The Social Ecosystem

Boston Globe interview with Prof. Yunus

Posted on July 27, 2008 | 1 comment

Follow up to my post on Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. The Boston Globe published an interesting interview with Prof. Yunus while he was in Boston to speak at the MIT commencement. I have excerpted one of the questions below. You can find the rest of the interview in their article online at A really unconventional lender

You have a different view of how capitalism should work. How do you think capitalism should be reformed?

Capitalism is very narrowly defined in the way we practice it. You ignore everything else but money making. And by ignoring the other parts of human beings – concern for other people, concern about the planet, willingness to make a difference in the world – we’ve created a distortion. So I’m suggesting there’s not one type of business model, but two types. One takes care of making money, which can lead to happiness. The other happiness comes from the other type of business, which is to do good to other people. You cover your costs – it’s not charity. Charity money has only one life – once you use it, it goes. Use the money in a social business, then it has an endless life. It’s recycled. It never disappears.

Read the rest of the interview here.

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Posted in micro-finance, Poverty, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

Tagged capitalism, grameen, microcredit, MIT, Nobel Prize, Poverty, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainability, sustainable development, womens issues, yunus

Motomen make Wireless Internet happen

Posted on July 12, 2008 | Leave a comment

A couple of years ago, I met with Amir Hasson Alexander, an enterprising young man from MIT with a vision of bringing internet connectivity to the 2 Billion underserved in the farthest regions of the world. Using buses equipped with WiFi. Amir’s company, United Villages (www.unitedvillages.com) and his enterprising band of ‘Motomen, provides web content to computers with no internet connection. A small box, with an antenna, onboard the buses or motorcycles, communicates with the rural computers. Every time a WiFi bus/motorcycle rolls by the village, the web content on the village kiosk computer is updated and email delivered. In remote locations with no wired connections, villagers can communicate – albeit asynchronously – with their cousins in faraway lands, order parts, lodge complaints, or review the status of their claims. With every kiosk Hasson’s company makes the world a smaller place.

Click here to see a CNN video of Amir’s Cambodian Motomen scooting around on their bikes

Innovative models for Social Change

Posted on July 11, 2008 | 2 comments

Last year I had written a piece for a conference blog with the title “Innovative models for Social Change“. I think the theme and topic is still relevant and I have reproduced it below.

Next week, I will be moderating a panel that will be addressing this theme at the 50^th Anniversary celebrations for my alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IITB for short) in New York. The panel is titled “The New Philanthropy – New models for Social Impact“. I am fortunate to have several of the innovative organizations that I mention in the post to be a part of my panel. The panel consists of:

Shari Berenbach, Executive Director, Calvert Foundation
Omer Imtiazuddin, Health Portfolio Manager, Acumen Fund
Lisa Nitze, Vice President, Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur Program, Ashoka Global
Linda Segre, Managing Director, Operations & Initiatives, Google.org

It promises to be an engaging discussion and one, I hope, that will answer some of the questions raised in my post from last year. Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, non-profit, Philanthropy, Social Ecosystem, social Innovation

Tagged Acumen Fund, Ashoka, calvert foundation, google.org, New philanthropy, New Profit, Philanthropy, Social Impact, Social Investment, venture fund, venture philanthropy

Major Indian political parties quote Social Entrepreneurial thinkers

Posted on July 11, 2008 | Leave a comment

Mainstream politics in India is picking up on themes of key social entrepreneurial thinkers as the two major parties prepare for elections.

In an interesting observation on the Acumen Fund Blog the blogger, Uma Hemachandran, points out that with the unexpected upset of the BJP in the last elections, in part due to inadequate attention to those struggling at the bottom, the party is now taking a page, quite literally, out of CK Prahalad’s “Bottom of the Pyramid“.

She references a speech by BJP’s LK Advani, in June 2008 where he says, “In this context, I must say that I am highly impressed by C.K. Prahlad’s theory about “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”. I agree with his approach to poverty alleviation, which states that “if we stop seeing the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunities will open up.”

Meanwhile the Congress party realizing how it got into power has also been quoting populist thinkers. When presenting the 2007-2008 budget last year, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram quoted Dr. Yunus to justify their actions by saying, “As Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate, said, “Faster growth rate is essential for faster reduction in poverty. There is no other trick to it.”“

Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

Posted on July 11, 2008 | 2 comments

Earlier this year, Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus was the invited guest speaker at MIT’s 142^nd commencement. In his prepared remarks to the students he outlined how he started microcredit thirty plus years ago from a simple desire to free villagers near his university in Chittagong from the penalizing interest that they paid to moneylenders.

Today his organization, Grameen Bank, has grown to cover 7.5 million borrowers in Bangladesh, 97 percent of them women. From this beginning he has expanded to provide services and products in a number of areas ranging from health insurance, to affordable cell phone service with Grameen Phone to renewable energy solutions through Grameen Shakti.

Drawing from his successes with these businesses, Prof. Yunus has refined an overarching social business philosophy that he recently published in his latest book “Creating a World Without Poverty – Social Business and the Future of Capitalism“. Continue reading →

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Posted in micro-finance, non-profit, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

Tagged capitalism, grameen, microfinance, MIT, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainability, sustainable development, yunus