I recently had the pleasure of joining CfA’s Startups team, Lane Becker and Dharmishta Rood, at the first annual Smart City Startups (#SCS414) conference in Miami, Fla. Hosted by Urban.Us, the conference convened a hundred entrepreneurs, investors, and urban innovators from around the globe in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami for two action-packed daysRead… Read more »
Who were the most important inventors and artists from 850 BC to 1950? How many are there? How would you choose? What could you learn from a list of these achievers and what they accomplished? Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C to 1950 by Charles Murray, answers theseRead… Read more »
Take away the booze, the smokes, the short skirts, the sexism and discrimination, and there are several leadership lessons women (and men) can learn from the popular TV series Mad Men. In case you are not familiar, Mad Men is about the comings and goings at a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 1960s. DespiteRead… Read more »
Have you ever thought about or actually started a small business? If your answer is yes, you’d be in very good company. The U. S. Small Business Administration’s definition of a small business is any business with fewer than 500 employees. Using that definition, according to the U.S. Census, by the end of 2013 thereRead… Read more »
Who do you admire? Perhaps you know someone who has overcome some extreme personal challenges or has shown himself to be particularly true to his morals and an example to others. Take a moment and think of at least one person who has impressed you with their actions or kindness. Have you ever told thatRead… Read more »
On April 23, we launched our new home page design (http://www.epa.gov). Among other changes, we reworked our banners at the top. It used to look like this screen shot: To change banners, you clicked the numbers. Heat maps showed that people did use the numbers to move among the banners, and other analytics confirmed peopleRead… Read more »
It’s a clear compliment to be chosen to take charge – but it can also be nerve-wracking to have that much responsibility laid on your shoulders. There are ropes to learn, responsibilities to juggle, and expectations are coming at you from those above and those below. You need to earn your team’s trust, earn yourRead… Read more »
Engagement is the holy grail of social media. It is supposedly the yardstick by which all of your social media should be measured and if you do not have engagement then you are doing it wrong — or so the story goes. So I might get raked over the coals for saying this but hereRead… Read more »
In the U.S. Commercial Service within the International Trade Administration, as our exporters’ needs change, so must we. Though it might seem an oxymoron for a U.S. Government agency to tout its innovative approaches, the reality is that we – and our U.S. clients — face myriad issues on a daily basis that require customizedRead… Read more »
In my previous post, I talked about the benefits of having a skunk works of federal developers. How can this team help with your Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) software choices? Your internal development team cannot (and should not!) build every piece of software you need. They should focus on unique, mission specific processes thatRead… Read more »