Building Social Business: Capitalism That Can Serve Humanity's Most Pressing Needs [Hardcover]

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.

This book on social business draws a lot from Yunis' other two booksBanker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World PovertyCreating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism with the exception that it goes a little farther in-depth on the Dannon project and other corporations that are taking notice of the social business phenomenon and producing new ventures. The book also goes further into encouraging people to start their own social business If you've read his other two books, this one has a small amount of new information, but if you've read the other two, you'll most likely notice a lot of repeat information/familiar bits from his previous work. For the person new to social business read his other work before this one.

Building Social Business by Dr. Muhammad Yunus 2010

Reviewed by: Dr. Joseph S. Maresca

This book is an excellent rendition on how to invest in
poor countries while getting a modest return and doing
much good at the same time. The classic profit maximization
model does not produce optimum results because many
working poor simply cannot afford the higher prices.
To some extent, this phenomenom is happening in the
USA. Hence, there are Grameen branches in Brooklyn
and Queens, New York.

Yunus guarantees loans to the poor ; thereby acting as
an intermediary. This is not much different from the
USA government guaranteeing certain loans to
borrowers. The result is that bankers are much more
willing to lend money due to the guaranteed payment.
Borrowers repay in small weekly amounts. Women
have great drive to overcome poverty. The Grameen
Bank lends $100 million dollars a month in
collateral free loans averaging $200 apiece .
The repayment rate is an astounding 98%.

Grameen lends money to beggars to sell toys,
households and foodstuffs door-to-door.
There are 100,000 beggars in the program.
Since implementation of the program, over
18,000 beggars have quit begging.

Grameen offers children of borrowers money to go
to school. And so, 50,000 students are pursuing
medicine and engineering coursework. This program
is microcredit or microfinance at its best. In some
cases, a mother may be illiterate and her children
go on to become physicians and engineers
due to the Grameen Bank.

Grameen Violia Water sells pure water at a price
that the poor can afford. In the future, the
"Artificial Sun" coupled with desalination
may be able to accomplish a similar feat.

The objective of the Grameen program is to
overcome poverty, have a sustainable economy
and have a modest return on the investment.
When loans are paid back, profits are plowed
back into the company not unlike the function
of retained earnings in a for-profit company.

Fabio Rosa has brought solar energy to nearly
750,000 Brazilian homes with no electricity
previously. There is a similar opportunity to do
so for the Palestinians, if the various strategic
constituencies can agree on a workable
settlement.

Currently, Grameen Telecom, Grameen Energy
and Grameen Well Being serve the poor.
Grameen and Pfizer have a joint cooperative
venture to bring affordable health care to
village clinics through Grameen Healthcare.

A similar cooperative arrangement could be
brought to the Medicaid program here in the
United States in places like Appalachia and
other rural communities where professionals
are hardly ever seen practicing their craft.

The first major attempt to outline Appalachia as a
distinctive cultural region came in the 1890s through
the tireless efforts of the Berea College President .
William Goodell Frost coined the phrase
"Appalachian America" which encompassed 194
counties in 8 states.

The Grameen organizations seek to promote social
business under the umbrella of charitable
organizations and non-profit groups. Universities
and think tanks are another great resource for
Grameen and its people. A successful program
has been underway to cross-fertilize the poor
and the wealthy to deliver affordable bone marrow
transplants for everyone. The assignment algorithms
in linear programming and operations research may
be utilized to bring together donors and patients
alike.

Overall, the book is well written by a popular
Nobelist- Dr. Muhammad Yunus. The ideas contained
in this book could be applicable to both
poor and rich countries since virtually every
country on this earth has poor people in
every walk of life .