Maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. Having asked several hundred social and environmental entrepreneurs for their nominations of extraordinary social innovators and entrepreneurs, we expected their focus to be on people like them. It was, but they also came up with some quite unexpected choices, providing useful clues on where capitalism may be headed next.

So it was no surprise that they picked people such as Nobel Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus, nominating three of his Grameen Bank-linked social ventures. Nor that they nominated Van Jones of Green For All, whom President Obama has just hooked into the White House to help boost the number of "green collar jobs".

The choice of Shai Agassi, former SAP number two now working to convert consenting countries (Israel, Australia and Denmark), states (California and Hawaii) and cities (Toronto) to electric vehicles, was also a foregone conclusion. Ditto the inclusion of financial institutions such as Sustainable Asset Management and Al Gore's Generation Investment Management.

And it was interesting to see organisations such as Apopo International making the final cut. They train African pouched rats to do two things that are increasingly important in today's world: to sniff out buried landmines and detect cases of pulmonary tuberculosis.

The real surprises lay elsewhere. First, in government, the most popular nominee was the Obama presidency. The sheer ambition of the targets now being set in plans such as New Energy for America was energetically applauded—so, too, was the role of California in leading the charge in clean technology. But the entrepreneurs made it plain that what they want is "government-as-unusual".

A bigger surprise came with corporations. Those making it through to our Phoenix 50 list include GE, GSK and Novo Nordisk. Our entrepreneurs celebrate the way such giants can bring new solutions to scale in global markets. Yes, some investors winced when GSK chief executive Andrew Witty announced plans to slash drug prices for poorer nations, but he is one of the pioneers sniffing out tomorrow's markets, even if it means sacrificing aspects of today's business models. 

John Elkington is co-founder of Volans. His latest publication is The Phoenix Economy: 50 pioneers in the business of social innovation