Hi Chris

It's not a bad article, but entirely predicated on the Company aka "Corporation" as being the only form of corporate life.

Which it is not.

Companies are (leaving any ethical consideration to one side) at best dysfunctional, and whether "For Profit" or "Not for Profit", always have a conflict of interest between the "owners" and their agents, the directors/managers.

This "Principal/Agency" problem is most of the reason why we need Company Law, and is a large part of the reason for that oxymoron, "Corporate Social Responsibility".

There's another way of getting to Dr Yunus's "Social Business" model and the "Company" has no part in it.

It requires the use of new partnership-based entities such as the US LLC and the UK LLP, and the simple thought that it is in fact possible to raise finance in a "non-toxic" way by "unitising" (ie proportional "shares" or units) either in production itself (eg energy) or in the revenues from the sale of production, and then proportionally sharing the flows of production as between the "Investor" and the user of Investment.

Simple, and revolutionary. In this model, there is no room for "rentiers" who make money purely out of money, and in fact in this model "Social Business" can "out-compete" conventional business for the very reason that they have the "Cooperative Advantage" of not having to pay returns to "rentiers".

Best Regards

Chris Cook

chris macrae said:

Perhaps it is only fitting that Dr Yunus has helped the French to rediscover enetrepreneurial revolution. Originally coined around 1800 (between take) involved debating whether having chopped off the head of royalty whose over-control of resources prevmnted the people from having opportunities to be productive, would France's next constitution empower people to be more productive in serving each others needs?

in today's FT we have this french corker:

The fall of a financial model

<snip>