In the 1980s, in Glasgow’s Argyle Street, there were two banks of four public telephones, just outside the station. They were always busy, but the fact was that only eight phone calls were being made in that throbbing thoroughfare at any one time.

Now look at the same street as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. Every second person – sometimes it seems like everyone – has a mobile clamped to his or her ear and conversations are loud and continuous.

The point is that new markets emerge all the time and the people who succeed in business are the ones who anticipate them. The business min