Grameen Danone Foods: A Social Business Enterprise

<< Previous

"The new wave in business is - forget corporate social responsibility and philanthropy - how do you integrate this into your core business...The idea Danone has of creating a social dividend for shareholders - that's cutting-edge. No one else has come up with this interesting a model. It supports your brand, returns your capital, you're not going to lose money, and you give your shareholders a vision of doing something good."¹

- Marc Van Ameringen, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition², in 2007.

"This represents a unique initiative in creating a social business enterprise, i.e. an enterprise created not to maximize profit, but created with a declared mission to maximize benefits to the people served, without incurring losses. It is a small project to begin with, but contains the seed of a new breed of business, which can change the economic world fundamentally."³

- Dr. Muhammad Yunus in 2006.

Introduction In March 2006, Groupe Danone (Danone), a French food giant, and the Grameen Group4, a Bangladesh-based group, came together to form a joint venture, Grameen Danone Foods Social Business Enterprise (GDF). As the name indicated, the joint venture was to be a social business enterprise (SBE) - an enterprise whose primary objective was to maximize the benefits to society rather than to maximize profits. The SBE concept was put forth by Nobel award winner Dr. Muhammed Yunus (Dr. Yunus), founder of Grameen Bank (Refer Exhibit I for a brief note on SBEs).

Danone, one of the largest food conglomerates in the world with around US$ 13 billion in sales, unveiled the Danone Way in 2001.

Grameen Danone Foods: A Social Business Enterprise - Next Page>>

---

Custom Search

---

Business Ethics and Corporate Governance Textbook Textbooks Collection	Business Ethics and Corporate Governance Workbook Workbooks Collection	Case Studies in Business Ethics - Vol. I Case Study Volumes Collection

1] "Danone Meets Muhammad Yunus,"www.developmentcrossing.com, January 30, 2007.

2] Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) was created at a special UN session in 2002. Its mission is to reduce malnutrition through the use of food fortification and other strategies aimed at improving the health and nutrition of populations at risk. (Source: www.gainhealth.org)

3] "Launching of Grameen Danone Social Business Enterprise,"www.danone.com, March 16, 2006.

4] The Grameen Group includes Grameen Bank, Grameen Telecom, Grameen Shakti, Grameen Byabosha Bikas, and Grameen Kalyan.

5] According to the United Nations (UN), LDCs are those countries with a three-year average per capita Gross National Income of less than US$ 750, have the lowest levels of socioeconomic development, and are economically vulnerable. Some other LDCs are Niger, Nepal, and Bhutan.