For many investors traditional means of making money are being undermined by low interest rates. Banks and hedge funds are far more cautious as to where they lend.
Hi-tech companies seem to have seized the mantle of 'money-makers' from the investment banks and there is talk of a shift in the 'balance of power' between the two, at least in the US.
To see examples of this look no further than Silicon Valley. The 'second industrial' revolution is throwing up a whole host of new technologies and investors are pouring money into the sector. But what's interesting is that these companies are refusing to cede control to the banks, as would have been the case just a few years ago.From established giants like Google and Facebook to a growing number of start-ups more and more companies are refusing to allow their focus on innovation to be undermined by the demanding short-term financial targets traditionally set by Wall Street. Control is staying with the company's founders.
So is power shifting from the banks to the technology companies? Well, there has been a trend of late that has seen big technology giants, like Google and Twitter for example, attracting top talent from the likes of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and there is certainly a discernible shift in the number of graduates from leading universities choosing to work in the tech sector rather than in finance.
Is the same happening in the UK? Hotspots from Oxford and Cambridge to London and Bristol exist, but most companies in the UK still have to contend and operate within traditional financial structures.
Change is happening with the development of innovative financial hubs providing entrepreneurs with improved access to finance, as well as a loan programmes for start-ups and the Government's own Business Bank.
Small steps perhaps, but a start nonetheless. Wouldn't it be something if in the middle of this lacklustre General Election politicians stopped talking austerity and began to focus on and frame how the UK could look to the future and how it could fund and encourage the next generation of hi-tech companies?
