Social business for removing scars of capitalism
replicate, writes Md Nurnobi Islam | Wednesday, 21 December 2011
replicate, writes Md Nurnobi Islam
The modern day capitalistic economy around the world has created an imbalance in the lifestyles of people. In a capitalistic system, nobody cares for the interests of society, which results in the poor getting poorer and the rich, richer. To create a better liveable society for both poor and the rich classes of people, social business is a practical option for the capitalists to take to remain in business. Otherwise, the day is not far when organised movements of the poor people will banish capitalism from the face of the earth. Social business, the creative idea of Dr Muhammad Yunus presented to the world community, is likely to correct the flaws of the existing capitalistic business system. His social business model has already created a thrilling impact in the minds of people around the globe after Marxist and capitalistic ideologies. With the fall of communism in 1991 and with the break-up of the Soviet Union, capitalism continued to get acceptance around the world. Since then, we are under the absolute exploitation of capitalism. The present day capitalism that is based on selfish interest has caused chronic scars on our mental make-up through encouraging us to fill up our pockets with money seized from others. In a capitalistic economic system, it is only the 20 per cent who dominates the rest 80 per cent of the world population. I would blame the existing capitalistic views for most of our problems such as, unemployment, poverty, discrimination, inequality, terrorism and so on. The world community has already started to raise their voices against the capitalists through their movement nick-named 'Occupy Wall-street movement,' which is spreading round the world, along with the USA and Europe, the hub of capitalism. The lack of public faith in capitalism is leading to its uncertainty. The capitalism that no more interests the world's population requires modification to ensure its survival for some more years. Social business seems to me to be a modified capitalistic system that is based on the philosophy of seeking common good through solving social problems rather than personal. Dr Yunus defined social business as "new kind of capitalism that serves humanity's most pressing needs." Social business is different from the existing practice of capitalism in that it aims at serving others in the society through solving their problems. A society burdened with social and economic problems should apply this business model to solve the problems. Social business that has already attracted the attention of the leaders of developed countries, is awaiting acceptance in the developing countries like Bangladesh. Our country is burdened with myriad of social, economic and environmental problems. I agree that all the successive governments had tried to bring an end to these social and economic problems. But there is no reason to ignore the fact that all these attempts have failed to give the best possible long-term solution to these problems. So, logically it is essential that we have to apply new ideas to solve our social, economic and environmental problems. Dr Yunus has gifted us a new idea of social business; we can lend our support to make it successful. As social business is a problem specific business model, it can halt many of our problems like unemployment, malnutrition, poverty, social inequality etc. The social business is yet to start in our country in full scale. Only a few foreign organisations are practicing social business as joint ventures with Grameen and its affiliates. Our government can take initiatives to popularise this social business models among entrepreneurs. Since social business is a new concept, so initially it may create some funding problems. But proper initiatives from the government can take this creative idea forward in leaps and bounds. The following source of funds can be utilised for materialising social business models: Philanthropists: There are many philanthropists in our country who are engaged in a wide array of activities ranging from solving social problems to providing entertainment. Social business is unknown to many of them. Initiatives can be taken to popularise social business to them. Funds from philanthropists can be the biggest source of finance for new social businesses. Corporate fund: National and multinational companies operating their businesses in our country can create extra fund for social business. They can also diversify their business into social business through developing environment-friendly and nutritional products to solve health and environment problems. Although many of these corporations spend a specific percentage of their profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR), social business can provide long lasting benefits to the society than CSR. Funds under annual development programme: Social business can be termed as development initiatives. Funds under the annual development programme of our country are being misused, under-utilised or remain unused because of inefficiency of the ministries concerned. Establishing social business with a portion of annual development programme funds to solve our problems can be a meaningful investment. Illegally earned money: The government can allow illegally earned money holders to invest their money into social business. This may be a viable option to encourage illegal money holders to come forward to solve some of our social problems. Climate change fund and others: The government can levy fines or heavy taxes on institutions or businesses, for example, brick kiln industry, responsible for emitting greenhouse gases, and create a climate fund of its own. It is possible to collect about US$80 million every year from brick kiln industry alone for carbon emission in Bangladesh, A study suggests, Bangladesh is expected to get a portion of world climate fund as a compensation for climate change effect. This fund can be effectively used through investing it on environment-friendly social businesses and thus the people in the southern part of our country who are most vulnerable to this climate change effect can benefit from it. Other government sources are also available to raise fund for social business. Social business may be the best choice to remove social problems and serve the people of our society. Today or tomorrow it is going to be the most favoured business model around the world. It is high time, we should encourage and support philanthropists to come forward to start social business and establish models that others can replicate. The writer is student of the Department of Marketing at Dhaka University, and can be reached at email: [email protected]
The modern day capitalistic economy around the world has created an imbalance in the lifestyles of people. In a capitalistic system, nobody cares for the interests of society, which results in the poor getting poorer and the rich, richer. To create a better liveable society for both poor and the rich classes of people, social business is a practical option for the capitalists to take to remain in business. Otherwise, the day is not far when organised movements of the poor people will banish capitalism from the face of the earth. Social business, the creative idea of Dr Muhammad Yunus presented to the world community, is likely to correct the flaws of the existing capitalistic business system. His social business model has already created a thrilling impact in the minds of people around the globe after Marxist and capitalistic ideologies. With the fall of communism in 1991 and with the break-up of the Soviet Union, capitalism continued to get acceptance around the world. Since then, we are under the absolute exploitation of capitalism. The present day capitalism that is based on selfish interest has caused chronic scars on our mental make-up through encouraging us to fill up our pockets with money seized from others. In a capitalistic economic system, it is only the 20 per cent who dominates the rest 80 per cent of the world population. I would blame the existing capitalistic views for most of our problems such as, unemployment, poverty, discrimination, inequality, terrorism and so on. The world community has already started to raise their voices against the capitalists through their movement nick-named 'Occupy Wall-street movement,' which is spreading round the world, along with the USA and Europe, the hub of capitalism. The lack of public faith in capitalism is leading to its uncertainty. The capitalism that no more interests the world's population requires modification to ensure its survival for some more years. Social business seems to me to be a modified capitalistic system that is based on the philosophy of seeking common good through solving social problems rather than personal. Dr Yunus defined social business as "new kind of capitalism that serves humanity's most pressing needs." Social business is different from the existing practice of capitalism in that it aims at serving others in the society through solving their problems. A society burdened with social and economic problems should apply this business model to solve the problems. Social business that has already attracted the attention of the leaders of developed countries, is awaiting acceptance in the developing countries like Bangladesh. Our country is burdened with myriad of social, economic and environmental problems. I agree that all the successive governments had tried to bring an end to these social and economic problems. But there is no reason to ignore the fact that all these attempts have failed to give the best possible long-term solution to these problems. So, logically it is essential that we have to apply new ideas to solve our social, economic and environmental problems. Dr Yunus has gifted us a new idea of social business; we can lend our support to make it successful. As social business is a problem specific business model, it can halt many of our problems like unemployment, malnutrition, poverty, social inequality etc. The social business is yet to start in our country in full scale. Only a few foreign organisations are practicing social business as joint ventures with Grameen and its affiliates. Our government can take initiatives to popularise this social business models among entrepreneurs. Since social business is a new concept, so initially it may create some funding problems. But proper initiatives from the government can take this creative idea forward in leaps and bounds. The following source of funds can be utilised for materialising social business models: Philanthropists: There are many philanthropists in our country who are engaged in a wide array of activities ranging from solving social problems to providing entertainment. Social business is unknown to many of them. Initiatives can be taken to popularise social business to them. Funds from philanthropists can be the biggest source of finance for new social businesses. Corporate fund: National and multinational companies operating their businesses in our country can create extra fund for social business. They can also diversify their business into social business through developing environment-friendly and nutritional products to solve health and environment problems. Although many of these corporations spend a specific percentage of their profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR), social business can provide long lasting benefits to the society than CSR. Funds under annual development programme: Social business can be termed as development initiatives. Funds under the annual development programme of our country are being misused, under-utilised or remain unused because of inefficiency of the ministries concerned. Establishing social business with a portion of annual development programme funds to solve our problems can be a meaningful investment. Illegally earned money: The government can allow illegally earned money holders to invest their money into social business. This may be a viable option to encourage illegal money holders to come forward to solve some of our social problems. Climate change fund and others: The government can levy fines or heavy taxes on institutions or businesses, for example, brick kiln industry, responsible for emitting greenhouse gases, and create a climate fund of its own. It is possible to collect about US$80 million every year from brick kiln industry alone for carbon emission in Bangladesh, A study suggests, Bangladesh is expected to get a portion of world climate fund as a compensation for climate change effect. This fund can be effectively used through investing it on environment-friendly social businesses and thus the people in the southern part of our country who are most vulnerable to this climate change effect can benefit from it. Other government sources are also available to raise fund for social business. Social business may be the best choice to remove social problems and serve the people of our society. Today or tomorrow it is going to be the most favoured business model around the world. It is high time, we should encourage and support philanthropists to come forward to start social business and establish models that others can replicate. The writer is student of the Department of Marketing at Dhaka University, and can be reached at email: [email protected]