The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World

The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create
Markets that Change the World (Harvard Business Press; February 5, 2008),

Co-authors John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan describe how these entrepreneurs working at the fringes of the current dysfunctional system provide clues to tomorrow’s revolutionary business models.

Low income consumers at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) are $4 billion strong. These markets are thought to be worth some $5 trillion. To come to grips with these emerging trends—leaders must experiment with new business models, foster a can-do attitude, and work alongside social innovators and entrepreneurs like Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank which has helped some seven million people or Dr. Venkataswamy whose Aravind Eye Care System is one of the largest and most productive eye-care facilities in the world—while being profitable.

The Power of Unreasonable People provides rich case studies on how these unreasonable entrepreneurs build their enterprises and what the implications of their work means for future market risks and opportunities. The book delves into the models used by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, Wendy Kopp’s Teach for America, Richard Sandor’s Chicago Climate Exchange, and many other inspiring and successful social entrepreneurs.

Video: John Elkington on Corporate Responsibility

about the AUTHORS

JOHN ELKINGTON
A co-founder in 1987, past-Chairman (1996-2006), and now Chief Entrepreneur at SustainAbility (www.sustainability.com), John Elkington is a leading authority on sustainable development and on “triple bottom line” business strategy. BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.” The Power of Unreasonable People is his seventeenth book. He was co-author of 1988’s The Green Consumer Guide, which sold around a million copies in twenty editions. His 1997 book Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business was a finalist in the Financial Times Global Business Book of the Year Award.

In 1989, Mr. Elkington was elected to the UN Global 500 Roll of Honor for his “outstanding environmental achievements”. His personal website is at www.johnelkington.com.

PAMELA HARTIGAN
Pamela Hartigan is the Managing Director of The Schwab Foundation (www.schwabfound.org), a Swiss-based organization founded by Klaus and Hilde Schwab in 1998, which focuses on building and supporting its community of practitioners whose efforts have achieved transformational change. The Foundation is the second organization started and supported by Klaus Schwab, the first being the World Economic Forum. Dr. Hartigan is the Foundation’s first Managing Director and has been responsible for shaping the strategy and operations pursued by the Foundation to achieve its mission. Dr. Hartigan is on the boards of a number of entrepreneurial start-ups and more established ventures and is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia Business School.