Gone are the days when people run business only for profit.
Social business, formed to address humanity’s most pressing needs, not to
maximize profit. Social business has goals to solve problems like
poverty, malnutrition,
illiteracy, unemployment, climate change, lack
of health care facility or any other issue that creates a minimum standard of
living and quality of life necessary for human living. By dint of social
business humankind got an opportunity to prove their humanity and selflessness.
Social
business is a non-loss, Non-dividend Company planned to address social
purposes through the
production of affordable but high-quality products and services for the
betterment of the under-privileged. In social business, once the social business has reached a point of
financial sustainability, the investors can only recoup the absolute amount
they originally invested (non-dividend), but never receives beyond that
amount. Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, the introducer of the social
business model said “Social business
is a new concept, completely different from conventional profit-making
business. The whole business is dedicated to solving problems; where you look
for business opportunity to help people change their own life, improving the
quality of life”. People will do social business to feel happy.
Corporate conglomerates created a vacuum for their money
making concept and unwilling to support the indigent people. Where the social
business been developed to fill up the gap. This innovative concept will offer
product/service at low price, of course not sacrificing the quality. Social
business will force other business to offer reasonable price. There will be a
healthy competition in the market. The global recession is affecting social
business in a positive way because people feel that profit-maximizing
businesses are not the only solution to the current situation. In that context,
when people are full of doubts and frustration, when you talk about social
business, it suddenly makes sense to them. It can not be expected that all
company will sell their company and invest in social business. Rather, it is
pragmatic to put a unit of their investment portfolio in social business for
philanthropic reason. A hybrid of normal and social business can create an
economic system that can solve many problems.
Now question may arise - should social businesses avoid
generating profit?
No, it does not avoid profit. A company operating as a
"Social business" needs to work profitably in order to cover emerging
costs and to invest its earnings in the expansion of the business and improving
the quality of the product or service. In this way, their products become
accessible for the poor.
Social business is not charity, even better than charity.
Donating into charity might help the poor to some extent but they are less
potent that on creating a sustaining and lasting impact on poverty or other
social problems. While investing in social business the money will generate new
outcome, it will recycle over time and will provide benefit as time goes.
The idea of social business already got momentum. Based on
the idea, some leading global brands like BASF, Danone, Adidas, Uniqlo,
Yukiguni Maitake Co. (YMC), and Intel, among others, is coming forward to join
hand with Grameen to develop health, nutrition, and various touchy conditions
of the people. Thanks to Grameen and Group Danone, the world’s first social
business went into a joint venture to create a yogurt fortified with
micro-nutrients to bring down malnutrition for the children of Bangladesh Germany
Social business a
message from Bangladesh
In a visit to Bangladesh ,
Philip Kotler, well known marketing guru, suggested Bangladesh
has to promote the brand “Made in Bangladesh Bangladesh USA ,
Japan , Germany , Brazil Fukuoka a city of Japan , has now accepted the title of second Social Business
City to solve social problems in Fukuoka and across Asia . Where,
Wiesbaden of Germany was the first Social business City
named in the world. We can set a leading
example by addressing socio-economic problems through social business and
making Bangladesh
Many business giant, philanthropist are still unaware of social
business revolution, apt step should be taken to attach them. Key element to
the success of the theory are education, institutions, research bodies to make social
businesses visible in the market place, indices to understand which social
business is doing more and/or better than other social businesses so that
potential and current social investors are correctly guided.
Social business is our capacity to make difference.
Unfortunately, social business did not get its due attention in spite of its myriad
opportunities. Government, industry, and non-profit sectors should play their
respective role in accelerating and advancing social business; provide a platform and network of resources
for the next generation of socially minded and ethically grounded leaders
wanting to address today’s and tomorrow’s economic and social challenges.
