The Commencement Speech That Never Was

Written on 04/30 at 01:42 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments

Filed under: philosophy brown News

Several weeks ago I was nominated--and then auditioned--to speak at the commencement ceremony for graduating graduate students from Brown.  Though I was not selected to be the speaker (I have some conspiracy theories on that front, I assure you!) I would like to share the text of the speech that I wrote, because I believe it captures the essence of how I feel about leaving the confines of the university and entering the ‘real world.’

New Opportunities in A Global Century of Innovation

At first glance it would seem that now is an inopportune time to leave the grounds of the university and venture out into the world.  After all, between rising unemployment, a financial system in disarray, and a whole host of other local, regional and global problems ranging from urban blight to climate change, it would seem that the prospects for putting our newly minted skills to work as teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs and employees of firms large and small are, to put it bluntly, dim.  Yet we are also entering a world rife with unprecedented opportunities for those willing and able to take advantage of them.  An explosion of innovation in information technology has made it easier for more people to collaborate to tackle poverty, to create new products and services, and to share thoughts, ideas and experiences.  The cost of renewable energy is falling.  Social entrepreneurs are creating self-sufficient businesses that solve social and environmental problems.  The list is seemingly endless, and I believe that regardless of our particular field of study, as graduates of one of the finest universities in the nation, we are in a unique position to seek out these opportunities and apply our intellectual and financial capital toward them.

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Hearing Dr. Muhammad Yunus Speak in Queens, New York

Written on 04/20 at 12:19 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments

Filed under: brown micro credit

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This unfortunately grainy photo was taken while Dr. Yunus spoke about microfinance on Saturday, April 18, 2009

Ever since I read about Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in 2007 I have been absolutely enthralled with the concept of empowering people to help themselves through access affordable, small loans.  After all, my masters thesis deals with green microfinance, and during my time at Brown I have co-founded The Capital Good Fund, a non-profit microfinance institution.  So when I heard that Dr. Yunus would be speaking at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, I knew that I could not pass up the opportunity to go.

I went with two other Capital Good Fund staff members, Nabeel and Faiz.  We met at 8:30 in the morning at Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, and caught a bus to New York City. From there, we took the subway and a bus to get to St. John’s.  Outside of their basketball stadium, a market had been set up where Grameen America’s borrowers were selling their wares--food, purses, jewelry, etc.  Grameen America was founded in 2008 by Muhammad Yunus, and is being run by senior executives of Grameen Bank.  In their first year of operation, they made 650 loans totalling $1.5 million dollars, with a repayment rate of over 99%.

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Social Business and The Genius of Muhammad Yunus

Written on 04/02 at 12:53 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments

Filed under: Business environment brown micro credit

I am currently reading a book by Dr. Muhammad Yunus titled Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, and I am left mesmerized both by the brilliance of Dr. Yunus himself and the beauty of the idea which he proposes in his book--the idea of social businesses.  Let me start by providing a summary of what Yunus means by a social business. He defines it as an enterprise that has investors who recoup their initial investment but who do not receive dividends or profit from their investment.  Thus instead of making their investment based on the company that is most likely to offer them the highest, most secure return, they choose based on the company that offers the greatest social or environmental benefits.  Social businesses exist for the sole purpose of addressing social and environmental problems, but they are not charities.  Instead, they must achieve self-sufficiency by selling low-cost products and services, or through a myriad of other methods that enable the organizations to pay back the investor’s initial investment, to achieve financial sustainability and to achieve the mission of the organization.  In essence, then, what Yunus is proposing is a blending of for-profit and non-profit models, but in a way that I have not seen in the past.  He suggests that social businesses will compete with traditional profit maximizing businesses (PMBs) on quality, price, availability, etc.  He goes on to propose new innovations such as a stock market for social businesses where the company’s stock price reflects its ability to achieve social good, rather than it’s ability to make profit at any cost.

Perhaps if this idea were to come from anyone but a Nobel Peace prize winner and the founder of the Grameen Bank and the Grameen family of companies in Bangladesh--one of the most remarkable group of organizations ever established--it would be seen as naive.  But to illustrate the power of the idea, Yunus starts his book by describing how he convinced the CEO of Dannone Group, one of the largest companies in the world, to launch a social business in Bangladesh that would focus on providing low-cost, healthful food products the poor, rural Bangladeshis.  Within a year of proposing the idea, Grameen Dannone, as the new company was called, had completed an environmentally friendly yogurt factory, and were selling their nutritious yogurt through Grameen borrowers.  Dannone fronted half the start-up costs and, aside from getting back its initial investment, will make no money on the deal.  All profits earned by the company will be reinvested in the company to lower prices or to expand into new markets.

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Green Microfinance: Advancing Social Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the United States

Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated!

My masters thesis in Environmental Studies at Brown University looks at how microfinance--the provision of small…

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A Solution to the Limited Success of Micro-Credit in the United States?

Micro-credit has undoubtedly been a runaway success in developing countries as a tool of both poverty alleviation and economic development.  To date, some 100 million people have been reached by micro-loans, and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank…

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Tonight, the Oneness of Things

It is late and my mind should be drifting through the colorful abyss of deep sleep, yet instead i find that tonight sleep will not come.  I am like a hungry flower who dreams of bees so ardently that all…

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