Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and bestselling author shows how entrepreneurial spirit and business smarts can be harnessed to create sustainable businesses that can solve the world's biggest problems.

Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has developed a new dimension for capitalism which he calls "social business." The social business model has been adopted by corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists across the globe. Its goal is to create self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth as they produce goods and services to fulfill human needs. In Building Social Business , Yunus shows how social business can be put into practice and explains why it holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Social Business-From Dream to Reality (p. vii)
• 1 Why Social Business? (p. 1)
• 2 Growing Pains (p. 33)
• Lessons in Adaptation and Change from the Story of Grameen Danone
• 3 Launching a Social Business (p. 57)
• 4 To Cure One Child (p. 95)
• A Case of Social Business in Healthcare
• 5 Legal and Financial Frameworks for Social Business (p. 111)
• 6 Grameen Veolia Water (p. 133)
• A Social R&D Project for Addressing the World Water Crisis
• 7 Creating a Global Infrastructure for Social Business (p. 153)
• 8 Glimpses of Tomorrow (p. 173)
• More Social Businesses Are on the Way
• 9 The End of Poverty (p. 195)
• The Time Is Here
• Index (p. 207)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Yunus (Creating a World Without Poverty) uses the selfish/selfless dichotomy of human nature to explain the fundamental difference between his concept of for-profit business vs. the social business. While the former seeks to maximize profit for the benefit of the owners, the latter aims to pursue social objectives for the benefit of poor customers and employees. Likewise, the social business differs from a traditional nonprofit because, like a for-profit business, it is self-sustaining through its sale of goods and services. Yunus developed the social business concept during the crushing 1974 Bangladesh famine. Local villagers, seeking aid for their entrepreneurial endeavors, found themselves virtually enslaved to moneylenders. By repaying the loans owed by these 42 enterprising souls, Yunus stumbled on the concept of microcredit. VERDICT Yunus engagingly profiles international social businesses, whether launched by multinational corporations or conceived by ordinary people with a vision to solve social problems. He offers practical advice for starting your own social businesses: from idea generation to the nuts and bolts of launching and running the concern. His impassioned dream of a different version of capitalistic endeavor is as inspirational as it is practical.-Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin-Whitewater (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

With passion and the conviction of his experiences aiding the poor in Bangladesh, Yunus (2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner; Banker to the Poor, CH, Mar'00, 37-4016) suggests that by adapting the traditional capitalistic paradigms to develop social businesses, social welfare and human needs fulfillment can be improved. He persuasively argues that the world should respond to global poverty by embracing the tenets of free market capitalism to create self-sustaining, "not-for-shareholder" social businesses designed to solve a social problem, produce economic growth, and serve markets that traditional organizations either cannot or will not serve. In nine short, well-written chapters, Yunus provides genuine insight into global poverty and a unique perspective on the ways in which social businesses can coexist with traditional businesses to alleviate poverty and improve the lives of the world's citizens. Excellent real-life examples from companies such as Adidas, BASF, and Intel, as well as profiles of a variety of entrepreneurs and social activists, evidence how side-by-side for-profit and social businesses are becoming the catalyst of socioeconomic change and enhanced global social welfare. See related, Alex Counts, Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World (CH, Nov'08, 46-1596). Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, all levels of undergraduate students, practitioners. S. R. Kahn University of Cincinnati