3. The Holistic Social Business Movement in Caldas (HSBM), Colombia

This chapter tells the story of Grameen Caldas, a Social Business Incubator Fund in a geographical area of Colombia called Caldas, located within the so called “EjeCafetero,” one of Colombia’s most important coffee producing regions. Initiated by the Governor of Caldas in cooperation with Prof. Yunus and The Grameen Creative Lab in Germany, Grameen Caldas went through many iterations in an attempt to establish an “ecosystem” that promotes and supports the creation of a microfinance organization in combination with a series of social businesses that tackle the region’s most pressing social issues. This chapter describes how social business can be used as a sustainable regional development approach called a Holistic Social Business Movement. It explains its history, its business model, and lays out some key lessons related to the creation of this social business ecosystem and social businesses themselves. The insights described are mostly based on personal experience and perception rather than measurable academic evidence. However, following Professor Yunus’ motto of “You never know until you try,” Grameen Caldas tried many things; this chapter summarizes what we learned applying this approach.