In the “Catalysts for New Enterprise” post, I mentioned some of the problems with “old” enterprise. In the comments Tony Zoltai (a local colleague) called me on this, and asked ” Given that there were issues that this culture evolved to address, how does the New Enterprise address those issues?”
What Tony tells me is that the argument was incomplete (not entirely unexpected). In suggesting that old enterprise is lacking, I’m not necessarily saying that an interest in profitability is wrong – it is a necessary but insufficient measure to drive 21st century prosperity; a narrow and incomplete metric for New Enterprise. But it’s still a prerequisite to sustainability (something I’ll explore more completely in subsequent posts) … some of the old issues that old enterprise was set up to deal with still exist!
I’m hoping that as this series unfolds I can address the question of what New Enterprise SHOULD be, but I am arguing that the time for incrementalism and low ambitions has past, and if we are going to reinvent capitalism (as Umair would like to do) then New Enterprise can’t be timid, but has to do different things, and do them differently.
More on the way …