9th Social Business Design Lab held at Yunus Centre

[NEWS_IMAGE] The 9th Social Business Design Lab took place on 16 November 2013 at Yunus Centre. About 112 participants from different organizations including representatives from national and international NGOs, business leaders, academics and specialists attended the event. Women activists, representatives from several local NGOs, distinguished academicians, students from home and abroad are some of the participants among the others.

The Social Business Design Lab was chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and  the program was divided in three parts - update of past social business projects, new project presentation and group discussion suggesting improvements on those projects. Also a short presentation was made on recently concluded Global Social Business Summit that  was held from 7-9 November 2013 in Malaysia.

Six new social business plans were presented in the design lab. Those were Social Business for Fly Ash Brick Production by Mr Ripon (engr) and Yunus centre, Rice Husk Briquette Factory by Mr Biplob Kumar and Grameen Bybasha Bikash, Suzon Telecom Servicing Centre by Mr Suzon Kumar Shaha and Grameen Telecom Trust, Urir Char Agro: A Social Business Project by Col (Retd) Mohammad Didarul Alam and Yunus Centre,  Sundarban Bee Culture and Honey Farming by Md Abdus Salam and Grameen Kalyan, Shamimul Clothing Shop by Mr Shamimul Haque and Grameen Telecom Trust.

These business plans were then intensively discussed in different groups which came up with necessary recommendations. Each project gave its time-line for implementation. The participants selected one Project Bondhu (Project Buddy) for each project to act as a mentor to finalize the plan.

The Design Lab was live streamed through the internet. The next Design Lab will take place on December 21, 2013.

Professor Yunus thanked the participants for coming up with innovative social business plans and encouraged the designers to implement the projects.