One of my business school professors, Freek Vermeulen from my days at London Business School had this to say about innovation - "Innovation has been looked at from every conceivable angle, but we still repeat the same mistakes."

Why are we using 20th century practices in a 21st century work world? Why is rocket science easy in comparison to creating people-centric organizations? Are you a leader who lets it happen, makes it happen or wonder what happened? Who and what will disrupt your business?

A Bayt.com poll on innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) shows that companies in the Middle East and North Africa value innovation and encourage customers to participate in their innovation strategies.

What is a big company without a solid set of employees? How would Google, Microsoft, or Amazon function if they were run by one man behind a computer? The answer might be, they would function quite well for awhile—after all, that is how most of the biggest companies are started. But what about once they pick up?

Many companies find themselves at a crossroads. The next few years will decide which business models will survive and which will undergo sweeping changes. Technological evolution, the modern consumer and the total market compel us to answer that one crucial question: who is prepared to re-invent their company as well as themselves?

These are the key, need-to-know trends of 2014: The Elements of Culture. Think of the Elements of Culture as a cultural literacy crib sheet – a system that looks at some of the most important trends as they appear today, evolve tomorrow, and impact the world in the future.

From giants like Apple and Google to upstart companies Oculus VR, Xiaomi, and Nordic Semiconductor, this slideshow will break down the important companies you must be watching in 2014.

Being a beautiful business is the future of business. The first step is to know what and where to know how to design a business to be beautiful. Use qualities of beauty and design principles as guidelines.

Innovation is driven by hope and fear. By humans dreaming of a better place. Emerging technologies are maintaining scale and deflation, accelerating the pace of change, having a profound impact on how societies, institutions, businesses and individuals interact. The emergence of new identities, facilitated by technologies and enabled by new values, is the new revolution. A peer-to-peer revolution.

Check out this presentation of 99 questions that winning entrepreneurs must answer to build a compelling business plan..