The agent’s decision-making

Let's turn to the agent’s inner workings: What happens between those inputs and outputs? This requires some information processing, so that the agent compares the outside world with the agent’s purpose, and then discerns —from that comparison— an appropriate response.

Changing values – Towards a new economy?

Our ideas of value, what it is and how it is generated in the economy, have changed over time. Today's dominant school of thought, neoclassical economics, lost sight of these decisive questions, as Mariana Mazzucato argues in her 2018 'The Value of Everything'. But there are some very recent promising signs that we are starting to have a renewed debate about value and how we want the economy to work for all of us.

Policy innovation at work

Today I'll present a timely example and, I hope, an inspiring glimpse of how European policy-making actually works. It goes like this: On 4 July, economics professor Mariana Mazzucato spoke in Helsinki about the mission-oriented approach to research and innovation that the Union should adopt. Questions will come readily to your mind: Why now? Why there? Why she? And of course: So what? Let's go through.

The efficiency mindset – appealing, but treacherous

Much of the public debate about innovation is centred on the corporate world, where share-holder value still rules supreme, and where innovation is the key avenue to keep the competitive advantage required to excel in the market. In this environment, efficiency is the prime driver. However, his mindset asks us to implement solutions quickly. The result can be too much emphasis on solutions with too little concern for the underlying problems; too much doing with too little thinking. And that has some unintended, hideous side-effects and long-term implications.

The entrepreneurial mind – upgrade

We live in a VUCA world: it's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. These global conditions are the same for everybody, for every organisation. But different types of organisations show different kinds of responses to these circumstances, in particular in the business world. While small entities like start-ups seek to draw their competitive advantage from agility … Continue reading The entrepreneurial mind – upgrade →