Poverty is unnecessary * Muhammad Yunus
A big idea sometimes starts out small. In 1974, after earning his Ph.D. in the U.S., Muhammad Yunus was teaching economics at Bangladesh's Chittagong University.

As the founder of Grameen Bank and the pioneer of microcredit, Muhammad Yunus has transformed the third world with his visionary leadership. Microcredit is the innovative banking program that provides poor individuals with small loans so that they in turn can become agents of change by launching their own businesses and beginning to address the issue of poverty within their communities.

Mohammed Yunus as a visionary:
Muhummad Yunus believes that poverty can totally be conquered in his lifetime is the right approach is adopted. This viewpoint is based on his belief that the inherent ability of the poor can be unleashed once they are given the opportunity to help themselves (muhammadyunus.org). His dream of addressing poverty through an economic development lens became a reality with the establishment of Gramee Bank in Bangladesh, which recognized that credit without collateral is a fundamental right of the poor. Grameen Bank was a grand success and has been widely replicated all over the world. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his transformative work in micro-financing.

Mohammed Yunus as a Transformational leader;
Dr. Yunus’s transformational move, said Sen. Durbin, was to involve himself personally in the battle against poverty in Bangladesh. While international aid organizations focused on large infrastructure projects, Dr. Yunus took the opposite approach. He studied poverty by consulting the poor themselves, and he focused the Grameen Bank on lending small amounts of money to individuals in need—primarily women.
Since its founding in 1983, the Grameen Bank has helped more than 8.4 million poor people in nearly 75,000 villages in Bangladesh. The bank spawned some 50 additional businesses, and the Grameen model of microlending has helped lift millions of people around the world from poverty.
As a transformational leader, Dr. Yunus challenges established thinking and systems. The Grameen Bank has spawned several more subsidiaries focused on lifting individuals out of poverty through socially responsible business. “These businesses were not for making money, but solving problems for people.” Hear Dr. Yunus talk about social business.