A magazine of forecasts, trends, and ideas about the future
July-August 2008 Vol. 42, No. 4
Forecasts for the Next 25 Years
Book Review
Unreasonable People Needed
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World
by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. Harvard Business Press, www.HBSPress.org. 2008. 242 pages. $27.50.
Sometimes, it is good to be unreasonable. Thus say John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan in The Power of Unreasonable People, which examines the phenomenon of social entrepreneurs who startup business ventures that address societal problems while simultaneously making money. These entrepreneurs are “unreasonable” in the way that the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once defined it: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Social entrepreneurs, Elkington and Hartigan write, embody this world-changing unreasonableness: They are inspired and driven, always pushing against present assumptions about what is possible or practical. They challenge the established wisdom, take big risks, and attack seemingly insurmountable problems.
And when they succeed, they foment radical changes in today’s marketplaces. The authors tell the stories of a number of these individuals, including:
• Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop Per Child, designed and marketed a laptop computer whose $100 price tag renders it accessible to children in low-income families.
• Rick Aubry’s San Francisco enterprises Rubicon Landscape Services and Rubicon Bakery exclusively hire and train applicants with limited job histories due to struggles with homelessness and mental illness.
• David Green founded Aurolab in southern India to provide affordable healthcare products for the poor.
• John Wood, a Microsoft executive, retired to found Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that hires and trains authors and artists in communities throughout Asia to produce and distribute culturally relevant children’s books in local languages.
Elkington and Hartigan forecast a boom market for social entrepreneurs due to worldwide population growth, resource scarcity, environmental pollution, widening rich– poor gaps, and other ongoing societal problems. As these problems worsen, and as public awareness of them grows, social entrepreneurs will find greater opportunities to launch ventures and win new clients.
But these growing opportunities will also present growing needs. The authors urge government officials and private associations both to lend up-and-coming social entrepreneurs more support in their work to effect greatly needed changes in present systems.
The Power of Unreasonable People is both an inspirational read and a call to action for all who are not satisfied with the status quo. It demonstrates what those with high ideals and compelling visions can achieve for others, and it admonishes against leaving those individuals unrecognized or unrewarded.--Rick DocksaiJoin WFS for $49 per year ($20 for students) and receive THE FUTURIST, Futurist Update, and many other benefits. Or order a print copy of the July-August 2008 issue.
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