Who is unreasonable? Prof. Muhammad Yunus or our system?
The question reverberated in the minds of the august gathering who had gathered to listen to Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus at the Social Business Symposium on 9 May 2012.
Introducing Prof. Yunus, Dr. Riaz Khan, Director, Yunus Center at AIT, quoted George Bernard Shaw to describe him as an “unreasonable man,” quickly adding that essentially, “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Quick to latch on to the phrase, the Nobel laureate described an entire gamut of ideas supporting the present system as “unreasonable.”
Banks provide loans to the rich, and not to those who need them. Is this reasonable, Prof. Yunus asked? The idea that markets solve all problems has been turned upside down by the financial crisis. So is this idea reasonable? Money is being touted as the focus of humanity, while a vast majority of the world’s population, especially women, remains underprivileged and poor. Is this reasonable? An economic system which creates unemployment – is it reasonable? A health system that focuses on treating patients rather than keeping people healthy — is that reasonable?
Raising questions and offering solutions was the focus of the keynote address by Prof. Yunus at the Social Business Symposium jointly organized by the Yunus Center at AIT, Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Thai Management Association (TMA), Thai Social Enterprise Office, and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand.
Prof. Yunus, who had in 2009 launched the Yunus Center at AIT, asked people to spread the concept of “social business,” where the idea is to use business to solve social problems, rather than focusing on the singular aspect of making more money. “Eighty per cent of social business is about innovative ideas that solve problems, while only 20 per cent is about money,” he said. Human creativity, being boundless, should concentrate on ideas that solve problems.
Quoting an example of night blindness in Bangladesh, Prof. Yunus said that the solution was a social business enterprise which provided the needy with cheap vegetable seeds. The poor purchase the seeds at less than a Thai Baht per packet. Vegetable intake helps them increase their intake of vitamin A, while at the same time allowing them to make money by selling the surplus produce in the market. This business has emerged as the largest seed bank in Bangladesh.
Other examples include fortified yoghurt for malnourished children, treated mosquito nets for malaria prevention, and solar lighting for poor. Today, the Grameen Bank founded by Prof. Yunus lends USD 1.5 billion annually. “There is no country in the world where this idea has not been successfully replicated, and even in New York, which witnessed the collapse of major banks, Grameen is successfully running four branches,” he said. Omaha, the hometown of Warren Buffet is home to another Grameen bank.
His mantra was that instead of looking towards the government for solving problems, people should try and stop creating problems. And if there are problems, then they should try and solve it themselves, taking recourse to social business. Today, from post-earthquake Tokyo to recession hit USA; from MNC-led social businesses in Germany and France to women-led enterprises in Bangladesh, the world is adopting the concept of social business. But can all this solve the problem of unemployment? According to Prof. Yunus, the new civilization that we should try and create should be bereft of unemployment.
By the way, have you ever heard of an unemployed animal, he asked?
Unreasonable?
Photo caption: Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus
