Learning from global social business summit

Abdul Hannan Chowdhury

Photo: AFP

"I am proposing to create another kind of business, based on selflessness that is in all of us. I am calling it social business”- Professor Md. Yunus.

It was my usual August afternoon with a series of meetings and paperwork at North South University (NSU), when I received an unusual phone call. On the other side was Lamiya Morshed, the Executive Director of Yunus Centre, a hub of all activities of social business. To my surprise, Lamiya told me that Professor Yunus would like to speak to me.

I was elated and intimated all at once, but wasted no time to agree. After a brief and cordial greeting Professor Yunus immediately asked me if I would be able to join him at the Global Social Business Summit (GSBS) to be held in November in Germany, as part of the Grameen team. I consented almost instantly since this was a rare opportunity for any individual as well as for an organization.

Hence what started as a usual afternoon actually became the beginning of my journey towards GSBS. After the phone call, I talked to my Vice Chancellor, Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqi, and few of my colleagues at NSU about the summit. All of them suggested me to attend the summit despite my intensive work load and responsibility at NSU. I was wondering why our Nobel laureate has invited me to join him at the summit! What would be my role as an academician in the summit? What is his expectation from a person like me, whom he knows very little of?

I than recalled that we organized an international conference at NSU few months back, where he was the keynote speaker on “Creating a World Without Poverty- Social Business bridging the Gap.” As the chair of the executive committee of the conference, I had the opportunity to interact with him during the conference, and I showed much interest in his very new innovative idea, social business, which I believe would create a new wave in the whole globe, in days ahead. Social business is a fascinating idea that has evolved from a country like Bangladesh. A country that has given us another innovative concept of microcredit to alleviate poverty. An idea which has given us recognition globally. An idea we are all proud of!

I was always fond of his work, his personality, his way of thinking, his way of life and his beliefs. Although I don't hesitate to become an academic critic of microcredit in our country, particularly when I see, the negative implications of a Nobel winning notion. Through microcredit Prof. Yunus was able to change the traditional perspectives globally. He was able to alter the long established banking systems that are designed for people who are already wealthy to a certain degree, rather than the poorest of the poor.

It was last year when my Vice Chancellor, Prof. Siddiqi, asked me to link Yunus Centree with NSU to put an eye on social business movement globally. We knew by then, Harvard Business School, and HEC France have already made their moves and progressed significantly to complete two successful cases in social business. I didn't miss the opportunity and immediately contacted them to bring HEC France into North South University. A few member delegation of HEC France was able to visit NSU and discussed the social business related issues at a forum, particularly on higher education. I discussed with HEC team for collaborating activities and as a result, we were able to send two of our colleagues to get two months training on social business, at HEC France. Afterwards, I was able to form an informal group of young colleagues within the School of Business called “Social Business Research Cell,” which is yet to be formalized by the higher authority to do research on social business. Many of our faculty members have shown their interests in joining this group knowing that there is huge opportunity to do further research on both type I and type II Social Businesses. Academic institutions/ universities from all over the world have shown much interest on this very new idea, among them California State University, McGill University, Bocconi University, University of Bologna, Zeppelin University, IESE Bercelona, Rikkyo University, Sigmud Freud Private University, University of Bonn, University of Applied Sciences for Media and Communication, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Bristol, Leuphana University, Humboldt Viadrina School of Government, Istituto Europe di Design, Kwansei Gakuin University, Asian Institute of Technology, Glasgow Caledonian University, European Business School, Austin College, National University of Singapore, Financial University, and Kyushu University are prominent.

Photo: Star

In the same year, we organized a Social business plan competition through our Young Entrepreneur Society (YES) with the help of my young colleagues. It was a unique competition, of its kind for the first time in Bangladesh. I was very instrumental for this event at NSU.

There are plenty of universities throughout the world that have already started appointing social business chair in their institutions. Prof. Cam Donaldson, Yunus chair for social business and health, of Glasgow Caledonian University, visited Bangladesh, in October. I took the initiative to arrange a seminar at NSU titled on “Markets and Health in the Home of Smith and Yunus,” having him as the keynote speaker. I was the moderator and our Vice Chancellor was the session chair. It was a huge assembly of students at NSU, asking wide range of questions, about social business and its prospects, to the keynote speaker. We got considerable response from the students and interest from our part.

On October 7th , Prof. Yunus invited our Vice Chancellor and myself for a dinner as Professor Cam Donaldson, was coming to Bangladesh. We were invited for dinner at a restaurant in Dhaka, where out of many, Dr. Siddiqi, Prof. Wahid Uddin Mahmood, Dr. Zaidi Sattar and many of the Grameen delegates were sitting with Prof. Yunus. On that dinner, in his speech, Prof. Yunus recognized me in term of my interest in social business. I was astounded to know that he was monitoring my activities in the recent past. I believe that is the reason that he choose a very few people outside Grameen, to attend this summit in Germany on November.

As an advanced team, two German delegates Marta and Anita, came to meet us at Grameen office, regarding the social business summit. The points discussed in that meeting were, activities specified for each of the participants, the types of session, panel discussion and expert meetings, focus group discussions that will take place and the roles that are needed to be played. That was an informative and organized meeting and we became clear of our roles in the summit. It must be noted that, out of the fifteen member delegation from Grameen, only three individuals are attending the summit, who are not involved with Grameen. They are, Mr. Mahfooz Anam, the Editor of the dominant English newspaper The Daily Star, Dr. Zaidi Sattar, a former World Bank employee, currently running Policy Research Institute, Dhaka and I myself from NSU. We were selected in a scrupulous manner, to attend the summit, partly to observe the reactions of rest of the world, in regards to social business movement.

A week before the Summit we had another meeting with Prof. Yunus, and in just a 40 minutes meeting, he was giving us some profiles of many remarkable participants, from around the globe, ranging from academicians, to CEOs of many gigantic business institutions, all are high profile participants. Some significant among the participants were Grand Duchess Maria Theresa, the first lady of Luxemburg, Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg, CEO of Autostat, COO of Danone Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Adidas Herbert Hainer, CEO of BASF Dr. Jurgen Hambrecht, CEO of General Electric Healthcare System Omar Ishrak, Project Director of Veolia Water Eric Lesueur, Governor of Caldos, Colombia, Mario Aristizabal Munoz, famous author Paulo Coelho, Japanese footballer Nakata, and film director Shekhar Kapoor are a few among them. It was instructed in his own voice, “In this two days, you need to interact with as many of the participants as possible. You should try to get the best out of it. You are free to blend up and leave your marks into the summit.” At the end of the meeting when I met him to talk- he pointed out that I should concentrate on academic forums mainly, as there will be plenty of prominent universities and academicians from throughout the world sitting in that platform to attend the focus group discussions and expert meetings at the conference panel.

We started our journey on November 2nd with a Grameen team from Dhaka to Germany. Among them were Prof. H.I. Latifee, Managing Director of Grameen Trust, Mr. Afser Kamal, CEO of Grameen Shakti, Mr. Imamus Sultan, CEO of Grameen Healthcare, Mr. Ehsanul Bari, Managing Director of Grameen Krishi, Mr. Ashraful Hasan, Managing Director of Grameen Telecom, Ms. Jannatun from Grameen Bank, Ms. Lamiya Morshed, Executive Director of Yunus Center, Mr. Tanim, Ms. Nadina and others were with us. We reached in Frankfurt Germany, in the evening of November 2nd, 2010. That same evening, there was a meeting at the city hall, where Prof. Yunus was speaking in front of 180 city mayors. It must be mentioned, Prof. Yunus reached Wiesbaden city on 31st of October, three days before us. The city mayor conference that I was referring to was possibly the largest city mayor conference, ever. The mayor of Wiesbaden called for the conference, and on the same day this was decided that, Wiesbaden city will be declared as a social business city in Germany. There have already been some Social Business ventures operating in Wiesbaden city, for instance, Perfect Day and Lalaland. On the same night, we had dinner with Prof. Yunus at Saytoune Restaurent, where we discussed of the conference once again, in detail.

In November 3rd, 2010, we started by visiting a GCL in Wiesbaden, where we were given a warm welcome at GCL office, soon after we had a splendid “German Breakfast” at 'Perfect Day,' a social business venture which sells coffee in Germany. It is a social business in a sense that, segment of its operation that collects coffee from Indian coffee farmers, channels the profit to spend on developing health and education of the poor farmers in India said CEO Dominique Dauster.

Photo: AFP

We all started for Wolfsburg city immediately after that, where the summit will take place, 600 km from Wiesbaden city. Wolfsburg is the place where we will spend the next three days. We boarded a pre-booked bus for the summit and were accompanied by a GCL team all the time. Though it was a magnificent five hours trip. We reached Wolfsburg at crack of dawn, and checked in Ritz Carlton Hotel Wolfsburg, one of the biggest and important conference venues in Germany. The GCL team, that was present there and the hotel stuff greeted us in a splendid manner. We had a dinner at Movenpick Restaurant at night with Prof. Yunus, where we met with many GCL volunteers and employees, who made the summit possible. Some of the noteworthy organizers were Suskia Bryustan, CEO and strategic director of GCL, Hans Reitz, Simon Stegmann, Verenna Marquardt, Clairissa Khan, Sophie Eisenmann, Florian Spathelf, Felipa Tibocha, Aline Wachner and Anita Brill. This was the beginning of the second global social business summit. Volkswagen, a prominent car manufacturing firm of Germany dates back to the era of Second World War, played a major role in organizing the summit alongside GCL. The first summit was a cornerstone, though much smaller. In this summit around 400 participants that includes business, social business, academicians, celebrities, politicians, NGOs, World Bank, UN and other international institutions from around the world will attend, and therefore is one of the biggest compared to the previous year.

The next day, 4th November 2010, the long awaited day of the summit finally arrives. We started our day by taking a breakfast with Prof. Yunus in Ritz Carlton Hotel at 9.30 a.m. in the morning. We left the hotel for the conference opening venue Themenkino, the Autostadt compound of Volkswagen, where the event was put already in motion.

The summit was inaugurated by Prof. Yunus, where Grand Duchess Maria Theresa, the first lady of Luxemburg, gave an inspiring speech. She was illustrating how she came to know Prof. Yunus. She visited Bangladesh twice as a representative of UN, when she met Prof. Yunus. She observed some of the projects, related to microcredit in Bangladesh. She presented a stirring example before everyone, where she recalled observing a case of poor village women who took a small loan from one of Prof. Yunus's microcredit venture. After a couple of years when the Grand Duchess, visited Bangladesh again, she noted the change in the financial and social status brought about into the women's life, with that loan, so minute in amount; and she was startled with the success. Maria became a good friend of Prof. Yunus, inviting him in the palace of Luxemburg as her state guest. Although Luxemburg does not have that much of social problems, she applied the concept of microcredit and social business to solve many social issues in Peru. The grand Duchess also brought her son, the prince, to attend to and learn from the summit about social business, making him a part of this movement.

There were other significant individuals sitting in the inauguration ceremony. The governor of Caldas, Columbia, Mario Aristizabel Munoz was sitting in the front row. He was the city counselor for three consecutive periods. He also presides over many important business companies in Columbia. He made a short speech following that of the grand Duchess. The CEO of Autostat, Otto-Ferdinand Wachs, made a short speech. After the sermon of Prof. Yunus, Hans Reitz of GCL made a short speech as well. There was a short video presentation of GCL about their activities over the last three years, screening the way GCL is coordinating and bringing together business and education institutions, to establish links with Grameen to promote social business, leading researches in this very new field of concentration, and demonstrated in detail the many achievements of GCL activities. GCL connected Haiti, Columbia, Russia, East Europe, and also many organizations in India and US into the sphere of research, promotion and implementations.

Photo: A.M.Ahad/Drik News

After the inauguration, the audience was partitioned into small groups to attend focus group discussions that started at 10.45 a.m. and went on till 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon. The concentrations for the discussions were on education, health care, IT, energy, poverty, environment, water issues, microcredit etc. The participants were split into their fields of specialization to optimize the results, deriving from the discussions. I personally attended mainly the academic and training sessions that took place. Grand Duchess Maria Theresa was with me in one focus group session on Education, where she put her thoughts to turn social business into a research and program concentration. We also discussed the means to incorporate social business study into different universities of the world. It should be mentioned that social business has been introduced into different universities already such as HEC France, the best business school in France. They have established a route to social business MBA. California State University in USA is offering a minor in social business. The vice president Julia Wilson of the University was attending the focus group discussion. In the group discussions, all other participants were conferring how they became fond of microcredit and recognizing that social business should be incorporated in their programs. We had representations from European Business School of Germany. The same week, European Business School introduced Yunus Chair for social business. The purpose of this chair that the universities will set up curriculum and conduct research on social business in Germany by European Business School and many other universities as well.

After the focus group discussion we had a lunch break. Then the next focus group discussion was in motion, on education and training. I attended the second session fully. In this session, we tried to interact with academicians from wide variety of institutions and we were trying to identify their expectations from the summit. The questions that we were asking our partners were, “What are that they truly desire from the current program? What would be the next actions plans to promote social business? How would the institutions offer courses and curriculum and how would the institutions be coordinated, share information and collaborate research works together among the institutions of interest?”

I put forth my perspective in both of the focus group discussions to establish links with universities that have already progressed in this concentration, through training, brainstorming and research. We discussed to share all the initiatives together that will enable social business concentration to be placed properly in the academic arena.

After this focus group discussion, we had a tea break. Then we took a long walk to another venue, where we were to attend a Social Business Expert Meetings on academia that started from four o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till seven in the evening. There were five delegates of different institutions, demonstrating their activities, and initiatives. For example, Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), were illustrating their social business path and how they became partner to Grameen Bangladesh, establishing a nursing college in Bangladesh, called Glasgow Caledonian College of Nursing (GCCN). Drawing on GCU's expertise in delivering high-quality nursing healthcare and midwifery education in emerging nations, and from professional experience as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, GCCN will help by increasing the number of trained nurses/midwives in Bangladesh and raise nursing/midwifery standards to an international level. Not only will GCCN will be an education establishment but will also be a social business, by training the daughters of poor Grameen borrowers, to build their careers in long run. This is supported by Grameen Health Trust and generously funded by Nike. Frederic Dalsace of HEC France demonstrated their universities' activities, and the activities of other institutions that have significantly integrated social business in their programs and are also acting as hub in different regions. Kyushu University of Japan has established an education and research hub in social business in Asia. President of California State University Dr. Richard Rush has emphasized on the implementation of social business and promised the commitments of to prepare students of Channel Islands, by offering undergraduate and graduate certification courses as well as MBA in social business to augment the research activities. They were able to generate a handsome fund to conduct research and training, and already offering minor. I think, from the expert meeting, we were made clear of the steps that are necessary to be taken within our own institutions to be in line with the global movement, and formulate a theoretical framework, act accordingly to observe the implications and impacts of social business in the society as a whole. I was determined to progress in elaborate collaborations with all these institutions. We need to conduct case studies and comparative analysis on social business ventures already in action. Yet, we know that some of these businesses are very new, but yes the time has come to study those and articulate the impacts on society at large. Our immediate action plan is to generate papers to teach the students and for publication. As I already mentioned, Harvard Business School and HEC France has already came up with case studies, and I am planning a social business case on BASF, Germany from my institution, NSU.

Photo: Star

Here, I must mention a little about BASF and other institutions interested in social business ventures in Bangladesh. BASF is one of world largest chemical business in Germany, who interacts with industrial clients only and engages in B2B transactions. The joint venture between BASF SE and Grameen Healthcare Trust was founded in March 2009. BASF Grameen Ltd. intends to improve health in Bangladesh as basis of a productive life. The joint venture focuses on long-lasting insecticidal nets that offer protection against insect-borne disease. BASF and Grameen combine their knowledge and expertise in this partnership. Alongside a starting capital of €200,000, BASF contributes an initial supply of long-lasting insecticidal nets to the joint venture. Grameen's contribution includes its knowledge of the market, distribution structures and networks in Bangladesh. The social business model covers its own costs and recoups the partners' initial investment. Any additional profits are reinvested fully in the company. Grameen Danone is the first social business ever that is already producing yogurts to supply to the poor population among whom malnutrition is unabated for decades. To ensure proper growth of poor children, Danone is running the factory with no dividend and pure reinvestment policy. Reebok and Adidas are the globally recognized shoe making businesses who are going to make cheap shoes to protect the bare footed poor farmers, among whom contagious disease and feet infections caused by bacteria and parasites is frequent, and address the health issue. Grameen Bank and Veolia Water decided to join their efforts to build a social business to supply drinking water at an affordable price (0.25 euro cents) in these rural areas to protect from arsenic contamination. Grameen Veolia Water was born in March 2008. The target is to distribute drinking water to the inhabitants of Goalmari Union and Padua Union (40,000 people).

In the evening, from 7.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m., all participants attended a public speech, Prof. Yunus and the eminent author of Europe, Paulo Coelho was giving speech. Paulo Coelho has recently received the 2009 Guinness world record for the most translated aauthor for the same book (The Alchemist). Moreover, he holds the Guinness world record for the most ttranslations (53) of a single title (The Alchemist) ssigned in one ssitting (45 minutes). The Alchemist established his worldwide reputation. The novel has already achieved the status of a universally admired modern classic. Paulo Coelho, a famous author, is promoting social business ideas as an ambassador for Professor Yunus. In his speech, he was joking, “It took me five years to make friendship with Professor Yunus and after several attempts I have been able to make a relationship. In the beginning I didn't understand, what the person is talking about! Will this idea be really something to help the humanity as a whole? I realized that Professor Yunus is the only person who was able to eradicate, if not all, but some problems of the poor distressed people in the world.”

At the end of the public speech, we had a “Gala dinner” at the auto museum of Autostadt. The CEO of Autostat, and Prof. Yunus made some comments and the dinner was interesting as we all had a great opportunity to interact with wide variety of people participated in the summit, coming from many different focuses. With that dinner, the program for that day concluded.

The next day, 5th November 2010, we all got together for the social business panel discussion, starting from 10.00 a.m. in the morning, in the same venue of Autostadt, Volkswagen. Prior to the assembly, we were greeted by Prof. Yunus, Otto Ferdinand Wachs (CEO Autostadt), Hans Reitz (Founder of the GCL). The theme of the panel discussion was, “Social Business- a question of leadership.” It was moderated by Saskia, CEO of GCL. This session was very interactive. We were instructed to speed date randomly with other participants. From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the afternoon, there was a huge congregation of people in the marketplace of social business, where twenty different stalls from companies and organizations involved in social business were set up. The participants experienced a comprehensive social business operations, products, education etc. A product that drew my attention was a screening device developed by Intel, with which a healthcare officer of Grameen could make contact with the patient's body, in a remote location, might be even inaccessible, and a specialist in the city will be able to observe the child movement inside a mothers belly, providing specialist advice, making the entire dimension of rural healthcare more vibrant and effective. There are plenty of other concepts and models, which was wonderful and very innovative.

After lunch there was a second panel session that took place, started at three in the afternoon. This panel was brilliantly articulated by Hans Reitz. The moderator for all the panel sessions flew all the way from Los Angeles, California. The moderator is a professional, operative in different TV and radio channels in USA. He was superb. The theme of the second panel session was “Social Business- An issue close to Society's heart” In this session, alongside Prof. Yunus, famous author Paulo Coelho and renowned film director, active in both Bollywood and Hollywood, Shekhar Kapur participated, who made the session instigating and piquant. Shekhar Kapur became internationally recognized for his for his film “Elizabeth,” which was nominated for 7 Oscars including best film in 1998. Shekhar is distinguishing as he is a visionary and he exclaimed his perspective, coming from very depth of his soul, fascinating the audience and myself included with his philosophy. He has successfully unified his profession with humanity, to catapult social business to help humanity; he signed an agreement with Prof. Yunus, to address water issues in India and Bangladesh. It must be noted that, he is currently working on a feature film named, “Paani” about the impending water wars in the world, featuring Hrithik Roshan. This film will screen disparity that sustains in water distribution among classes in India and in between countries.

During the two days seminar, Dr. Yunus successfully illuminated the social and economic implications of social business, its theoretical inherence in the very basic economic models and modifications that can be brought into social issues, social causes and to resolve social causes in a very eloquent manner.

We then attended the film premiere to watch an American movie titled, “Catch a Dollar; Muhammad Yunus Banks on America.” Film director Goyle, developed several documentary movies addressing the activities of Prof. Yunus and Grameen activities around the globe. The lady director expressed that she is highly motivated by the theme, to me personally the next day, in our trip back to Wiesbaden city. The film portrays the story of two families, one Hispanic family run by a lady, “Elizabeth,” and African American lady. Elizabeth was struggling with her financial condition. She was able to improve her financial situation with a small loan from microcredit projects of Grameen America. President of Grameen America, Vider Jorgansen was very instrumental for the project.

After watching movie we went to Ritz Carlton Hotel to attend at a Dinner party which was solely dedicated to Prof. Yunus and his team from Bangladesh. Later on, Hans Reitz of GCL brought Director Shekhar Kapoor to join with us. At the dinner I was asking Shekhar so many questions on emerging India. He answered issues related to poverty, hunger, disparity in the society, segragation, law and order, social justice, gap between rich and poor, income inequality, healthcare, education, crime and corruption so eliquantly with logic that gave us a clear picture about India. He believes, segregating and politically utilizing water supply is of the meanest of all actions that countries execute. Shekhar Kapoor has consented to sign an agreement with Dr. Muhammad Yunus to address issues regarding water disparity in a social business way.

With this, the curtains were drawn for the Social Business Summit 2010.

On 6th of November, we started from Wolfsburg to Wiesbaden city. In the trip we were discussing our achievements from this summit and the teams collected our feedback. I had personal meeting with Grameen and GCL team members. I think we are enriched and gathered complete knowledge about social business. We reached Wiesbaden, it was almost dark. A group of journalist was lingering around to take a picture of us, the core team. We pulled our bus to city center, and stopped in front of the mayor's office. This was the headline of the next day issue. Then we went to an Afghan restaurant, where Hans Reitz arranged a farewell party for us. I was mesmerized by the presentation of cultural program and traditional food laid out in front of us. Prof. Yunus showed appreciation for the unstinted support of the GCL team and to us, the core participants. He also noted that many government participants of other countries were there, who would be able to nationally take the idea forward. Even the footballer Nakata of Japan mentioned to me became a great fan of Prof. Yunus, who will be coming to Bangladesh to sign an agreement with the Professor, as many others. We returned to Dhaka the next day.

It was great learning for me particularly, as I had little idea about social business. I know this is a new concept, initiated by Nobel laureate Prof. Yunus. This idea was recognized after he was awarded the Nobel, internationally. What I see is that, this particular idea is superior to microcredit in my point of view, because social business is an idea of a business that has been designed to resolve social causes through sustainable business activities. It is mandatory that the business would make profit, but the investors would not consume the profit. The investors are repaid fully but no dividends will be issued. So this is kind of a profit making venture without interest, with the objective of solving social and community issues. This is why I am so motivated.

Yes, in this era of globalization, when we see the drawback of capitalism and communism, we observe the problems; a new way of thinking should come forward to solve these issues. We see that, countries and societies are segregated and partitioned. The families are divided, and the contrasting placement of people in groups, one side of the coin are accumulating wealth after wealth and on the opposite side of the coin, people are losing everything and have nothing to ensure the next meal. So I believe, social business can address vital issues in society such as health, food, housing, and education. The way Prof. Yunus wants to establish the idea globally, the theme is promised not to conflict with profit making businesses or monopolies, not to conflict with government ventures, not to conflict with NGOs or charity based institutions, not to conflict with corporate social responsibility. It is a completely distinctive operation that would help more people around the world. I believe such an innovative notion should be placed in academic arena, and examined. I would call for businesses to come forward and incorporate the idea in the basic business models of theirs, to observe the impact, the implication and the benefits of the idea. I believe governments and states would also establish some social business, to see if it really resolves social problems and if it is fruitful, than we should definitely step forward and promote social business in organizational structures. In the upcoming years, following the global financial meltdown, there will be a movement, an awareness built up, throughout the world; throughout the countries and the societies, no matter rich, no matter poor, every society and nation are going to take some initiatives to resolve problems of the vital few or the bottom pyramid of the society. So that is why, I kind of became a fan of social business. I believe, surely there will be academic debates, and we are in need of more research in this area, more interest in this theme and collaborations with businesses motivated to go forward with social business. We need to protect the exploitation of the term “social business” which is imminent.

I personally, want to term it Yunus Social Business, and I believe in that way the global body will accept the idea as another new creation from the very core of a country, which has made little place in the global map, but established microcredit as a pillar of new economic decade, and if social business will turn into another groundbreaking discovery. I think the world will seek our support as a nation with great capabilities to turn the wheel of civilization once again.

“If we can change our imagination, we can create another world”- Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

The writer is Professor, School of Business and Director, BBA Program North South University, Bangladesh