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What’s keeping you from becoming more innovative? In a recent article for Harvard Business Review (HBR), authors Tony McCaffrey and Jim Pearson suggest that our perceptions are the problem. Specifically, the authors cite three attitudes – functional fixedness, design fixation, and goal fixedness – that limit the way we think. Yet McCaffrey and Pearson also claim it’s possible to overcome these obstacles. Here’s how.

Would you like to cut product development and assembly costs? Would you like to do this while improving quality, reducing downtime, boosting morale, and eliminating material shortages? If you want to sell Industry 4.0 to your IT organization, you’ll need to emphasize the real-world benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT).

For years, New York’s Southern Tier has experienced manufacturing job losses. Now, as part of an economic development initiative called 76West, New York State will help build a clean-energy sector in the 11-county region. From now until March 15, 2016, NYSERDA will accept applications for this $20 million business competition, which includes a $1 million top prize. Which clean-energy companies will compete and win?

Economic development doesn’t just create jobs when manufacturers open new facilities. There are plenty of so-called “indirect jobs”, too. When 1366 Technologies opens its new Genesee County plant in 2017, the solar wafer manufacturer will employ between 600 and 1000 people. The Bedford, Massachusetts company will also bring supply chain and operational opportunities to New York State. Can you benefit from them?