Capitalism without Capital

Over the last couple of years Peter Day has travelled around the world in search of businesses and business people to interview and use as the basis for In Business and Global Business. Yesterday he spoke to the National Conference for Economics Teachers about his experiences, it was a talk packed with insight and wisdom from a broadcaster who has become renowned for spotting turning points in the business world. The focus was on that age old but critically important concept - innovation.

The recession provides a rarely encountered moment for entrepreneurs looking for funding. Peter’s talk started at the Open Coffee Club in London, a venue for an intense meeting of minds from creative business people with ideas to develop. With interest rates on cash at historic lows, perhaps this is the moment for investor angels to look entrepreneurs in the eye and spot an opportunity to invest.

Power (and money) is moving to businesses who are prepared to re-write the rules - to those who

focus on solving customers problems
under promise and over provide
are embracing collaborative technologies and opening out some of their intellectual property for the creative commons community to develop new ideas
provide some goods and services for free and then build revenue streams around premium products that are better than free

His talk ranged from the creative clusters and innovation hubs in our universities to the possible emergence of ‘super cities’ in Leeds, Newcastle and Brighton. From businesses totally in tune with using collaborative tools (Wikipedia and Lego to name two) to the remarkable business models developed by the remarkable Irish entrepreneur Liam Casey based in Shenzen China that allows a consumer in Florida to order a coffee-making machine on a Saturday and have it manufactured in the Far East and delivered two days later.

Are we moving to a business world of capitalism without capital?