State of the New Economy

Katherine Gehl

Special Assistant to the Mayor for Technology
Chicago, Illinois

The goal of anyone working in the mayor's office, or anywhere in the public sector, is to improve the quality of life for the city's people. Today's technology allows us to dream bigger about that goal than anyone who came before us.

Look at Chicago's public schools. There are 600 schools and more than 400,000 students in Chicago. It used to be that when you thought about change in the public sector, you had to think in terms of years. Now transformational change is possible in a short time.

My concern is that we won't take full advantage of our opportunities. In the private sector, market forces drive change. We can't automatically assume that change will happen naturally -- and efficiently -- in the public sector as well.

It won't.

In the private sector, businesses come and go with little large-scale consequence. In the public sector, there are more strings attached to each initiative. We need extremely decisive leaders. And we need a public-private partnership on a scale that we've never seen before, because so many of the skill sets and resources that we need right now tend to reside in the private sector.

Before moving to the mayor's office in February, Katherine Gehl (kgehl@city ofchicago.org) was the director of information-technology services for the Chicago Public Schools. She is also a former manager at Oracle Corp.

Jim Pitofsky

Founder and CEO
SEA Change
(Social Entrepreneurs' Alliance for Change)
San Francisco, California

The things that excite me about the new economy -- increased access, entrepreneurship, innovation, rapid change, and leaders who are newly engaged in their communities -- are the same things that trouble me.

I'm encouraged by -- and concerned about -- the ways in which the new economy will enable and influence partnerships among social entrepreneurs, for-profit entrepreneurs, and philanthropists.

It would be great if all of those constituencies would work together to develop stronger communities. But right now, there exists an elitism of access to communication, collaboration, and capital that we have to overcome if we're going to get anywhere.

Giving people in the nonprofit sector access to technology is only one part of bridging the digital divide. Once they have that access, where will it take them? Who will it lead them to? And what are the offline means to deepen that access?

A small number of business entrepreneurs are experiencing huge growth, access, and wealth. But many aspiring entrepreneurs only read about those things, because they don't travel in circles with VCs or belong to the "right" networks. The same thing goes for social entrepreneurs.

The new economy is forging mergers with incredible frequency. I'm encouraged by the fact that some nonprofits are also recognizing that shared missions and resources can often help their customers. It's nice to see the boundaries between sectors beginning to blur.

I just hope that everyone gets the chance to participate.

Jim Pitofsky (jim@sea-change.org) is the founder and CEO of SEA Change, an organization that facilitates communication and collaboration among social entrepreneurs, for-profit entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. Before founding SEA Change in 1999, Pitofsky served as vice president and acting president of the Echoing Green Foundation, based in New York.

Krishna Subramanian

Cofounder, Chairwoman, and CEO
Kovair Inc.
San Jose, California

This is truly the era of the woman manager, the woman entrepreneur. Women have more of an opportunity now than ever before to excel in business, because companies are moving toward what I call "complete market innovation" -- a focus that puts customer relationships on the same level as technological innovation. And that business model plays directly to the strengths of women.

Companies used to be structure around individual contribution. Now teamwork -- presenting a seamless interface to the customer, across all points of contact and all functions -- is becoming more important. by nature (and I know that I'm making a sweeping generalization here), women are team-oriented, consensus-oriented. In many ways, we understand the new business model instinctively.

And the barriers to our advancement are coming down. Someone told me that information used to be a weapon in the hands of the few with the most power. Today, everyone has -- or can get -- the same information. The relevance of the old-boys' network is diminishing.