Episode #4: Will small communities save us?
The fourth episode in season 2. Copenhagen Fintech interviewed Nils Elmark. Nils is the founder of the business and finance consultancies Incepcion and BankingLab.london. He is a futurist who helps companies create better and braver dreams. Nils has written three books on his old Remington typewriter and is a great motorcycle enthusiast. In his latest book “New Local Economy: How the Future’s Big Businesses Will Grow out of Small Communities” Nils argues for the creation of local economies as a means of resisting the seismic changes that globalization often brings, especially in times of crises. Moreover, research shows that for every £100 spent in a local shop, 45% will remain in the community (compared with only 15% if spent in retail chains such as Tesco or Aldi). As part of the design of the future, Elmark argues for the need to break up the global economy into local economies, so that communities can regain their independence and be less exposed to the tide of globalization. We talk with Nils how fintech fits in the new local economy, about the strength of local communities and how you balance the hyper globalized world (where COVID-19 now rages) and make smaller local communities thrive. And of course why fintech matters?