- ISBN13: 9781586488246
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has developed a visionary new dimension for capitalism which he calls ?social business.” By harnessing the energy of profit-making to the objective of fulfilling human needs, social business creates self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth even as they produce goods and services that make the world a bet… More >>
Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs
I have found both of dr yunus’ social business books to invite us all to use the mathematically best system design for job creation and solving every type of sustainability crisis at community levels. Yunus Friends and I make maps of where 1000 book readers are experimenting with what dr yunus inspired projects; let all microeconomists and entrepreneurs connect and see if we can live up to dr yunus book’s invitation of 2010s as most exciting decade – the one where people and netizens reclaim democracy and link together a humanly worthwhile globalisation that values sustainability for all our future generations and unites you N us in the greatast collaboration race: to end poverty, hunger and all the inhuman stuff that one in 6 babies in a civilised 21st C should not be trapped by.
Rating: 5 / 5
There is no doubt that Muhammad Yunus has accomplished much via Grameen Bank and his other efforts. His concept and implementation of “social businesses” in Bangladesh are admirable, but…
A social business is merely a variation of the age old for-profit model of capitalism. He proposes that “new” businesses can be formed to target a social need where the owners are prevented from “enjoying” any profit from the business. What is preventing this from being done now! Any for profit business can decide to give their profit away or charge lower prices to minimize profit.
ALL businesses, however, must make a profit to survive. The laws of Economics demand a profit. The only way a company can survive when not making a profit is to borrow the needed funds, sell equity or receive donations. Therefore, to be self sustaining a profit must be made. The questions are: how much and what do you do with the excess profit.
Yunus also presents the “maximizing profit” business model in a distorted way. He suggests that for profit entities motivation is to make money by looking for opportunities that maximize profit. I would suggest, in the entrepreneurial world, it is reversed. Entrepreneurs look for unmet or under-met needs and then strive to develop ways of meeting those needs better than the competition. If they think they can make a profit, they proceed. There is a HUGE difference to each approach.
A perfect example of Yunus falsely “reinventing” capitalism in his new “social business” model was when the companies decided to charge the urban population more to subsidize the lower price charged to rural populations. For profit companies do this all of the time. The classical definition of market price is the price a willing seller will accept and a willing customer will pay, therefore it is common to have different prices for different markets. This is not some “revelation” only associated with “social businesses.” This is a well proven strategy implemented by every successful, growing for profit business.
I also find it interesting that all of the “social business” examples contained in the book happened to be in third world markets without strong competition. I would suggest that Yunus’ concept of “social business” may only be possible in these types of markets where there are large numbers of individuals with fundamental unmet needs such as food, clothing and shelter. I struggle to understand how a “social business” will thrive in the highly competitive first world markets where few unmet basic needs exist. This may limit this modified capitalistic business model to third world countries, which may not be a bad thing if it truly helps the poor and disaffected.
One final thought. In 2007, I attended the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference in Glasgow, Scotland. During a presentation on Social Entrepreneurship, four successful “social entrepreneurs” on a panel each declared that social entrepreneurship was a fabricated concept promoted by the educational community and was not a term they used to describe themselves. They ran businesses that HAD to make money so they could do GOOD. Each of these successful entrepreneurs made it clear that only after profit was attained could good follow. I think Yunus’ “social business” concept suffers from the same misconception.
Rating: 2 / 5
Muhammad Yunus is perhaps world’s best known anti-poverty crusader. His new book, Building Social Business, is a manifesto for those who care deeply about solving the society’s “wicked” problems – poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, global warming. It is a treasure trove of creative ideas, exciting business models, and plans on how to create sustainable solutions for the betterment of the world’s poor, and slowly chip away at global poverty.
Listening to Yunus speak, as I recently did in Houston (he gave the commencement speech at Rice), and reading his new book, one gets the sense of being in the presence of a world class social entrepreneur. He has credibility that only comes from years of toiling in the field to perfect these business models. Peter Ducker would have been proud of Muhammad Yunus and his ideas and experiments in managing new businesses to solve the multi-faceted problems of poverty.
The book is a sequel to his earlier books – Banker to the Poor, published in 1998, and, Creating a World Without Poverty, published in 2007. The new book describes his work in the years since he received the Noble Prize in Peace in 2006. His success gives new meaning to what President Kennedy said, “One person can make a difference and every person should try.”
The new book is a call for ordinary citizens, organizations, and nations to dream of a better world for all humans, and act proactively to fight poverty, and overcome other big challenges that threaten human progress and prosperity. Is taming global poverty an overly audacious goal? Can this goal be attained in our lifetime? How can we eliminate poverty and related problems that have bedeviled human society for centuries? The author is supremely optimistic that poverty can be overcome, and the book presents a blueprint for a new type of business organization (Social Business or SB) dedicated to improving the conditions of the poor in a profitable and sustainable way.
Munir Quddus
munirtasmina@sbcglobal.net
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a superb book on all counts. The author, Mohammed Yunus, is the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winning economist for his work in micro-credit to end poverty in Bangladesh. Over the years he realized that his micro-lending work resulted in the creation of a very different kind of business, one whose focus is social good rather than profit. He calls it “Social Business”. It addresses some of the fundamental shortcomings of capitalism which we are all too familiar with when profits come before people and when the success of the world’s economy is predicated on unsustainable growth (e.g. environmental damage, labor abuses). Capitalism also provides no answers for poverty – there is not enough profit there. Indeed, it is part of the cause. Capitalism misrepresents human nature as being mono-dimensional, seeking only to maximize profits.
Yunus takes great pains to explain the concept, addressing many questions he frequently gets. It is different from a regular business in that all profits are rolled back into the business to create more social benefit, rather than paid out as dividends to investors or owners. He compares Social Business to many other efforts and kinds of organizations devoted to creating social good. For example, unlike a charity, Social Business is financially self-sustaining, not having to devote major resources to getting donations. It is attractive for people who wish to support social causes because the money they invest in a social business comes back to them, and can be re-invested to get further social returns. He also discusses NGOs, Social Marketing, Social Entrepreneurism Corporate Social Responsibility and various new kinds of organizations that are popping up.
After expanding on the definition given in is last book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, Yunus goes on to give a comprehensive update of what has been going on in the past three years — which is quite a lot! For example:
* An update on the Grameen-Danon joint venture to produce affordable nutritious yogurt was given. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned, and the future now looks good.
* A new venture between Grameen and Veolia has gotten started to provide safe arsenic-free water in Bangladesh
* A few health care related Social Businesses are described along with the creation of a nursing school to train locals who then work in the villages or overseas.
* Other separate organizations that are cooperating with Grameen are popping up to disseminate knowledge and expertise in Social Business — e.g. in Germany, Scotland and California.
* Universities are creating programs. There is a Social Business Chair at HEC, a presigious business school in Paris. This is a step closer to Yunus’s dream of having a MBA program focused on Social Business entrepreneurship.
* The first annual Social Business Summit was held in November 2009
Yunus also gives a lot of ideas in many different sectors for how you might start your own social business, along with a lot of
nuts and bolts practical advice. One interesting pattern that is emerging in various social businesses is what he calls the “cross subsidisation” business model. The prices are kept very low in the villages where people cannot afford them, and the full market rate is being charged in the cities where people are better off. This is working for health care, yogurt and water.
Overall this is a great book, telling of what might evolve into a massive shift in how capitalist economies operate. Social Business fills an important gap left by capitalism and can also sit comfortable alongside it.
Yunus has spent his whole adult life thinking about these things, and it shows. He even talks about a separate stock market for social businesses.
Oh, the book is also well organized, clear and easy to read.
Rating: 5 / 5