“Don’t say we can’t do anything. That’s not an option. We have to do something. The world is yours,” he said at the closing session of the 9th Social Business Day.
Prof Yunus said the children and young people are full of unlimited creative power which needs to be harnessed.
Encouraging the young people to think big and discover themselves, he said, “You’ve the power to compete, to overcome odds. Whatever you are currently doing, your creative power is still there. Use that power to make a social business.”
Terming social business a problem-solving one, he said “not waiting for anybody” is the real message of social business.
Highlighting the existing global problems, Prof Yunus said same road leads to the same destination and new roads need to be built to reach new destination.
He said there is a need for a bigger social business tree as time is running out to save the planet from disaster. “That's an alternative we’re suggesting,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer of CP Group Suphachai Chearavanont, founder of Grameen Creative Lab Hans Reitz, Managing Director of Grameen Telecom Trust Parveen Mahmmud and Grameen Shakti Managing Director Sohel Ahmed, among others, spoke at various sessions on the closing day.
They spoke about social business challenges, necessity of innovative power in social business and importance of sustainable business models.
They shed lights on why social business needs to have the best people making it pure, joyful and beautiful business overcoming all the challenges and difficulties.
The 9th Social Business Day was held at the Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre, Central World jointly organised by Yunus Centre, Dhaka, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Kasetsart University, Thailand.
This year, the theme was “Making Money is Happiness, Making Other People Happy is Super Happiness”.
Panel discussions addressed a myriad of topics in relation to the social business ecosystem ranging from food and agriculture, deforestation, green energy to education, health, technology, sports as well as culture and arts.
Some 1,500 delegates from 59 countries - 80 delegates from Japan alone, 30 from China and 50 from Taiwan, attended the two-day event.
This was the biggest international gathering of social business till date, organisers said. The first one was held in 2010 in Dhaka.
The second and last day of the Social Business Day brought out several major announcements and plenary sessions on “social business and sports” as well as “challenges in social business”.
There were eight country forums where delegates from each country discussed challenging issues pertaining to their nation and look at social business solutions to eradicate them.