Last night I went to the Seattle Town Hall where Muhammad Yunus was speaking with a couple of my friends who had never heard him speak.  I’ve seen Yunus speak before when he was here two years ago, but it is always great to hear him speak.  This time, it was a little different because he is touring and promoting his new book Building Social Business:

“In this book, Yunus shows how social business has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, adopted by leading corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists across Asia, South America, Europe and the US. He demonstrates how social business transforms lives; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; explains how public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model; and shows why social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.”

He discussed how Grameen has three branches within New York City, how microcredit is working in the US, and how he would love NY to have zero pawnshops, which was an interesting way of thinking about alleviated poverty.  One thing that I thought was cool was during the Q&A session, someone asked about future plans and how he plans to expand Grameen, and who he will try to reach out to and partner with.  Dr Yunus said that he does not reach out to people, they reach out to him.  All of the people who want to do Social Business with Yunus/Grameen or develop a partnership all reach out to him for advice on how to get started (i.e. Danon).  Social Business, which is quickly showing up on peoples’ radars, is proving itself to work, so bigger corporations are reaching out to people within microfinance to figure out how to build a sustainable social business model.  Dr Yunus is a great speaker as always, and if he is heading through your town, I would definitely recommend going to see him.