Richard Branson: Capitalism is a system that can be improved

Capitalism has not exhausted its potential as economic system, and has a strong social potential, said Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, speaking at the 9th Yalta Annual Meeting

Capitalism has not exhausted its potential as economic system, and has a strong social potential, said Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, speaking at the 9th Yalta Annual Meeting.

Debating with Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, at the session "The Future of Capitalism", Richard Branson said that contrary to the opinion earlier expressed by the inventor of the microcredit and social business, modern capitalism not always focuses on maximizing profits.

"Of course, today’s world is not perfect,” said Branson. “But I think that most people who create new companies and start new businesses do not think about earning loads of money. Because their main intention is to create something better, and make money from it. Money is the motivation, but not the main driver to start a business. First, you want something changed. And then you have related expenses and revenue."

According to Richard Branson, the main problem of capitalism is that it offers extreme wealth to a very limited number of people. But if they use that wealth constructively, for the good cause, then the money is not wasted. As an example he cites an initiative of 12 companies, including Virgin and Unilever, whose leaders are discussing the social component of their business.

"Today capitalism is not so much motivated by profit. Every company is trying to change the world. Capitalism is a system that can be improved. Unfortunately, there has been no real discussion about the nature of capitalism and where it leads to. We are at the start of the process. All of us, 12 business leaders, agree that the current system is flawed and it should be improved. We are trying to figure out whether we are able to offer a structure that, being of a capitalist nature and based on capitalist values, would keep this motivation, but would also encourage entrepreneurs to share more and to think about the planet in general."

The 9th Yalta Annual Meeting is streamed live on korrespondent.net in Ukrainian and on euronews.com and yes-ukraine.org in English.

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