Archive: Knowledge Economy
This is where you can get details of my recent writing on the overlapping themes of innovation and the knowledge economy, in which ideas and their generation and application become the driving forces not just of wealth creation but also improvements in social well being.
Britain's Creativity Challenge
By Charles Leadbeater
Published by Creative and Cultural Skills, 2004
Culture is moving to the heart of the way we make our living, how we learn, take leisure and express our identities. Britain has a strong position in creative global industries, from media and fashion to music and computer games. That is in part due to the position of English as a global language. We have been able to exploit that only because of the quality of much of our cultural infrastructure which trains people in cultural activities - design, painting, music, performance. As modern Britain has become more diverse and open, so it has become a breeding ground for ideas and talent. That creativity finds expression through thousands of cultural entrepreneurs like Sazzadur being carried by this rising tide.
Download it here: http://www.ccskills.org.uk/media/cms/documents/pdf/Creativity%20Challenge.pdf
Surfing the Long Wave - Knowledge Entrepreneurship in Britain
Every developed economy wants an enterprise culture. As the rate of economic change increases, entrepreneurship is seen as vital for future prosperity and competitiveness. But it also has a broader significance, acting as a vital stimulant for an open pluralistic culture and a driver of social and civic renewal. But despite the emergence of a knowledge-based economy, and a distinct shift in the qualities needed for companies to succeed, myths about entrepreneurship still persist. This report sets out to explode those myths, and offers a systematic account of the conditions and strategies needed to sustain entrepreneurship in the new economy. Crucially, the authors argue, entrepreneurship should be seen as a process, driven by teams of people and involving collaboration across organisations and between sectors like higher education, government and financial community. A sustained culture of knowledge entrepreneurship requires an infrastructure based on networks and clusters, which government can facilitate. The report sets out wide-ranging recommendations for a more systematic approach to entrepreneurship, including enterprise education in schools, new forms of finance, the linkage of entrepreneurial firms with management skills, and a radical reshaping of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Charles Leadbeater and Kate Oakley, 2001, Published by Demos, The Mezzanine, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London SE1 7NQ.
Download it here: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/surfing
Living on Thin Air - The New Economy
Today more and more of us make our livings from thin air - from our ideas and know-how. This is because knowledge is becoming the most creative force in the modern economy. In old capitalism, the critical assets were raw materials, land, labour and machinery. In the new capitalism, the raw materials are know-how, creativity, ingenuity and imagination. Our generation is the beneficiary of unprecedented flows of knowledge from science and education, and we are equipped in ever more powerful ways to share and combine our know-how through communications. As a result, the opportunities for growth are boundless. But this new economy is perilous as well as powerful. An economy driven by creativity should be more humane. Instead most of us feel our economic lives are out of control, dominated by soulless financial markets and clouded by the insecurities bred by corporate downsizing. Living on Thin Air is about how we can create an environment that is both innovative and inclusive. Our societies should be organized around the creation of knowledge capital and social capital, rather than being dominated by the power of financial capital. Charles Leadbeater shows how we can create communities of competition, in which we collaborate to compete in the global economy. The book sets out a new constitution for the new economy that shows why entrepreneurship will become a mass activity, companies will need to be structured as if they were brains, ownership must be broadly spread, and networks will become the main way of organizing the knowledge economy. Leadbeater argues for a radical overhaul of corporate and government institutions inherited from the industrial era which are ill suited to the knowledge economy, including new approaches to measuring economic value, taxation and social entrepreneurship.
Charles Leadbeater, 1999, Published by Penguin Group, 27 Wrights Lane, London, W8 5TZ. Vivere D'Aria - La New Economy, Charles Leadbeater, 2000 (Italian edition of Living on Thin Air)
Published by Fazi Editore srl, Via Isonzo 42, Roma, Italy, see above summary.
Living on Thin Air - The New Economy with a New Blueprint for the 21st Century, Charles Leadbeater, 2001 (Chinese Edition of Living on Thin Air) see above summary.
The Independents - Britain's new cultural entrepreneurs
new breed of Independents accounts for a growing share of the employment and output in some of the fastest growing sectors of the British economy: cultural industries such as design, fashion, multimedia and Internet services. These Independents are mainly in their twenties and thirties. They run microbusinesses or are self-employed freelancers. They are often producers, designers, retailers and promoters at the same time. Independents already account for 6 per cent of employment in large British cities and their numbers are rising. Their main assets are creativity, skill, ingenuity and imagination. Across Britain, thousands of young Independents are working from their bedrooms and garages, workshops and run-down offices, hoping that they will come up with the next Hotmail or Netscape, the next Lara Croft or Diddy Kong, the next Wallace and Gromit or Notting Hill.
One of the main findings of this research - based on dozens of interviews with the new Independents in four British cities - is that there is a 'missing middle' in public policy. Policymakers, both national and local, know little about this new generation of entrepreneurs - how they work, where they come from, their distinctive needs - nor how to interact with them. This policy gap has to be closed - to help provide these new cultural entrepreneurs with a firmer base to build upon.
Charles Leadbeater and Kate Oakley, 1999, Published by Demos, The Mezzanine, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London SE1 7NQ.
Download it here: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/independents
Europe's new economy
Europe needs a new economic story. Europe's ability to compete in the knowledge-driven economy depends on how well it can translate science, technology and know-how into businesses, jobs and economic growth. Despite the emergence of a new breed of internationally-minded entrepreneur, the EU needs to do more to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Charles Leadbeater calls for a new approach to economic policy-making that has enterprise at its heart. He argues that Europe can combine social cohesion with the kind of entrepreneurial energy that drives US businesses, and he presents a list of policy targets to achieve that aim.
Charles Leadbeater, 1999, Published by Centre for European Reform, 29 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL.
Download it here: http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/p149_new_economy.pdf#search=%22europe's%20new%20economy%22
A piece of the action:
Employee ownership, equity pay and the rise of the knowledge economy
Knowledge is fast becoming the most valuable corporate resource. People are a company's most precious asset. The organisation able to make the most of people and their knowledge will be best placed to thrive in the twenty first century. Employee ownership and equity based pay will be vital to creating the networked, knowledge creating company of the future. They can underpin tomorrow's corporation. In the past, employee ownership was seen as an antidote for the shortcomings of industrial capitalism. A fresh push to deepen the roots of employee ownership in the UK is now needed. New equity ownership policy should promote:
- entrepreneurial employee ownership so that more new companies are employee owned
- equity pay schemes which allow employees to be paid in part with shares
- use of employee ownership in the small business sector to encourage more owners to sell companies to their employees on retirement
- the use of employee ownership to create more participatory management and reform corporate governance
Employee ownership and equity pay schemes can play a central role in creating a distinctive and successful market economy in Britain. They offer opportunities to reform the welfare system, modernise the employment contract and change the way companies are governed.
Charles Leadbeater, 1997 Published by Demos, The Mezzanine, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London SE1 7NQ.
Download it here: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/apieceoftheaction
Mind over Matter: Greening the New Economy
In the new economy, matter matters less. Ideas, creativity and innovation are replacing assets as the key to competitive success. Real environmental gains could flow from this shift. A high-tech, knowledge-based economy could go hand in hand with dematerialisation and resource efficiency. The shift from bricks to clicks could reduce traffic congestion. And the internet offers new ways to empower ethical consumers. But there are dangers, too. Will increased efficiency lead to ever more consumption, as prices fall? Will globalisation help companies evade environmental standards? And will the leading lights of the new economy embrace the environmental ethic? In Mind over Matter, Charles Leadbeater offers a compelling vision of the environmental opportunities of the new economy, and outlines the political and cultural innovation needed to ensure that the new economy is cleaner, greener and more competitive than the old.
Charles Leadbeater, 2000, Published by Green Alliance, 40 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0RE.
Download it here: http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/publications/PubMindOverMatter/
