“Creative Capitalism” by Bill Gates

In Wall Street Journal there is a preview on Bill's speech today at World Economic Forum (they are actually flying over my house going to Davos – I hear them all the time J). It is a pretty interesting reading on new ways how capitalism could work not only for the rich but also for the poor. What I like – the longer the more – is the idea not only of charity but of making money AND helping the poor. Impossible? I do not think so. When I was in South Africa recently I visited a customer of us being a bank and their business model is exactly that: They are handling the transaction (pretty small ones) for people not having a lot of money. Actually they have branch offices in the middle of the slums. They use high-tech solutions to keep their cost to a minimum but with that, these people all of a sudden can save money to buy things later on or can get micro-loans to invest in their businesses. And the cool thing: They are actually really profitable. It works at least for them.

Read the WSJ-article yourself – it is worth it: Bill Gates Issues Call For Kinder Capitalism

Roger