Muhammad Yunus: “Business must reconsider its methods and become socially-oriented”

Philanthropy should employ business approach and seek out new forms. And business should adjust its methods focusing on a social element of its activity, shared his thoughts the Laureate of Nobel Peace Prize 2006 and "founding father of micro-credits Muhammad Yunus at the Second Davos Philanthropic Roundtable conducted by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

"Philanthropy will not vanish as a result of the crisis, - he highlighted. - But it will have a new form and this Roundtable is extremely important. It will help to outline the new shape of philanthropy in future."

As declared by Muhammad Yunus, the future of philanthropy lies in combining business tools and charity activity. "In today's philanthropy one must give money to achieve results. To achieve results for the second time one must give money again. Having invested resources only once, the new form of activity should allow building a model that will expand, generate finance and at the same time have a significant social effect".

To be able to create such models both philanthropists and businessmen are ought to adopt a new vision of what they do. "It would be useful for us to have a kind of special eye glasses that would help us take a different look at the business development and its needs. A business can cut the cost that is not deemed high priority. This would enable using resources in a more effective manner and make the business socially-oriented."

Muhammad Yunus gave an example of a water treatment company that purifies water from mercury. Instead of bottling and selling the purified water, the company made a decision to supply this water to the residential area at a very low rate. "The company doesn't spend on the bottles or advertising. Therefore, it offers the price that the local residents are able to pay", Yunus highlighted.

As reported earlier, more than 300 representatives of international business and political elite, the largest charity foundations and NGOs, corporations and venture funds participated in the Second Davos Philanthropic Roundtable conducted by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation during Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum.

Background:

A philanthropic meeting point organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Davos during Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, Davos Philanthropic Roundtable is aimed at developing philanthropy in Ukraine and increasing effectiveness of social projects. Main theme of the Second Davos Philanthropic Roundtable, entitled "From Philanthrocapitalism to Philanthrocrisis", was the impact of the economic crisis on philanthropy and perspectives of philanthropy development.

The key speakers at the event were the dignitaries who have significantly contributed to the development of a new model of philanthropy: 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton; former
Prime-Minister Of Great Britain Tony Blair; businessman and philanthropist Richard Branson; Laureate of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus; actor and founder of the One Foundation Jet Li, founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates and also Victor Pinchuk, the Roundtable organiser, public leader and businessman. Matthew Bishop, Chief Business Editor of The Economist and co-author of the book "Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World" was a moderator of the discussion.