What is *Building Social Business* by Muhammad Yunus about?

*Building Social Business* outlines Muhammad Yunus’s vision for a sustainable capitalist model where businesses prioritize solving social problems over profit. It introduces seven principles for creating self-sustaining enterprises that reinvest earnings into expanding their social impact, using real-world examples like Grameen Bank’s microfinance initiatives.

Who should read *Building Social Business*?

This book is essential for social entrepreneurs, policymakers, and business leaders seeking ethical alternatives to profit-driven capitalism. It’s also valuable for nonprofit professionals interested in transitioning to financially sustainable models and students studying social innovation or economic development.

Is *Building Social Business* worth reading?

Yes—it offers actionable frameworks for addressing poverty, healthcare gaps, and environmental issues through market-based solutions. Yunus blends theory with case studies, making it both inspirational and practical for readers aiming to create systemic change.

What are the 7 principles of social business?

1. **Social objective focus**: Prioritize solving human problems over profit. 2. **Financial sustainability**: Cover costs without relying on donations. 3. **Non-dividend model**: Reinvest profits into growth or new ventures. 4. **Environmental responsibility**: Operate eco-consciously. 5. **Fair wages/working conditions**: Ensure ethical labor practices. 6. **Joy-driven work**: Cultivate employee satisfaction. 7. **Long-term vision**: Commit to enduring social impact.

How does social business differ from traditional nonprofits?

Unlike nonprofits dependent on donations, social businesses generate revenue through market operations, ensuring long-term sustainability. Funds are recycled indefinitely (e.g., Grameen Bank loans), whereas charity dollars are spent once.

What case studies does Yunus highlight in the book?

Yunus details Grameen Bank’s microfinance success and partnerships like Grameen Danone, which produces nutrient-fortified yogurt for malnourished communities. These examples demonstrate scalable solutions to poverty and health crises.

What criticisms exist about social businesses?

Critics argue social businesses may lack scalability in complex markets and struggle to attract investors without profit incentives. Some question whether they can fully replace government or nonprofit roles in systemic change.

How does *Building Social Business* compare to *Banker to the Poor*?

While *Banker to the Poor* focuses on microfinance’s origins, this book expands Yunus’s vision to broader economic reform. It offers structured frameworks for building social enterprises rather than recounting Grameen Bank’s history.

Building Social Business

Muhammad Yunus

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Overview of Building Social Business

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus reveals how businesses can solve social problems while remaining profitable. His revolutionary model, embraced globally, challenges traditional capitalism. What if companies prioritized humanity over profits? Discover why even corporate giants are adopting this world-changing approach.

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Chapter 1

Reimagining Capitalism: A Vision for Social Change

When Muhammad Yunus stepped out of his university classroom during the 1974 Bangladesh famine, he couldn't have imagined how that single act would transform global economics. With just $27 borrowed from his own pocket, he freed 42 villagers from predatory lenders and planted the seeds of what would become Grameen Bank. Today, that institution serves 8 million borrowers-97% women-with a 98% repayment rate. But Yunus wasn't satisfied with microcredit alone. His revolutionary concept of "social business" has attracted partners from Danone to Intel, creating a movement that Bill Clinton calls "the most important economic idea of our time." Even the Dalai Lama has praised Yunus's approach as "capitalism with a human face." This isn't just another business book-it's a blueprint for reimagining our economic system from the ground up.

Chapter 2

The Birth of a Revolutionary Business Model

The concept of social business emerged organically from Muhammad Yunus's work with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh during the 1970s and 1980s. As he interacted with poor borrowers, he encountered problems that extended far beyond lack of credit-from widespread vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition to inadequate housing and limited access to education. Around each identified problem, Yunus and his team created separate programs that eventually evolved into independent companies. Grameen Telecom brought telecommunications to rural Bangladesh, connecting millions of villagers to the outside world. Grameen Shakti developed affordable solar energy systems that now power over two million rural homes. Grameen Kalyan established a network of health clinics offering preventive care and basic medical services at minimal cost. Each venture addressed a specific social need while operating on business principles. Looking back at these enterprises, Yunus realized he had created a new business form focused entirely on solving social problems rather than making money. He refined this concept into what he now calls "social business"-a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated to solving specific social problems while remaining financially self-sustaining. This model was revolutionary because it challenged the fundamental assumption that businesses must maximize profits for shareholders. Unlike traditional profit-maximizing businesses that measure success solely through financial returns, social businesses evaluate their performance through multiple metrics: number of people served, improvements in quality of life, environmental impact, and other social indicators. For example, Grameen Danone measures not just its sales of fortified yogurt but also tracks reduction in childhood malnutrition rates. And unlike charities or non-profits that depend on continuous donations, social businesses generate enough revenue through their operations to cover costs, reinvest in growth, and continue indefinitely. The model offers a third way that harnesses the efficiency, innovation and scalability of business while directing those forces toward solving humanity's most pressing challenges. This approach addresses a fundamental flaw in our current economic system. Traditional capitalism assumes humans are one-dimensional profit-maximizers, when in reality we are multidimensional beings whose happiness comes from many sources-including helping others, contributing to society, and finding meaning in our work. While humans can certainly be selfish, we are also inherently selfless-as evidenced by the millions of charitable institutions worldwide and the billions donated annually to worthy causes. Social business provides an organized outlet for this selfless dimension of human nature that traditional business models ignore or suppress. What makes social business particularly powerful is its sustainability and scalability. As Yunus often says, "A charity dollar has only one life; a social business dollar can be invested over and over again." This recycling of capital creates a perpetual engine for social good that doesn't require continuous fundraising. Successful social businesses can grow organically, attract investment capital, and expand their impact exponentially while maintaining their social mission. The model has now spread globally, with social businesses addressing issues from unemployment to environmental degradation in both developing and developed nations.

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Chapter 3

Not Charity, Not Traditional Business: The Third Way

Social business represents a distinct category separate from both profit-maximizing companies and non-profit organizations. There are two types: Type I is a non-loss, non-dividend company solving a social problem with investors who recover only their original investment without additional financial benefits; Type II is a profit-making company owned by poor people, where the social benefit comes from the flow of dividends to people who need them. For example, Grameen Danone Foods in Bangladesh exemplifies Type I, producing nutrient-fortified yogurt for malnourished children, while Grameen Bank represents Type II, owned by its poor borrowers who receive dividends from its operations. This model differs significantly from related concepts like "social entrepreneurship"-a broader term describing initiatives with social consequences created by entrepreneurs with social vision. While social entrepreneurship can encompass various activities including charity or for-profit ventures with social elements, social business has a specific structure with clear boundaries. For instance, a fair-trade coffee company might qualify as social entrepreneurship, but unless it follows the strict non-dividend or poor-ownership model, it isn't a social business. Social business also differs from corporate social responsibility (CSR), which typically refers to charity funds set aside by profit-maximizing companies to benefit local communities. While CSR programs help build a company's image as a "good citizen," they generally devote only a small fraction of resources to social good, often between 1-5% of profits. By contrast, social businesses dedicate 100% of their resources to creating positive change, making decisions based entirely on social impact rather than shareholder returns. The no-profit rule is essential to maintaining this focus. Like quitting smoking or fasting during Ramadan, partial commitment destroys the entire attitude. When a business must maximize both profit and social benefit, profit inevitably wins when the two objectives conflict. Consider pricing decisions: a traditional business must charge what maximizes profits, while a social business can set prices to maximize accessibility while maintaining sustainability. This doesn't mean social businesses can't generate surpluses-they can and should. But these profits remain within the company to expand operations, improve products, or enhance social impact. The investors receive only their original investment back, without dividends or other financial gains beyond this amount. This model has proven successful with organizations like BRAC's dairy processing plant, which generates surplus revenue to fund expansion while maintaining its social mission of supporting small dairy farmers. By removing the profit-maximization constraint, social businesses can address problems that traditional companies ignore because solutions wouldn't be profitable enough. They can serve people traditional businesses consider "non-viable customers" and develop products with tremendous social value but limited commercial appeal. Examples include developing affordable water purification systems for rural communities, creating low-cost medical devices for underserved populations, or establishing educational programs in remote areas where traditional private schools wouldn't operate due to insufficient profit potential. The social business model creates a framework where economic sustainability meets social impact, allowing organizations to tackle pressing social issues while maintaining financial viability. This approach has proven particularly effective in addressing challenges in healthcare, education, environmental conservation, and poverty alleviation, where traditional market solutions often fall short.

Chapter 4

Grameen Danone: Learning Through Doing

The world's first consciously designed social business emerged from a seemingly casual lunch conversation between Muhammad Yunus and Franck Riboud, CEO of Groupe Danone, in late 2005. After Yunus passionately explained the social business concept, emphasizing its potential to combine business efficiency with social impact, Riboud responded with characteristic decisiveness: "Let's do it." Their teams, comprising experts from both organizations, spent over a year meticulously developing a yogurt business to address Bangladesh's severe malnutrition problem, where an alarming 50% of children under five suffer from nutritional deficiencies, particularly in vitamin A, zinc, and iron. They created Shokti Doi ("yogurt for energy"), a carefully formulated nutrient-fortified yogurt containing 30% of a child's daily requirements of vital micronutrients. Priced at just 7 cents per cup, it was specifically designed to be affordable for families living on less than $2 per day. The small factory, strategically built near Bogra in northern Bangladesh, incorporated numerous eco-friendly features including solar power and rainwater harvesting. It was designed to source milk from local micro-farmers, creating an additional economic benefit for the community. In February 2007, amid much anticipation, the first commercial packages rolled off the production line. Despite initial optimism and careful planning, Grameen Danone encountered significant operational challenges. Sales stagnated at approximately 3,000 cups daily, far below the 10,000 needed for sustainability. The distribution network, modeled after Grameen Bank's successful micro-lending program, struggled until local cultural experts identified a crucial oversight: the saleswomen, known as "Grameen Ladies," needed explicit family support, especially from husbands, to conduct door-to-door sales effectively. After revamping recruitment to include family orientation sessions and securing written family approval, the saleswomen network expanded dramatically from 29 to 270 within six months. Then came the unexpected global economic crisis of 2008-2009, which forced a price increase from 5 to 8 taka per cup due to rising raw material costs. The results were devastating-rural sales plummeted by 80%, urban sales declined by 40%, and the carefully constructed rural sales network virtually disappeared overnight. Grameen Danone responded with remarkable innovation by completely reformulating its product. Food scientists and nutritionists created a smaller 60-gram container that maintained the same nutritional value through increased nutrient concentration, priced at just 6 taka-only 1 taka higher than the original price. Simultaneously, the company expanded its urban market presence to improve factory utilization, extending distribution to larger cities like Dhaka and developing new products including mango-flavored yogurt and drinkable yogurt variants under the "Shokti+" brand name. By 2010, this two-pronged rural/urban strategy had the company operating at full factory capacity, producing 80,000 cups daily, with plans underway for a second manufacturing facility. The experience provided valuable lessons about social business development: maintain flexibility while steadfastly pursuing your core mission; deeply immerse yourself in the cultural context of those you serve; welcome partnerships with unexpected allies; adapt products and strategies for different market segments; and continuously challenge your fundamental assumptions about your business model and target audience.

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Chapter 5

Creating Your Own Social Business

Social business emerges from familiar human impulses: creativity, entrepreneurship, and the desire to improve the world. Unlike traditional entrepreneurs who focus primarily on profit maximization, social business creators begin by identifying a social problem they wish to solve, then seek a business solution that can sustain itself. The key difference is motivation-social business prioritizes addressing human needs while ensuring economic sustainability, rather than maximizing profits. Success starts with identifying problems that disturb you personally, matching them with your capabilities, and designing practical solutions that can be implemented where you are, with resources you already have. When launching a social business, avoid getting lost in grand ambitions. Instead, translate big dreams like "eradicating poverty" into concrete, achievable goals. For example, rather than trying to solve global poverty at once, focus on creating employment for five specific people through your social business. Transform your unique talents and passions into vehicles for social change, regardless of your background. Cultural workers can create programs that challenge harmful cultural norms. Engineers might develop waste recycling businesses that convert garbage into electricity, fertilizer, or biofuel. Outdoor enthusiasts could launch reforestation initiatives to combat climate change. Even bankers can create social businesses like low-cost remittance services for migrant workers. If you're struggling to identify a problem to solve, start by choosing a group that needs help-the poor, elderly, disabled, children, single mothers, ex-prisoners-then work backward to develop solutions. Focus on creating products or services that empower customers, helping them earn or save more than they spend. To create an effective social business model, invest time in brainstorming, research, and listening to the people you hope to serve. Study why previous attempts failed and look for innovative solutions from other fields that might be adapted. Test your idea on a small scale with minimal resources-funding may need to come from your own pocket initially. You don't need to invent an entirely new solution-study organizations that have already developed effective approaches to your chosen problem. Reach out to successful social businesses, ask questions, request business plans, and consider "social franchising" options. Learn from NGOs and for-profit companies whose models could be converted to social businesses by removing the personal profit element.

Chapter 6

Legal Structures and Funding Solutions

Creating a social business requires carefully navigating both legal structures and funding sources. The journey begins with identifying a pressing social problem and devising a self-sustaining solution, followed by securing appropriate financing-consistently one of the most significant hurdles social entrepreneurs face. Success requires understanding both traditional business frameworks and emerging social enterprise models. Developing a comprehensive business plan is an iterative process requiring multiple versions-from initial concept sketches to detailed investor presentations. When seeking significant funding, create a detailed five-year financial forecast with a robust cost structure covering all operational aspects: human resources (including both full-time staff and contractors), facilities (office space, utilities, equipment), materials (inventory, supplies), and services (professional fees, insurance, marketing). Your revenue projections should be deliberately conservative-estimate your expected sales based on market research, then cut that figure in half to maintain realistic expectations. This approach helps build credibility with potential investors and provides a safety margin for unexpected challenges. Securing seed capital requires strategic decisions about funding structure-grants from foundations, debt financing through loans, equity investment from shareholders, or various combinations-and effectively communicating your unique social value proposition. Initial start-up investments typically come from founders' personal resources, friends, family networks, or angel investors interested in social impact. Building a diverse funding network begins with personal contacts and extends through modern technology platforms like LinkedIn, AngelList, and impact investing networks. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or specialized social impact platforms can also provide alternative funding sources. Our current legal systems lack a dedicated framework for social businesses, forcing entrepreneurs to choose between existing structures, each with significant limitations. The for-profit structure, used by all Grameen social businesses, offers clear ownership lines and capital-raising flexibility but risks shareholders potentially prioritizing financial returns over social impact. Non-profit structures face strict regulatory scrutiny, complex tax requirements, and limitations on earned income that make them unsuitable for true social businesses seeking self-sustainability. Recent years have witnessed innovative experiments with new business structures bridging traditional for-profit and non-profit models. The UK's Community Interest Company (CIC) serves community objectives through a legal structure requiring a Community Interest Test to demonstrate public benefit, with strict asset locks preventing private distribution of profits. The Low-profit Limited Liability Company (L3C), first established in Vermont in 2008, represents another hybrid model specifically designed to qualify for program-related investments from foundations while maintaining operational flexibility. B corporations, created by B Lab in 2006, while lacking special legal status, commit to rigorous social and environmental performance standards and legally require directors to consider stakeholder interests beyond shareholders. These alternative structures reflect growing recognition of traditional capitalism's limitations in addressing social challenges, but a comprehensive regulatory framework specifically designed for social businesses remains urgently needed. Several countries are exploring new legal forms that better balance social impact with financial sustainability, including benefit corporations in the United States and social cooperatives in Italy. These developments suggest an evolving understanding of how legal structures can support rather than hinder social innovation.

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Chapter 7

Addressing Critical Global Challenges

Social businesses are tackling some of the world's most pressing problems, from healthcare access to clean water, nutrition, and employment. In healthcare, Cure2Children demonstrates how social business can transform specialized medical care. Founded by Italian physician Lawrence Faulkner and entrepreneur Eugenio La Mesa, this organization provides bone marrow transplants to cure thalassemia, a devastating genetic blood disorder prevalent in South Asia. Their joint venture with Grameen Healthcare Trust established transplant units in Bangladesh using a cross-subsidization model: two beds for paying patients and one for poor families who pay little or nothing. Each unit performs 7-10 operations yearly at $20,000 per procedure-just one-tenth the cost in America or Europe but sufficient to sustain operations. What makes this venture particularly powerful is its focus on knowledge transfer. All transplants are performed by local doctors trained in the same techniques used in Western hospitals. This creates self-sustaining local expertise rather than dependency on foreign specialists. Grameen Veolia Water addresses another critical challenge: providing safe drinking water to rural Bangladeshis currently consuming water with dangerous arsenic levels. This naturally occurring toxin affects between 35-80 million Bangladeshis, causing skin lesions and cancer in at least 100,000 people. Despite technical success in treating surface water from the Meghna River using carbon filtration and chlorination, the project faced significant challenges. Most villagers were reluctant to purchase water, with sales reaching only 10-15% of the target population. To address these issues, the company adopted a cross-subsidization strategy: bottling water in 20-liter jars for institutional buyers, using profits to subsidize rural consumers and lower prices to the original target of one taka per ten liters. Other innovative social businesses include BASF Grameen, which manufactures chemically treated mosquito-repellent netting to address malaria and produces micronutrient sachets to combat malnutrition. Grameen Intel is developing IT-based healthcare services focused on infant-maternal health, using smart phones with specialized software to help mobile healthcare workers assess pregnancy risks. Grameen Employment Services protects migrant workers from exploitation by providing language training, skills development, and assistance with documentation while representing workers' interests with employers.

Chapter 8

Building a Global Infrastructure

As social business evolves from concept to global movement, a supporting infrastructure is emerging to nurture its growth. This includes research centers, university programs, investment funds, and potentially a dedicated social stock market. The Yunus Centre in Dhaka serves as the anchor for Grameen-related social businesses worldwide. It functions as a clearinghouse for social business information and resources, helping formulate initial business concepts, monitoring progress, facilitating relationships among global social initiatives, and fostering the social business movement through events and publications. The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) in Wiesbaden has become the engine for global social business growth, focusing on three tasks: communicating about social business, incubating its own social businesses, and supporting others in creating new ones. It generates revenue through consulting services, organizing events, and workshops, while supporting major social business joint ventures with companies like BASF, Otto, and Adidas. Universities play a crucial role in developing social business through various initiatives worldwide. Glasgow Caledonian University established the Grameen Caledonian Nursing College in Bangladesh. The California Institute of Social Business at CSU Channel Islands offers curriculum, research opportunities, and an annual social business plan competition. Kyushu University in Japan created the Grameen Technology Lab to develop technologies addressing social problems. The Yunus Center at Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok offers courses on social business and microcredit. HEC Paris established a Social Business Chair with an ambitious curriculum and "action tank" focused on measurably reducing poverty in France. Social investment funds are essential for supporting social business growth by evaluating ventures, channeling capital to promising initiatives, serving as information clearinghouses, creating standardized measurement tools, and providing easy investment vehicles with instant diversification. Examples include the Danone Communities Fund, the Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation, the Yunus Monaco Fund, and the Islamic Development Bank's Grameen Social Business Initiative. As social business grows into a parallel universe alongside profit-maximizing companies, a dedicated social stock market will inevitably emerge to raise capital and facilitate share trading. This market would require clear definitions to ensure listed companies are genuine social businesses.

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Chapter 9

Reimagining Our Economic Future

The global economic crisis of 2008 exposed fundamental weaknesses in capitalism while creating opportunities for reform. Social business offers powerful yet flexible solutions without compulsion, widening free choice while bringing new customers into the marketplace. It helps governments share social responsibilities with civil society without creating political divides. Since World War II, capitalism has created unprecedented prosperity for some while leaving billions behind. The Millennium Development Goals aimed to halve poverty by 2015, with countries like Bangladesh making impressive progress. But global economic, financial, environmental and food crises have extinguished this hope, pushing millions more into extreme poverty. The food crisis of 2008 saw staple prices skyrocket due to population growth, changing consumption patterns, and harmful policies like ethanol subsidies. Meanwhile, speculators treated food commodities as mere trading tokens, profiting while millions suffered-a tragic illustration of capitalism's failure to serve humanity. Environmental crises compound these problems as climate change transforms fertile land into desert. The financial crisis revealed capitalism's fundamental flaws. Credit markets originally designed to serve people's needs became gambling arenas where financial institutions engineered ever-riskier products for unsustainable profits. When the system collapsed, the poor suffered most, yet bailouts targeted institutions that caused the crisis, not its victims. The new economic architecture Yunus proposes enhances globalization by ensuring it works for poor people and countries through social business integration. Globalization can tremendously benefit the poor, as shown by economic growth lifting millions out of poverty in China, India, and Bangladesh-but only with rules ensuring the poorest aren't elbowed out by the richest. We already possess all necessary tools to overcome our social problems. The solutions to infectious diseases, malnutrition, contaminated water, and lack of healthcare access exist-hundreds of millions take them for granted. The problem isn't lack of resources but our economic system's failure to make them accessible to those most in need. Rather than passively predicting the future, we should actively create the world we desire. History shows we're terrible at prediction-no one foresaw a borderless Europe with a single currency, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union's collapse, or technological revolutions like the internet and mobile phones. We can describe our desired future through a wish list: a world without poverty, free of pollution, where no child goes hungry, where preventable illnesses don't cause premature death, without wars, with free travel across borders, with universal literacy and access to global culture. Dreams are made of impossibles, requiring bold leaps beyond analytical thinking. We've entered an age when dreams have the best chance of coming true-if we organize the present to welcome our dreamed future rather than letting our past stand in the way.

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Key Themes in Building Social Business

poverty alleviation
non-dividend business models
sustainable development
microfinance systems
social impact investment

Quotes from Building Social Business

A social business is a company that is cause-driven rather than profit-driven.
Capitalism with a human face.
Partial commitment destroys the entire attitude.
Humans are one-dimensional profit-maximizers.

Characters in Building Social Business

Muhammad YunusAuthor and founder of the social business movement

About the Author

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pioneering economist, is the visionary author of Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs. Renowned for inventing microfinance and founding Grameen Bank, Yunus has dedicated his career to redefining economic systems to combat poverty. The book, a cornerstone in social entrepreneurship literature, expands on his revolutionary concept of social businesses—companies designed to solve societal problems while remaining self-sustaining.

A Fulbright scholar and Vanderbilt University PhD graduate, Yunus’s work is rooted in decades of grassroots experience in Bangladesh, where Grameen Bank’s microcredit model lifted millions from poverty. His earlier bestselling book, Banker to the Poor, details this journey and has been translated into over 20 languages. A frequent speaker at institutions like the World Economic Forum and TED, Yunus has also advised the United Nations and received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Building Social Business has inspired global initiatives, including Yunus Social Business, an incubator for social enterprises across 10 countries. Translated into 35 languages, the book has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide, cementing Yunus’s legacy as a catalyst for ethical capitalism.

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483

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Chapter 6

Building Social Business

OverviewOverview of Building Social Business

One book. Many ways to hear it.

Reimagining Capitalism: A Vision for Social Change

The Birth of a Revolutionary Business Model

See every word as you hear it

Not Charity, Not Traditional Business: The Third Way

Grameen Danone: Learning Through Doing

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Creating Your Own Social Business

Legal Structures and Funding Solutions

See every word as you hear it

Addressing Critical Global Challenges

Building a Global Infrastructure

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Reimagining Our Economic Future

You made it to the end of Building Social Business

Key Themes in Building Social Business

Quotes from Building Social Business

Characters in Building Social Business

About the Author

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1,000,000+ curious minds.

1,000,000+ curious minds.

One book. Many ways to hear it.

Reimagining Capitalism: A Vision for Social Change

The Birth of a Revolutionary Business Model

See every word as you hear it

Not Charity, Not Traditional Business: The Third Way

Grameen Danone: Learning Through Doing

Get more out of Building Social Business

Creating Your Own Social Business

Legal Structures and Funding Solutions

See every word as you hear it

Addressing Critical Global Challenges

Building a Global Infrastructure

Get more out of Building Social Business

Reimagining Our Economic Future

You made it to the end of Building Social Business

Users also liked

Discover more

Overview of Building Social Business