Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh y la innovación sin exclusiones

La entrada es de Knowledge@Wharton y se trata de una entrevista a Muhammad Yunus el creador del producto financiero de mayor impacto de las últimas décadas: el microcrédito. La historia de este innovador es muy conocida pues fue capaz él, en quizá la nación más pobre del mundo (Bangladesh), fundar un banco, y luego otra serie de empresas, capaces ellas de llevar a cabo transacciones valiosas con personas que tenían (ahora tienen más) ingresos de 1 o 2 dólares al día; por transaciones valiosas entendemos por supuesto que vendedor y comprador, ambos, ganan en ellas. Hoy en día, 30 años después, 35 millones de habitantes de Bangladesh han logrado tener una vida menos dolorosa y no por la caridad sino por sus propios esfuerzos y este innovador que supo proponerles la oferta de crédito que a ellos les servía

La entrevista revela la libertad en el pensar, en el decidir y en el actuar de Muhammad Yunus, que todo aspirante a innovador debería autoexaminarse de cara a su emprender: agregar valor, emprendiendo, es la única forma de crear riquezas; las riquezas se crean en el intercambio que beneficia a ambas partes; no hay límites para el intercambio valioso y de mutuo beneficio cuando hay quien hace la libertad, siendo libre en sus creaciones

"Knowledge@Wharton: People often associate good works and worthwhile causes with non-profit institutions. But you have emphasized that your model is a for-profit one, not a non-profit one. Can you briefly describe that model and tell us why the distinction is so important to you?

Yunus: We are not trying to create a non-profit. That was not our intention. Our intention was to persuade the bankers to lend money to poor people, so my struggle was always with the bankers. Initially, I offered myself as a guarantor, and then took the money from the bank and gave it to people. So it was an extension of the bank's activities. When we saw that it was working well and the banks were not as enthusiastic as we were, we thought maybe we should have a separate bank created for this purpose. Finally we did that in 1983 -- called Grameen Bank or the "village bank." So we became a bank because it is a bank's activity. We lend money to the poor. People sometimes refer to us as an NGO. We have to explain that we are not an NGO. It's not that we are belittling NGOs.... I'm simply stating that people get confused, thinking that because we work with the poor, we must be an NGO. I say, no, we are a bank and it is owned by the poor people. The owners of the bank are the borrowers of the bank. That's the distinction that we want to make, to clarify what we are."