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Guest post by the P-I's Brian Chin.

Bill Gates didn't exactly lay out any sweeping, world-changing visions during his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month. But he's sure getting attention for what he said today at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he called for a new form of "creative capitalism" that can make money by helping the world's poorest residents.

As Gates defined it, "creative capitalism is an approach where governments, businesses and NGOs work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit or gain recognition doing work that eases the world's inequalities."

"Such a system would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives for those who don't fully benefit from market forces," he added.

It was, in the words of NYT's John Markoff, "a public challenge ... in which he urged them to pair the self-interest that is the hallmark of capitalism with interest in the welfare of others, which he asserted was a second important force of human nature."

You can read his full speech on the Gates Foundation's site. See BBC News for a concise recap of his speech and The Wall Street Journal for a more in-depth exploration of the concept he laid out.

Or, if you prefer the video treatment, here's Gates giving his own brief explanation in a four-minute interview for the Journal:

Addendum from Todd: Microsoft is already putting this idea into practice with ventures like bolstering technology training in schools worldwide, and selling cheap software to students in developing nations. The company has become more open in acknowledging that it's out to help its own business while it spreads technology to underserved parts of the world -- an example of the twin goals that Gates cited in his speech.