The social entrepreneur

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus believes helping others is more important than profit

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus believes when there is zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero carbon emissions, this could be the beginning of a new civilisation. “We have to move out of this civilisation as quickly as possible and create a new civilisation which is based on the human value of sharing with and caring for each other,” said the 75-year-old Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and economist at the One Young World Summit 2015, held last month in Bangkok. There Yunus gave a speech on social business to youth leaders from across the world.

“That’s why social business becomes very important,” added Yunus, who believes there are too many big problems in the world, especially when it comes to income and power disparity.

As the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank, known for its objective to eradicate world poverty by providing microcredit to the impoverished without requiring collateral. It was claimed he defined the term “social business”.

Yunus recalled that he did not have any plans to make the world a better place at the beginning. But when he saw the problem was right in front of his university’s doorstep where he worked in Bangladesh, it triggered him to take some action. In his academic life, Yunus is a university lecturer who gains a lot of knowledge and perceives the world from a bird’s-eye view. Yet, when it comes to solving problems, looking down on them from above doesn’t quite do the job. He needs to move himself closer to the problem in order to see and understand things more clearly.

While the traditional business approach is driven by money and profit-maximising, social business, on the other hand, is driven by the need to solve human problems in a sustainable way. Yet, Yunus explains that social business is not similar to a charity.

“Charity is a wonderful idea. But when the money runs out, it never comes back. When you try to put a business engine behind the charity, it achieves the same objective but people have to pay for it. Then money comes back and you can recirculate it. You can do a lot of things with that money,” Yunus explained.

When his framework on social business was first set, he received comments from people around him that the social business was not going to work as the main incentive — or money — was lacking. Yunus’s response was that money is not the only motive.

“Making money is a happiness, but making other people happy is a super happiness. There are many incentives in the world. You have to test it out and you’ll find that there’s much better things to do,” said Yunus.

There is one human characteristic hidden in the conventional way of doing business and that is selfishness. Although he believed that humans are multi-dimensional, selflessness would be revealed when doing social business.

“Selflessness is when you change the world. But selfishness is when you change yourself to become super rich. It’s up to you which side you want to promote. Once you do [social business], you’ll see many problems in the world are being solved very decently and nicely.”

Yunus’ work concerns social businesses that can be operated to solve agricultural problems, namely the issue of farmers getting only a little amount of money even when consumers pay a lot, as a big chunk of money usually goes to private entrepreneurs through market mechanisms. To bring the money to the real producers, a non-dividend marketing company must be set up. The company would then take products from producers and sell it directly to consumers and bring back the money to the farmers.

This is actually not the first time Yunus has addressed young leaders at the One Young World. He has been invited to speak at the summit since 2010 in London — which encompassed 2011 in Zurich, 2012 in Pittsburgh, 2013 in Johannesburg and 2014 in Dublin.

“The reason I focused on young people is because they are the future. One big thing that has happened in their lifetime is technology.” he said. “Here is a big jump that opens up possibilities for young people enormously. What was once considered impossible can now be possible.”

However, he clarified that technology is like a vehicle. It doesn’t have its own destination but it is a good tool to take people to a destination. People who are inspired to change the world need to come up with creative ways to gear technology in the right directions.

“If you have the power [to change the world], make sure you use it and figure out what purpose you’ll be using it for,” he added. “Keep trying and something will happen. You have to take the chance.”

Making money is a happiness, but making other people happy is a super happiness