What is the government’s role in driving innovation? Listening to Senators during the recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearings on the Energy Department loan guarantee program (specifically loans to the now-infamous Solyndra), you’d think the federal government has no role in American innovation. The lawmakers love it when they can show up at… Continue reading Innovation Requires Risk, but… Government Risk?
Women control $12 trillion of the global economy and make about 80% of the purchasing decisions, according to the Boston Consulting Group (not exactly a feminist-leaning company). The Washington Post says “Fixing the Economy: It’s Women’s Work” and that the “Fortune 500 firms with the best records of putting women at the top were 18… Continue reading The “Fierce Urgency” to Increase Women’s Leadership in ARPA-E — Blame All Around
Leaders talk about growing a green economy and developing clean energy solutions, but the (mostly-male) talent trolling the halls of the Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center for the ARPA-E 2012 Innovation Summit last week was filled with folks actually doing it. One of the keynote speakers who brought the engineers face-to-face with reality was Steve… Continue reading ARPA-E on the Practical Side of (Energy) Innovation
Imagine being in the room when Grey Advertising’s Amanda Zolten suggested to her colleagues that they use her cat’s soiled litter box to pitch a new client. How many people laughed? Or rolled their eyes? Or even thought she’d be in trouble? That’s the problem. Corporate America is in its own way. Every day, in… Continue reading Corporate America Needs to Get Out of Its Own Way
Being nice doesn’t drive innovation. As the legacies of Steve Jobs are analyzed and dissected, one of the most important ones is that Steve Jobs did not worry about not being liked – and drew the best out of people. This flies in the face of traditional corporate culture. Jobs didn’t care about being liked… Continue reading One Lesson from Steve Jobs We Missed – Embrace Conflict
Keep up with the energy-climate-sustainability industry and get great career tips by signing up for our newsletter here!
