Muhammad Yunus said the future of social business depends on success on the ground as there are stories of both success and failure in running social businesses.
“The way I see it, social business in the future will be redesigned.”
“We have to work so that the 1% of total investment comes to social business in the next five years,” said Yunus in his closing remarks at the Social Business Day 2013 celebrations in the city on Friday.
A total of 1,000 participants, including 150 people from 30 countries across the world including India, Malaysia, Nepal, Germany and France attended the daylong programme at the Radisson Hotel.
Yunus said vision was very important for success in a social business as it was helpful in changing people’s minds.
With the success of social businesses, many people are coming but everything depends on the success in the field.
“If people see examples of success, their mind-sets will change,” said Yunus.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many participants from abroad said social businesses introduced in their nations were playing positive roles in agriculture and education.
Senior social business consultant at the Grameen Creative Lab Haiti Ipena Lucien said that just after the 2010 earthquake in her country, social business was introduced with hopes of recovering the economy.
She said jobs have been created for many people through social business initiatives. Entrepreneurship training institutions are being established in Haiti, she said.
Michael Brohm, managing director of The Grameen Creative Lab in Germany, said social business was becoming very popular there.
He said Muhammad Yunus has visited Germany several times and given speeches on social business, attracting many people to the concept.
“We have established 90 social business labs in Germany, which has training sessions on social business and a lot of people attend them,” Brohm told the Dhaka Tribune on Friday.