Week 12--Becoming a Change-Maker

There were many great things I learned in this week’s lesson.  I liked how everything was geared towards helping others.  Showing that you can be successful by showing compassion and helping others when they are down on their luck. 

In the article, “Microlending: Toward A Poverty-Free World”, I liked the example of how one man, Muhammad Yunus, tried to change the way bankers and many other people see the poor. He recognized that “because of barriers created by our societies, individual people never get the full opportunity to bring out their potential.”  (Muhammad Yunus, “Microlending: Toward a Poverty-Free World”, BYU Studies Quarterly, 1999) One way he tried to change the way people think.  He saw that banks wouldn’t lend money to the poor so he decided to loan them money.  The people worked hard and every penny was paid back.  The mind-set of the bankers never changed, no matter how many loans Yunus made and were paid back.  He said he finally gave up on trying to change the minds of the bankers and just kept doing what he was doing. His persistence has led to the Grameen Bank lending money to 2.3 million poor borrowers in 39,000 villages of Bangladesh.  (Muhammad Yunus, “Microlending: Toward a Poverty-Free World”, BYU Studies Quarterly, 1999) Yunus’ dedication and love for the people really was changing their lives.  One little gesture of faith that their potential would be unleashed, and they would pay back the loans allowed Yunus to help these people.

Another aspect that I liked this week was from the video of Brother Gay. A few things he said:

• “Beyond making ends meet whether you have little or much of this world’s good, will never be a fundamental determining factor of personal peace and happiness but rather it is your attitude towards wealth that will be critical.”
• “Begin to make service your constant practice. Provide basic needs and rescue others.”
• “The only way we can legitimately prosper in business is if we strive to make our hearts and actions one with these divine instructions and humble enough to know His will and meek enough to follow.”

His talk was all about how we need to lift others along the way. The Savoir lifted those around Him and as disciples that follow Christ, we should do the same. It doesn’t matter how much we have, we can always serve and help others in need.

What’s a Business For?

1. Based on what you read in the first two pages (pages 3 and 4), why are virtue and integrity so vital to an economy?   As trust erodes, people will not want to “play the game” and will take their money and put it elsewhere. As they do, the creation of wealth for our country will be left up to the government.  Trust is fragile and trust in businesses and the people leading them is cracking. (Charles Handy, “What’s a Business For?”, Harvard Business Review, December 2002)
2. According to Charles Handy, what is the “real justification” for the existence of businesses?  The real justification for the existence of businesses is “The purpose of a business, in other words, is not to make a profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better.  That “something” becomes the real justification for the business. Owners know this. Investors needn’t care.” (Charles Handy, “What’s a Business For?”, Harvard Business Review, December 2002) Businesses are there to do something more than just make a profit. That profit should be to help others who are in need.
3. What are two solutions proposed by Handy that you agree with? Why?

1.      Changing the language and the measures of a business needs to be addressed so that employees of a company are treated better and not as property of the company.

2.      Regard the corporation as a community whose members have legal rights. 

I think that these two solutions would benefit companies greatly. If the employees knew they were more than just the ones getting the work done, if they felt like they had more in the game of the company, I think they would work better and want to do better to build the company. They wouldn’t feel like they were working to build the CEO’s salary.