WHAT’S AT STAKE
If we do things right, in less than one-year, The Extraordinaries has the potential to impact the way that 100 million people use spare time for social good.
In three years nearly 700 million people will use smartphones, and with The Extraordinaries software, they can plug in from anywhere on Earth within cell reception and start making a difference.
I have no illusions about the boldness of these statements, and I will not apologize for the audacity of our aspirations.
We’ve talked about our reasoning in many blog posts, so I won’t bore you with any further repetition of ideas on other pages of this blog. But to make sense out of the rest of this post, I had to revisit what’s at stake.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS AND “SOCIAL BUSINESS”
With competition winnings coming in, and with the impending launch of version one in the App Store, Ben and I have been struggling with finding the right business entity for The Extraordinaries.
Here’s the proverbial pickle:
“How do we create a business entity that allows us the greatest flexibility with business decisions (and therefore the best shot at being successful), yet still maintains the culture, philosophy, and social mission that Ben and I originally set out to accomplish?”
Forprofit? Nonprofit? B-Corp? L3C? (Ben’s got a great post about this thinking that he’s about to make live.)
But, nothing has seemed like the right fit, until Ben told me to walk into Barnes and Noble and buy a book called “Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism” written by none other than Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
Here’s a video of Professor Yunus talking about his book, the work of Grameen Bank, and his new proposed system of social business:
WHAT THIS BOOK MEANS FOR THE EXTRAORDINARIES
In the most profoundly descriptive verbiage that I can find, let me say, “THIS BOOK ROCKS.”
The words on the first 40 pages leap off the paper – each paragraph brings the same clarifying fulfillment of the “plot twist reveal” in the last ten minutes of any Hollywood movie. Yunus explains the economic hardship of half the world’s population, the inequitable structure of current banking systems, government problems, the role of nonprofit organizations, corporate social responsibility, and his new proposal for “social business.”
I can say without question that this has struck a chord with me in a way like nothing before.
Here are a few quotes from the book:
“The company itself may earn a profit, but the investors who support it do not take any profits out of the company except recouping an amount equivalent to their original investment over a period of time. A social business is a company that is cause-driven rather than profit-driven, with the potential to act as change agents for the world.”
“A social business is not a charity. It is a business in every sense. It has to recover its full costs while achieving its social objective, [however] it is defined as a non-loss, non-dividend business. Rather than being passed on to investors, the surplus generated by the social business is reinvested in the business. Ultimately, it is passed on to the target group of beneficiaries in such forms as lower prices, better service, and greater accessibility.”
I could go on an on -- nearly every page of my book has scribbled notes in the margins and underlined sentences – but frankly, the first 41 pages are a must-read for anyone in the social sector.
I won’t speak for Ben, nor am I announcing our decision, but I can say with authority that this book has had a major impact on our thinking.
Read it.
Comments