The Path to a Preferable Future: Investing in System Innovation

Working Paper

Critical to the prospects for change in many other systems is the system of finance itself.

Finance is an enabler of change through investment in the real world of new systems, technologies and business models. But finance is not just a tool, it is also a frame. It frames how we think about change: who calls the shots, what their goals are, how we should think about the outcomes we seek.

We cannot hope to shift other systems unless we shift the system which controls our investment in and capacity to bring the future to life. Too often the financial tail wags the much larger real world dog.

Published in November, 2022