CREATIVE CAPITALISM

•  "A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century" - by Bill Gates

Speech delivered at the World Economic Forum, January 24, 2008, in Davos, Switzerland

Thirty years, twenty years, ten years ago, my focus was totally on how the magic of software could change the world. I believed that breakthroughs in technology could solve the key problems. And they do – increasingly – for billions of people. But breakthroughs change lives only where people can afford to buy them – only where there is economic demand, and economic demand is not the same as economic need.

There are billions of people who need the great inventions of the computer age, and many more basic needs as well. But they have no way of expressing their needs in ways that matter to markets. So they go without.

If we are going to have a serious chance of changing their lives, we will need another level of innovation. Not just technology innovation – we need system innovation.

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