I took last week off after an intensive week of teaching at the Kaleidoscope Summer Institute. My goal was to take my time to finish reading Muhammad Yunus’s book, Building Social Business – The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing needs. In the negative atmosphere of scarcity (raising the debt ceiling, 1.5 trillion dollars budget cut by November, U.S. credit rating drop) that the United States created last week, I needed this book. I needed to soak up all the positive sustainist ideas and models from the book. Here is one story I found very hopeful from a later chapter of the book.
Yunus was invited to meet with the CEO of Adidas, who wanted to understand the concept of social business. The question arose as to what could Adidas do to address a pressing social problem. He said, “Maybe Adidas can start with a statement of commitment, something like this: Nobody in the world should go without shoes. As a shoe company, it is our responsibility to make shoes affordable even to the poorest person.” (p. 186) The CEO of Adidas agreed that this statement made sense and wanted to meet with his senior colleagues to discuss this idea. Later that day, they met again and he asked Yunus how cheap the shoes would have to be in order for them to be affordable to the poorest. The response, “Maybe under one dollar or so, I guess.” Yunus thought this was the end of their conversation but to his surprise, the CEO of Adidas, at the end of the meeting, declared that the Adidas Group would join Yunus’s organization to launch a social business to produce shoes for the poor in Bangladesh for a price as close as possible to one euro.
The thing I admired most about this story is Yunus’s single-mindedness in serving the poor. Because of his faith in people’s innate need to do good, he is able to convince others to act outside the box of profit-making/resource-depleting business and venture into the world of abundance-sharing using the same business skills and knowledge.
The story of the Canaanite woman who approached Jesus seeking healing for her daughter illustrated this kind of “faith” in the Bible. (Matthew 15:21-28) Here is how the dialogue went:
Jesus: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Woman: Lord, help me.
Jesus: It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.
Woman: Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.
Jesus: Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.
The faith of this woman was her ability to get even Jesus to think outside of the box of cultural and societal limits. She challenged Jesus to move beyond thinking that he was a Jewish teacher/healer and therefore, he will only heal Jews. She convinced Jesus that even what he considered “crumbs” could be the beginning of extending his healing ministry to all nations.
In a world of “not enough,” we need faithful people, like this Canannite woman and Muhammad Yunus, to challenge more people to act outside the cultural, social and financial limits set by our system. This challenge may begin with a confronting conversation about crumbs – one-dollar shoes.
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I have been sharing ideas for creating sustainable communities in a networked world through this blog since February and I believe Yunus’s concept of Social Business is the most comprehensive way to enable local communities to achieve sustainability. I am inviting my readers to read this book in the coming week and if you are inspired and excited about these concepts and models as I am, contact me. (Comment on this blog page or email me at: [email protected]) Lets talk, explore, create and act on this now. Remember, “crumbs” can be the beginning of many sustainable ventures. |
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Reflection Questions for Proper 15(Year A) Genesis 45:1-15 Psalm 133 Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 Psalm 67 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15:21-28 |
Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org
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It’s not too late to register for the upcoming Kaleidoscope Training Institute in August at the Rainbow Lodge, North Bend (outside of Seattle), Washingto August 15-19 Models and Processes for Community Transformation and Missional Ministry in the Grace Margin |
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