Tag Archives: yunus

HBS SE Conference Keynote by Linda Rottenberg of Endeavor

Posted on March 4, 2009 | 5 comments

The opening keynote to the 10th annual HBS Social Enterprise Conference was a truly inspirational presentation by Linda Rottenberg from Endeavor, Inc.  Endeavor helps mentor and grow entrepreneurs in developing countries. It has screened over 18000 candidates and selected 400 entrepreneurs, who have generated over 86,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in revenue.

Linda traced the arc of social entrepreneurship as it accelerated over the past decade from an idea to formally becoming a key movement. Here are some of my notes from the session.

She pointed out that the long path was facilitated with three key developments.

  • When Bono became the symbol for AIDS in Africa with his RED Campaign, he made social activism cool
  • When Prof Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace prize, he instantly became the visible leader from within the field.
  • When Bill Gates went beyond establishing his foundation and stepped down from Microsoft to focus exclusively on his philanthropic work and presented his vision of Creative Capitalism, he made social entrepreneurship mainstream.

It is clear that government cannot solve all social problems. Businesses on the other hand are not always there to fill in the gaps. This is where social entrepreneurs come in. Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, international development, Micro-enterprises, non-profit, Philanthropy, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainability, venture philanthropy

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Beyond Microfinance: Opportunities for Change

Posted on September 20, 2008 | 1 comment

Another Track in the upcoming ForSE 2008: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs

Beyond Microfinance: Opportunities for Change

Microfinance, as demonstrated by Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus, provides disadvantaged entrepreneurs with small loans to run their businesses and eventually help lift them out of poverty. This has become a wide spread phenomenon all over the world encouraging millions of families out of poverty.

What’s next? There is a huge business opportunity for both, investment in the MFIs and providing other business services to these micro-enterprises at the bottom of the pyramid.

While commercial banks are satisfying the demand for capital to the MFIs , the social entrepreneurs with social business ideas will hopefully fill the gap by providing services to the poor entrepreneurs to run and scale their businesses successfully. Prof. Yunus’ has exemplified this concept of a social business with a collaborative effort with Dannon in Bangladesh, that brings low cost nutritious meals to the poor while employing local farmers and citizens. This is a win-win situation where the commercial banks, MFIs, social businesses and the aspiring entrepreneurs all profit!

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Posted in BOP, bottom of the pyramid, Conference, Education, micro-finance, microfinance, Poverty, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

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Prof. Yunus continues to speak on Social Business

Posted on July 30, 2008 | 1 comment

Prof. Yunus continued to speak about his vision of creating social businesses to help address some of the pressing issues facing us. He was hosted by the MIT-Bangladesh Students’ Association and Bhin-Golardho – a Bangla-centric group – during his visit to Boston.

He challenged the youth to start social businesses by saying. “I would like to say that while we at Grameen have done a few things, there are many causes that are waiting for you to take up”

You can read Ranjani Saigal’s write-up of his visit here on Lokvani

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

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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

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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.”“

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Posted in BOP, Politics, Poverty, Social Ecosystem

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