The phrase ‘sharing economy’ was coined a decade or so ago to describe collaborative new business models made possible by the internet, from Airbnb and Uber to crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and skill bartering sites. It was about ways of monetising assets, circulating capital and earning casual livings that boosted economic activity after the ‘great recession’ and it will be a hive of creativity in the next recovery — even though its partner is the ‘gig economy’ whose insecurity has left so many people in hardship now.
But I want to propose a more urgent purpose for the same phrase: to describe how every business should share the impact of the current cataclysm, make it more bearable, spread it over time and limit the need for state bailouts. Last week I wrote about corporate social responsibility towards individual customers. This week I’m talking about business-to-business: commercial landlords allowing rent holidays, utilities allowing late payment, banks (of which more in a moment) flexing overdraft limits and waiving penalties; larger businesses paying small suppliers as promptly as they can; super-markets not screwing farmers; everyone making allowance for their counterparts’ cashflows in anticipation of the day when trade returns to normal.
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