Anthem Author, Mariana Mazzucato, at TEDGlobal2013

TED conferences are some of the best places for forward thinkers to come together and share ideas. Covering everything from art to science to business, innovative thinkers and industry leaders come to spread their knowledge with the world. One of the greatest aspects of the organisation is that they record all the lectures from the conferences and uploaded them to their website — an open source sharing of ideas, accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

With that said, we’re happy to share that one of our authors, leading innovation economist Dr Mariana Mazzucato (University of Sussex), will be giving a lecture at this year’s TEDGlobal2013: Think Again in Edinburgh. Her new book, ‘The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs Private Sector Myths,’ has just been released today and her lecture on Wednesday will cover some of the key points from her new book. (If you’re attending the event, she will be doing a book signing as well, so do stop by.)

Building on the Dr Mazzucato’s work for a high-impact DEMOS report, ‘The Entrepreneurial State’ debunks the myth of the state as a large bureaucratic organization that can at best facilitate the creative innovation which happens in the dynamic private sector. Analysing various case studies of innovation-led growth, it describes the opposite situation, whereby the private sector only becomes bold enough to invest after the courageous state has made the high-risk investments.

“It is the State that has dared to think – against all odds – about the ‘impossible’: creating a new technological opportunity; making the initial large necessary investments; enabling a decentralized network of actors to carry out the risky research; and then allowing the development and commercialization process to occur in a dynamic way.”

Of particular interest are her chapters on Apple (see her recent article for the Harvard Business Review here), the Green Revolution, and pharmaceuticals, as well her arguments against austerity and her points on risk-taking.

In addition to the TEDGlobal talk, there will be an official book launch at the Waterstones Economists’ Bookshop (at LSE) on 3 July at 6:00-7:30 pm. She will also be giving a talk at the Institute of Public Policy Research in London on the 17th of June at 11-12:30.

Learn more about the author, Mariana Mazzucato:  http://www.marianamazzucato.com/