If the world is to resume sustainable growth, we will need new relationships that break down barriers both between companies and within them. It won’t be easy because a main engine of expansion – excessive credit growth – will be switched off. It is a big hole to fill. We must instead create new ways of doing things using the internet and social networks that we are only just starting to explore but which have huge potential, from healthcare to gaming. Some enlightened companies already use Facebook and Twitter to bond staff and encourage ideas. But this usually happens within departments, not between them, thereby removing a source of synergy.