Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
By Muhammad Yunus
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Number Of Pages: 296
Publication Date: 2008-01-07
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1586484931
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781586484934
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.
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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
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Summary: The Right Way
Rating: 5
Empirical evidence that just throwing money at a social problem isn't the best solution. Micro-financing is an amazing concept. Great book.
Summary: Future of Social Capitalism
Rating: 5
I agree with everything that the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Muhammad Yunus wrote about in creating a global economy based on social capitalism for developing economies. Although I am not an expert in economics; I just want to add to this based on my common sense approach on the present financial crisis, which has developed after his book Creating a World Without Poverty was written.
Both governments and people have failed to grasp the extent of the financial crisis. The examples of the financial crisis are just symptoms of a decayed economic system; some of the most problematic sectors have not even come to the surface yet. The U.S. Government would have been best served by letting the old system collapse, and should not have bailed out the big investment banks. Rather, the government should have helped the people who were most desperate. The bailout was a reward for failure, in favor of the privileged and advantaged. It was the taxpayers and disadvantaged ones paying the price and assuming the risk. This is the perfect time for starting a new economic model, based on social capitalism, which values humanity. The bailouts and stimulus packages are a short-term solution that does not really attempt to solve the overreaching problem. It is going to be slow and painful economic recovery.
Nothing is wrong with tax increases for the rich and cutting unnecessary government and public spending. In a time of crisis, the very rich should be the part of the solution. Some things to keep in mind as this global integration takes place, is that there should be separate international banks for the global economy; commercial banks for the wealthy and corporations, and small community banks for the middle to working class.
When the British ruled India, their administrative structure was hierarchical (capitalistic), they used knowledge management (socialistic) methods which included tangible and intangible values approach. Information went from the bottom of the chain to the top, information was gathered (data gathering with interviews, investigations and direct supervision) and filtered, whereupon the data would be used to address a given problem and come up with a solution for strong productivity and efficiency.
Summary: AWESOME
Rating: 5
I am so enjoying reading this book it really is where we need to focus as a society. Very educational and informative, so glad that I bought it. Remarkable I give this book a 5 star plus. I am grateful to Muhammad Yunus, I hope he inspires many more.
Summary: A book that reminds you that there is a solution to poverty
Rating: 5
This book gives you a blueprint of how the poverty problem can be solved.
One thing that Mr. YUNUS pointed out was getting credit to poor people and how the larger economic commumity discriminates against the poor by not giving them credit or giving them a hard time to get it. He also points out similarities with western poverty and how people are also shut out from getting credit. This is a very good book for anyone that wants to know the answer to the poverty question.
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