Today I had a profoundly moving experience, out of nowhere. It often happens in my bizarre life. Ill be sitting there blissfully unaware of the juggernaut about to crash into me on the most mediocre of days. I was sitting outside Cafe Nero in Charlotte St, which as most people know is my default choice for meetings when I’m tired and like, today, sick with the man flu. So I’m there discussing the world and its problems with the CEO of a very big digital media company, waxing lyrical about social justice, the infinite potential of the new knowledge economy and how the Mocha I was drinking was much better at Starbucks.

Then came along a homeless woman asking for change, as is quite common. To my shame, I brushed her away without thinking, but Adrian (the CEO) stopped her and emptied his wallet for change. I was taken aback, as hes one ruthless fucker. To my irritation, she decided on having a chat, despite me being in full flow. That was the last time I will be that selfish.

I feel guilty, like everyone does, when I walk past a person on the street. I ask myself if Im really doing all I could. I could give them my clothes to sell. I could go the cashpoint and give them all the money I have, as I know Id get it back in spades. I could talk to them and help them find their way with the things I know. I could employ them or pay for their shelter. I try to buy food when I can, instead of giving money, especially if they have an animal.

What started as us humouring her quickly grew into a very long conversation about the economics of homelessness. Right now as I write this Im furious. Im enraged at the incompetence and inertia that keeps people on the streets, because its a disgusting injustice that has an end which nobody seems to want to see it meet.

My caught my attention when she was talking was her head for figures. Being in full business mode, I progressively realised she was a very, very talented businesswoman and deeply personable. I’m ashamed of my own prejudices that blocked that for me initially. She told us shed been asking people all day for money, simply to raise a paltry £8 to pay for her homeless shelter. Shed managed 30p so far until Adrian gave her his change, which amounted to about half of what she needed.

Apparently, it’s £8 per night to stay in a hostel, of which the charity takes £1. That effectively means that rent for a homeless person in London works out at £240 per month. Shed eaten 2 Cadbury’s Fudge bars all day. Even at a conservative £3.50 food allowance per day (which is impossible to live on), it costs £105 per month to eat. The basic living expenses in the city total £345 per month. Which is £345 more than any homeless person has.

So we turned to income. Naturally you cant get a job if youre homeless, which means you need to rely on state welfare to survive, unless of course you turn to begging in the street, which is what most do. Income support relies on having a fixed address, which again no homeless person has. So lets say you jump that hurdle and somehow manage to get your giro check. At the very most your income is £90 for a fortnight, or £180 per month.

Do the maths. It doesn’t work.

To top it off, apparently Westminster and Camden’s answer to the problem of homelessness is that middle England staple of out of sight, out of mind. The current trend is to issue persistent homeless people with ASBOs so they just move around more so you dont see them. It goes without saying that it does nothing to help. She hates Tony Blair, because she claims they have made it all worse than it has ever been. Its not hard to understand how desperation drives them to crime just to survive.

Whats even more interesting is that she also hates the charity Shelter, and says they are useless. Thats an interesting viewpoint as I happen to know the CEO of Shelter very well (Adam), and I told her right there and then I will be bringing it up with him next time I am down that way (and believe me, Ive already sent him an email and I will go through with it). Most of the hostels in London are for men, and many of them are only for young people (i.e. under 25). Again it goes without saying that women need protection more than men at night. If you have a child its much easier as you will be placed in a council property as priority. Shed been beaten, raped, brutalised and spat at. God knows what horror shes seen in her 14 years of desolation.

Our friends story is tragic, but typical. I asked her what the original trigger was that caused her to be on the street. Bear in mind this was an articulate, pleasant, calm and charismatic woman who was dressed as well as she could manage and not manipulative or cynical as many can be. She smokes but doesn’t drink or do drugs. 9 months ago she lost her brother (also homeless) to heroin. The hardened amongst us would be sceptical of that claim, but I was there. I listened and I believe her.

She was put in a children’s home as a child, to be bullied, abused and forgotten about. No parents, no support and no development path. Naturally she didn’t have the chance to gain an education, so GCSEs and A-Levels never happened. She was too busy trying to just survive her environment to be able to develop any skills or qualifications. From there it was a rapid descent onto the streets of Glasgow, where she is originally from. No qualifications means no job, and no job means no income. No income means no home or career training. Shes been where she is for 14 years and has little hope.

So between the various supposed support establishments that we pay for every day, each one has failed her, and failed us all. Every one has passed her and all the others on for someone else to deal with. No-one cares about these people. There are tens of thousands of them. The doors of the churches are shut, which should be the very first place they should be able to go to be safe, warm and sheltered. The door is shut everywhere. People dont give money as they (quite legitimately) fear they are paying for a drug habit.

Its true that wherever there is poverty, you will always find a drug dealer, a bookies and an off licence. These people feed off the weakness of the vulnerable and profit from numbing their despair. They are trapped in a deadly destructive circle of dispassion that only gets progressive worse, like being in a well where nobody will offer their hand to pull you out and the walls around you get more slippery every day. Homelessness is not a choice, nor is it comfortable, despite what many fortunate middle class armchair philosophers believe.

But what struck me the most was that solving the problem is like solving any business problem. And the tragedy is that its so preventable. Its beatable! If we tapped into 0.05% of the intellect (not money) of our capitals workforce, the infinite resource that is used in offices every day, we could solve the problem in weeks. Charities have so many people applying to work for them that they cant cope, yet for some reason this problem persists. No-one will commit to solving it, even the charities.

I spend a lot of time with those charities, offering them help with their technical systems and finding new ways to beat old problems. One of my all-time favourites is Fareshare, which is an incredible organisation. One day when my other half and I (my ex) were having a coffee at the Excel conference centre in the docklands, we saw Costa pour hundreds of fresh sandwiches into black bags and throw them away. Perfectly good food that was delivered that day and not sold by closing time.

So I decided to cal every homeless charity I could find and ask them why the fuck that food wasn’t being given out to homeless people who need it most. Fareshare was the one mentioned more than anyone else. So I paid them a visit at the Bermondsey depot, got them coverage in a few periodicals (Private Eye, amongst others), and still admire their work now.

Want to know why that food is not given out? For fear that a homeless person will eat something beyond its display date, get sick and sue the supplier.

No, seriously.

Fareshare are the next generation charity, as they operate like a business does and are self-sufficient. They charge retailers half market rates for disposing of their rubbish to generate their income, and then distribute the material all around London, almost like modern day Robin Hoods. Their problems are numerous, and from time to time I drop in to help where I can. I have technical and commercial expertise that they so desperately need to make things happen.

Finding people shelter cant truly be that hard, neither can giving them medical assistance or a fixed address from which they can claim income support. I wonder why we dont have donor card that they can use to buy food in supermarkets that is subsequently debited from a persons bank account as a donation to them. I wonder how hard it would be to set up educational centres that helped them qualify in basic literacy and computer skills. I wonder how hard it would be to find them mentors to rebuild their lives, or even just give them jobs in public services.

But all charities need this expertise. Its not money (yes its important), but its ideas that change the world. Its people that come up with those ideas, give their time and generate social change. What these organisations need is expertise, time and intellectual resources to create new systems and build innovative new ways to solve old problems. Technology can help, but its not everything. Sending money is another thing, but it doesnt create ideas or effect change. We have hundreds of thousands of workers in our capital that could donate their intellectual capacity and skills to empower these charities and give them the resources they need to bring hope into the darkest of places. Pity only goes so far.

When you look at it, its a simple equation. People want to give back to their communities, and charities desperately need the specialist expertise they use in their office every day of their working lives, be it technical, commercial or compassionate. There is currently no way to match the two. Employers love tax breaks and the PR value of working with charity. Wealthy men work their way into political power with their charitable donations. Forgiveness in the press is usually accomplished by giving to a charity. What they need most has little monetary value, is free and in overwhelming supply.

People often ask me why Im doing what I’m doing. I get awards, praise for being some kind of genius and other things I dont deserve which elevate me to far more than I am. I know many very wealthy men, and I have so many opportunities in life to do the things I want to do. All came about because I learned to change my thinking. Of course I want to secure a future for my family and pass on a legacy to my grandchildren, but the main reason is that I want the power and resources to put things right. It occurred to me today that I can solve homelessness.

I’m not naive to the complex dynamics of the problem, nor do I think I possess some kind of superhuman quality that I alone can yield for some recognition as some kind of heroic figure. The capacity to do it is within all of us, as individuals and as a culture and community. The criminal negligence is the lack of will to have done it by now already. We all feel compassion and pity, but there comes a time when practical and meaningful ways have to be devised to solve it, just as in business. If we can do it in business, why cant we do it in life where it is far more important?

Our conversation ended with her saying for 5 minutes talking to you both Ive felt like a person again. To which I replied remember my face, because I promise will fix this for all of you. Meaningless to her perhaps, but words I intend to stand by. If I can build companies, raise millions and make millions in the corporate world, then I can damn well do something to help these people.

Einstein said that intellectuals solve problems, but geniuses prevent them. His predecessor Archimedes (who invented the first laser, and calculated the circumference of the earth with a stick) famously boasted Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. To most it was arrogance and simple vanity, but to him it was simply a question of physics. And homelessness is a problem of economics. Give your mind, and I will solve it in 90 days.