Is Muhammad Yunus Social Business concept old wine in new bottle?

R ecently, the Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus hypothesizes a latest structure or model of business in which he showed an enterprise will mak...

Recently, the Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus hypothesizes a latest structure or model of business in which he showed an enterprise will make profit and social-benefit simultaneously. The concept of Yunus social business appears just about parallel with corporate responsibility or ethical responsibility of an organisation where an organisation practice or work for better society besides making their profit.

In Dr Yunus  new business concept he emphasizes, a social business need to have a profit making objectives that profit would be use for a long term social help for those company's shareholders and investors by re-accumulating their initial investment rather receiving dividends from investment. Hence, social business would be a non-dividend company to be created to solve different social problems.

Unlike all other business social business also will have a mission too .The mission of social business would be recognized under the name of a social mission. It will generate profit or revenues to cover its costs that mean the cost of operating the business. In a word, Dr Yunus claims his new social business will solve the human problems.

                         

The social business concepts are just about to parallel with Fairtrade concept too , which started back in Nineteen Eighties in Netherlands who talk  about the higher costs, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable price, Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives. The last few words from the Fairtrade concept prove that the social business concept is borrowing the inner lines of Fairtrade where sustainability and humanity always exist.

Possibly, only the personal gain factor will be missing from the social business model; whereas in Fairtrade the personal gain is also important to doing well for society for long run as without personal gain it is difficult to something better for society for a long term.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Written by Tarina Sultana