Even though the motivation for a business entrepreneur and social entrepreneur may be somewhat similar, their missions are starkly different. If the business entrepreneur is driven to innovate and excel within a commercial market where his / her success is gauged by how much wealth he / she creates, for a social entrepreneur, wealth creation is equally important but only to be used as a tool to effect social changes. And who better to explain the tenets of social business with context to the readymade garment business then Md. Ashraful Hassan, who took over the mantle( as the Managing Director) of Grameen’ s not-for-profit entity –

Grameen Shamogree recently after guiding and leading Grameen Knitwear( the Group’ s knitwear manufacturing unit) for decades to take it to all new heights.

“ Social business is a cause-driven business. In a social business, the investors / owners can gradually recoup the money invested, but cannot take any dividend beyond that point. The purpose of the investment is purely to achieve one or more social objectives through the operation of the company … The company must cover all costs and make profit and at the same time achieve the social objectives, such as healthcare for the poor, housing for the poor, financial services for the poor, nutrition for malnourished children, providing safe drinking water, introducing renewable energy, etc. in a business way,” explains Ashraful, the concept of social business, in an incisive conversation with Team Apparel Online. He further emphasizes that social business becomes even more significant at a time when almost 50 % of the world’ s total wealth is concentrated amongst only one per

The 7 principles of Social Business

• Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems( such as education, health, technology access and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization,

• Financial and economic sustainability,

• Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money,

• When investment amount is paid back, company’ s profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement,

• Gender sensitive and environmentally conscious,

• Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions, and

•... do it with joy.

cent of the population, and this gap is increasing fast.

“ This is driving the conflict between the ultra rich and the poor, thereby vitiating the order of the society …,” says Ashraful, who is also the Managing Director of Grameen Telecom and Grameen Distribution Ltd., and CEO of Grameen Telecom Trust.

Established in 1997, Grameen Shamogree owes its origin to the very same cause of social alleviation. Associated with the readymade garment sector for long, Ashraful was surprised when he came to know that many amongst the Grameen Bank’ s borrowers were poor handloom weavers, who made fabrics for a third-party at a paltry Taka 2 per yard.“ That is not a good pay by any standards …,” explicates Ashraful underlining that limited in terms of their capacities as the fabrics are handmade, the weavers ended up earning almost nothing at the end of the day.

To bring these weavers under a common platform where Grameen