual funds, real estate or fixed-income instruments, there are few factors that affect your investments more than interest rates. Two of the most closely watched interest rates are the benchmark rates on short-term and long- term U.S. Treasury securities. They reflect changes in general economic conditions, inflationary expectations, monetary and fiscal policies and the value of the U.S. dollar. Other interest rates, including bank prime lending rates, home mortgage rates and corporate and municipal bond rates, tend to respond to trends in the Treasury markets. For investors, fluctuations in interest rates represent: •Opportunity. Investors can capitalize on their outlook on these rates. •Risk. Interest rate moves can adversely affect the value of their investments. 4 With CBOE Interest Rate Options, an investor has a tool to help control interest rate exposure and take advantage of new investment opportunities. These options give investors the chance to invest based upon their views on the direction of interest rates. What are interest rate options? Interest Rate Options are options on the spot yield of U.S. Treasury securities. Available to meet the investor’s needs are options on short-, medium- and long-term rates. The following contracts are available for trading at the Chicago Board Options Exchange: • Options on the short-term rate (ticker symbol IRX) are based on the annualized discount rate on the most recently auc- tioned 13-week Treasury bill. The 13-week T-bill yield is the recognized benchmark of short-term interest rates. These bills are issued by the U.S. Treasury in auctions conducted weekly by the Federal Reserve Bank. • Options on the 5-year rate (ticker symbol FVX) are based on the yield-to-maturity of the most recently auctioned 5-year Treasury note. The notes are usually auctioned every month. • Options on the 10-year rate (ticker symbol TNX) are based on the yield-to-maturity of the most recently auctioned 10-year Trea- sury note. The notes are usually auctioned 5 every three months following the refunding cycle: February, May, August and November. • Options on the 30-year rate (ticker symbol TYX) are based on the yield-to-maturity of the most recently auctioned 30-year Trea- sury bond. Treasury bonds are auctioned every six months in a February and August refunding cycle. IRX, FVX, TNX, and TYX values are reported throughout the trading day by Telerate Systems Incorporated, a leading international supplier of financial services. These values are based on current Cloud Computing & Databases How databases can meet the demands of cloud computing by Mike Hogan, CEO ScaleDB Inc. November 14, 2008 Introduction The potential benefits of cloud computing are overwhelming. However, attaining these benefits requires that each aspect of the cloud platform support the key design principles of the cloud model. One of the core design principles is dynamic scalability, or the ability to provision and decommission servers on demand. Unfortunately, the majority of today’s database servers are incapable of satisfying this requirement. This paper reviews the benefits of cloud computing and then evaluates two database architectures—shared-disk and shared-nothing—for their compatibility with cloud computing. Cloud computing is the latest evolution of Internet-based computing. The Internet provided a common infrastructure for applications. Soon, static web pages began to add interactivity. This was followed by hosted applications like Hotmail. As these web applications added more user-configuration, they were renamed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Companies like Salesforce.com have led this wave. With a growing number of companies looking to get in on the SaaS opportunity, Amazon released Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables companies to operate their own SaaS applications. In effect, Amazon hosted the LAMP stack, which they have since expanded to include Windows as well. Soon others followed suit. Then, large companies began to realize that they could create their own cloud platform for internal use, a sort of private cloud. So, just as the public Internet spawned private corporate intranets, cloud computing is now spawning private cloud platforms. Both public and private cloud platforms are looking to deliver the benefits of cloud computing to their customers. Whether yours is a private or public cloud, the database is a critical part of that platform. Therefore it is imperative that your cloud database be compatible with cloud computing. In order to understand cloud computing requirements, we must first understand the benefits that drive these requirements. The shared-disk database architecture is ideally suited to cloud computing. The shared-disk architecture requires fewer and lower-cost servers, it provides high-availability, it reduces maintenance costs by eliminating partitioning, and it delivers dynamic scalability. The Benefits of Cloud Computing Cloud computing is not a fad, it is driven by some tangible and very powerful benefits. Whether the cloud is provided as an internal corporate resource, as a service hosted by a third-party, or as a hybrid of these two models, there are some very real advantages to this model. These advantages derive from specialization and economies of scale: Specialization: There is a great deal of specialized knowledge required to set-up and operate systems to address security, scalability, platform maintenance (patches, updates), data maintenance (backups) and more. In a traditional model, each development effort had to include this expertise on staff. Cloud computing enables these capabilities to be staffed by experts who are shared across many customers. Instead of hiring that one person who does a decent job across all of these elements, cloud computing entities can hire individuals with deep expertise in each area, and then amortize this expense across a large number of customers. How YOU Can Automatically Get 0 Balance Transfer Cards for Years (And not pay a penny in interest) It’s all legal and it’s all perfectly honest. Brought to you by Gordon Goodfellow This short 7 page guide will change the way you look at money forever. There is no fluff in this report, so please take in every single word. In Part One you’ll discover where to get 0 balance transfer cards which allow you to make purchases at 0% interest, get cash at 0% interest, or transfer balances at 0% interest, or a combination of all three. There is a truly huge number of credit cards which charge a small fee for transferring your existing balance to them which will then charge you 0% interest for a specified number of months. 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You will be given the exact link to a free service which will enable you to use continuous 0% interest cards for years, possibly for the rest of your life. Think about this: you may never need to pay interest on your credit cards, ever. Fact: By using this service you will have 0% credit cards for years, possibly for the rest of your life. Part 1: Where to Get 0 balance transfer Cards There is a service that supplies all of the credit cards you will ever need, in all sorts of different categories. If you live in the United States go to: http://www.credit-card-transfers.com If you live in the United Kingdom go to: http://www.credit-card-transfers.co.uk The U.S. site offers more credit cards than the U.K. site, simply because so many more are available there. The U.S. site offers a convenient drop-down search box so that you can select your card by various different categories. This is at: http://www.credit-card-transfers.com/apply-for-a-credit-card-online.htm You can apply for many different types of card, too. You could apply for a charge card, a business credit card, a rewards credit card (in many different sub-categories), a secured credit card, a pre-paid credit card, a student credit card, a card for people whose credit rating is not good, etc. Among the rewards cards there are Airline rewards cards, Auto rewards cards, Cash rewards cards, Finance rewards cards, Gas rewards cards, Hotel rewards cards, Retail rewards cards, Sports rewards cards and Travel rewards cards. You can select cards which have introductory APRs of 0% of any higher figure, introductory time periods with 0% APR of up to 16 months (this varies with the offers available at the time). You can search by whether the card has 0% APR on purchases or any low APR rate on purchases or balance transfer. You can search by whether or not the card has an ... website for more information on how the R&E Tax Credit encourages investment 4/6 How Governments Can Encourage Innovation Policy #3 Cooperative Research State and federal governments support research.. .How Governments Can Encourage Innovation Along with protecting Mickey for another 20 years, the copyright extension affected about 400,000 books, movies, and songs [link] illustrates how. .. Funding Amount ($ billions) Percent of the Total Federal government $103.7 26.08% 3/6 How Governments Can Encourage Innovation Sources of R&D Funding Amount ($ billions) Percent of the Total Industry