Building Social Business

Publisher's Summary

Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his world-changing efforts, here develops his revolutionary new concept that promises to redeem the failed promise of free enterprise: social business.

Designed to fill the gap between profit-making and human needs, social business applies entrepreneurial thinking to problems like poverty, hunger, pollution, and disease, creating self-supporting enterprises that create jobs and generate economic growth even as they make the world a better place.

Partnering with some of the world’s greatest corporations, Yunus and his Grameen Bank have already launched several social businesses that are addressing challenges like malnutrition, lack of potable water, and endemic illness in Yunus’s homeland of Bangladesh, while other organizations around the world are developing their own experiments in social business.

In this book, Yunus traces the development of the social business idea and explains its lessons for entrepreneurs, social activists, and policy makers, and offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own.

©2010 Muhammad Yunus (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Muhammad Yunus is a practical visionary who has improved the lives of millions of people in his native Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world.” ( Los Angeles Times)

Great Book

The author does a great job of stating his case for a Social Business. His passion is palpable. He gives easy to understand instructions and or suggestions on how to start a social business, what to focus on, and the importance of being passionate about the endeavor. He is a true humanitarian who looks for and finds ways to help his people. While I know that the great strides he made were not easy, I think that he was able to accomplish so much because of the economic situation of Bangledesh. He could easily make money in America and use a fraction of the money to fix major problems in his country. I don't think it would be that easy in America.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Delivers less than I had hoped

This is basically an academic review of the history of social business, a very detailed analysis of what a social business is and is not, and some practical examples. Unfortunately it is not uplifting or filled with insightful stories of how social business has changed individual lives. The company I own is heavily involved in social responsibility with the sale of entire product lines donated to a charity that feeds impoverished children. I should have loved this book but it just became noise in my headset. It is probably best suited as a resource.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

A hope for our collapsing ecomony

Yunus' theory bridges the gap between old capitalism, based on 19th century view of man as a rational profit making machine, to what science now knows about how we really work and about the damages of the old approach.
Yunus offers a real hope to establish a different type of economy with better fulfillment and joy to all, without getting carried to socialistic dreams, but rather in a very practical way.

Many questions still remain open, but this is the beginning of the road.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

One idea repeated as nauseum

A good idea, but not worth the listening time to hear it repeated over and over

Excelent!

Let's build a new world with social business and this excellent book from Yunus. Recommended!