Pioneers and Case Studies: Grameen, Kiva, Patagonia
Microfinance, platforms, and mission-locked business—three different engines for impact, three different trade-offs.
Compare three archetypes of social entrepreneurship and extract design principles you can reuse.
Core Teachings
Key concepts with source texts
Yunus’s big move: treat poverty as exclusion from capital, not personal failure.
From the Source Texts
"Poor people are like bonsai trees... There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Only society never gave them a base to grow on."
Commentary
A framing that pushes you toward structural solutions (access) rather than moralizing or endless remediation.
Ask: what critical resource is your target group excluded from (capital, networks, credentials, markets, safety, data, legal rights)?
Study Materials
Primary sources with guided reading
Muhammad Yunus — Nobel Lecture (2006)
Primary source. Read the actual lecture; don’t rely on summaries.
Additional Resources
More detail on the structure and how profits flow to mission.
Write your thoughts before revealing answers
Consider these points:
- •Is the main issue missing infrastructure?
- •Is it poor coordination among actors?
- •Is it harmful industry incentives?
Your Thoughts
Writing your thoughts first will deepen your understanding
Bridge notes help connect the resources and show how they relate to the learning outcome.
AI-generated notes synthesize the lesson outcome and resource summaries. Human-reviewed before publishing.
What’s the most important ‘design’ lesson from Grameen’s group lending?