Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs

by Muhammad Yunus

Overview

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and bestselling author shows how entrepreneurial spirit and business smarts can be harnessed to create sustainable businesses that can solve the world's biggest problems.

Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has developed a new dimension for capitalism which he calls "social business." The social business model has been adopted by corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists across the globe. Its goal is to create self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth as they produce goods and services to fulfill human needs. In Building Social Business, Yunus shows how social business can be put into practice and explains why it holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781586489564
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	05/10/2011
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank and more than fifty other companies in Bangladesh. He is widely known as both the father of microcredit and of the social business movement. In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is one of only seven individuals to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal. Yunus is the recipient of fifty-five honorary degrees from universities in twenty countries, and has received 112 awards from twenty-six countries, including state honors from ten countries.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Social Business-From Dream to Reality vii

1 Why Social Business? 1

2 Growing Pains 33

Lessons in Adaptation and Change from the Story of Grameen Danone

3 Launching a Social Business 57

4 To Cure One Child 95

A Case of Social Business in Healthcare

5 Legal and Financial Frameworks for Social Business 111

6 Grameen Veolia Water 133

A Social R&D Project for Addressing the World Water Crisis

7 Creating a Global Infrastructure for Social Business 153

8 Glimpses of Tomorrow 173

More Social Businesses Are on the Way

9 The End of Poverty 195

The Time Is Here

Index 207

Editorial Reviews

"There are times when Professor Yunus' aims for Glasgow sound like something out of the Conservative's "Big Society" pitch. His latest book, Building Social Business, is 300 pages of Big Society pleading for people to go out there and create businesses which generate cash and contribute to the greater good at the same time."—TheIndependent

"[A] reminder that capitalism can take kindlier forms: microfinance pioneer Yunus explains how he believes social enterprise can redeem what he regards as the failed promise of free markets."—TheSpectator

"Giving poor people the resources to help themselves, Dr. Yunus has offered these individuals something more valuable than a plate of food, namely security in its basic form.... Dr. Yunus has invoked a new basis for capitalism whereby social business has the potential to change the failed promise of free market enterprise."—SacramentoBook Review

" 'Social business is about joy,' says Yunus. Indeed, and the book itself is joy to read. In modest prose, Yunus tells of undertakings that instill hope. He also gives a lot of ideas, along with nuts-and-bolts practical advice for people who are ready to take the plunge into the world of social business. In the years to come, it seems certain that social business will become an integral part of our economic structure and will positively change the lives of many people."—MalaysiaStar

"In nine short, well-written chapters, Yunus provides genuine insight into global poverty and a unique perspective on the ways in which social businesses can coexist with traditional businesses to alleviate poverty and improve the lives of the world's citizens."—CHOICE

From the Publisher

Yunus (Creating a World Without Poverty) uses the selfish/selfless dichotomy of human nature to explain the fundamental difference between his concept of for-profit business vs. the social business. While the former seeks to maximize profit for the benefit of the owners, the latter aims to pursue social objectives for the benefit of poor customers and employees. Likewise, the social business differs from a traditional nonprofit because, like a for-profit business, it is self-sustaining through its sale of goods and services. Yunus developed the social business concept during the crushing 1974 Bangladesh famine. Local villagers, seeking aid for their entrepreneurial endeavors, found themselves virtually enslaved to moneylenders. By repaying the loans owed by these 42 enterprising souls, Yunus stumbled on the concept of microcredit. VERDICT Yunus engagingly profiles international social businesses, whether launched by multinational corporations or conceived by ordinary people with a vision to solve social problems. He offers practical advice for starting your own social businesses: from idea generation to the nuts and bolts of launching and running the concern. His impassioned dream of a different version of capitalistic endeavor is as inspirational as it is practical.—Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Library Journal

Ray Porter authoritatively narrates the story of how microloans revitalized money-lending practices and female-owned businesses in Bangladesh. Porter also conveys the earnestness of Muhammad Yunus’s journey from small-scale interventions in his village as a community money lender to renown as a Nobel Peace Prize winner. In places, the listener may feel the narration grows slightly plodding, an effect of the repetitive sentence rhythm. But this delivery style may be suited to the complexity of the text, which is a mixture of biographical, economic, and historical data. M.R. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2010 - AudioFile