Care Economy Business Models

The Care Economy

A care economy business serves not just profit for shareholders, but plays an active part on overall community health, treating everyone as a stakeholder. As with conventional businesses, there will be a huge range of size and sector. At the bottom end, a home baker might make cakes and sell them in the local community. At the top end, a multinational might support such businesses by assisting with admin, logistics, distribution, financial transaction processing. We see similar model today with ETSY and Amazon. One of the key developments is that AI will automate a great many of the boring and time-consuming parts of a business such as marketing, sales, distribution and taxes. That means that a lot of people who would otherwise find running a small business too daunting a task might be able to. They won’t need an MBA, or skills in marketing or sales, or legal or accountancy skills – they can all be delegated to AI. The home baker could get on with baking cakes instead of having to spend hours every day on admin. Enabling many hobbyists to become business people will help create social bonds and community cohesion.

There are many technologies that will make big contributions – social networking, AI, 3D printing, robotics, automated distribution (drones, or self-driving pods or cars).

Another area where businesses might evolve is in what I call ‘part bake’. I had the idea first while working on an event for food manufacturing. It occurred to me that people like food to be freshly cooked, and some supermarkets were selling part baked bread for exactly that purpose. I saw that the model could be extendes greatly by selling a wide range of products, not just foods, in a ‘part-baked’ state, where a local business would buy them, then personalise or adapt them to local needs. Again, it would be an excellent model for the care economy. It could be part-baked cakes, where a local cake decorator might buy several every day and then decorate them for local birthdays or celebrations. They would not need to have baking skills as well as decorating skills, and could concentrate on what they do best. Obviously, combing with the above model, a local baker could be baking the cakes, with someone a street away decorating them. A local driver might collect and deliver them, along with many other products in the area.

If we look at the bigger picture, we can see how large businesses could halp support a range of smaller ones, helping the local community enormously, but importantly, in doing so, increasing the potential markets for their own produce. Cloudy manufacturing is not charity, it makes money for all of those involved, while simulataneously helping to forge stronger relationships and bonds in the community.

Clearly, this would be a very healthy transition for business. It isn’t at all anti-capitalist, but by making companies more involved in helping other companies, the whole economy increases, making everyone better off. At the same time, very many hobbyists-become-businesspeople will gain not only ‘side-hustle’ income but more importantly, a better sense of self-actualisation, doing what they love and getting great feedback from others who enjoy their products, as well as increased social fulfilment too, from new relationships. But of course, in doing all of this, while helping social sustainability, it is also possible to improve other areas of sustainability too. Not least if that by providing many products and services from withing local communities, the environmental footprint will be far better than importing it all the way from China or Africa.

A very broad range of technologies could be linked in to this sort of enterprise expansion. Many, such as locally grown (or made) produce, smart packaging, drones and autonomous vehicles, and even AI upskilling and augmented reality support tools will be key to improving sustainability too. Everyone wins.

Offshore Vertical Farms

A Vision of Sustainability

In a world grappling with the challenges of sustainable living and efficient food production, one idea I can offer is the air-floating offshore vertical farm.

The Daisy of the Sea

Imagine a structure, floating not on water but soaring above it, presenting no barrier to shipping and immune from the ferocity of the sea, resembling a daisy in its form and function. At its core is a vertical farm, stretching upwards, a tower of green teeming with life. Its ‘petals’ are not ordinary leaves, but panels of advanced solar technology, harnessing the sun’s energy to breathe life into this floating marvel.

Self-Sustaining and Efficient

At the heart of this structure lies the vertical farm, a testament to modern agricultural techniques. Layers upon layers of crops grow in a controlled internal environment, shielded from pests and harsh weather, more robust ones on the outside. It’s a perfect example of precision agriculture, where every drop of water and ray of light is optimized for maximum yield.

This offshore vertical farm is the epitome of sustainability. Powered by the sun, it could grow a plethora of crops, providing abundant food without the burden of land use. By elevating the farm above the sea, it avoids the pitfalls of traditional agriculture — no land degradation, no deforestation, just pure, efficient farming. We could use our seas to grow food, and give more of the land back to nature.

Vertical farms convert solar energy to power LEDs with the light frequencies needed by plants. With the outside of the farm covered in plants too, the centre makes a visually appealing green centre for our daisy.

Solar Petals

The solar panel petals are not just power sources; they are integral to the farm’s ecosystem. They provide the energy needed to run the farm’s operations, from lighting to irrigation. This synergy of food and energy production creates a cycle of sustainability that is crucial for our planet’s future.

Rainwater can be gathered by the petals and piped inside. If that isn’t enough, electricity from the panels can power desalination.

Floating High for a Reason

Elevating the farm above the sea serves multiple purposes. It ensures that the structure does not interfere with marine life or shipping routes. Being offshore also means it is free from the shadows of tall buildings or mountains, making solar energy collection more efficient.

A Blueprint for the Future

This offshore vertical farm shows how we can produce food and energy in harmony with our environment. It’s a stepping stone to a future where nature and technology exist in balance, providing for humanity’s needs without compromising the health of our planet. I can imagine countries with abundant territorial waters using solar daisies to produce hugely more food than they can today, with less environmental impact.

Self-sterilizing surfaces & packaging

Guest Blog: Stage Management – that’s the real 21st Century Space Odyssey

Stage Management – that’s the real 21st Century Space Odyssey

Guest blog by Christopher Moseley

A recently aired Jamie Oilver Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast (#FridayNightFeast @jamieoliver) saw Jamie ‘n’ Jimmy welcoming Goldie Hawn – yes, the star of There’s a Girl in My Soup, Butterflies Are Free, The Sugarland Express, Private Benjamin and The First Wives Club, to name but two of Goldie’s two dozen or so Hollywood films – walk (glide) into an impromptu cook-off with Jamie and buddy Jimmy Doherty in Jamie’s new restaurant in Southend-on-Sea.

 

It was all very charming, although more than a little surreal, and I didn’t quite buy the plethora of expensively coiffed and dentally perfect so-called diners gobbling Jamie’s langoustine and truffle pasta dish. In fact the diners looked entirely out of place and I suspect that none of them ordinarily would take more than a few steps outside of their Islington homes for a feed were it not for the opportunity of appearing on one of Jamie’s TV programmes.

The action then shifted to an achingly cool restaurant (another Jamie gaff I guess) where two rather bemused and suspiciously well-scrubbed and exfoiliated Scottish fisherman were jumped by dozens of twenty-something lady restaurant and foodie bloggers. “We must get Britain eating langoustines; it’s a national tragedy that all these Scottish langoustines are being exported abroad,” the lady bloggers chorused.

 

At the end of the programme our burnished, gleaming and Titin-coiffed heroes, Jamie and Jimmy declared that their mission had been accomplished: langoustines have been preserved for British bellies, while Southend had officially fallen in love with Goldie Hawn – en masse.

 

Ahhh! Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast isn’t really might kind of TV programme. There’s an excellent documentary on the Wars of the Roses on the Beeb just now, which is just my kind of thing. That said I do appreciate programmes of any stripe which give you an epiphany, or glimpse of something new, a vision of the future if you will. Which is exactly what I got out of the most recent outing from Jamie and Jimmy. I got a rather trippy vision of the future; a vision of the future from a societal perspective.

 

This past week has seen the launch of ‘taxibots’ and Cortana Microsoft’s personal, voice-activated robot assistant at CES 2016 – much more my kind of thing, a much much more tangible and techie vision of the future. And yet, and yet … I really did get something out of Jamie and Jimmy’s foodie programme from an amateur futurist perspective. It was the stage management of the whole thing: from the whole odour-free, scrubbed and trimmed presenters, chefs and actors ‘thing’ going on, to the way in which everything had been tightly scripted and managed. Jamie and Jimmy’s programme is a remorselessly good news, good-hearted type of programme where narry a dark cloud, nor drop of rain can ever appear – it just isn’t allowed.

 

Which got me thinking of all those science fiction films and literature, which are neither utopian, nor dystopian in nature – The Truman Show to name but one – which depicted the future as a kind of endlessly upbeat TV show of the gleaming American variety, where everyone is happy, clean and neurosis free.

Yes, forget North Korean hydrogen bombs, UAV taxis and talking intelligent fridges – they’re just wallpaper. The real vision of the future is Messrs Oliver and Docherty, smiling, spot-free and shiny.

 

The future is going to be sunny, with only a light, refreshing breeze. Enjoy your langoustine truffle-encrusted pasta folks!

Christopher Moseley

Head of Public Relations

Merchant Marketing Group