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19/50 Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus
Yeah, the title's pretty pretentious. Nearly as pretentious as Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty. But unlike Sachs, it's much easier to accept Yunus when he gets a little utopian at the end. I still can't quite wrap my head around why other people missed what Yunus found: that poor people will pay back their loans on time, every time. That simple idea, and little amounts of cash (he started with $27) won Yunus and his bank, the Grameen Bank, the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
In Creating a World Without Poverty, Yunus shares his idea of a social business: a business very much like other businesses, except that its goal is, not to maximize profits, but to maximize social benefit for the poor. He uses the stories of Grameen Bank and Grameen Danone (a joint social business with Danone, the yogurt company) to flesh out his vision, conveying the amazing power of ideas and the excitement of a challenge met along way. And so, as he moves more into the theoretical, crystal-ball stuff (a social stock exchange! Social Wall Street Journal!) it's not hard to believe that it could all really be possible. Very soon.
It doesn't hurt that Yunus is a friendly, approachable writer. :)
Next: I'm not sure yet. Something short and sweet before I'm out.
The Rest of my Reading List
Yeah, the title's pretty pretentious. Nearly as pretentious as Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty. But unlike Sachs, it's much easier to accept Yunus when he gets a little utopian at the end. I still can't quite wrap my head around why other people missed what Yunus found: that poor people will pay back their loans on time, every time. That simple idea, and little amounts of cash (he started with $27) won Yunus and his bank, the Grameen Bank, the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
In Creating a World Without Poverty, Yunus shares his idea of a social business: a business very much like other businesses, except that its goal is, not to maximize profits, but to maximize social benefit for the poor. He uses the stories of Grameen Bank and Grameen Danone (a joint social business with Danone, the yogurt company) to flesh out his vision, conveying the amazing power of ideas and the excitement of a challenge met along way. And so, as he moves more into the theoretical, crystal-ball stuff (a social stock exchange! Social Wall Street Journal!) it's not hard to believe that it could all really be possible. Very soon.
It doesn't hurt that Yunus is a friendly, approachable writer. :)
Next: I'm not sure yet. Something short and sweet before I'm out.
The Rest of my Reading List