There was a lot of people at the “Theatre Marigny”, in Paris a few weeks ago. So many people that not everybody who wanted to attend managed to get a seat. It wasn’t the latest trendy show…or maybe yes. The first opus of a show that can be called “how to make business without breaking the machine” or “our present business must not destroy our future business”.

On scene : Martin Hirsch (membre of French gvt. active solidarities commissioner), George Pauget (President of the French Banks Fedeeraction and COO of Credit Agricole), Emmanuel Faber (COO Groupe Danone) and, last but not least, Muhammad Yunus (Peace Nobel Prize and Founder of Grameen Bank).  First thought : when an economist receives the Nobel Prize for Peace, it makes you wonder about many things. This was organized by Danone Group and HEC Business School whom I thank for the invitation.

What’s social business ? According to Yunus “A social business is a company like the others. Excepted that a standard company has one and only goals : make money and make more money. Like any enterprise it will have to find how to make money and balance its accounts in order to be financially viable. But it’s not its main purpose and it won’t seek to maximize its profits to the detriment of the “social” purpose it set to itself“. The whole relying on a principle : the current system can’t support intiatives that aims at reducing gaps, avoiding that a part of the population fail to keep up. So this role fails to the Sates. Yunus idea is to make it possible to invest on such structures in order businesses can assume a social role without relying on wellfare states.

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