There's an idea afoot that economics will never be the same again after londoners and other world entrepreneurs have got at it in 2008 thanks to the Future Capitalism liberation led by Dr Yunus
but before we boldly go when none has gone before, perhaps there are some questions stimulated by early reading of Yunus new book on Social ABC (Action*Business*Change Capitalism): to communalise, prepare the way, ensure we are going on near enough the same future history journey
I ask readers of the book to help-including the 1000 we are sampling out of London - what Q&A can we voice to help those who havent got the book see why there is a completely new invitation? here from Yunus- your deepest grassroots project can connect with yours and ours and all of their connections can change capitalism if we free business from its 90 day extraction metrics chains, and make each social business measurable to compounding its future mission for life - Yunus has sorted out the maths of this; he's demonstarting how to do it by finding partners in nthe largest Base of the Pyramid experiments any nation has ever witnessed let alone Bangladesh; he's also a banker who is not interested in owning poverty solutions but listing poverty's crucial problems and cataloguing all known open solutions alongside each other so you can choose from or improve the menu at source
question 1 and some answers to impriove might be:
Yunus Flow Q&A1
Q: Truly, what’s use of globalisation economics? -why do people do economic theory?
To let every person and locality see and map what exponentials are rising and crashing their futures...
To ground the overall integration of societies in the united goal of ending systemic poverty..
I would particularly like to hear Rebecca’s views on this Q&A if time permits
Support for these answers and vocabulary:
Truth and system transformation vocabulary of Gandhi and Einstein
First 140 years of severe entrepreneurial questioning of great and good on future exponentials rising by The Economist; interesting now that Economist 2.0 may be called Asia Rising
World wars as churchill pointed out in 30s (and Gore has borrowed in 00.s) escalated by lurking over inconvenient truth – ie not intervening in time to prevent disastrous compound consequences
Monday, December 31, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Draft book talk written by Dr Yunus , 25 December 2007 -given for open source use by Yunus at Grameen Dhaka 6 January:
While free market capitalism is thriving globally almost unopposed now and bringing unprecedented prosperity to many, half of the world lives on two dollars a day or much less. Eradication of poverty remains the biggest challenge before the world. Colossal social problems and deprivations, mostly poverty-related and very unevenly distributed around the globe, continue to shame us everyday. Obviously the free market has failed much of the world. Many people assume that if free markets can't solve social problems governments can. After all government is supposed to represent the interests of society as a whole. But decades and even centuries of experience has shown that while government must do its parts to help alleviate our worst problems, it alone cannot solve them
Fortunately for us there is a keen desire among many to lend a hand through charity for addressing the problems of poverty and other social problems. Charity is rooted in basic human concern for other humans. The concern in nowadays usually expressed in the shape of non-profits and NGOs which may take various names and forms. Then there are aid organisations sponsored by rich governments bilateral and multilateral. Nonprofits and aid organisations are trying to keep the problems within some control. But charity is a form of trickle-down economics; if the trickle stops, so does help for the needy. On the other hand multilaterals like Word Bank focus only on growth as the means of helping the poor, but cannot see that the poor people can be actors themselves. There are serious questions about the type of growth that can help the poor. As another response to the global social problems some businesses are identifying themselves with the movement for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and are trying to do good to the people while conducting business. But profit-making still remains their main goal, by definition. Though they like to talk about triple bottom lines of financial, social and environmental benefits, ultimately only one bottom line calls the shot: financial profit.
I always believed that poverty can be totally conquered quite soon if the right approach is adopted. I based my belief on the inherent ability of the poor that can be unleashed once they are given the opportunity to help themselves. This I have proved in action through three decades of experience with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which basically recognised that credit without collateral is a fundamental right of the poor. Our success with this in my own country has been widely replicated all over the world including in some of the richest countries; and the Nobel prize 2006 for me and Grameen Bank has been told in my earlier book: 'Banker to the Poor'. In this new book I have described the further revolution of Grameen system. But more importantly I have introduced and elaborated here my broadened concept of Social Business, that Grameen experience has led me into.
Grameen allowed the poor to be an actor in the free market and to enjoy some of its fruits to try to come out of poverty. It is fundamentally a business model, pure and simple. This is a Social Business. There can be other Social Business not necessarily involving microcredit. They are just like any other business; but for social objectives and not for personal dividend. I have tried to show in the book why Social Business can succeed in addressing social problems where other means mentioned above have failed. Social Business should not be confused with the term Social Enterprise which is used in a more encompassing sense and includes NGOs, personal initiatives, charities etc and may include Social Business too.
Social Business introduces a totally revolutionary dimension to the free market economy. It keeps all the mechanism through which the normal Profit Making Business (PMB) works and prospers - capitalization, expert business management, competitiveness etc - but investors here do not receive any dividend though they can recover their investment if they want to reinvest in other Social Business or PMB. The satisfaction gained in achieving the social goals are the only motive behind the investment and the business will be evaluated according to that standard. Essentially it is a no-loss, no-dividend business aimed at social objectives -education, health, environment, whatever is needed. The profits here remain with the business and help it grow further. The whole thing is based on the premise that entrepreneurs need not be motivated only by the profits they personally receive, but can also be motivated by social goals and may enjoy success there with equal satisfaction. The important thing is not to mix up a Social Business with a PMB. In fact, the inclusion of Social Business alongside PMBs in the business world will give free market capitalism a larger, nobler and a more fulfilling purpose. Its advantages over straightforward charity are many - efficiencies, continuous use with each turnover, competition with PMBs following the same rules, utilization of business innovations being some of the most important ones.
There can be two types of Social Business. Type one focuses on businesses dealing with social objectives only, as has just been mentioned. Type two can take up any profitable business so long as it is owned by the poor and the disadvantaged, who can gain through receiving direct dividends or by some indirect benefits. There are various ways how the ownership can go to the poor. The two types can be mixed together in the same Social Business as has happened in the case of Grameen Bank. In a similar mixture of the two types, a socially beneficial rural toll road can be built by a company as a Social Business whose ownership will belong to the poor.
On the other hand a huge project such as a Deep-Sea Mega Port in Bangladesh I have been advocating for, which will be used by several countries in the whole region and can potentially change the economic face of Bangladesh, can be built by a Social Business owned by the poor women of the country.
Is this an utopia? Will there be Social Business outside the realm of microcredit? Who will invest in such Social Businesses? I could answer these questions confidently in the book, not only because I have faith on my idea and on the ability of entrepreneurs to have social motives as well as profit making motives; but also because I am seeing this actually happen at this very moment. I have devoted a good part of the book on the details of the first such Social Business we have started - Grameen-Danone Comany which went into operation in early 2007. The idea of the company was born over just a casual lunch I had with Frank Riboud, the Chairman and CEO of Groupe Danone, a large French corporation -- a world leader in dairy products. It took just that time for me to convince him that an investment in a Social Business is a worthwhile thing for Danone shareholders. Even though it will not give any personal dividend to them, he believed that they could go for it when everything will be explained to them. However, it took somewhat more time to fix up the modalities , the product (a fortifies sweet yogurt for the poor malnourished children of Bangladesh at a price they can afford), the financing, tax and regulatory issues, new yardsticks for evaluating business, and many other such details. And I have devoted many pages of the book on these details to show how all these things can be taken care of. The yogurt 'Shoki Doi' (Energy Yogurt) is already in the market. The Grameen System has invested in a second Social Business - this time an Eye Hospital where the poor can have eye treatment and cataract operations at a very low cost and all others in the small town and villages around will have an excellent medical facility where there was not any like that before.
Social Business is a new concept and its practice is just beginning. As my book reveals, it has to make a lot more explorations while gaining more experience. There are challenges to be faced and solutions to be made. For example, we had to invent a totally innovative marketing system to keep the market fragmented so that the low cost "Shokti Doi' is reserved only for the poor children and does not appear in the urban market for the well to do. I have also touched upon other issues such as how can the ownership of the Type 2 Social Business be transferred to the poor, or how can the wonderful opportunities offered by IT be best deployed for the Social Business.
One thing is very clear to me: that with the Social Business taking off, the world of free market capitalism will never be the same again, and it then will really be able to put the deathblow on global poverty. I am sure many business wizards and successful business personalities will apply their abilities to the new challenge - the challenge of creating a poverty-free world within a short time. At the moment we are seeing merely the line of the horizon. Soon a good part of business genius of the world will devote itself to this new goal of social good. A whole new stockmarket with it new indices will thrive in the financial capitals of the world motivated by this new incentive. It will accelerate the process of poverty eradication to an unthinkable pace using the same market mechanism which accelerated the global prosperity for the rich in the first place.
While free market capitalism is thriving globally almost unopposed now and bringing unprecedented prosperity to many, half of the world lives on two dollars a day or much less. Eradication of poverty remains the biggest challenge before the world. Colossal social problems and deprivations, mostly poverty-related and very unevenly distributed around the globe, continue to shame us everyday. Obviously the free market has failed much of the world. Many people assume that if free markets can't solve social problems governments can. After all government is supposed to represent the interests of society as a whole. But decades and even centuries of experience has shown that while government must do its parts to help alleviate our worst problems, it alone cannot solve them
Fortunately for us there is a keen desire among many to lend a hand through charity for addressing the problems of poverty and other social problems. Charity is rooted in basic human concern for other humans. The concern in nowadays usually expressed in the shape of non-profits and NGOs which may take various names and forms. Then there are aid organisations sponsored by rich governments bilateral and multilateral. Nonprofits and aid organisations are trying to keep the problems within some control. But charity is a form of trickle-down economics; if the trickle stops, so does help for the needy. On the other hand multilaterals like Word Bank focus only on growth as the means of helping the poor, but cannot see that the poor people can be actors themselves. There are serious questions about the type of growth that can help the poor. As another response to the global social problems some businesses are identifying themselves with the movement for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and are trying to do good to the people while conducting business. But profit-making still remains their main goal, by definition. Though they like to talk about triple bottom lines of financial, social and environmental benefits, ultimately only one bottom line calls the shot: financial profit.
I always believed that poverty can be totally conquered quite soon if the right approach is adopted. I based my belief on the inherent ability of the poor that can be unleashed once they are given the opportunity to help themselves. This I have proved in action through three decades of experience with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which basically recognised that credit without collateral is a fundamental right of the poor. Our success with this in my own country has been widely replicated all over the world including in some of the richest countries; and the Nobel prize 2006 for me and Grameen Bank has been told in my earlier book: 'Banker to the Poor'. In this new book I have described the further revolution of Grameen system. But more importantly I have introduced and elaborated here my broadened concept of Social Business, that Grameen experience has led me into.
Grameen allowed the poor to be an actor in the free market and to enjoy some of its fruits to try to come out of poverty. It is fundamentally a business model, pure and simple. This is a Social Business. There can be other Social Business not necessarily involving microcredit. They are just like any other business; but for social objectives and not for personal dividend. I have tried to show in the book why Social Business can succeed in addressing social problems where other means mentioned above have failed. Social Business should not be confused with the term Social Enterprise which is used in a more encompassing sense and includes NGOs, personal initiatives, charities etc and may include Social Business too.
Social Business introduces a totally revolutionary dimension to the free market economy. It keeps all the mechanism through which the normal Profit Making Business (PMB) works and prospers - capitalization, expert business management, competitiveness etc - but investors here do not receive any dividend though they can recover their investment if they want to reinvest in other Social Business or PMB. The satisfaction gained in achieving the social goals are the only motive behind the investment and the business will be evaluated according to that standard. Essentially it is a no-loss, no-dividend business aimed at social objectives -education, health, environment, whatever is needed. The profits here remain with the business and help it grow further. The whole thing is based on the premise that entrepreneurs need not be motivated only by the profits they personally receive, but can also be motivated by social goals and may enjoy success there with equal satisfaction. The important thing is not to mix up a Social Business with a PMB. In fact, the inclusion of Social Business alongside PMBs in the business world will give free market capitalism a larger, nobler and a more fulfilling purpose. Its advantages over straightforward charity are many - efficiencies, continuous use with each turnover, competition with PMBs following the same rules, utilization of business innovations being some of the most important ones.
There can be two types of Social Business. Type one focuses on businesses dealing with social objectives only, as has just been mentioned. Type two can take up any profitable business so long as it is owned by the poor and the disadvantaged, who can gain through receiving direct dividends or by some indirect benefits. There are various ways how the ownership can go to the poor. The two types can be mixed together in the same Social Business as has happened in the case of Grameen Bank. In a similar mixture of the two types, a socially beneficial rural toll road can be built by a company as a Social Business whose ownership will belong to the poor.
On the other hand a huge project such as a Deep-Sea Mega Port in Bangladesh I have been advocating for, which will be used by several countries in the whole region and can potentially change the economic face of Bangladesh, can be built by a Social Business owned by the poor women of the country.
Is this an utopia? Will there be Social Business outside the realm of microcredit? Who will invest in such Social Businesses? I could answer these questions confidently in the book, not only because I have faith on my idea and on the ability of entrepreneurs to have social motives as well as profit making motives; but also because I am seeing this actually happen at this very moment. I have devoted a good part of the book on the details of the first such Social Business we have started - Grameen-Danone Comany which went into operation in early 2007. The idea of the company was born over just a casual lunch I had with Frank Riboud, the Chairman and CEO of Groupe Danone, a large French corporation -- a world leader in dairy products. It took just that time for me to convince him that an investment in a Social Business is a worthwhile thing for Danone shareholders. Even though it will not give any personal dividend to them, he believed that they could go for it when everything will be explained to them. However, it took somewhat more time to fix up the modalities , the product (a fortifies sweet yogurt for the poor malnourished children of Bangladesh at a price they can afford), the financing, tax and regulatory issues, new yardsticks for evaluating business, and many other such details. And I have devoted many pages of the book on these details to show how all these things can be taken care of. The yogurt 'Shoki Doi' (Energy Yogurt) is already in the market. The Grameen System has invested in a second Social Business - this time an Eye Hospital where the poor can have eye treatment and cataract operations at a very low cost and all others in the small town and villages around will have an excellent medical facility where there was not any like that before.
Social Business is a new concept and its practice is just beginning. As my book reveals, it has to make a lot more explorations while gaining more experience. There are challenges to be faced and solutions to be made. For example, we had to invent a totally innovative marketing system to keep the market fragmented so that the low cost "Shokti Doi' is reserved only for the poor children and does not appear in the urban market for the well to do. I have also touched upon other issues such as how can the ownership of the Type 2 Social Business be transferred to the poor, or how can the wonderful opportunities offered by IT be best deployed for the Social Business.
One thing is very clear to me: that with the Social Business taking off, the world of free market capitalism will never be the same again, and it then will really be able to put the deathblow on global poverty. I am sure many business wizards and successful business personalities will apply their abilities to the new challenge - the challenge of creating a poverty-free world within a short time. At the moment we are seeing merely the line of the horizon. Soon a good part of business genius of the world will devote itself to this new goal of social good. A whole new stockmarket with it new indices will thrive in the financial capitals of the world motivated by this new incentive. It will accelerate the process of poverty eradication to an unthinkable pace using the same market mechanism which accelerated the global prosperity for the rich in the first place.
Friday, November 30, 2007
First Half Yearly Reports on Future Capitalism
Background (your comments welcomed here at yunusworld dialogue #1)
BANGLADESH - It is probably the case that the 2 greatest microeconomists living today learnt to query their profession in Bangladesh whilst wars or famines were raging. It is definitely the case that Bangladesh has now spent over 30 years training over 100,000 grassroots networkers in community rising service economy.
FRANCE - as well as coining the word entrepreneur as the way of mapping how productively free are peoples, and how sustainable are communities' compound futures - France is leading today's mutinational corporate adoption of Future Capitalism with an SMBA at their leading business school and thanks to he brilaint corpoarte leaders at Danone, Veolia and Credit Agricole.
SCOTLAND's UNITED NATIONS 1850 - Adam Smith's hi-trust maps of free markets originated in the late 1700s but are often completely mistranslated by those who design economic models around big gets bigger. Adam's obsession with microeconomics aimed to reconcile his country's loss through a hostile takeover by the UK, an event around 1700 which led to Scots having more of our compatriots worldwide webbed than living in Scotland by the middle of the 19th century. Thus all local to global futures which you choose now benefit from history's proven experiences from these 3 quarters and others (eg gandhi's Satyhagraha -communities unite in whole truth - since 1907) which we look forward to YOU informing US of.
yunusworld dialogue #1
where did the world's most trusted microeconomists experientially learn and where can we network community rising projects around them today -please comment
Background (your comments welcomed here at yunusworld dialogue #1)
BANGLADESH - It is probably the case that the 2 greatest microeconomists living today learnt to query their profession in Bangladesh whilst wars or famines were raging. It is definitely the case that Bangladesh has now spent over 30 years training over 100,000 grassroots networkers in community rising service economy.
FRANCE - as well as coining the word entrepreneur as the way of mapping how productively free are peoples, and how sustainable are communities' compound futures - France is leading today's mutinational corporate adoption of Future Capitalism with an SMBA at their leading business school and thanks to he brilaint corpoarte leaders at Danone, Veolia and Credit Agricole.
SCOTLAND's UNITED NATIONS 1850 - Adam Smith's hi-trust maps of free markets originated in the late 1700s but are often completely mistranslated by those who design economic models around big gets bigger. Adam's obsession with microeconomics aimed to reconcile his country's loss through a hostile takeover by the UK, an event around 1700 which led to Scots having more of our compatriots worldwide webbed than living in Scotland by the middle of the 19th century. Thus all local to global futures which you choose now benefit from history's proven experiences from these 3 quarters and others (eg gandhi's Satyhagraha -communities unite in whole truth - since 1907) which we look forward to YOU informing US of.
yunusworld dialogue #1
where did the world's most trusted microeconomists experientially learn and where can we network community rising projects around them today -please comment
will you help yunus build humanity's most collaborative and sustainable networks
in november 007 intercity rumors that yunus was daring to ask this biggest question of human sustainability sooned started being confirmed; so far Dr Yunus has kindly shared 6 hours of a very busy january 008 with personal investigators of this subject out of London and aiming to collaborate with every city. we have been inviting a team of first 20 londoners to correspond on this in every way - email chris.macrae@yahoo.co.luk if you want a listing of the most active forst 20 of any particular month - meanwhile see some sample reasoings of why yunus book and its invitations to socially interact are changing people's world's here
here is a space for trying to synthesise what we hear; this is real time stuff and doubtless there will be correspondent errors to iteratively re-edit; if you vote for one world of humanity with all the knowhow to end poverty, lack of communal healthcare, wars and abuse of nature's abundant clean energies and foods and waters then please help us get the good news flowing anywhere that you believe people locally need to be inspired to sociloa action for everyone's futures
MAIL WRITTEN 28 January after 2 personal hours with Yunus in New York and train to Phildeplhia asking Londoners to connect the mother of all open networking colaborations in time for yunus UK vists feb 14-17
Excuse me - with many of you, I am being misinterpreted over many months from what I most wanted to voice and connect - mea culpa but equally as a mathematician I want to get back to maps and charetering open systems offering a world of integrated all-way round ("communally true") communications not nof one text nor one soundbite at a time, one noisy vested interest voice at a time be that a greedy owner or someone selling their own untried or closed idea
- yunus truth questioning ground zero london: sofia has promised such a yunus map will start going up physically on the wall of brixton hub the next time she's in there - it will have minimum background, maximum action project events that are already hapening but where people are invited to connect thrir flow to the events yunus networking goals -it would be a good idea if this map was 100% aware of the first worldwide web every built between yunus top 5 team in dhaka and the whole world of humanity namely http://www.yunussocialactiongroup.org/
Yunus Forum London peers of mostofa, sofia and I have since dec 2006 been those who openly and actionably accepted invitations to meet yunus at whatever time or place or notice he could give - have had the unique priviledge of a total of 6 hours of private time with Yunus this month (january) the most frenetic he has ever had on a worldwide tour basis: so we wish to share absolutely all we could know-act and can flow connections of every yunus event but the way not to do that is for each of you to ping me with separate questions about each separate event
beyond our updating micro-printed world citizen guide which yunus has contributed the most sparking 1000m word summary of his book's chalenge to writeen on dec 25 for open source world citizenry http://www.valuetrue.com/home/gallery.cfm , a way to guide this is to put up every side of what we each know -and could flow -about these events as well as any long-term projects we have permission to connect around yunus at eg a blog since we have not single tool that veryone knows how to begin to use
therefore I will send or resend invitations on everyone on this list to co-edit this blog
http://www.yunusworld.blogspot.com/
in particular if you have some detailed information about any of the events while yunus is in the UK please blog it or mail it to me as open information for me to put up wherever it best fits; equally if you see any news of world or capitalism changing that is directly prompted by yunus book or friends, pelase link us up
since discovering the book in mid november -and inviting londoners to hub around it with photocopies I brought over at ned november and books I distributed the first day of its uk launch - I have learnt that Dr Yunus has a crisis- there is one man in the midst of the 2 insane (ie compounding loss of human sustainability) globalisation worlds of corporate and charitable compound irresponsibility who with a 5 people team in dhaka is inviting people to re-netowk the world at every level issuing an invitation which if you like is the deep human side of what tim berners lee never integrated with his wishes for the www
whilst there are many geographical and cultural dimensions to the networks that need to be webbed if poverty is to be ended , a peaceful century co-created, abundant clean energy, food and water invested in naturally with the sun's photosythesis, healthy communities starting with every child's health care..., I have asked Dr Yunus the following questions very directly
1 do you want this web of networks to have as much impact over the next 5 eyars as microcreditsummit has as the world's most productive network - answer yes
2 is anyone of your historical contacts already shaping the networks you want - answer no?
3 are you really up for all 3 levels:
A - social Action : change awareness of every child, youth, educator of what wishes 21st C could still humanly sustain- invite cross-cultyral celebration of this
B: - Social Business - get every city to develop socila bsuienss stockamrkets until there are more social bsuienss activists than MBAs
C : Creative Future Capitalism : involve global corporations in Base of Pyramid partnership experiments of the like of which their innovation strategies have utterly ignored since 1984; ensure that Yunus as a 98 year old's likfe work in ending poverty in bangladeh is particularly accelerated by this hi-level network
there are detailed reasons why Yunus has to start building each of these networks as an open book not one that gets creamed off by the top as happened in 20th century; no example is clearer as a paradon than what happened last thursday
Bill Gates was explaining at WEF that he was inviting all major corporations tio come join in yunus books big base of byramid socila business partnerhsip benchmarking; at the same time as WEF management had refused to let delegates have yunus book cos they wanted to delegates to have their rival one; at the same time as one londonm team member was sharing an hour's personal train ride with yunus to listen to feedback on what the heck was london bookclubs of 1000 about and how seamlessly networked could he yunus expect the UK to be- would the Uk be as successful in continuing the momentum of his book as the USA in getting it to jump in at the bestseller list at number 18 soon to be in top 5
back in 1995 I write the book that began the genre of how to share an organsiation's most vital Q&A and openly network these outside and n; it is called brand chatering; one of the projects sofia promised to undertake 4 months ago was to study the book and help peer to peer it; you can start a 100 chartering bookclud with her if you like as copies are available in wimbledon more or less alongside yunus books
chris macrae
us 301 881 1655 http://grameen.tv
if you decide that you wish to help yunus to the max then start studying searches like http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&tab=wn&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=1&q=%2Bcapitalism++%2Bgates+%2Byunus&btnG=Search+News
Gates' one-liners and reading list
Seattle Times, United States - 3 hours ago
... pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who spoke here recently. A Wall Street Journal story on Gates' "creative capitalism" idea noted as much, ...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004148753_btdownload28.html
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been getting some good mileage from self-deprecating humor in recent high-profile speeches.
There was the sidesplitting "Bill's Last Day" video at the International Consumer Electronics Show. And last week, Gates opened his speech at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, with these quips:
"As you all may know, in July I'll make a big career change. I'm not worried; I believe I'm still marketable," he said, getting laughs. "I'm a self-starter, I'm proficient in Microsoft Office. I guess that's it. Also I'm learning how to give money away."
Gates' Davos speech, which he described as the most important he'll give this year, centered on the idea of creative capitalism, "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities."
The idea sounded to us like a version of the "social business" espoused by microcredit pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who spoke here recently.
A Wall Street Journal story on Gates' "creative capitalism" idea noted as much, and also shared the back story of how Gates developed the ideas he expressed in the Davos speech.
The books that he read, as reported by The Journal, include:
• "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," the less-famous predecessor to "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.
• Former World Bank economist William Easterly's "The White Man's Burden," which suggests five decades of international aid have done little for the world's poor. Gates hated it, according to The Journal.
• "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," by University of Michigan professor C.K. Prahalad, which argues that businesses should not overlook the world's poor as a market. Gates dined with him "near Seattle" in 2004, The Journal reported.
• "The Bottom Billion," by former World Bank director Paul Collier, which calls out the widening gap between the world's richest and the poorest.
Getting a break
With spring-break season looming, Farecast chimed in with this observation: Travelers will probably pay 10 to 12 percent more for a plane ticket during that time.
The Seattle-based company, which provides predictive information about airline fares, offers a couple of tips:
• Avoid traveling during the height of college breaks — around March 8 to 22.
• Think Tuesday. A Tuesday-to-Tuesday trip saves a bunch, especially compared with flying on weekends.
What's in an Office?
Todd Peters, the former Staples exec whom Microsoft hired to head up its Mobile Communications Business as corporate vice president of marketing, said he had a leg up when he took on the task of raising consumer awareness of his former employer. Staples came out with the "Easy Button" campaign under his watch.
Still, when he got there, he said, the biggest thing Staples had going for it on the branding front was that its name didn't start with Office (unlike Office Depot and OfficeMax).
Top of the clubs
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America last week named Robbie Bach, president of the Microsoft division responsible for fun, as chairman-elect for 2009-10. Under his watch, Microsoft has plunged into the video-game business with the Xbox and now Xbox 360 game console and the Zune digital media player.
Bach, officially president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, has long been involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs.
The news release was silent on whether Bach would hook the clubs up with Xbox 360s.
Download, a column of news bits, observations and miscellany, is gathered by The Seattle Times technology staff. We can be reached at 206-464-2265 or biztech@seattletimes.com.
here is a space for trying to synthesise what we hear; this is real time stuff and doubtless there will be correspondent errors to iteratively re-edit; if you vote for one world of humanity with all the knowhow to end poverty, lack of communal healthcare, wars and abuse of nature's abundant clean energies and foods and waters then please help us get the good news flowing anywhere that you believe people locally need to be inspired to sociloa action for everyone's futures
MAIL WRITTEN 28 January after 2 personal hours with Yunus in New York and train to Phildeplhia asking Londoners to connect the mother of all open networking colaborations in time for yunus UK vists feb 14-17
Excuse me - with many of you, I am being misinterpreted over many months from what I most wanted to voice and connect - mea culpa but equally as a mathematician I want to get back to maps and charetering open systems offering a world of integrated all-way round ("communally true") communications not nof one text nor one soundbite at a time, one noisy vested interest voice at a time be that a greedy owner or someone selling their own untried or closed idea
- yunus truth questioning ground zero london: sofia has promised such a yunus map will start going up physically on the wall of brixton hub the next time she's in there - it will have minimum background, maximum action project events that are already hapening but where people are invited to connect thrir flow to the events yunus networking goals -it would be a good idea if this map was 100% aware of the first worldwide web every built between yunus top 5 team in dhaka and the whole world of humanity namely http://www.yunussocialactiongroup.org/
Yunus Forum London peers of mostofa, sofia and I have since dec 2006 been those who openly and actionably accepted invitations to meet yunus at whatever time or place or notice he could give - have had the unique priviledge of a total of 6 hours of private time with Yunus this month (january) the most frenetic he has ever had on a worldwide tour basis: so we wish to share absolutely all we could know-act and can flow connections of every yunus event but the way not to do that is for each of you to ping me with separate questions about each separate event
beyond our updating micro-printed world citizen guide which yunus has contributed the most sparking 1000m word summary of his book's chalenge to writeen on dec 25 for open source world citizenry http://www.valuetrue.com/home/gallery.cfm , a way to guide this is to put up every side of what we each know -and could flow -about these events as well as any long-term projects we have permission to connect around yunus at eg a blog since we have not single tool that veryone knows how to begin to use
therefore I will send or resend invitations on everyone on this list to co-edit this blog
http://www.yunusworld.blogspot.com/
in particular if you have some detailed information about any of the events while yunus is in the UK please blog it or mail it to me as open information for me to put up wherever it best fits; equally if you see any news of world or capitalism changing that is directly prompted by yunus book or friends, pelase link us up
since discovering the book in mid november -and inviting londoners to hub around it with photocopies I brought over at ned november and books I distributed the first day of its uk launch - I have learnt that Dr Yunus has a crisis- there is one man in the midst of the 2 insane (ie compounding loss of human sustainability) globalisation worlds of corporate and charitable compound irresponsibility who with a 5 people team in dhaka is inviting people to re-netowk the world at every level issuing an invitation which if you like is the deep human side of what tim berners lee never integrated with his wishes for the www
whilst there are many geographical and cultural dimensions to the networks that need to be webbed if poverty is to be ended , a peaceful century co-created, abundant clean energy, food and water invested in naturally with the sun's photosythesis, healthy communities starting with every child's health care..., I have asked Dr Yunus the following questions very directly
1 do you want this web of networks to have as much impact over the next 5 eyars as microcreditsummit has as the world's most productive network - answer yes
2 is anyone of your historical contacts already shaping the networks you want - answer no?
3 are you really up for all 3 levels:
A - social Action : change awareness of every child, youth, educator of what wishes 21st C could still humanly sustain- invite cross-cultyral celebration of this
B: - Social Business - get every city to develop socila bsuienss stockamrkets until there are more social bsuienss activists than MBAs
C : Creative Future Capitalism : involve global corporations in Base of Pyramid partnership experiments of the like of which their innovation strategies have utterly ignored since 1984; ensure that Yunus as a 98 year old's likfe work in ending poverty in bangladeh is particularly accelerated by this hi-level network
there are detailed reasons why Yunus has to start building each of these networks as an open book not one that gets creamed off by the top as happened in 20th century; no example is clearer as a paradon than what happened last thursday
Bill Gates was explaining at WEF that he was inviting all major corporations tio come join in yunus books big base of byramid socila business partnerhsip benchmarking; at the same time as WEF management had refused to let delegates have yunus book cos they wanted to delegates to have their rival one; at the same time as one londonm team member was sharing an hour's personal train ride with yunus to listen to feedback on what the heck was london bookclubs of 1000 about and how seamlessly networked could he yunus expect the UK to be- would the Uk be as successful in continuing the momentum of his book as the USA in getting it to jump in at the bestseller list at number 18 soon to be in top 5
back in 1995 I write the book that began the genre of how to share an organsiation's most vital Q&A and openly network these outside and n; it is called brand chatering; one of the projects sofia promised to undertake 4 months ago was to study the book and help peer to peer it; you can start a 100 chartering bookclud with her if you like as copies are available in wimbledon more or less alongside yunus books
chris macrae
us 301 881 1655 http://grameen.tv
if you decide that you wish to help yunus to the max then start studying searches like http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&tab=wn&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=1&q=%2Bcapitalism++%2Bgates+%2Byunus&btnG=Search+News
Gates' one-liners and reading list
Seattle Times, United States - 3 hours ago
... pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who spoke here recently. A Wall Street Journal story on Gates' "creative capitalism" idea noted as much, ...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004148753_btdownload28.html
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been getting some good mileage from self-deprecating humor in recent high-profile speeches.
There was the sidesplitting "Bill's Last Day" video at the International Consumer Electronics Show. And last week, Gates opened his speech at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, with these quips:
"As you all may know, in July I'll make a big career change. I'm not worried; I believe I'm still marketable," he said, getting laughs. "I'm a self-starter, I'm proficient in Microsoft Office. I guess that's it. Also I'm learning how to give money away."
Gates' Davos speech, which he described as the most important he'll give this year, centered on the idea of creative capitalism, "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities."
The idea sounded to us like a version of the "social business" espoused by microcredit pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who spoke here recently.
A Wall Street Journal story on Gates' "creative capitalism" idea noted as much, and also shared the back story of how Gates developed the ideas he expressed in the Davos speech.
The books that he read, as reported by The Journal, include:
• "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," the less-famous predecessor to "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.
• Former World Bank economist William Easterly's "The White Man's Burden," which suggests five decades of international aid have done little for the world's poor. Gates hated it, according to The Journal.
• "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," by University of Michigan professor C.K. Prahalad, which argues that businesses should not overlook the world's poor as a market. Gates dined with him "near Seattle" in 2004, The Journal reported.
• "The Bottom Billion," by former World Bank director Paul Collier, which calls out the widening gap between the world's richest and the poorest.
Getting a break
With spring-break season looming, Farecast chimed in with this observation: Travelers will probably pay 10 to 12 percent more for a plane ticket during that time.
The Seattle-based company, which provides predictive information about airline fares, offers a couple of tips:
• Avoid traveling during the height of college breaks — around March 8 to 22.
• Think Tuesday. A Tuesday-to-Tuesday trip saves a bunch, especially compared with flying on weekends.
What's in an Office?
Todd Peters, the former Staples exec whom Microsoft hired to head up its Mobile Communications Business as corporate vice president of marketing, said he had a leg up when he took on the task of raising consumer awareness of his former employer. Staples came out with the "Easy Button" campaign under his watch.
Still, when he got there, he said, the biggest thing Staples had going for it on the branding front was that its name didn't start with Office (unlike Office Depot and OfficeMax).
Top of the clubs
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America last week named Robbie Bach, president of the Microsoft division responsible for fun, as chairman-elect for 2009-10. Under his watch, Microsoft has plunged into the video-game business with the Xbox and now Xbox 360 game console and the Zune digital media player.
Bach, officially president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, has long been involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs.
The news release was silent on whether Bach would hook the clubs up with Xbox 360s.
Download, a column of news bits, observations and miscellany, is gathered by The Seattle Times technology staff. We can be reached at 206-464-2265 or biztech@seattletimes.com.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Resource area of Yunus Book CLUB2 (of facebook 100)
Turning Yunus Chapter 1 into a Book debating mysterious 20th C systems that failed to serve poverty, and how the denoument can be Social Business- Capitalism's Future
This book club began 18 Jan 2008- however long notes and submissions will use this idary space (ie Jan 007)
Turning Yunus Chapter 1 into a Book debating mysterious 20th C systems that failed to serve poverty, and how the denoument can be Social Business- Capitalism's Future
This book club began 18 Jan 2008- however long notes and submissions will use this idary space (ie Jan 007)
Monday, January 1, 2007
Systems Pattern Rule Testimony in Network (system**N) age to Club 2
Testimony by Chris Macrae - valuetrue.com Yunus ABC resources, system blogger, transparency & sustainability exponentials mapper
PRO1 Future Shock of Systemic Whole Truth
Systems compound exponential consequences.
Primary measurement rules determine consequences.
Primary rules are those used at the most frequent decision-making cycles and rewards governing.
Over time a system is liable to compound the destruction of any non-primary goal.
PRO1 Consequence
Regarding the overall system people choose to integrate globalisation: if ending poverty’s extreme local traps is not a primary goal of any worldwide system, then that system will accidentally compound extreme poverty. This applies whatever name the system goes under – eg to NGOs; Governments; Development Elite eg world bank; Corporate Social Responsibility
PRO1 Advanced Test
Living systems are particularly tricky to put boundaries on. This is because they do not exist on their own but in interfacing smaller subsystems within them, bigger systems that contain them as well as environmentally where over times space that separated historic systems disappears and causes their collision. At this time over-competitive systems fail, and only collaborative ones have a chance of harmonising higher order value. Note testimonies around Global Reconciliation Network (eg Alfonso Lingis) demonstrate that cultures are a particularly critical type of system interface as nearly 7 billion people in under one generation come together around networking’s death of distance.
Testimony by Chris Macrae - valuetrue.com Yunus ABC resources, system blogger, transparency & sustainability exponentials mapper
PRO1 Future Shock of Systemic Whole Truth
Systems compound exponential consequences.
Primary measurement rules determine consequences.
Primary rules are those used at the most frequent decision-making cycles and rewards governing.
Over time a system is liable to compound the destruction of any non-primary goal.
PRO1 Consequence
Regarding the overall system people choose to integrate globalisation: if ending poverty’s extreme local traps is not a primary goal of any worldwide system, then that system will accidentally compound extreme poverty. This applies whatever name the system goes under – eg to NGOs; Governments; Development Elite eg world bank; Corporate Social Responsibility
PRO1 Advanced Test
Living systems are particularly tricky to put boundaries on. This is because they do not exist on their own but in interfacing smaller subsystems within them, bigger systems that contain them as well as environmentally where over times space that separated historic systems disappears and causes their collision. At this time over-competitive systems fail, and only collaborative ones have a chance of harmonising higher order value. Note testimonies around Global Reconciliation Network (eg Alfonso Lingis) demonstrate that cultures are a particularly critical type of system interface as nearly 7 billion people in under one generation come together around networking’s death of distance.
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