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Josh's review

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
by Muhammad Yunus

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/247204.Creating_a_World_Without_Poverty_Social_Business_and_the_Future_of_Capitalism?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21JrZALbVOL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/247204.Creating_a_World_Without_Poverty_Social_Business_and_the_Future_of_Capitalism?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1254841.Muhammad_Yunus">Muhammad Yunus</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14123345?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>i heard yunus speak last week at the bagdad in portland and found it super inspiring and energizing and began reading this book this week since.  the 2006 nobel peace prize winner, figurehead of the global microcredit revolution, global elder with the likes of Nelson Mandela, has a new great category of thought to add to the global development dialogue: social business.  what would it look like to develop international businesses which harness the power of the free market not to make profits for foreign investors but to achieve attainable social goals surrounding extreme poverty.  
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<br/>one of the things i love about yunus in his talk and in the book is ingenius practicality: the ideas are almost so simple you ask "why hadn't we thought of this?" and in many ways there are friends doing similar things on smaller scale, but its exciting to see it implemented as a category for international action.  the opening story of dannon yogurt in france partnering with grameen bank in bangladesh to develop a low-cost highly fortified nutritional yogurt easily available to the malnourished and extremely impoverished with all profits going not to Dannon in France but to local grown in bangladesh was a rad parable to see carried throughout the book. 
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<br/>its got me thinking what the potential is for people with business & finance expertise in the congregation i pastor to have their talent and expertise unleashed to accomplish meaningful vision of our national partners in foreign countries.  there is a current "social business" we are looking at developing in partnership with national rwandans working strenuously towards reconciliation in their region of africa, this book helped clarify some of the goals we should be reaching for and concepts which can help meaningfully frame its development.
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/846518?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Josh's review
rating:

i heard yunus speak last week at the bagdad in portland and found it super inspiring and energizing and began reading this book this week since. the 2006 nobel peace prize winner, figurehead of the global microcredit revolution, global elder with the likes of Nelson Mandela, has a new great category of thought to add to the global development dialogue: social business. what would it look like to develop international businesses which harness the power of the free market not to make profits for foreign investors but to achieve attainable social goals surrounding extreme poverty.

one of the things i love about yunus in his talk and in the book is ingenius practicality: the ideas are almost so simple you ask "why hadn't we thought of this?" and in many ways there are friends doing similar things on smaller scale, but its exciting to see it implemented as a category for international action. the opening story of dannon yogurt in france partnering with grameen bank in bang...more

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message 1: by M

02/29/2008 06:54AM

It's wonderful that your congregation is considering a social business. I find myself thinking about the ideas in this book even when I'm not reading it, and also wonder about the untapped potential for people with expertise in business and finance to help alleviate poverty.