The financial crisis is not just the trough of an unrelenting cycle, but the end of an era. Over the past ten months we have discovered growing economies of "non-scale." Large firms can't run on cash flow alone, have to place bigger bets and find they have less control over competition in a new, diverse marketplace with lower payoffs.

The past stars of finance are finding new addresses at smaller firms, it's a refuge for financial entreprenuership. They see that harnessing innovation provided by a startling amount of startups is the new "scale up" model for funding. Look at the new paradigms of the new business models: cloud computing, (no more huge capital outlays of IT equipment) to the web presence of supply chain models where even the smallest of companies can order and compete globally, to name a couple.

Downsizing, lay offs and outright firings have created thousands of small businesses and a huge market for skilled, freelance labor, all with the information technology world at their fingertips, waiting for the next clever idea, perhaps in the very industries they have recently, but not so voluntarily, left.

We see it every day, gaining more steam and frankly, the pace and breadth of innovation is stunning. The crisis may have turned our economy into fragmented arenas, but the actions of bright, well equipped entrepreneurs may render the big box companies irrelevant over the not too distant future.