Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: eyecare hospitals, social stock market, world without poverty, Grameen Bank, Grameen Danone, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Economics professor Yunus claims he originally became involved in the poverty issue not as a policy-maker, scholar, or researcher, but because poverty was all around me. With these words he stopped teaching elegant theories and began lending small amounts of money, $40 or less, without collateral, to the poorest women in the world. Thirty-three years later, the Grameen Bank has helped seven million people live better lives building businesses to serve the poor. The bank is solidly profitable, with a 98.6% repayment rate. It inspired the micro-credit movement, which has helped 100 million of the poorest people in the world escape poverty and earned Yunus (Banker to the Poor) a Nobel Peace prize. This volume efficiently recounts the story of microcredit, then discusses Social Business, organizations designed to help people while turning profits. French food giant Danone's partnership to market yogurt in Bangladesh is described in detail, along with 25 other businesses that operate under the Grameen banner. Infused with entrepreneurial spirit and the excitement of a worthy challenge, this book is the opposite of pessimistic recitals of intractable poverty's horrors. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"(I)n Creating A World Without Poverty, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus argues convincingly that social business is an achievable way of exploiting capitalism to help the poor. Yunus moves the debate beyond the tired argument that the rich should simply donate to those less privileged, and demonstrates that the free market can in fact be used to the advantage of the less well off...This book is a must-read for policymakers or philanthropists, and its conversational style and straightforward logic also make it appealing to the layperson." -- Scotland on Sunday, January 27, 2008

"In this excellent work of popular economics, he tells the story of how he came to the idea and the impressive results it has generated." -- Winnipeg Free Press, February 24, 2008

"The influential economist and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize outlines his vision for a new business model that combines the power of of free markets with the quest for a more humane world. Includes stories of companies that are already doing social business." -- Bookseller (UK), October 8, 2007

"an inspiring volume, full of practical information for people who are motivated to try out his ideas." -- BusinessWeek, February 8, 2008

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (January 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586484931
• ISBN-13: 978-1586484934
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,814 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #18 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Philanthropy & Charity
  #27 in	Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Free Enterprise
  #30 in	Books > Business & Investing > Business Life > Ethics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Savior of Capitalism, January 10, 2008

By	Barrie W. Bracken "Researcher" (Daytona Beach, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author has proven that capitalism, if it accepts a social conscince out of self-preservation, can eventually develop a world where poverty is on the decline. Yunus is one of the most deserving of recipients of the Nobel Prize. He has been recognized by many, including former president Bill Clinton, as a financial reformer of very high order. The author is not a reving socialist but a reasonable person who believes the responsibility of every individual is to leave the world a better place for those to whom we will leave it. Instead of depending entirely on charity to combat poverty and ease the suffering of those who don't have the material benefits needed for survival, they should be given an oportunity to make their own way in the community.

This is a book that should be carefully read by every person who is interested in a more secure world, in easing human suffering, in providing opportunity to every individual to meet his or her potential, and certainly every politician world wide who has the courage to do what is right and not just politically expedient.

I have given this book five stars. In the past many others have gotten this rating, and this is the most deserving.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important Management Book Written Since Peter Drucker Defined the Practice of Management, January 31, 2008

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Creating a World Without Poverty should be read by everyone who is concerned about helping the poor and those whose needs are ignored.

If I could give this book one hundred stars, I would; that would still be too few. Books have the potential to advance and create discussions about ideas, concepts, and practices that can reform everything we do in needed directions. Creating a World Without Poverty is one of the few books I've ever read that fulfills that potential.

Professor Yunus (co-winner with the Grameen Bank of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006) has written an extremely thoughtful and thought-provoking work that successfully argues for a new type of organization to serve the unserved among the poor, the social business. A social business seeks to optimize social benefits rather than profits. In defining its purpose, a social business begins by defining a social need that wouldn't otherwise be served. Profits are kept at the minimum level needed to keep the enterprise viable. Ideally, no dividends are paid to owners. The original investors get a return of their capital, and then the organization is purchased by the poor . . . using microcredit from organizations like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank is a model for such an enterprise, and in the book Professor Yunus describes several other ventures that the Grameen Bank has initiated with partners steeped in expertise related to the needs of the poor.

Professor Yunus describes his experiences in founding the Grameen Bank and the lessons he learned from this work:

1. The poor are very capable of solving problems -- survival needs have honed their skills.

2. Poor people often need very few resources to pull themselves out of poverty. They are used to making do with little and will frugally expand a small farm or business.

3. Many poor people are poor because they are exploited by those who loan them money, provide supplies, and purchase their offerings. By providing inexpensive microcredit, poor people can escape from that exploitation.

4. By helping the whole family make progress, you can lift a family out of poverty permanently through more income, savings, capital, improved living conditions, and education.

5. By focusing on helping poor women, the resources are used most effectively.

6. Poor women are good credit risks.

7. Some needs cannot be met without adding expertise that the poor don't have (such as developing more nutritional, low-cost snacks for youngsters) but which those in profit-making companies often do have.

8. Some leaders of profit-making companies are moved to make a difference for the poor and can assist in establishing new enterprises to solve important problems that plague the poor (blindness, malnutrition, and lack of communications).

9. Creating social businesses uses a lot fewer resources than charity or government initiatives and leads to better results for the poor.

The book goes into some detail in describing the development of the Grameen Bank (which makes small loans -- usually around $100 -- to poor people who lack collateral to qualify for loans at traditional banks) and a recent social business start-up by Groupe Danone and Grameen Bank to provide a nutritional yogurt snack in Bangladesh. There is also a description of plans for a social business venture to provide eye care sponsored by Grameen Bank that is being helped through training at Aravind Eye Hospital in India (you can read about Aravind in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid).

The book's vision is wider than what I have just described. Professor Yunus has considered how the world might be filled with such social businesses and how they might operate (competitive salaries for employees, engaging poor people as suppliers, distributors, customers, and employees as much as possible, stock markets for the shares in such firms, and ways that more initial capital might be generated by foundations, governments, investors, and for-profit businesses). He has also done some fine thinking about the governance challenges of such enterprises.

I think what he is describing will work. I've seen partial prototypes operating in the United States. In major cities in the United States, some hospitals that serve the poor have added high-profit surgery centers to earn funds to pay for the medical care given to the poor. Aravind charges those who can pay full price for cataract surgery and uses the profits to provide free surgery to poor people. Some companies been left to charities by their founders at death with the dividends of the companies used to help the poor (Hershey had such an origin in helping orphans). But remember that Professor Yunus's model is broader than that . . . the social business should develop a new business model that innovates in serving the poor in new ways, not just subsidize serving the poor in old ways.

I have been writing about continuing business model innovation since 2003 and can assure you that Professor Yunus is on the right track with his prescriptions. In a world where we often make fun of economists, it's nice to know that there's one who can climb down from the ivory tower to appreciate the potential of applied microeconomics to the causes of problems for poor people.

I particularly liked the concept of having poor people be part of the solutions. Poor people know what they need better than anyone else does. Their solutions are going to be the most effective ones.

Lest you think this is all over optimism, Bangladesh has seen the level of poverty in the country transformed by these kinds of changes. The day is not too distant when Bangladesh will know about poverty only through visiting museums that describe what it used to be like. The poverty rate has fallen from 74 percent in 1974-75 to 40 percent in 2005. That's still too high, but it's a huge reduction in only three decades in a country without natural advantages other than the ingenuity and hard work of its people.

It is Professor Yunus's wish that poverty only be seen in museums throughout the world.

He also points out that global environmental problems need to be solved or low-lying Bangladesh will be under water from global warming that melts the polar ice. It's a sobering thought.

Bravo, Professor Yunus!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most significant book on economics in recent times, February 15, 2008

By	Arup Biswas (Campbell, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Have you ever pondered why the raw capitalism prescribed by Adam Smith that became successful in raising the standard of living at the early stages of its development, lost it's steam after a certain phase? Why it leads to staggering inequality of income, destruction of the environment and social injustice?

In this book, Nobel Laureate Dr. Yunus suggests the reason is in the basic flaw in the assumption of Adam Smith, that man is a one dimensional being, his only motive in the world is to maximize the profit. If profit maximization is the only yardstick of the success of a business, why should the corporations care about other factors like social responsibility, sustainability or social justice?

Dr. Yunus, in this book, proposes another model of business, which he calls Social Business. In this business model, the goal is not profit maximization, but a specific social benefit, for example, providing nutrition among the population. The social business is not a charity, because, it returns the original investment back to the investor. But, it reinvests the profits back to the business to maximize its social goal. Dr.Yunus is not an ivory tower economist, but a very down-to-earth pragmatist, who has founded a score of Social Businesses in his own country Bangladesh and other underdeveloped parts of the world. As a result of his work, millions of people have come out of poverty.

In this book, he also explains the concept of micro-finance, a small amount of money, usually less than hundred dollars lent to the poor people, who can then use this money for running a small business. This generates income and help them rise above the poverty level. According to Dr. Yunus, the poor people always pay back the money. After reading the book, I have become interested in investing some money in micro-finance. If you like the idea check out [...]or similar micro-finance sites. A small amount of your money may make a huge difference in people's lives and you get your original money back.

Dr. Yunus writes in simple, lucid language. The book will engage you and definitely enrich your world view. If you have time to read just one book this year, I would suggest this one.