by Sören Stamer May 13, 2007 at 12:32 AM

I am still amazed when I think of Prof. Muhammad Yunus’ keynote speech at the 12th Trend Day in Hamburg earlier this week. The Nobel Peace Price Laureate 2006 shared with us his wonderful vision of a world without poverty. He told us about his fascinating journey to become Banker to the Poor, his strategy to do the exact opposite of what “normal banks” do, and his stunning truth that being poor is not the fault of poor people.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus made us think. In a special way he opened our eyes and showed us the shortcomings of our society, the limitations of our perception, and our misleading basic assumption about enterprises.

We tend to believe that enterprises are only made to maximize profits. But is this true? Is maximizing profits really the final goal of an enterprise? Is it a good idea to shape our perception of enterprises like this? Is there nothing else?

After you had the opportunity to listen to Prof. Yunus you might think differently about enterprises. You might even search for Social Business Entrepreneurs in your environment.

As the founder of Grameen Bank, Prof. Yunus uses microcredits to help millions of poor people in Bangladesh to start businesses. With his strong believes in a better society he already helped millions of people to escape poverty.

Dear Mr. Yunus, thank you very much for your wonderful thoughts.

This was my first Trend Day and I really do regret to have missed all the other ones. Congratulations!