Creating a Social Business

“Every time I see a problem, I create a business to solve it,” Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus. This course has been designed to teach you the fundamentals of social business, from theory to practice, and how this movement has developed and replicated across the world. You will learn from best-in-class examples of social businesses, including from the founder of the social business movement, Professor Muhammad Yunus. You will learn about how social businesses are different from traditional businesses, and what to think about when you are either establishing a social business of your own or providing investment or mentorship support. In this module, we will hear from experts from the social business field, such as journalists, thinkers, academics, and practitioners, who have initiated change through the power of social business. The upcoming sessions in this module will help you understand what are the key social, economic and environmental challenges affecting the world, and the types of successful solutions that have been developed to address these challenges in the developing world.

In this module, we will dive into a deeper understanding of social business. We will begin with understanding a social problem, identifying the root cause of the problem and mapping a solution to the identified problem. We would cover the key ingredients necessary to build a sustainable social business.

In this module, we will apply the learnings from the introductory module and the first module of this course towards a peer-graded assignment. The aim of this module is to enable collaboration amongst classmates as well as provide and receive relevant feedback.

In this module, you are expected to learn more about how to build an effective social business. The modules of this course aim to provide an objective lens to various nuances of starting and running a social business. It includes understanding your beneficiaries, managing your stakeholders, and staying focused in order to run a successful social business.