Microsoft founder Bill Gates pitched a new form of capitalism on Thursday that would help better serve the neglected poor in a speech to company bosses assembled in Davos.

He posited that capitalism worked because people were motivated by self-interest to create wealth, but the system did not reflect the other key driver of human behaviour: the desire to help others.

This could be overcome if companies made more philanthropic gestures and gained recognition from the public for doing so. They could also work at stretching their activities to serve neglected and seemingly unattractive markets.

"The challenge here is to design a system including profit and recognition to do more for the poor," he said, calling for a new form of "creative capitalism."

"Creative capitalism is an approach where governments, businesses and NGOs (non-government organisations) 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," he said.

Gates said Microsoft had already dedicated its top innovators to projects designed to develop software for the poor. The company has a research centre in India working on software to enable illiterate people to use computers.

He also cited a Dutch drug company that shared the rights for a new cholera vaccine with companies in the developing countries, but kept exclusive rights in the developed world.

"I'd like to ask everyone here ... to take on a project of creative capitalism and see where you can stretch the reach of market forces," he said.

The idea is bound to run into scepticism among many company bosses, who do not have Gates' incomparable wealth or freedom.

Chief executives of listed, public companies frequently refer to their responsibilities to shareholders, which limit their ability to devote company resources to non-commercial projects.

Gates, who is to step down as chief executive and chairman of Microsoft in July, plans to devote his time to running his foundation, which works to reduce global economic inequalities.

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