Enamul Hafiz Latifee
Social
Business, the revolutionary mechanism was first formally developed on the year
2010 through the book Building Social Business, by our beloved one and only
Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, with a view to
creating poverty free a world. According to Yunus (page no. xii- xiv, Building
Social Business, June 2010), we can create a poverty free world if we redesign
our system to take out its gross faults which create poverty. He compared poor
people to bonsai tree and remarked that if we can help poor people out of
poverty by creating an enabling environment available to them then it is a
matter of time only to resolve worldwide poverty problem.
But
the question arises that how can this redesign process be kicked on and mashed
up with the traditional way of economic thinking & doing business to help
out this bonsai people. Yunus answers the question by following simplest way at
the beginning, in his opinion, fundamental change in the architecture of our
capitalist economy by bringing it closer to a complete and satisfactory
framework, freeing it from the basic faults social and environmental ills along
with poverty (page no. xiv, Building Social Business, June 2010). Moreover, he
rejected the as usual evaluation of global financial crisis of 2008- 2009. He
thinks that, the biggest flaw in our existing theory of capitalism lies in its
misrepresentation of human nature, where men are described to be single minded,
that is human beings engaged in business are portrayed to maximize profit only
but nothing else (page no. xv, Building Social Business, June 2010).
Well,
he does not reject that humans are selfish beings, but also includes that they
are selfless beings simultaneously. So that, the worldwide existing
institutions are not only designed to generate maximum individual wealth, but
churches, mosques, synagogues, art museums, public parks or health clinics or
community centers does exist, which are the strong illustrator selflessness
motive of human beings as these institution don’t make anyone into a tycoon.
So, when recognize the flaw of economic theory based on one dimensional person
and replace with multidimensional person (a person who has both selfish and
selfless interests at the same time) economic theory, then the problem would be
solved (page no. xvi, Building Social Business, June 2010).
So, a new kind of
business known as social business should be self sustaining- that is, it
generates enough income to cover its own costs and part of the economic surplus
is invested in expanding the business, while a part is kept in reserve to cover
uncertainties. Moreover, in this kind of business, the company makes a profit,
but no one takes the profit (page no. xvii, Building Social Business, June 2010).
So, this is the way how social business actually get started in existence of
traditional business.
Now
being apart from the theory let us look at the worldwide field level situation
of social businesses. Starting from the example of Bangladesh, we are already
known to the name and fame of most probably world’s first Yunus- type social
business, Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. (GDFL), which had started its journey in early
2007 and had promised to offer its 'Shoktidoi' (yogurt) at a cheap rate to help
poor people, mainly children and women in Bogra district get nutrient-rich
foods. Others objectives of GDFL are to promote local business activity and to
indirectly create jobs in the agricultural industry, or in sales and
distribution. To ensure the initiative’s long-term success, the idea was to
offer appropriate micro-financing solutions and professional training tailored
to the people from local communities who will be taking part in the project
(Extract from press release published by Groupe Danone on 16th
March, 2006).
GDFL
then had planned to set up and launch as many as 50 production plants during
the ten years between 2006 and 2016. The first factory has been built in Bogra
district GDFL was built in Bogra, 220 kilometers north of Dhaka, the capital
city of Bangladesh with a daily production capacity of 3,000 kgs/day to 10,000
kgs/day. The plant was built only on 75,000 square feet areas which included
milk reception, mixing and fermentation, a filling line, packaging station, a
laboratory, a cold room, a storage room, and office space (Hussain, Chowdhury
& Hussain, page no. 257- 258, Vol. 2, No. 4, World Journal of Social
Sciences, July 2012).
As
a primitive stage though GDFL had faced so many problems regarding its
marketing and distributional procedures but later, after getting matured as a
company it had learnt to cope up with present market structure which had
already proved that a social business can indeed sustain and is better than any
other form of charity. In words of Professor Yunus, “A charity dollar has only
one life; a Social Business dollar can be invested over and over again”.
The
organization, Yunus Social Business (YSB) is now currently working in Haiti and
Albania. The Haiti Initiative was launched in 2010 by YSB’s predecessor The
Grameen Creative Lab with corporate partner SAP AG to foster prospective Social
Businesses through financing and incubation. It is already been realized within
short time experience from Haiti that the country needs a dynamic, efficient
private sector which can contribute to the productive development, assumes the
risk of generating economic activity and creates jobs (YSB, http://www.yunussb.com/incubator-funds/haiti/).
Recently,
in March 2013, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of
Yunus Social Business, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Unite, and U.S.
President Bill Clinton, founder of the Clinton Foundation, announced last
Sunday the launch of a new social initiative called Haiti Forest. The
partnership aims to solve social and environmental problems in Haiti by
bringing sustainable, productive and socially responsible forests to the
country.
Ten
thousand hectares of land are being promised by the Ministries of Agriculture
and Environment to develop the new, bold Haiti Forest Initiative in the
Artibonite and northern part of the country. Haiti Forest has full support of
the Government of Haiti and is in line with the priorities of the Government to
support long-term reconstruction efforts, especially those that create jobs and
promoting economic opportunities. The multi-year project will provide
affordable food, timber, and employment in Haiti, and will be organized as a
Social Business – a company set-up for maximizing social benefit rather than
private profit (PR Newswire, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yunus-social-business-virgin-unite-and-clinton-foundation-launch-haiti-forest-initiative-198460341.html).
In
Albania, the Social Business Movement of Albania is a programme started by YSB
in April 2012 to initiate and scale up social businesses throughout the
country. Started at the request of Albania’s Prime Minister, and working hand
in hand with the agency created by the Albanian government for the promotion of
social business in Albania, Nxitja e Biznesit Social Sh.A., the programme
includes the incubation and investment as main focal points (YSB, http://www.yunussb.com/incubator-funds/albania/).
Later
on January, 2013, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU0 for setting up of Vocational Training Social
Business Joint Venture with Tirana Business Park, an Albanian investment of the
German company Lindner Group. The MoU was signed at the Tirana Business Park
construction site in Albania Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Sali
Berisha, said a press release (Yunus signs deal to run Social Business in
Albania, 23rd January, 2013, The Financial Express).
On
other side, YSB is working together with the African Development Bank (AfDB)
Department of Human Development (OSHD), and financed by the Policy and Human
Resource Development Grant of Japan (PHRDG), launched a Holistic Social
Business Movement in Africa in December 2012. As part of this movement, YSB and
the AfDB will first raise awareness through National Conferences on Social
Business in Tunisia, Togo, and Uganda and subsequently will establish Social
Business incubators and funds in Tunisia and Togo in the second half of 2013.
The National Conference on Social Business in Tunisia took place in March 2013,
at IHEC in Carthage, Tunisia (AfDB, http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/the-afdb-and-nobel-laureate-muhammad-yunus-launch-social-business-in-africa-11614/).
More
surprisingly it is observed that Social Business is not only working in the
relatively lower GDP (PPP) per capita holder countries (i.e., Tunisia, Togo, Uganda,
Haiti, Bangladesh) but it is also proactively working in the higher GDP (PPP)
per capita holder countries (i.e., Albania, Brzail) too.
Roughly,
just a month back, Muhammad Yunus launched a number of social business
initiatives in Brazil during his visit there from May 27- 29, 2013. The Bank of
America announced the creation of a Yunus Social Business Fund for Brazil
during his stay. ESPM, a leading business school in Brazil, also launched Yunus
Social Business Centre which will develop academic curricula around social
business. Brazil Foods (BRF), one of the largest poultry companies in the
world, has announced a joint-venture social business in Haiti for developing
poultry business in the earthquake affected island (Dhaka Tribune, May 30,
2013, http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2013/may/30/prof-yunus-launches-social-business-movement-brazil)
We
have marked already Italian city, Pistoia to be announced as first social
business city in the time 11th July, 2012. We have also observed
that first Social Business applying the seven Social Business principles in
Japan named as Human Harbor, a scrap up cycling company has been established in
December, 2012, which targets people recently released from jail, and helps
them getting proper education, a job, an accommodation, as well as social
welfare pieces of advice. It contributes to solve the social issue of Japanese
prisoners, facing major reinsertion difficulties, half of them actually return
to jail within 5 year (Ekovivo, http://www.ekovivo.org/social-business-in-japan-when-universities-pave-the-way-towards-social-business/).
In
reality, it is now highly evident that Yunus’s Social Business concept has
already been kicked off on the surface of world with a great problem solving
self sustaining inherited power. Thus the new kind of capitalism that serves
humanity’s most pressing needs, as a set of tools, Social Business should be
coped up by the countries like Bangladesh at a high scale, will undoubtedly make
human being, better off. So why are we stopped for? Let us do it with joy for
creating world without poverty!
The
writer is a student of Department of Economics, Shahjalal University of Science
& Technology, Sylhet
Email:
enamul.hafiz.sust@gmail.com
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