The CEO says there will be ample opportunity for entrepreneurs in the new economy.

Question: What role will entrepreneurs play in the new economy?

Spanfeller:    Well, because I’ve done it right.  I mean, you know, we shouldn’t be deaf of blind to history and I think a lot of the … gestation of those thoughts are in fact historically related but in any previous downturn, it has in fact then you know, new or smaller or growth company business that have pulled the economy out of the recession.  It doesn’t mean that large companies are important, they clearly are but you know, the engine of job creation around the upturn here will undoubtedly be located much more on this smaller businesses and the new businesses then initially in the larger companies, there’ll be a rebound hopefully, I’m expecting in a the larger companies.  But you know, the notion of creative destruction which is you know, is the [IB]from like the last century, is this true today as it was then and I… you know, like Clay Christensen over at Harvard business schools who augmented that process with the “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” and “The Innovator’s Solution,” solution series of books which are a great reads and speak to all of this which is you know, you’ve got to keep pushing the ball forward and we’ve got to keep making things better and barely a lot more not all but a lot more of the innovation comes out of new world, smaller, more nimble companies.

Question: What can large companies learn from small ones?

Spanfeller:    Well, I always has a lot of lessons and you know, to the extent that I’m sort of hedgy on my bets here and suggesting that those certainly be a percentage of the recovery that will be large company driven.  It’s around the fact that you can’t get to be a large company these days without being bigger and smart.  And part of that intelligence is understanding how to learn, right.  This idea of a learning organization and today I guess, that again the generation of your question is that a lot of those companies have in fact spend a lot of time figuring out how they can be you know, less big and more nimble and you know, folks like Cisco and others are I think are key examples of that who are… sort of recreate and regenerate themselves time and time again.