YAO-Chicago chair Shannon Leutheuser (left) and YAO manager Sonya Perez-Lauterbach got the opportunity to meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus in Chicago last Friday. In this picture, Yunus is signing Sonya's copy of his book, Building Social Business.

Last Friday, YAO-Chicago chair Shannon Leutheuser and I had the chance to not only hear but actually to meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs event, “Building Social Business.” Yunus is the founder and manager of Grameen Bank and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and he has written a new book called Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs.

At the Chicago event, Dr. Yunus wore the traditional Bangladeshi clothing that has become his signature throughout his rise to fame. Like his clothing, Yunus was down to earth and perfectly simple in his adamant call to address global poverty. “Poverty is not created by poor people, it is created by the system. In the capitalist system there is only one kind of business, the profit-making business.” The problem Yunus sees with that system is that it centers primarily on human selfishness, a one-dimensional perspective. But humans are not one dimensional; love, compassion and selflessness are all part of the human experience. The business world, as Yunus sees it, has not allowed selflessness to play a role. Through his new book, Yunus calls for businesses to build their practices and future goals around selflessness, rather than selfishness.

I admire Dr. Yunus’ bold call for businesses to address the world through a different lens. During the question-and-answer session, one member of the audience asked Yunus what made him tick and where he found his inspiration. Yunus explained that as a professor in the 1970s, he taught economic theories and models, yet there were still hungry people outside the classroom. All the theories and models in the field weren’t changing people’s lives in a real way, and so he felt they were practically useless. When he started Grameen Bank in 1976, he thought, “If I can help one person every day I am a lucky person… I don’t want to be a useless human being.” Today, Grameen Bank serves 8.10 million microfinance borrowers worldwide, and Yunus’ work continues to inspire people all over the world.

“What astonished me,” says Shannon, “was the power Yunus brought to simple ideas about selflessness and a willingness to work for others.  He made the concept of “social business,” a revolutionary idea, seem like a viable, and even obvious, alternative for one’s career and life’s work.”

It all starts with one individual willing to help one person per day. When you see the change that one person can enact, you too will become convinced, like Yunus, that there is more to life than profit margins and financial gain.

Opportunity’s Partnership Relationship Manager, Andrew Koehler, also attended Friday’s event at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Read his blog post from the event for further reflection on Yunus’ global outlook, including his distinction between “social business” and “selfish business.” For future events from the Chicago Council, visit TheChicagoCouncil.org.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is the founder and manager of Grameen Bank and the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. His new book is entitled Building Social Business.

Last Friday, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs brought Dr. Muhammad Yunus to Chicago for a talk entitled “Building Social Business.” Dr. Yunus, often called the grandfather of microfinance, is the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Friday’s talk was attended by an audience that consisted of local professionals, business leaders, students and educators, who were all interested in learning more about the principles and impact of building social businesses.

At Friday’s presentation, Yunus spoke extensively about his new book, Building Social Business, but he also devoted a significant portion of his speech to defining the concept “social business,” and to telling his personal story about the route he took to build his social business platform. He also discussed his work with Dannon Yogurt Co. to develop a nutrient-enriched yogurt product for children that would help curb child malnutrition in Bangladesh. Yunus highlighted this project as a prime example of a business developing a cheap yet economically viable product, providing a sustainable solution to pressing social needs.

Yunus’ greatest strength may be his ability to envision his projects and goals on a grand scale. His ability to break down a complex social system, and explain it in a very pragmatic way with solutions, shows his dedication to enacting sustainable and long-term social change.

Yunus’ many years of experience in both commercial and social business make it possible for him to draw a line in the sand between the two. He spoke passionately on his stance, affirming that “selfish business does not mix with selfless business, and the two must exist independently of one another.” This distinction between “selfish business” and “selfless business” was the cornerstone of his presentation on Friday, and a point to which he returned to emphasize his call for a shift in the business system.

Dr. Yunus challenged us all to become part of the global solution to the problem of “selfish business” when he declared his goal to someday start a “social business stock market.” It was a humorous moment, and it produced a ripple of laughter in the audience. But Dr. Yunus was also driving home a point — one which he has made for much of his career. The system is flawed, he admits, but we all  have the power to change it.

Opportunity International is a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Read our previous blog post on the Chicago Council’s May 4th event, “Investing in Women, Enriching the World,” with Ambassador Melanne Verveer,  ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For more information on the Chicago Council’s future events, visit TheChicagoCouncil.org.