Nobel Peace Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus has urged the word business leaders to pursue the kind of business that does not exploit people and harm the planet.
“There is a need for bringing human identity back to the business, defining business should be something that “will not do harm people, will not do harm to planet, will not exploit people, will have no corruption and no deception,” he said while addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The annual meeting of the WEF was held in Davos, Switzerland from January 22-25, 2014.
Yunus along with Sir Richard Branson and Bill Gates attended a discussion on the future of capitalism on January 23. It was moderated by former British PM Tony Blair, said a Yunus Center media release on Saturday.
Sharing his own experience, Dr Yunus said he is creating a space in conventional between business and philanthropy – which he terms as social business. “This is dedicated to solving problems, not to make personal money.”
Besides, the Grameen Bank founder was invited to the lunch hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, where he was asked to make comments by WEF founder Klaus Schwab.
Yunus briefed Abe about the Japanese companies doing social business including clothes retailing giant Uniqlo, explaining the concept to the premier.
The Nobel Laureate proposed for Japan to dedicate huge dormant account funds in Japan, which lie unutilized, towards creating a social business fund.
Abe was very happy to hear about these ideas and particularly about Uniqlo’s involvement in social business.
Prof Yunus also participated in a high-level meeting attended by UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon, World Bank President Jim Kim, moderated by US Vice President Al Gore on global climate change.
He had separate meetings with the CEOs of German airline Lufthansa, leading Swiss Bank UBS and investment bank Goldman Sachs and worked out plans for their initiatives in Social Business particularly focussing on youth unemployment in South European countries.
Source: UNBConnect
