Muhammad Yunus, "Creating A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism"

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize outlines his vision for a new business model that combines the power of free markets with the quest for a more humane world—and tells the inspiring stories of companies that are doing this work today.

In the last two decades, free markets have swept the globe, bringing with them enormous potential for positive change. But traditional capitalism cannot solve problems like inequality and poverty, because it is hampered by a narrow view of human nature in which people are one-dimensional beings concerned only with profit.

In fact, human beings have many other drives and passions, including the spiritual, the social, and the altruistic. Welcome to the world of social business, where the creative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to today's most serious problems: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and protecting the planet.

Creating a World Without Poverty tells the stories of some of the earliest examples of social businesses, including Yunus's own Grameen Bank. It reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already under way—and in the worldwide effort to eliminate poverty by unleashing the productive energy of every human being.

From Inside Flap
What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some, it sounds impossible. But Nobel Peace Prizewinner Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly that. As founder of Grameen Bank, Yunus pioneered microcredit, the innovative banking program that provides poor people—mainly women—with small loans they use to launch businesses and lift their families out of poverty. In the past thirty years, microcredit has spread to every continent and benefited over 100 million families.

But Yunus remained unsatisfied. Much more could be done, he believed, if the dynamics of capitalism could be applied to humanity's greatest challenges.

Now, in Creating a World Without Poverty, Yunus goes beyond microcredit to pioneer the idea of social business—a completely new way to use the creative vibrancy of business to tackle social problems from poverty and pollution to inadequate health care and lack of education.

This book describes how Yunus—in partnership with some of the world's most visionary business leaders—has launched the world's first purposely designed social businesses. From collaborating with Danone to produce affordable, nutritious yogurt for malnourished children in Bangladesh to building eyecare hospitals that will save thousands of poor people from blindness, Creating a World Without Poverty offers a glimpse of the amazing future Yunus forecasts for a planet transformed by thousands of social businesses. Yunus's "Next Big Idea" offers a pioneering model for nothing less than a new, more humane form of capitalism.

From Publishers Weekly
Economics professor Yunus claims he originally became involved in the poverty issue not as a policy-maker, scholar, or researcher, but because poverty was all around me. With these words he stopped teaching elegant theories and began lending small amounts of money, $40 or less, without collateral, to the poorest women in the world. Thirty-three years later, the Grameen Bank has helped seven million people live better lives building businesses to serve the poor. The bank is solidly profitable, with a 98.6% repayment rate. It inspired the micro-credit movement, which has helped 100 million of the poorest people in the world escape poverty and earned Yunus (Banker to the Poor) a Nobel Peace prize. This volume efficiently recounts the story of microcredit, then discusses Social Business, organizations designed to help people while turning profits. French food giant Danone's partnership to market yogurt in Bangladesh is described in detail, along with 25 other businesses that operate under the Grameen banner. Infused with entrepreneurial spirit and the excitement of a worthy challenge, this book is the opposite of pessimistic recitals of intractable poverty's horrors.

Contents

Prologue: Starting With A Handshake
Photos

Part I: The Promise Of Social Business
 1 A New Kind of Business
  Is Government the Answer?
  The Contribution of Nonprofit Organizations
  Multilateral Institutions—The Development Elite
  Corporate Social Responsibility
  Capitalism Is a Half-Developed Structure
  Note
 2 Social Business: What It Is and What It Is Not
  Social Business Profits Stay within the Business
  Broadening the Landscape of Business
  Two Kinds of Social Businesses
  The Difference between Social Business and Social Entrepreneurship
  What about a "Hybrid"?
  Past Attempts to Combine Social Goals with Traditional Business
  Where Will Social Businesses Come From?
  Human Beings Are Multi-Dimensional

Part II: The Grameen Experiment
 3 The Microcredit Revolution
  The Birth of a "Banker to the Poor"
  A Shift in Thinking
  More Economic Blind Spots
  The Evolution of Grameen Bank
  The Evolving Grameen System
  From Grameen I to Grameen II: A More Flexible, Responsive System
  Microcredit around the World
  The Return of the Moneylenders
  Problems with Funding Microcredit
  Mainstream Banks and Microcredit
  Credit: The Vital Foundation
  Note
 4 From Microcredit to Social Business
  The Grameen Family of Companies
  Spreading the Word about Microcredit: Grameen Trust
  Revitalizing an Age-Old Craft: Grameen Uddog and Grameen Shamogree
  Promoting Entrepreneurship: Grameen Fund and Grameen Byabosa Bikash
  Improving Rural Livelihoods: Grameen Fisheries and Livestock
  Opening Opportunities for Young Minds: Grameen Shikkha
  Linking Every Village to the World: Grameen Telecom and Grameen Phone
  Renewable Energy for Rural Bangladesh: Grameen Shakti
  Bringing Health Care to the Poor: Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Health Care Services
  Social Business: A New Economic Frontier
 5 The Battle against Poverty: Bangladesh and Beyond
  Poverty Programs That Work
  Credit Comes First
  Charity Is Not Always the Answer
  Bangladesh and the Developed World
  Toward Regional Peace and Prosperity
  Bangladesh and Its Giant Neighbors
  Bangladesh's Strategic Location
  The Mega-Port Can Be a Social Business
 6 God Is in the Details
  The First Planning Meeting
  Fortified Yogurt for Children
  In Search of Answers
  A New Venture Takes Shape
  New Ways of Thinking: In Production and Distribution
  Finding the Winning Formula
  The Official Launch
 7 One Cup of Yogurt at a Time
  A Sports Super-Hero Kick-Starts the Business
  A Win for the Company, a Win for the Poor
  Edible Cups?
  Bringing Meaning to Business Life

Part III: A World Without Poverty
 8 Broadening the Marketplace
  Who Will Invest in Social Business?
  Financing Grameen Danone
  New Yardsticks for Evaluating Business
  Tax and Regulatory Issues
  Social Business and a World Transformed
  More Than a Fantasy
 9 Information Technology, Globalization, and a Transformed World
  The Power of IT to Help the Poor
  Tailoring Technology to the Needs of the Poor
  Social Business and the IT Revolution
  The IT Revolution and Democracy
 10 Hazards of Prosperity
  Economic Inequality and the Struggle over Global Resources
  Spreading the Wealth and the Growth Dilemma
  The Logic of Uncontrolled Growth
  How Much Consumption?
  Making Space for a New Set of Voices
  Solving the Growth Dilemma
  Notes
 11 Putting Poverty in Museums
  A Better World Starts with Imagination
  Practical Steps toward the Dream-World of the Future
  New Frontiers for Foundations
  An End to Poverty

Epilogue: "Poverty Is a Threat to Peace"—The Nobel Prize Lecture
For Further Information
Index
About the Author
About the Publisher

Tags: WorldPolitics, Globalization, Sociology, Business, Poverty

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