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Leadership Styles: Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates

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Gamelearn: Game-based learning courses for soft skills training

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By watching the great leaders of our century, we can take valuable types of leadership which can make our business and ourselves grow and develop. These are the keys to leadership from and , two technology titans.

Look ahead

Both the founder of Microsoft and the CEO of Apple had something in common: they always looked ahead, searching for the best tactic to achieve their goals, which they never lost sight of. Their actions, when leading their companies, were always intended to taking the next steps that would get them closer to their goals. Do as them; focus your energies on ensuring that every move you make takes you closer to the goal, instead of away from it.

Define immediate steps

What truly differentiates great leaders like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs from other CEOs is their ability to know what really needs to be done, beyond all the theories and intangible ideals that many managers have in mind for their performance as leaders. The important thing, and what makes the difference, is to adopt the appropriate leadership strategy: knowing what must be done today to achieve results tomorrow.

You may also like: How to define a plan, a goal and a victory to celebrate today

Visualize your great goal

Bill Gates devoted all his efforts to making a dream come true. The founder of Microsoft envisioned a world in which every person had access to a computer at a time when that was something not even remotely common. Years later, virtually every office for any job in the world has a PC.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs visualized the big accomplishment of his iPod: he fantasized about the idea of ??having all conceivable music stored in a pocket-sized device. Do as both leaders did and visualize what you want to achieve.

Create added value

Both Apple and Microsoft, thanks to their strategies carried out by their charismatic leaders, go way beyond their mere products. In the case of Gates' company, the advantage is clear: the Windows operating system is very much widespread, thanks in part to its continuous ability to update and launch new products to increase its value (for example, the entire Office package, the Internet Explorer browser, or Windows Media Player).

As for the almighty Apple, it is also much more than their mobile devices. The iOS operating system used by Macintosh computers and other extremely well-known hardware products, as well as its business culture, have generated an undisputed technical leadership in the industry. Follow the example of Apple and Microsoft, and always try to create added value in your company so that creativity and upgrading will be a core idea in your business and your leadership.

Count on the people

Talking about Bill Gates and not mentioning his philanthropic and humanitarian face, would be painting an incomplete picture Microsoft's leadert. Despite his great fortune, Bill and his wife Melinda Gates, started the Gates Foundation to help fight against inequalities. An empathetic gesture that helps people see in Bill Gates not only a tycoon, but a good leader who also works to help others grow, a quality that every successful leader must have.

Steve Jobs also had confidence in people, but in a different way. He was the author of many company motivational speeches of the XXI, a skill - the ability to motivate - essential to maintain a good team atmosphere and a positive attitude that will lead us to success. The CEO of Apple also showed that he had confidence in his team when, back in 2011, he proposed to Tim Cook, current CEO of the company, to replace him as head of Apple. Jobs knew then how to rely on his people, yet another one of the qualities of good leadership.

You may be interested: Manage your Team Meeting like Steve Jobs Did

What other leadership strategies do you take from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?

Image: Flickr / Kay Kim

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Leadership styles from the 80s: Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates

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By watching the great leaders of our century, we can take valuable types of leadership which can make our business and ourselves grow and develop. These are the keys to leadership from and , two technology titans.

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Digital Future of Banking Requires New Leadership Model

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The banking industry is trying to respond to an increasingly turbulent business environment, where legacy leadership and existing cultures are being challenged. In many instances, the legacy culture becomes a barrier to required change needed to become digital banking organizations. Not only do leaders need to articulate a vision for a future of increasing customer expectations, greater competition, new delivery channels and advancing technology, but also provide the resources to become digital technology organizations.

Some people argue that completely new leadership skills will be required to survive in the digital age. Others believe that leaders should go back to the essentials established decades ago, not letting change distract or disrupt an organization on a managerial level.

To these points, a research project conducted as part of a 5-year collaboration between MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, found that a blend of both perspectives may be required. In other words, while core leadership skills will stay the same, digital disruption will require new skills to be added to the 'leadership handbook'.

Now more than ever, bank and credit union leaders need to adjust to the increased pace of change in the industry. They also need to deal with the effects of hundreds of small fintech and big tech firms competing for customers who do their banking purely on their mobile phone, as well as with the disruptive conflicts between legacy bankers and the new wave of change agents within their organizations. In other words, today's leaders need to embrace change, take risks and disrupt themselves.
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What Makes Digital Leadership Different?

The leadership skills of the past are the foundation needed in a digital organization, but they aren't enough by themselves. When more 3,300 leaders were asked by MIT SMR what the single most important skill was to succeed in a digital workplace, the presence of a 'transformative vision' was ranked slightly higher than a clear, 'forward-looking' vision (22% and 20% respectively).

By transformative vision, respondents to the MIT SMR research meant leaders should have the ability to anticipate markets and trends, make savvy business decisions, and solve tough problems in turbulent times. In other words, embrace change and take risks based on multiple possible futures.

The third most mentioned skill that was deemed important for leadership success in a time of digital change was the ability to 'understand technology'. This has been found to be a major skills gap with traditional banking leaders as well as with their board of directors. At most financial organizations, digital literacy above middle management is almost non-existent.

In fact, the principal researchers from MIT CISR. Peter Weill, Stephanie Woerner, Thomas Apel and Jennifer Banner found that at companies in all industries, earning more than $1 billion in revenue annually, only about a quarter of them had three or more board members who were considered 'digitally savvy'. For the purposes of this research, 'digitally savvy' was defined as, "understanding, through experience, how digital technologies such as social, mobile, analytics, the cloud, and the 'Internet of Things,' will impact company success in the next decade."

To increase digital maturity of top management and boards of directors, MIT Sloan suggested the following:

Provide self-directed learning, require attendance at technology conferences, and/or find digital natives for leaders to learn from.

Commit to 'digital tourism', including visiting and engaging in conversations with boards and leaders of other successful, tech-driven companies.

Have multiple digital strategy retreats that focus exclusively on digital threats and opportunities.

Recruit new leaders who have strong digital experience.

Digital literacy is part of the foundation of the first two leadership skills cited, because leaders who are not digitally adept will struggle to understand the impact, risks and opportunities of digital transformation. This is why we see that the most digitally advanced and innovative financial institutions worldwide are those with leaders from outside the banking industry. Bottom line, it's hard for historically successful leaders (and organizations) to disrupt themselves.

Finally, tied with the need to understand the impact of digital technology is the need to be open-minded and accepting of change. Obviously, this trait supports all of those traits higher on the list, enabling leaders to respond to a very disruptive environment. The trait also assumes that ongoing learning is occurring to avoid skill set obsolescence.

Traditional Leadership Skills Still Required

Even though a number of new skills are required to succeed at a time of digital transformation, the decades-old fundamentals are still required. In other words, leaders should not let the technological change occurring around them distract. Understanding the basics of communication, prioritization, investment and project management are even more important during times of change. These skills cannot be delegated. They are the foundation for a culture that embraces the potential of digital transformation as opposed to simply providing lip service.

New technology without top-level ownership, involvement, empowerment and communication is a recipe for disaster. Employees and managers at all levels need to have the tools to succeed, including training and the support for 'disrupting others' appropriately. This may require the hiring of new digital leaders who can set an example for others. There must also be the opportunity for those embracing digital transformation to advance in the organization.

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Combining the Best of Old and New Leadership Skills

The joint research project with MIT Sloan Management Reviewand Deloitte believes what is needed is a healthy blend of both old and new skills. That is: "Leaders who have the core skills cultivated from the insights of the past, but with the agile mindset and digital savvy to allow them to pivot when necessary. In short, leaders who can 'be the change we seek'."

According to Deloitte, today's leaders need flexibility, agility, and a willingness to extend their organization's capabilities into new and, sometimes unexpected, areas to keep ahead of relentless competition. The goal is to make themselves and their organizational incumbent players 'undisruptable'.

"CEOs need to continually transform their organizations by 'embracing ambidexterity' through their leadership - and by infusing others with the same mindset," state Benjamin Finzi (a managing director and co-lead of Deloitte's CEO Program), and Scott Baret (a partner and Vice Chairman of Deloitte, leading the US Banking & Capital Markets practice). Leadership ambidexterity requires simultaneously optimizing through aggressive actions that yield efficiencies while exploring new and risky pathways that may ultimately modify the current business model.

Enhancing optimization and exploration simultaneously, particularly in large, legacy financial institutions, can be extraordinarily challenging - yet doable state Finzi and Baret. The larger, more complex, and older an organization, the more it may lean on optimization over risk-taking as a means to growth and profitability. To gain comfort in taking risks and learning from the inevitable failures that come with them, leaders need to cultivate 'emotional fortitude', which provides a clear-headed expectation of possible failure but does not result in despondency or recklessness.

Emotional fortitude combines a realistic assessment of potential risks and roadblocks with the courage to pursue lofty visions. It involves the tenacious confidence to continue exploring risky bets in the face of repeated failures and the willingness to let go of a treasured project as soon as the signs that justify abandonment arise.

Embracing a Beginner's Mindset ... and More

Deloitte's Finzi and Baret point out that to fuel a powerful engine of exploration, leaders of digital organizations need to adopt a 'beginner's mindset' - a concept rooted in Zen Buddhism, that leverages the possibilities inherent in not knowing all the answers. Strengthening one's ability to find moments to keep an exceptionally open mind, put aside all of the answers and knowledge one has gleaned over the years, and listen deeply to differing views and experiences, can lead to breakthrough ideas that may further bend the business model.

As a complement to the creativity of the 'beginner's mindset', CEOs also need to embrace the attribute of 'disruptive jujitsu'. This characteristic requires recognizing threatening, disruptive patterns from competitors and others in the environment, breaking the patterns into their components, and ultimately finding ways to appropriate selected disruptive elements for their competitive advantage.

Finally, and most importantly, the study from Finzi and Baret emphasizes that digital leaders must make it their passion to discover their customers' most subtle, unconscious, and often unrecognized needs and desires. Essentially, what will solve the problems that customers have not yet even acknowledged to themselves? This requires finding new and innovative ways to understand the customer's experience with current services - and then addressing their most deeply-embedded wishes and needs in innovative ways, regardless of whether the consumer is conscious of them or not.

The new leadership model will require that Boards of Directors, CEOs, and all top management constantly reinvent their skills and roles, demanding new perspectives from themselves and their organizations. In striving to create a new leadership model, some failure is inevitable along the way; but without it, banks and credit unions may not survive as we know them today.

Additional Insights into Digital Leadership

The Digital Leadership Initiative, published by MIT Sloan Management Review, explores the growing use of digital technologies in the business landscape. Through a series of annual reports, blogs, articles, and case studies, the exploration examines how companies are cultivating opportunities and addressing risks in a fast-moving, digital market environment.

As more companies strive to develop new digital capabilities, many are making significant changes to their organizational culture, strategy-making process, and talent management efforts. These shifts raise important questions about what it means to lead a digital business. These questions, and more, are the focus of MIT SMR's Big Ideas Initiative.

Research and analysis for this program is in collaboration with Deloitte Digital, which also provides financial support.

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Digital Future of Banking Requires New Leadership Model

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Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE! The banking industry is trying to respond to an increasingly turbulent business environment, where legacy leadership and existing cultures are being challenged. In many instances, the legacy culture becomes a barrier to required change needed to become digital banking organizations.

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The Importance of Soft Skills in Financial Services

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Soft skills are becoming increasingly critical for employees in any profession and industry, but they are becoming particularly important in the fast-changing financial services (FS) sector.

Financial services firms are experiencing a whirlwind of rapidly changing market forces. Firms are being bombarded by new technologies like blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence. They're also having to contend with disruptive new business models from non-traditional competitors including Google, Amazon and even Apple, as well as a number of innovative self-serve fintech startups that are flooding the market (think companies like Wealthsimple). On top of traditional FS firms having to develop new hybridized skill sets to accommodate all the technologically-driven change and unconventional competitors, superior customer service is quickly becoming an increasingly important competitive differentiator in the financial services field.

Internally, financial services organizations are also dealing with generational turnover and new employee mindsets when it comes to workplace learning and development. There are widening knowledge and leadership gaps being left behind by retiring boomers, and FS firms are increasingly having to find more effective ways of developing their leadership pipelines so they can train the leaders of tomorrow today and navigate unprecedented market upheaval while continuing to deliver desirable business outcomes. These future leaders have different learning expectations compared to their predecessors, exhibiting a desire for more modern learning experiences and next-generation learning tools.

In the face of this unprecedented change in the FS marketplace, using modern workplace learning experiences to effectively cultivate key employee soft skills can help traditional FS organizations better overcome these internal barriers and external forces to fuel growth and innovation, and win in today's consumer market.
Learn why your organization needs to make the move to modern learning
What exactly are these so-called "soft skills?"

Soft skills are essentially personal characteristics and interpersonal or people skills. They comprise desirable personality traits and individual qualities that help people interact and relate to others in the workplace. These soft skills can include:

the ability to communicate effectively

relationship development and management

emotional intelligence

empathy

creative thinking and problem solving

teamwork/collaboration

decision making

storytelling

critical thinking

time management

and motivation.

Soft skills help leaders motivate, engage and inspire teams

Cultivating soft skills is especially key when it comes to leadership development. Financial services organizations can overcome many of the barriers and obstacles limiting their growth and innovation by cultivating leaders with a strong aptitude for key soft skills that can help them mobilize and engage workers in digital transformation initiatives and rapid innovation. These are necessary "big shifts" financial services need to navigate if they expect to compete and win in the consumer market of today AND tomorrow, and stable leadership is needed to provide a steady hand on the steering wheel as they do.

Leaders who can inspire, listen and engage in compelling storytelling also have the ability to transform culture. They can play a role in building an organization for the future that is more relaxed and flexible (a must-have for millennials), receptive to change, and open to continuous learning.

Soft skills can improve customer interactions

Leaders with exceptional soft skills can motivate and inspire their employees. This can directly translate to improved customer service and securing customer loyalty in an age of multiplying financial services options-a happy employee is an engaged employee and an engaged employee will typically offer better customer service than one who's not.

Not only that, but soft skills development is key for those frontline employees who deal with customer interactions on a daily basis. They are an organization's primary brand ambassadors and are largely responsible for managing and setting customers' expectations around service and support. The development of soft skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, motivation and effective communication can help employees elevate customer interactions and the customer experience overall. Check out this video on four key skills new managers need to succeed.

How can a modern learning strategy help?

The key is to build a modern learning ecosystem that goes beyond training around hard skills (i.e. technical prowess and core business knowledge) to incorporate soft skills, and that delivers training in a way that's engaging and "just in time." Modern workplace learning methods like video-based learning, social assessment, and brain science strategies like situational learning, can effectively encourage the development and practice of soft skills. This approach creates a more balanced and holistic learning model, that also prepares the organization to dynamically adapt to new learning demands and changing market conditions.
Find out how D2L can help you build better soft skills within your organization

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The Importance of Soft Skills in Financial Services

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Soft skills are becoming increasingly critical for employees in any profession and industry, but they are becoming particularly important in the fast-changing financial services (FS) sector. Financial services firms are experiencing a whirlwind of rapidly changing market forces. Firms are being bombarded by new technologies like blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

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10 lessons from a start-up entrepreneur

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I was recently asked to give a guest lecture at Vlerick Business School in Belgium. Vlerick is where my entrepreneurship story started. Without it, there would not have been a company called EcoNation, nor EnergyVision.

Now, eight years after I graduated, I was asked to share my thoughts and experiences with the students - to explain the obstacles and challenges, the opportunities and the risks of starting your own business.

Back when I began, I was told that the key to success was to work hard. I work harder than most people I know, but I realize it's not the key to success.

It took me eight years to understand and eight hours to write down the top 10 lessons I have learned along the way. It might take you eight minutes or so to read. I hope this is a good investment of your time.

Make a difference - not money
As an entrepreneur, you don't start a business to make money. At least, I didn't. Of course, you have to make money; if not, you don't exist. But it's not what drives you most. You want to make a difference. You want to matter, to have impact. Change something for the better for your customer. Offer solutions. Surprise the market. That's what really creates value. Make a difference - and the money will follow.

Affordable loss
When you want to start a business, you begin by writing a business plan. There is a line between what you can gain (your turnover, profit) and what you can lose (your investment). The only thing you can be certain of is what you can lose. No one knows for sure whether they will make one euro, 100,000 euros or a million, and in what timespan.

What you do know is what you can lose when things go wrong: your reputation, your self-image, your full investment.

Now, what are you willing to lose? That is hard to answer and can be different for everybody. For me, I was willing to risk my personal savings and one year of my time: no salary paid in the first year. Had things gone wrong, I would have learned a lot during a year and that's what it was worth to me.

What I was not prepared to risk was bankruptcy: having personal bank debts for another 15 years or so, or taking a loan from my parents and then having to explain to them that the money was gone.

When we founded EcoNation, we found a bank that was willing to give us a loan. We did not give a personal warranty, yet we promised to work one year for free - that was our investment. The Belgian/Flemish government was willing to give a warranty to the bank to cover 75% of their risk - it is a mechanism which runs through PMV (a government-based investment company) and is really a great tool for start-ups.

Eventually, we made money and were profitable. Yet it's just something you don't know for sure upfront. The question is not how much money you will make; the real question is what are you willing to lose?

The pizza experience
In a start-up, everything is new, much is disruptive. Often you are inexperienced and surprises are everywhere. It is crucial to get your team right. You will have so many tough decisions to make and you don't want to lose friends along the way.

Imagine it like this. You are working late (you will do this a lot in the first few years) and you want to order pizza. If you want to order pizza for all the founders of your business, and you need to order more than one pizza, then your start-up has too many founding members.

Two or three founders works great. Four or more often means misery, especially when it comes to making crucial decisions.

Listen first - speak later
This is something I really had to learn. You want to go fast, because you want to grow big, but you can't grow before you learn. And you learn through listening. Listen to your team, your experts, your board - but most of all, your customers. They are the ones who really drive and define your business. Listen to them. Understand them. Learn from them. There is more than enough time to speak later.

Cash is still king
Books always tell you that "cash is king". Yeah, whatever, I thought, cash can never be more important than profit. Well, it is. It always is.

In order to really understand it, just take this example: you set up a company to develop your idea for a new product. You and the other founders contribute all your savings (let's say 60,000 euros) and a bank lends you another 60,000 euros. You also receive some turnover, another 60,000 euros. That's your cash coming in.

But you have some fixed costs. And in order to turn your idea into a prototype and then into a real product, you need to invest a substantial amount in research and development. The result is a cash shortage. And now your product is ready but your pockets are empty. You can't pay next month's bills any more. There is a letter about tax on your doormat.

This is the moment when you really understand the difference between profit and cash. Cash is king, and queen, and everything else. Never forget it.

You can sell a share only once
And you always sell too cheap, too soon. As a start-up, you are in need of money. So you look for help from your friends, family members or business angels. The thing with business angels is: you have to make sure they are angels and not devils in disguise. And you don't know it up front.

If you sell your shares too soon, you lose control of your company. It's that simple. Even if you think you don't have a choice, you always do.

If your idea is great, you will find the money without losing the shares. And if your business works well, you will have to go through so many rounds of equity raising (and dilution), that you don't want to distribute your shares already on day one. Because once they are sold, forget ever getting them back. It just doesn't work like that.

Far too many entrepreneurs start a successful company and end up empty-handed. You need to avoid business angels and talk to government agencies instead. It will make your life much easier.

People, people, people!
All good things come from people. They change the world, and companies. I had the privilege of being able to work (first at EcoNation and now at EnergyVision) with some of the greatest people I know.

As an entrepreneur, a team does not work for you. You work with them, you are part of the team and you love it. It's one of the differences between being a start-up entrepreneur and being a manager in a big conglomerate.

If you can handle it, the start-up culture is a great thing to experience. You really become one, united, a team with common goals and common values. You spend so much time together, have so much fun, put yourself on the line, and get so much energy from one another.

Think big - spend small
Think big, for sure. We were very, very, very small when we signed Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as our first customer and Scania as our fifth.

We wanted to conquer the world, to make a difference and we weren't afraid to think big. At the same time, we were conservative in terms of spending. I waited a long time before hiring extra employees - probably too long. You can only spend what you have and, in our case, that was not much. Yet that should never, ever prevent you from aiming big. Be naïve enough to take that leap of faith, and smart enough to learn fast along the way.

Get some sleep
Start-up entrepreneurship is like going from one misery to the next and trying to manage in between. You have to solve a lot of problems. You have to overcome all kinds of obstacles. It always goes slower than you want and it always costs more than you expected.

Many of my classmates chose jobs in consultancy, investment banks and conglomerates. They were sure of their salary and enjoyed a clear view on their career path for the years to come. They work 60 to 80 hours per week and have between three and six weeks holiday per year. In a start-up, you work 24/7 and you don't know how to spell "holiday". If you don't work, your company suffers. There is no such thing as a work-life balance.

And yet it is the best job in the world, because you are living your dream. You get to create your own company, work with great people, for great customers, on great projects. You are your own boss. Your personal values are what define the company.

Indeed, you can look at your situation from different perspectives and all of them are equally true. Whether you see it as a nightmare or a dream, just make sure you don't forget to sleep. It is a long road and a tough one, and you need to stay focused yet relaxed.

Sales fix everything
Never forget: when things go wrong, when your board is driving you mad, when your back office is lagging behind, when media is reporting bad stories, when you can't sleep, can't breathe, can't stop thinking any more... sales fix everything. They really do. Your investors shut up, your cash position improves, your team can smile again, you'll find the tools and the resources to fix other problems. Having sales means you exist. So stop reading: go out there and sell. Spread the word and spread your passion.
More blogs about start-ups
This article is published in collaboration with EnergyVision. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum. To keep up with Forum:Agenda Author: Maarten Michielssens is founder and CEO of EnergyVision and a World Economic Forum Image: A businessman walks past pillars in Tokyo December 14, 2009. Technology Pioneer. subscribe to our weekly newsletter. How start-ups are rewriting your news
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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.

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Great leadership starts with self-leadership

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Great leadership starts with self-leadership | Lars Sudmann | TEDxUCLouvain

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3 Things to Know About Tomorrow's Business Leaders

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Today's young business leaders are poised to outperform their more established counterparts - and that's not just the usual energy and naivety of youth talking.

Today's young leaders are emerging at a time when forces have converged to broaden people's expectations of business. This generation contains some of the savviest and most connected consumers in history. Many of them have seen their parents work in, and potentially be let go from, uninspiring business environments. They've grown up in an era when corporate scandal was frequent and corporate responsibility became a department.

On the other hand, they've also seen the extraordinary rise of social enterprises and start-ups that answer the question: "What problem are we trying to solve?" long before they ask: "What's the next big money maker?"

And now they're setting the bar higher.

Don't get me wrong. Up-and-coming leaders need and love profitability just as much as their predecessors, but they're savvy enough to see profit as the end, not the means. The big differentiator will be that successful leaders of the future will tap into the extraordinary value and competitive advantage that comes when their companies' missions - their core reasons for being - draw others in. They will hard-wire their operations to work effectively with others across society to deliver those missions and leverage resources in entirely new ways - and outperform the market as a result.

Here's what the new generation of CEOs will do differently.

Young leaders know why they're in business in the first place

For the next generation of game-changers, the payday (and what a payday it will be) grows out of setting ambitious missions that people actually care about. It seems so obvious, doesn't it? After all, a mission statement is your most important declaration to the world about why your business even exists. But take a look at most company missions and you'll find things like relevance and purpose woefully lacking.

Here are three red flags to look out for:

Uninspired mission statements are chronically narcissistic. This business of "we're going to be the #1" or "the industry leader" raises exactly one question: besides shareholders, who cares? Many up-and-coming leaders are starting to better understand that if consumers, employees, communities and even governments don't care about their company's mission, they'll be in dire straits fairly quickly.

Uninspired mission statements focus on the business model. A business model is not a mission and it never will be. Worse yet, elevating the business model to the level of mission makes a company far less capable of pivoting when market changes demand that their model evolves. Our future CEOs have grown up in an environment where the most agile businesses have been best at weathering storms.

Uninspired mission statements talk about how a company will behave. I'm reminded of a retail chain that seeks to "please customers and treat employees well". Since when did the bare minimum of behaviour constitute a mission?

Successful leaders of the future will understand the bigger picture. They will recognize the interplay between society's most pressing issues and the ability of their industries and companies to simultaneously solve those issues and thrive. They will recognize that major problems, left unchecked, will eventually block their business objectives.

Think about it. Nike won't survive if the world continues to become less physically active. Neither will ESPN. Banks lose relevance if the majority of a population can barely afford everyday expenses. An energy company doesn't stand a chance if it runs out of product. The theory holds true for pretty much any company of any size in any industry.

Put simply, future leaders will embrace missions that are visionary and describe what their companies will deliver to the world. And those missions will matter to a much larger group than just shareholders.

Young leaders see untapped value that's there for the taking

By now our new mainstream corporate heroes are solving massive problems during the course of daily business. This has huge implications.

First, they'll need to learn how to play really well with others. Corporations are famous for creating and then operating inside safe and controlled corporate bubbles. The new vanguard is about to burst that bubble. Truly ambitious missions require other people's participation - governments, non-profits, academics, to name just a few. Future leaders will need to define new ways to work with these groups more authentically and systemically than typical efforts seen today. If they get this right, our young leaders will start to experience a level of broad-based support from unlikely actors who actually want their companies to win. It will create a tailwind experienced by very few in the corporate sector so far, and illuminate the ridiculous amount of untapped value being left on the table today.

When a more broadly supported corporate mission is delivered authentically and consistently, companies can realize surprising cost savings and fewer barriers to business. The PR crises, risk-mitigation headaches, employee-retention or productivity issues that drain valuable dollars - they can all dissipate dramatically, freeing up resources for innovation and more strategic reinvestment. Imagine an employee base so proud of what they are working towards that they consistently over-deliver with great products, services and efficiency savings. If your own employees or others want you to win because you stand for something worth fighting for, they'll do whatever they can to help you.

Finally, missions that create shared purpose expand available market opportunity. Driving towards a mission that means something (and delivering on it) inherently expands the size of the pie versus an exhaustive and expensive effort to expand the size of an arbitrary slice. Because these companies are fundamentally solving a bigger problem, there's a bigger portion of the population to innovate for and a broader base of business opportunities to expand into legitimately over time.

There are some established companies we can look to for inspiration. Take Google, for example. Its mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". Democratizing access to information everywhere? That's world-changing. And it shows up in a ton of different ways, from emergency alerts that are the product of government partnerships to a re-imagined ISP experience (currently being tested in a few US cities) that provides connection speeds that are faster, cheaper and more reliable than anything people have experienced before. In an industry fraught with political challenges and sensitivities, Google is finding new ways to work across sectors. The result is expanded market opportunity and a roster of essential and valuable new supporters.

Indeed, those who lead the way will have big challenges pioneering how to get things done across the traditionally well-defined tri-sector territories. But they'll also be poised to extract significant business value (and profitability) that has been left on the table for a very long time.

Young leaders will stay off the Titanic

The vast majority of businesses currently operate within a system that puts shareholders first and incentivizes quarterly returns over sustainable growth. You could argue that deeply embedded corporate norms and a very powerful establishment will continue to stand in the way of progress, but I don't buy it. We're now talking about a century-old corporate financing legacy system whose time has come and gone. Young leaders don't have to put up with that, and many of the world's bravest CEOs today are already showing the way.

As an example, take a look at Tesla's eight-year, infinite-mile warranty. This was a bold move in a world where three-year, 36,000-mile warranties have long been the norm. Then Tesla did the unthinkable and extended its warranty to existing owners as well. CEO Elon Musk addressed investors and acknowledged the likely negative impact on short-term earnings. And then he went ahead and extended the warranties anyway. That's a clear signal that Tesla puts the interests of its customers and faith in its product ahead of any arbitrary, short-term KPI. It bucks the system in a big way, and it will also pay off far more in the long run.

Today, however, we're seeing new leaders buck the system entirely. They're finding alternate forms of capital, demanding new structures and resisting arbitrary corporate norms that have existed for decades.

I can't wait to see the group of revolutionaries who have the courage to go after missions that are bigger than themselves in the mainstream corporate world. And really, while the next generation may be pre-wired for this, real shifts will occur as the most established leaders of today make this seismic shift. These leaders will chart new territory for sure: resisting the creation of internal corporate bubbles and rewiring organizations for authentic multisector relationships - possible because they will lead business missions that unite, rather than separate.

From what I've seen so far, plenty of young people (and even a few current CEOs) have the guts to take this on. And if that's the sense of entitlement this generation is supposed to have, then I say bring it on.
Have you read?
Author: Lisa MacCallum, Formerly Nike Inc Vice President (2001-2014), currently independent adviser, author, speaker and Young Global Leader. Image: A man walks past a wall painting labelled the "Map of Start-up" at the Google Campus start-up space in the Gangnam district of Seoul, May 8, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Why start-ups need female founders
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Muhammed Yunus

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Muhammad Yunus ( Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনূস; born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development". Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

In 2008, he was rated number 2 in Foreign Policy magazine's list of the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'.

In February 2011, Yunus together with Saskia Bruysten, Sophie Eisenmann and Hans Reitz co-founded Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB). YSB creates and empowers social businesses to address and solve social problems around the world. As the international implementation arm for Yunus' vision of a new, humane capitalism, YSB manages incubator funds for social businesses in developing countries and provides advisory services to companies, governments, foundations and NGOs.

In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh. He published several books related to his finance work. He is a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which support microcredit.

Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 by American philanthropist Ted Turner's $1 billion gift to support UN causes.

In March 2011, the Bangladesh government fired Yunus from his position at Grameen Bank, citing legal violations and an age limit on his position.

The third of nine children, Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 to a Bengali Muslim family in the village of Bathua, by the Kaptai road in Hathazari, Chittagong in the Bengal Presidency of the British Raj, present Bangladesh. His father was Hazi Dula Mia Shoudagar, a jeweler, and his mother was Sufia Khatun. His early childhood was spent in the village. In 1944, his family moved to the city of Chittagong, and he moved from his village school to Lamabazar Primary School. By 1949, his mother was afflicted with psychological illness. Later, he passed the matriculation examination from Chittagong Collegiate School ranking 16th of 39,000 students in East Pakistan. During his school years, he was an active Boy Scout, and travelled to West Pakistan and India in 1952, and to Canada in 1955 to attend Jamborees. Later while Yunus studied at Chittagong College, he became active in cultural activities and won awards for drama. In 1957, he enrolled in the Department of Economics at Dhaka University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961.

After his graduation, Yunus joined the Bureau of Economics as a research assistant to the economics researches of Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan. Later, he was appointed lecturer in economics in Chittagong College in 1961. During that time, he also set up a profitable packaging factory on the side. In 1965, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States. He obtained his PhD in economics from the Vanderbilt University Graduate Program in Economic Development (GPED) in 1971. From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Yunus founded a citizen's committee and ran the Bangladesh Information Center, with other Bangladeshis in the United States, to raise support for liberation. He also published the Bangladesh Newsletter from his home in Nashville. After the War, he returned to Bangladesh and was appointed to the government's Planning Commission headed by Nurul Islam. However, he found the job boring and resigned to join Chittagong University as head of the Economics department. After observing the famine of 1974, he became involved in poverty reduction and established a rural economic programme as a research project. In 1975, he developed a Nabajug (New Era) Tebhaga Khamar (three share farm) which the government adopted as the Packaged Input Programme. In order to make the project more effective, Yunus and his associates proposed the Gram Sarkar (the village government) programme. Introduced by president Ziaur Rahman in the late 1970s, the Government formed 40,392 village governments as a fourth layer of government in 2003. On 2 August 2005, in response to a petition by Bangladesh Legal Aids and Services Trust (BLAST) the High Court had declared village governments illegal and unconstitutional.

His concept of microcredit for supporting innovators in multiple developing countries also inspired programmes such as the Info lady Social Entrepreneurship Programme.

In 1976, during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near Chittagong University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to a poor person. Village women who made bamboo furniture had to take usurious loans to buy bamboo, and repay their profits to the lenders. Traditional banks did not want to make tiny loans at reasonable interest to the poor due to high risk of default. But Yunus believed that, given the chance, the poor will repay the money and hence microcredit was a viable business model. Yunus lent US$27 of his money to 42 women in the village, who made a profit of BDT 0.50 (US$0.02) each on the loan. Thus, Yunus is credited with the idea of microcredit.

In December 1976, Yunus finally secured a loan from the government Janata Bank to lend to the poor in Jobra. The institution continued to operate, securing loans from other banks for its projects. By 1982, it had 28,000 members. On 1 October 1983, the pilot project began operation as a full-fledged bank for poor Bangladeshis and was renamed Grameen Bank ("Village Bank"). Yunus and his colleagues encountered everything from violent radical leftists to conservative clergy who told women that they would be denied a Muslim burial if they borrowed money from Grameen. By July 2007, Grameen had issued US$6.38 billion to 7.4 million borrowers. To ensure repayment, the bank uses a system of "solidarity groups". These small informal groups apply together for loans and its members act as co-guarantors of repayment and support one another's efforts at economic self-advancement.

In the late 1980s, Grameen started to diversify by attending to underutilized fishing ponds and irrigation pumps like deep tube wells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organisations. The fisheries project became Grameen Motsho ("Grameen Fisheries Foundation") and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi ("Grameen Agriculture Foundation"). In time, the Grameen initiative grew into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, including major projects like Grameen Trust and Grameen Fund, which runs equity projects like Grameen Software Limited, Grameen CyberNet Limited, and Grameen Knitwear Limited, as well as Grameen Telecom, which has a stake in Grameenphone (GP), the biggest private phone company in Bangladesh. From its start in March 1997 to 2007, GP's Village Phone ( Polli Phone) project had brought cell-phone ownership to 260,000 rural poor in over 50,000 villages.

- Dr. Muhammad Yunus while talking about reason behind creating Grameen Bank

The success of the Grameen microfinance model inspired similar efforts in about 100 developing countries and even in developed countries including the United States. Many microcredit projects retain Grameen's emphasis of lending to women. More than 94% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to their families.

For his work with Grameen, Yunus was named an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public Global Academy Member in 2001. In the book Grameen Social Business Model, its author Rashidul Bari said that Grameen's social business model (GSBM) has gone from being theory to an inspiring practice adopted by leading universities (e.g., Glasgow), entrepreneurs (e.g., Franck Riboud) and corporations (e.g., Danone) across the globe. Through Grameen Bank, Rashidul Bari claims that Yunus demonstrated how Grameen Social Business Model can harness the entrepreneurial spirit to empower poor women and alleviate their poverty. One conclusion Bari suggested to draw from Yunus' concepts is that the poor are like a "bonsai tree", and they can do big things if they get access to the social business that holds potential to empower them to become self-sufficient.

Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. In the prize announcement The Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned:

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.

Yunus was the first Bangladeshi to ever get a Nobel Prize. After receiving the news of the important award, Yunus announced that he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million (equivalent to $1.74 million in 2018) award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor; while the rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh.

Former US president Bill Clinton was a vocal advocate for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Yunus. He expressed this in Rolling Stone magazine as well as in his autobiography In a speech given at University of California, Berkeley in 2002, President Clinton described Yunus as "a man who long ago should have won the Nobel Prize [in Economics and] I'll keep saying that until they finally give it to him." Conversely, The Economist stated explicitly that while Yunus was doing excellent work to fight poverty, it was not appropriate to award him the Peace Prize, stating: "... the Nobel committee could have made a braver, more difficult, choice by declaring that there would be no recipient at all."

He is one of only seven persons to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. Other notable awards include the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1984, the World Food Prize, the International Simon Bolivar Prize (1996), the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord and the Sydney Peace Prize in 1998, and the Seoul Peace Prize in 2006. Additionally, Yunus has been awarded 50 honorary doctorate degrees from universities across 20 countries, and 113 international awards from 26 different countries including state honours from 10 countries. Bangladesh government brought out a commemorative stamp to honour his Nobel Award.

Yunus was named by Fortune Magazine in March 2012 as one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of the current era. In its citation, Fortune Magazine said "Yunus' idea inspired countless numbers of young people to devote themselves to social causes all over the world."

In January 2008, Houston, Texas declared 14 January as "Muhammad Yunus Day".

Yunus was named among the most desired thinkers the world should listen to by the FP 100 (world's most influential elite) in the December 2009 issue of Foreign Policy magazine.

In 2010, The British Magazine New Statesman listed Yunus at 40th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

Yunus received 50 honorary doctorate degrees from universities from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, and the US. United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, invited Yunus to serve as an MDG Advocate. Yunus sits on the Board of United Nations Foundation, Schwab Foundation, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Grameen Credit Agricole Microcredit Foundation. He has been a member of Fondation Chirac's honour committee, ever since the foundation was launched in 2008 by former French president Jacques Chirac in order to promote world peace.

Yunus has become a well-known international figure. He has delivered numerous lectures around the world, and has appeared on popular television shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006, The Colbert Report in 2008, Real Time with Bill Maher in 2009 and The Simpsons in 2010.[citation needed ] On Google+, Yunus is one of the most followed person worldwide, with over two million followers.

In early 2006 Yunus, along with other members of the civil society including Professor Rehman Sobhan, Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman, Dr Kamal Hossain, Matiur Rahman, Mahfuz Anam and Debapriya Bhattacharya, participated in a campaign for honest and clean candidates in national elections. He considered entering politics in the later part of that year. On 11 February 2007, Yunus wrote an open letter, published in the Bangladeshi newspaper , where he asked citizens for views on his plan to float a political party to establish political goodwill, proper leadership and good governance. In the letter, he called on everyone to briefly outline how he should go about the task and how they can contribute to it. Yunus finally announced that he is willing to launch a political party tentatively called Citizens' Power ( Nagorik Shakti) on 18 February 2007. There was speculation that the army supported a move by Yunus into politics. On 3 May, however, Yunus declared that he had decided to abandon his political plans following a meeting with the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed.

In July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders "to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems." Nelson Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. Yunus attended the launch of the group and was one of its founding members. He stepped down as an Elder in September 2009, stating that he was unable to do justice to his membership due to the demands of his work.

Yunus is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa. Every year, the Panel releases a report, the Africa Progress Report, that outlines an issue of immediate importance to the continent and suggests a set of associated policies. In July 2009, Yunus became a member of the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation International Advisory Board to support the organisation's poverty reduction work. Since 2010, Yunus has served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a UN initiative which seeks to use broadband internet services to accelerate social and economic development. In March 2016, he was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, which was co-chaired by presidents François Hollande of France and Jacob Zuma of South Africa. Yunus urged Myanmar to end violence against Rohingya Muslims.

The Government announced a review of Grameen Bank activities on 11 January 2011, which is ongoing. In February, several international leaders, such as Mary Robinson, stepped up their defence of Yunus through a number of efforts, including the founding of a formal network of supporters known as "Friends of Grameen".

On 15 February 2011, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, declared that Yunus should "stay away" from Grameen Bank while it is being investigated. On 2 March 2011, Muzammel Huq - a former Bank employee, whom the government had appointed Chairman in January - announced that Yunus had been fired as Managing Director of the Bank. However, Bank General Manager Jannat-E Quanine issued a statement that Yunus was "continuing in his office" pending review of the legal issues surrounding the controversy .

In March 2011, Yunus petitioned the Bangladesh High Court challenging the legality of the decision by the Bangladeshi Central Bank to remove him as Managing Director of Grameen Bank. The same day, nine elected directors of Grameen Bank filed a second petition. U.S. Senator John Kerry expressed his support to Yunus in a statement on 5 March 2011 and declared that he was "deeply concerned" by this affair. The same day in Bangladesh, thousands of people protested and formed human chains to support Yunus. The High Court hearing on the petitions, was planned for 6 March 2011 but postponed. On 8 March 2011, the Court confirmed Yunus's dismissal.

A Danish documentary, Caught in Micro Debt, produced and directed by journalist Tom Heinemann, aired on Norwegian national television NRK in November 2010. It made a number of allegations against Yunus and Grameen Bank. Those allegations were disproved by later inquiries. The documentary accused Yunus and Grameen Bank of diverting 7 billion taka (about 100 million US dollars) given by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) from Grameen Bank to another organisation called Grameen Kalyan in 1996. This allegation was widely spread in the Bangladeshi electronic media in December 2010. On 6 December, NORAD published a statement clearing Yunus and the Bank from any wrongdoing on this point, following a comprehensive review of NORAD's support commissioned by the Minister of International Development.

However, the allegations quickly spread through the Bangladesh media. Leading Bangladeshi economist Rehman Sobhan stated "Rather than first seeking clarification and response from Grameen Bank as to the validity of the TV programme, some sections of the media and society pounced on it with unseemly enthusiasm, using it as an opportunity to cite wrongdoing in a widely respected organization." Yunus asked for consistent and transparent investigations on these matters.

Accusation of 'loan sharking' and effectiveness of microfinance

The allegations against Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were made in a context where some people began to question the effectiveness of microfinance, prompted by the actions of some for-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India and Mexico. Coercion, peer pressure and physical harassment were reportedly used as loan repayment practices in some specific MFIs. Commercialisation of microcredit prompted Yunus to state that he "never imagined that one day microcredit would give rise to its own breed of loan sharks."

The lure of profits attracted some for-profit MFIs to hold initial public offerings (IPOs), including the largest Indian MFI, SKS Microfinance, which held an IPO in July 2010. In September 2010, Yunus criticised the IPO; in a debate with SKS founder Vikram Akula during the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, he said, "Microcredit is not about exciting people to make money off the poor. That's what you're doing. That's the wrong message completely." Calculations of actual interest rate vary, but one estimate puts average Grameen rates at about a 23% interest rate (comparable to the inflation rate). At the same time the organisation enjoyed a tax-free status for a period of several years which now has been removed.

Sympathizers of Yunus allege that the government of Bangladesh is exploiting this "moral crisis around microcredit" to oust Yunus.

Though Grameen Bank was quickly cleared by the Norwegian government of all allegations surrounding misused or misappropriated funds in December 2010, in March 2011 the Bangladeshi government launched a three-month investigation of all Grameen Bank's activities. This inquiry prevented Muhammad Yunus from participating in the World Economic Forum.

In January 2011, Yunus appeared in court in a defamation case filed by a local politician from a minor left-leaning party in 2007, complaining about a statement that Yunus made to the AFP news agency, "Politicians in Bangladesh only work for power. There is no ideology here". At the hearing, Yunus was granted bail and exempted from personal appearance at subsequent hearings.

These investigations fueled suspicion that many attacks might be politically motivated, due to difficult relations between Sheikh Hasina and Yunus since early 2007, when Yunus created his own political party, an effort he dropped in May 2007.

At 72 years old, he was 12 years beyond the legal retirement age for civil servants in Bangladesh in 2011. Government spokespersons called for Yunus to step down and declared, "We need to redefine the bank's role and bring it under closer regulation."

The government as chairman Muzammel Huq, himself a foundational figure of the Grameen Bank and one of senior managers together with Yunus of GB Research and Operations until the early 2000s. He has publicly criticised Yunus, saying, "I think he is a good man with a small heart ... He cannot give credit to anyone but himself".

On 27 January 2011, Yunus appeared in court in a food-adulteration case filed by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Food Safety Court, accusing him of producing an "adulterated" yogurt whose fat content was below the legal minimum. This yogurt is produced by Grameen Danone, a social business joint venture between Grameen Bank and Danone that aims to provide opportunities for street vendors who sell the yogurt and to improve child nutrition with the nutrient-fortified yogurt. According to Yunus's lawyer, the allegations are "false and baseless". At the request of Yunus's lawyers, pointing procedural irregularities and errors, this case is now considered by the High Court.

Investigation by a 2012 independent public commission examining the Grameen Bank assert that Yunus misrepresented his authority and abused his powers during his tenure in management. The report establishes that legal challenges exist for authority of the Grameen Bank to have acted as guarantor and to have forwarded credit to independent private enterprises during Dr. Yunus's tenure. The report raised specific questions relating to a) establishment and financing of GrameenPhone, a for-profit telecommunications entity initially established as a trust for the Grameen Bank borrowers together with Norwegian government owned multinational Telenor by Dr Yunus, and b) simultaneous management and operational financing of private enterprises established by Dr Yunus applying resources of the Grameen Bank. The commission also examined the legal status of the Grameen Bank and concluded that it was de jure public i.e. government entity, of which incompetent oversight by the state and (potentially unwitting) misrepresentation by Dr. Yunus in past resulted in the popular perception of the private ownership. The commission report refers to obstruction of commission investigations by current Grameen Bank management, representatives of Telenor, the Government of Bangladesh, and by partisans of Dr. Yunus. Full implications of the report are thus far not closely examined in either state-controlled elements of Bangladeshi media, or by pro-Yunus press releases, where these implicate Dr Yunus as at least accessory to corruption at the nexus of the Bangladeshi public-commercial establishment, in collusion with other parties.

Microfinance has been criticised in the foreign media. The Guardian (UK) asked whether microfinance was a 'neoliberal fairytale'. The article pointed out criticisms including that most loans are not used to create small businesses, but instead 'consumption smoothing'.

The trial of Muhammad Yunus is the series of trials launched by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh against Muhammad Yunus. The former put the latter on trial in 2010 and ultimately removed him from Grameen Bank, citing that too old to run the Bank which he founded in 1983. In 2013, he was put on trial for a second time because he had supposedly received earnings without the necessary permission from the government, including his Nobel Peace Prize earnings and the royalties from his book sales. The article claims that this series of trials against Yunus has puzzled billions of people around the world, from the 8.3 million underprivileged women of Grameen Bank to US President Barack Obama. Likening Hasina's political vendetta against Yunus to a modern-day replay of the conflict between Archimedes and General Marcellus, the article predicts that the " banker to the poor" may face a fate similar to the father of mathematics for asking Hasina not to disturb the Grameen Bank. Vikas Bajaj wrote in the Taking Note editorial blog of The New York Times on 7 November 2013:

The government of Bangladesh has played its trump card in its long-running campaign against Grameen Bank and its founder Muhammad Yunus. Last week, legislators passed a law that effectively nationalizes the bank, which pioneered the idea of making small loans to poor women, by wresting control of it from the 8.4 million rural women that own a majority of its shares.

For many years, Yunus remained a follower of Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujib, the founding father of Bangladesh. While teaching at Middle Tennessee State University, Yunus founded the Bangladesh Citizen's Committee (BCC), as a response to West Pakistan's aggression against Bangladesh and its leader Sheikh Mujib. After the outbreak of the war of liberation, the BCC selected Yunus to become editor of its newly published Bangladesh News Letter. Inspired by the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, Yunus returned home in 1972, to help Mujib rebuild the nation shattered by a long and bloody war. The relationship did not end after Mujib's death. Yunus maintained a professional relationship with Mujib's daughter, Hasina. Yunus appointed Hasina-along with US first lady Hillary Clinton-as co-chair of a microcredit summit held 2-4 February 1997. At this event, 50 heads of state and high-level officials from 137 nation-states gathered in Washington, DC, to discuss solutions to poverty. At this macroevent for microcredit, Hasina had nothing but praise for her fatherly figure. In her statement she praised,"the outstanding work done by Professor Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded.. . . The success of the Grameen Bank has created optimism about the viability of banks engaged in extending micro-credit to the poor. The inaugural ceremony of Grameen Phone, the largest telephone service in Bangladesh, took place at Hasina's office on 26 March 1997. Using Grameen Phone, Hasina made the first call to Thorbjorn Jagland, the then-Norwegian prime minister. When her conversation ended with Jagland, she received another call, this one from Laily Begum, a Grameen telephone employee. However, this long relationship was doomed in 2007 after Yunus disclosed his intention to form a political party, Nagorik Shakti

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina waged a destructive campaign against Grameen and its founder, Muhammad Yunus. The New York Times reports, " Her actions appear to be retaliation for Mr. Yunus's announcement in 2007 that he would seek public office, even though he never went through with his plans". According to Times of India, one other factor contributed to her brash decision against Yunus: the Nobel Peace Prize

Hasina thought that the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee would give her the prize for signing a peace treaty, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in 1997. On 9 March, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam revealed the government's attitude when he said, "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize..." He went on to challenge the wisdom of the Nobel committee for not awarding the prize to his master, Hasina, for the CHT accord.

On 11 January 2007, Army General Moeen U Ahmed staged a military coup. Meanwhile, Yunus turned down his request to become the nation's fourth Chief Advisor after Khaleda Zia's term ended. Yunus, however, suggested the general pick Fakhruddin Ahmed for the job. Fakhruddin took office on 11 January 2007 and made it clear on his very first day that he intended not only to arrange a free and fair election but also to clean up corruption. While Khalada and Hasina criticised Fakruddin and claimed that it was not his job to clean up corruption, Yunus expressed his satisfaction. In an interview with the AFP news agency, Yunus remarked that politicians in Bangladesh only work for money, saying, "There is no ideology here." Hasina had a harsh reaction to Yunus' comments, calling him a "usurer who has not only failed to eradicate poverty but has also nurtured poverty." This was Hasina's first public statement against Yunus. One could make an analogy between Yunus' involvement as a nonpolitician and the role that Czech writer Václav Havel played in his country after the overthrow of the Communist regime. Later Yunus announced the name of this prospective political party, Nagorik Shakti (Citizen's Power), saying he had a mission to enter the political arena in his nation in hope of changing its identity from "bottomless basket" to "rising tiger." However, on 3 May, Yunus published a third open letter and put his political ambitions to rest.

Bangladesh government launched the first trial against Yunus in December 2010, one month after the release of Caught in Micro Debt, a documentary by Tom Heinemann. Screened on Norwegian television on 30 November 2010, the film broadcast the allegation that Yunus stashed approximately $100 million in 1996 into Grameen Kalyan, a sister company of Grameen Bank. however, Yunus denied the allegations. After completing a full investigation, the Norwegian government found Yunus innocent. However, Prime Minister Hasina used the situation as to increase sustained attacks on Yunus: these included claims that Yunus' age means he is too old to run the bank, Grameen has created companies unlawfully, and the bank operates as an organ of the government.[clarification needed ] The bank has denied all illegalities, arguing, among other things, that age limits do not apply in this case since Grameen, like BRAC, is a special bank. Yunus has also become subject to legal harassment over three criminal cases. A criminal defamation case was filed against Yunus for criticising politicians in 2007. A food inspector filed another case against Yunus, alleging that yogurt manufactured by the Grameen-Danone was adulterated. The final blow came on 3 March 2011. Bangladesh Bank informed Grameen in a letter that Yunus had been removed from Grameen, citing that he was older than the mandatory retirement age of 60, even though nine of the bank's directors-who were elected by 8.3 million Grameen Bank borrowers-allowed him to stay on the job after he had crossed that threshold. Backed by nine boards of directors, 22 thousand employees, and 8.3 million Grameen borrowers, Yunus defied the government order, returned to Grameen's headquarters in Dhaka, and lodged an appeal at Dhaka High Court against the decision. However, Justice Mohammad Momtazuddin Ahmed and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore delivered the verdict against Yunus, claiming that Yunus' posting as the MD of Grameen since 1999 was illegal as he had reached the age of 60 by then. However, Yunus still did not lose faith in the justice system. Backed by international leaders (e.g., Hillary and Bill Clinton), national leaders (e.g., Sir Fazle Hasan Abed) and 8.3 million Grameen borrowers, Yunus filed an appeal in Bangladesh Supreme Court against the High Court's verdict. The full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque heard the appeal on 15 March and delivered the verdict which upheld Yunus removal by government.

On 2 August 2012, Sheikh Hasina's approved a draft of "Grameen Bank Ordinance 2012" to increase government control over the bank. Currently, that power resides with the bank's directors-consisting of nine poor women-who were elected by 8.3 million Grameen borrowers. Hasina also ordered a fresh investigation into the activities and financial transactions of Yunus in his later years as managing director of Grameen, but people see the move as nothing more than an attempt to destroy his image. The prime minister also alleged that Yunus had received his earnings without the necessary permission from the government, including his Nobel Peace Prize earnings and the royalties from his books. On 4 October 2013, Bangladesh's cabinet has approved the draft of a new law that will give the country's central bank closer control over Grameen Bank, raising the stakes in a long-running dispute with the pioneering microlender. The Grameen Bank Act 2013 was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday. It was passed by parliament on 7 November 2013, and replaced the Grameen Bank Ordinance, the law that underpinned the creation of Grameen Bank as a specialised microcredit institution in 1983. The government new plan is to break Grameen into 19 pieces. The New York Times reports:

Since then, the government has started an investigation into the bank and is now planning to take over Grameen - a majority of whose shares are owned by its borrowers - and break it up into 19 regional lenders.

In 1967, while Yunus attended Vanderbilt University, he met Vera Forostenko, a student of Russian literature at Vanderbilt University and daughter of Russian immigrants to Trenton, New Jersey, United States. They were married in 1970. Yunus's marriage with Vera ended within months of the birth of their baby girl, Monica Yunus, in 1979 Chittagong, as Vera returned to New Jersey claiming that Bangladesh was not a good place to raise a baby. Monica became an operatic soprano based in New York City. Yunus later married Afrozi Yunus, who was then a researcher in physics at Manchester University. She was later appointed as a professor of physics at Jahangirnagar University. Their daughter Deena Afroz Yunus was born in 1986.

Yunus's brother Muhammad Ibrahim is a former professor of physics at the University of Dhaka and the founder of The Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES), which brings science education to adolescent girls in villages. His other brother Muhammad Jahangir (d. 2019) was a television presenter and a social activist in Bangladesh.

The Yunus Centre, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is a think tank for issues related to social business, working in the field of poverty alleviation and sustainability. It is 'aimed primarily at promoting and disseminating Professor Yunus' philosophy, with a special focus on social business' and currently chaired by Prof. Muhammad Yunus.

Yunus, Muhammad (1974). Three Farmers of Jobra. Department of Economics, Chittagong University.

-- (1976). Planning in Bangladesh: Format, Technique, and Priority, and Other Essays; Rural Studies Project, Department of Economics. Chittagong University.

--; Isalama, Saiyada Manajurula; Rahman, Arifa (1991). Jorimon and Others: Faces of Poverty. Grameen Bank.

-- (1994). Grameen Bank, as I See it. Grameen Bank.

Yunus, Muhammad, Moingeon, Bertrand and Laurence Lehmann-Ortega (2010), "Building Social Business Models: Lessons from the Grameen Experience", April-June, vol 43, number 2-3, Long Range Planning, pp. 308-325

-- (2017). A World of Three Zeroes: the new economics of zero poverty, zero unemployment, and zero carbon emissions. Scribe Publications.

In 2006, awarded Nobel Peace Prize for his finance work.

Chosen by Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia as one of The 25 Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years, covered in a PBS documentary.

In 2006, Time magazine ranked him as one of the top 12 business leaders, including him among "60 years of Asian Heroes."

In 2008, Yunus was voted 2nd on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals in an open online poll conducted by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (United States).

In 2009, Yunus was awarded the Golden Biatec Award, the highest award bestowed by Slovakia's Informal Economic Forum Economic Club, for individuals who exhibit economic, social, scientific, educational and cultural accomplishments in the Slovak Republic.

1. ^ Yunus, Muhammad (14 October 2003). গিরেবর উপকাের লােগ োদেখ বਗ਼ োলাক অামােদর বઘাংেক টাকা জমা রাখেত এিগেয় এেসেছ ড় মઓহামઅদ ইউনકস. Prothom Alo (Interview) (in Bengali). Interviewed by Rahman, Matiur. Dhaka. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007.

2. ^ "The Graduate Program in Economic Development - Vanderbilt University ...". 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012.

3. ^ Yunus to receive Nichols-Chancellor's Medal Archived 18 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Vanderbilt News, 12 March 2007; Retrieved: 9 September 2007

4. ^ Yunus, Muhammad; Jolis, Alan (2003). Banker to the Poor: micro-lending and the battle against world poverty. New York: Public Affairs. pp. 20-29. ISBN 978-1-58648-198-8.

5. ^ Yunus, Muhammad; Jolis, Alan (2003). Banker to the Poor: micro-lending and the battle against world poverty. New York: PublicAffairs hc. pp. 46-49. ISBN 978-1-58648-198-8.

6. ^ "About Grameenphone". Grameenphone. 16 November 2006. Archived from the original on 10 August 2007. Grameenphone is now the leading telecommunications service provider in the country with more than 10 million subscribers as of November 2006.

7. ^ Clinton, Bill (2004). My Life: The Presidential Years. New York: Vintage Books. p. 329. ISBN 978-0-375-41457-2. Muhammad Yunus should have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics years ago.

8. ^ Sydney Peace Prize recipients, Sydney Peace Prize Foundation website; Retrieved: 9 September 2007

9. ^ Mustafa, Sabir (5 April 2007). "Bangladesh at a crossroads". BBC News. At first glance, the current state of Bangladesh appears to be a paradox: a country under a state of emergency, but where the general public seem quite content.

10. ^ High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth - Commissioners World Health Organization.

11. ^ শেখ হাসিনার প্রতিহিংসার শিকার ড. ইউনূস. The Daily Sangram (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 9 July 2015.

12. ^ প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনার হিংসা আর ভয়ের কারণই ড. ইউনূসের সাথে দন্দ্বঃ টাইমস অব ইন্ডিয়া [Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's jealousy and fear is the reason. Doubts with Yunus: The Times of India]. Amader Shomoy (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 23 September 2013.

13. ^ Bari, R. (2011). Grameen Social Business Model: A Manifesto for Proletariat Revolution. AuthorHouse. p. 158. ISBN 9781468565652.

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Muhammad Yunus ( Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনূস; born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans.

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The Chorus (2004)

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Design Thinking

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Popularized by David M. Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO and Roger Martin of the Rotman School, design thinking has three major stages.

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The paradox of value - Akshita Agarwal

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We live in a world of choices. From the smartphones we use and the food we eat, to the clothes we wear and the music we listen to, we make decisions based on choices every day. More often than not, our choice is based on the value of the product and, in turn, on our willingness to pay for it. As a customer, we engage in this value exchange every day. This blog post by Akshita Agarwal highlights how the definition of value is different for every customer in a market economy. You may share your thoughts/comments at the end of the blog to engage in a discussion with her.

The paradox of value is famously described by pioneering economist Adam Smith. In his treatise An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith writes:

" The word VALUE, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called 'value in use;' the other, 'value in exchange'. The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; and on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water: but it will purchase scarce anything; scarce anything can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it".

He explains how the price of a commodity is based not only on its value-in-use but also on its value-in-exchange. Although Smith did not name it as the 'paradox of value', it is commonly used to describe the paradox today. If you're interested in reading his treatise, you may purchase the book here.

Most modern economists deal with the paradox of value by attempting to unify these considerations under the concept of utility - or, how well something satisfies a person's wants or needs. Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher and jurist, first introduced the term 'utility' in the late eighteenth century in England to describe the satisfaction one receives on consumption of a product. This concept of utility went on to become the foundation of utilitarian theory, according to which all humans act in a way that maximizes their satisfaction/utility and results in maximum value addition and happiness.

The paradox of value was finally resolved around one hundred years after Smith wrote. W.S. Jevons, an economist and philosopher, introduced the concept of ' marginal utility' (utility derived per additional unit of a commodity) in his paper titled 'A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy' (1862). He explained that it is not the total utility but the additional utility derived from the consumption of the last unit that matters. A commodity's marginal utility often decreases as more of it is consumed, and so another unit of water would give less marginal utility than another unit of diamonds. For more thoughts, visit this page.

Diminishing marginal utility is a law of economics stating that as a person increases consumption of a product, while keeping consumption of other products constant, there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. For examples of diminishing marginal utility, refer here.

Principles of Economics is a brilliant book for beginners to start learning about economics. The economic concepts covered in the lesson fall under the broad bucket of microeconomics which, in itself, is a sub-category of economics. In case you want to learn only about microeconomics, this course offered by Khan Academy is a good starting point. For the table of contents, refer here.

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Imagine you're on a game show and you can choose between two prizes: a diamond ... or a bottle of water. It's an easy choice - the diamonds are more valuable. But if given the same choice when you were dehydrated in the desert, after wandering for days, would you choose differently?

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Alibaba's 6 Core Leadership Values Via Jack Ma

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Alibaba's 6 Core Leadership Values Via Jack Ma