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Muhammad Yunus at Social Business Week 2012

Eden Strategy Institute at Grameen Creative Lab at NUS Singapore

The National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre held the annual Social Business Week 2012 from 20 – 23 February 2012. Organized in conjunction with the Grameen Creative Lab, the week-long public programme included public lectures and a 2-day boot camp for social entrepreneurs to develop their business plans.

This year’s event was graced by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank and is hailed as the pioneer of microfinancing. Professor Yunus championed the case for Social Business in his talk, explaining how this was an effective model for poverty eradication.

“The key objective of Social Business is to overcome poverty, not to maximize profit. Human beings are not money-making robots. It is important for businesses to be economically sustainable, but when we return investors their investments without paying dividends, we remove the profit motive and the distraction of internal competition. This releases an amazing amount of motivation and creativity to identify innovative solutions that generate social value,” he said.

Judges at the GCL@NUS Social Business Boot Camp (L-R) Mr. Calvin Chu Yee Ming, Partner, Eden Strategy Institute; Visiting Professor Dennis Cheek, Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy, NUS Business School; Mr. Hans Reitz, Managing Director, The Grameen Creative Lab; Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate and Founder, Grameen Bank; Professor Wong Poh Kam, Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre. (Photo credit: NUS Entrepreneurship Centre)

Professor Yunus went on to describe several examples of social businesses he was involved with, which ranged from the Grameen Check clothing he frequently sports that promote Bangladesh’s village-based traditional weavers, to corporate partnerships such as with addidas for €1 shoes for the underprivileged so “no one in the world would go barefoot” and with Yukiguni Maitake for mung beans to be grown in Bangladesh for nutrition and job creation.

A particularly striking example was Grameen’s partnership with Danone to produce low cost Shakti Doi yoghurt to combat child malnutrition in Bangladesh, which was inspiring not only due to its creativity in product development and new distribution channels, but in the personal tenacity of Danone’s Chairman Frank Riboud in successfully persuading Danone shareholders to waive monetary returns from this joint venture.

The event also saw over 30 social enterprises participating in the Social Business Boot Camp. These ranged from services covering tourism, training, consultancy, incubation, and micro-venture services; to products such as bamboo bicycles, designer shoes, paper products, and artisan handicrafts; as well as online marketplaces for fundraising, gift matching, and volunteering.

Eden Strategy Institute’s Partner Mr. Calvin Chu Yee Ming sat as a Mentor and Judge at the Social Business Boot Camp.

“This year’s event was very well-organized, and the many participating teams enjoyed learning not only from Professor Yunus and the mentors, but also from each other through the intensive workshops. We were impressed with the range of interesting ideas as well as the quality of the business plans they presented, and will be working closely with several of the teams even after the event to bring their enterprises to the next level,” he said.