THE CONVICTION of
Similarly the journey of
Hindsight of course makes financial geniuses of us all.
Entrepreneurship by its very nature requires a vision. The whole essence of the concept is to create something which previously did not exist and which people did not know they wanted.
Even companies which go on to become very successful often stand on the precipice of failure in their early days. Google, for example, was rescued by a last minute injection of £8m - million not billion - when it was only just beginning to get going.
Failure is in fact the distinguishing feature of entrepreneurial ventures. Almost all new enterprises fail.
This phenomenon is not confined to the modern world. For example, intellectual ferment and fervour was at its height in Renaissance Italy, and nowhere more so than in Venice, centre of a vast network of international trade. In 1469, twelve companies were engaged there in the new activity of printing, but by 1472 nine of them had failed.
Likewise, in the first two decades of the 20th century there were almost 2,000 firms involved in the revolutionary new technology of automobile production in the US. Over 99 per cent disappeared.
Concerns about the impact of innovation on jobs, as in the case of AI, are also not new. To take another example from the past, in the middle of the 19th century the railways rapidly destroyed the entire stagecoach industry. Tough on the drivers, on the horse-related businesses which the coaches needed, on the inns which served the routes. But society as a whole was a massive beneficiary of the new technology.
Policymakers have to strike a difficult balance. They need innovation to generate the growth which creates a flow of extra monies for the public purse. But they face relentless criticism if the state backs anything which fails. And they have to try and ensure reasonable protection of existing firms and jobs.
Yet the plain fact is that in the
Supporting innovation is not just an economic policy, it is a social one as well. It is the only sustainable way of financing the increasing demands which are placed upon the welfare state. Whoever forms the next government must shift the balance in its favour.
(c) 2023 City A.M., source