Business. We need more than a repair shop.

The last two hundred years have seen us with a view of business and the economy as machines. Analyse, design, construct, wind it up and collect the money. It worked very well until recently when what was happening out of sight has made itself very present. Now we know, without doubt, that the mechanical view was myopic and that we are a small part of a much bigger, complex system that is reacting to what we have done.

No matter how much we bodge, tinker, and weld, it is clear that not even the most gifted craftspeople in the most expensive repair shop in Davos can fix this. We need new ways of thinking and acting.

We're very good at talking about beginnings. There are many beautiful metaphors and imagery that "leaders" who have no real vision other than hanging on like to trot out to appease us. We are not good at talking about endings much the same way as we don't like to talk about death, despite knowing that good endings are a vital prerequisite of beautiful beginnings.

It shows in th…