Imagine the world of tomorrow and create it. You have the power within you !
While in Lyon on March 5th, Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, came to sow the seeds of social business among the students of emlyon business school. Here are five lessons we learned from the inventor of microcredit.
To say that Yunus winning the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize is inspiring would be a serious understatement. Born in 1940 in the Chittagong district of Bangladesh, Yunus is the third of fourteen children. Particularly brilliant, he signed up for the University of Dhaka to study economics — the beginning of the success we now know him for. At 21 he created his first company, then left to finish his doctorate in the United States. After the declaration of independence in his home country, he became the head of a rural economic research program at Chittagong University.
He could have comfortably continued in this vein, but Muhammad Yunus realized with horror the extreme distress happening near his campus. “There was a huge gap between what I was teaching, what I was seeing and the reality of life. People were dying of hunger in surrounding villages. I had to extricate myself from that world, and I looked for a way to make myself useful.”
How could dignity be brought to the poorest citizens? By helping them become entrepreneurs. That’s how Grameen Bank was born in 1976 (officially certified as a bank seven years later). It’s mission: bring honest microcredit solutions to entrepreneurs too poor to benefit from the “conventional” system (the overwhelmingly majority were women). The revolutionary Grameen system allowed millions to escape extremely precarious situations. What are the foundations of this generous and altruistic philosophy? Yunus answered with five lessons:
The conference of Muhammad Yunus
Lesson #1: LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE — BUT DON’T GET LOST
“Studying at the university and then becoming a professor there allowed me to see the big picture, a bit like a bird does. However, sometimes the bird flies too high and can’t see very well.” So the economist and entrepreneur decided to come back to earth, “like an earthworm. I could see, touch and feel people’s distress… At the beginning, it was very painful to be so close to both the victims and their torturers. I needed to find a way to bring them hope.” And that’s how he decided to lend his own money even before founding Grameen Bank — helping the poorest members of society find work and dignity.
Lesson #2: FOLLOW YOUR IDEAS TO THE END
Yunus remembered a wave of skepticism when he founded his microcredit system. He recalled all the warnings and other disapproving remarks that he heard at the time. “It’s impossible,” and “it’s stupid,” and even, “you’re going to lose your money.” Muhammad Yunus serenely “didn’t accept criticism and focused on defying the established system… Reality is so simple, yet we make it complicated. Just because we all take the same road doesn’t mean we’ll all arrive at the same destination,” he mused. The result: his social business bloomed and today it’s 1400 branches are present in 50,000 villages. Since its creation, close to 5 billion dollars have been borrowed with a repayment rate of almost 97%.
Lesson #3: KEEP HUMANITY AT THE HEART OF IT
“Poverty is a bonsai tree. It’s growing the seed of a great tree in a little pot,” stated Yunus before adding, “we don’t give enough space to people.” With Grameen Bank, Yunus opened “the door to potential entrepreneurs and offered oxygen” to the local economy. Ignoring the old adage “you only lend to the rich,” Yunus fought for a business model with human interests at heart.
Lesson #4: KNOW HOW TO LEAN ON BIG GROUPS
Spurred by the success of Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus kept making waves by continuing socially responsible entrepreneurial work with big firms. He gave a special mention to Grameen Danone Foods because, “good business serves humankind.” He worked with Franck Riboud, CEO of Danone, and together they provided essential dairy products at accessible prices (.10€) to the local population of Bangladesh. By collaborating with Adidas, he put shoes on the feet of the disadvantaged for less than a euro, and thus helped reduce the risk of viruses.
Lesson #5: BE YOUR OWN BOSS
“Everyone talks about unemployment. I tell young people to stop looking for employment. Create it; be an entrepreneur… You don’t get a job by rubbing Aladdin’s lamp. You are Aladdin’s lamp.” Yunus then urged the youth present in the assembly — who he considers to be the most powerful generation in the history of humanity — to create “a new world.” Becoming an entrepreneur is, according to him, the best “way to survive since the beginning of time.”
Timothée Barrière (with Antoine Allègre)
