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Business 2.0 has identified 15 companies as true gamechangers for the upcoming years. These game-changing startups are likely to upend existing industries - and spawn new entrepreneurial opportunities into the business community.
The 15 startups can be categorised into four spheres: Social Media, Hi-Tech, Energy, and Business Services. A slideshow on all 15 startups can be found here and you can read the full backgrounder here.
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Always been looking for the next big thing? Please keep an eye on The New Disruptors - A video series written and produced by Business 2.0 Editor-at-large Erick Schonfeld in conjunction with CNN.
Fast Company has composed their list of last year’s most innovative companies around in world. In my opinion three companies out of the top ten are catching my eye.
First good old GE, they really put imagination at work beyond their fancy slogan. It surprises me how such an established and large company can still thrive and pull off a number of new breakthroughs every year. Secondly Nike, the sporting goods company from Beaverton, OR. Nike is the only company in the top 10 not engaged in an internet or technology driven industry. Thirdly, the Chinese internet company Alibaba, its the only company from emerging markets that made it into the top 10.
#1 Google
#2 Apple
#3 Facebook
#4 GE
#5 IDEO
#6 Nike
#7 Nokia
#8 Alibaba
#9 Amazon
#10 Nintendo
The World Economic Forum has announced 39 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008. The companies’ products and services include identity management on the Internet, understanding of individuals’ genetic information, robotic radiosurgery, pollution control materials, low-cost remote diagnosis solutions, virtual interface technologies, wiki-based projects and next generation business intelligence solutions.
Twenty-three of the Technology Pioneers 2008 are US-based companies. Israel and the United Kingdom each boast three; Sweden and Switzerland two each; Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Russia, one each. Technology Pioneers are nominated in three main categories: Energy/Environment, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology.
The entire list of Technology Pioneers and interviews with the CEOs of the selected companies can be found here and the BusinessWeek’s article and slide show here: article, slide show.
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Here some additional musing on my previous entry (The new radar screen of VCs) which elaborates on today’s hotness of Europe’s economy!
Amongst others, owing to increasingly favourable macroeconomic conditions and the rise of Web 2.0 enabled initiatives; youngsters are flocking throughout Europe to start their first entrepreneurial advances.
Those youngsters have one thing in common, they all posses the passion and drive to utilise upon undiscovered consumer needs and enable uncontested market space. A narrow selection of twenty-five young entrepreneurs active in Europe can be found here.
BTW. Also checkout the special reports published by The Economist on European Business (February 2007) and The European Union (March 2007).
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What’s currently on the radar screen of Venture Capitalists (VCs)? In short, finally, they are starting to look beyond China and India respectively: Central and Eastern Europe.
At the very moment, first, there is Central and Eastern Europe. At least $500 million is sitting in fund targeting the Central and Eastern European region and much more is foreseen. This growth is enabled by a few success stories such as Skype and Last.fm, and in turn, this has triggered a new wave of fresh and new European entrepreneurial spirit. Furthermore, the accession of ten new European Union members from Central and Easter European countries has spurred investments across the region. The previous locked up energetic talent in this region has now gained equal access - as their Western European counterparts - to European capital markets and legislative protection.
In addition, as BusinessWeek pointed out earlier VCs are even having their eyesight beyond the traditional BRIC and Next Eleven (N-11) countries for example out of all places, Colombia, Latin-America. A multitude of young, bright and entrepreneurial minded people is ready to take the country up on the economic ladder. BusinessWeek typified Colombia as an extreme emerging market. It take guts and political sensitivity to start investing there but it can reap endless possibilities.
Here you can find a list of the top 500 European hot growth companies. Another listing can be found here. The latest and greatest news on European Private Equity & venture capital can be found here.
Some more great webpages to keep you updated on any activity at the European VC front can be found here. European Venture Capital & Private Equity Journal; FT European Venture Capital Report; Venture Capital in Europe (Book); and Profitability of venture capital investment in Europe and the US (Research Paper).
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Today I watched a very inspiring speech given by Muhammad Yunus (Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) at the Council on Foreign Relations on Microcredit. Anyone interested in Microfinance and economic devleopment, please check out this inspiring speech of Muhammad Yunus.
Basically Microfinance envisioned providing financial services such as Microcredit, Microsavings, or Microinsurance to the poor people in this world, in order to empower those people to become self-sufficient. Amongst others I really like the Microcredit peer-to-peer business idea by Kiva. You and I can provided small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
In 2005 The Economist already published a special survey on Microfinance. In a previous post I already wrote about Kiva.
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Everyday new web 2.0 start-ups are shooting out of the ground in the already overcrowded web 2.0 sphere. However, there are still some companies that stand out from the average! Business 2.0 has listed the twenty-five startups that you have to watch! Too bad that the list is too Americanised in my opinion. Hardly no startup from Europe or Asia is mentioned.
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Transumers, youniversal branding, twinsumer, generation (c)ash, web 5.0, status skills, infolust, trend unit, trysumers, generation (c)ontent, tryvertising, transumerism, the global brain, spotters network, innovation-overload, etc.
Desperately in need for a good business idea? Lack of inspiration? Check out the latest trend briefing published by trendwatching.com! The January edition presents five big trends/themes for the year ahead and gives answer to all the aforementioned ideas. The five categories are ranging from: status, transparency and consumer power, the online revolution, more adventurous consumption, and a shift from consumption to participation.
Appealing to read and it really gets your juices and entrepreneurial spirit rolling!
Check also Springwise for more entrepreneurial inspiration!
Source: trendwatching.com
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Yesterday BusinessWeek published eight top tech trends to follow in 2007. One of them the “touch wall” which was first introduced to the wide public in 2002 with the movie “Minority Report”. I really look forward to work with it!
In addition BusinessWeek also listed the tech companies to watch in 2007. It includes one Chinese company, two European companies and five American companies. My favourite company on the list the London based Last.FM. It gives you the opportunity to discover new music!
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