Dr. Mohammad Yunus was just announced as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

I wrote these impressions of the man, after spending a week with him in January 2001 with other Unitus founders and friends.

January 10, 2001

My thoughts about Dr. Mohammad Yunus.

I felt like I was sitting in the presence of a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King - a visionary that was changing the world. Not only the millions in Bangladesh, but the millions that were impacted by the Grameen replication projects that are in 36 different countries, by his influence on world leaders and organizations. He has received Queen Sofia of Spain (she used one of the phones from the "Telephone Lady" to call King Carlos back in Spain). Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Prince Charles have been here to visit. While we were visiting, a Japanese TV crew was filming part of our discussions for a documentary. CNN will be coming to film a segment in a few weeks. He is counseling Vicente Fox, the new President of Mexico. He is a regular speaker at the World Bank and the UN. He received India's highest award by their Government, the Gandhi award. Warner Woodworth facilitated his reception of an honorary doctorate from BYU in 1998 and he was the commencement speaker then and was introduced to the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

He is extremely charismatic, engaging and spoke with a great deal of clarity and was a tremendous teacher. He was willing to listen intently to questions asked of him and responded in such a clear and understandable way, that I would say to myself, "Of course, it is obvious that it should be done this way," but knowing that it took tremendous intelligence and a great deal of thought about all the possible consequences of some action to come to that "obvious" choice. He was also very engaging, using humor often, frankly talking about his mistakes and obstacles and treating all of us with great respect.

Here was an Professor of Economics that had turned into the head of a $3.2 billion bank, that ran an organization of 12,500 employees, was the chairman of the board of 30 different companies and organizations, spending 2-3 hours with us each day and never having us feel that we were a burden or wasting his time. I think much of it was that he was appreciative to Warner Woodworth for all of Warner's support over the years and was being respectful to Warner. I also feel that he was intrigued by this group of businessmen that was involved with humanitarian work. I think we were different from other groups that he receives - governmental groups, other NGOs, - a lot of people from the humanitarian world, but that would have little appreciation for the business discipline he has infused in every aspect of the organization.

His is a tremendous businessman. He understands his customers better than any organization I have ever seen. Each branch manager writes a report on each group each month. These reports all get sent to the main office. There, each board member has to read so many branch reports each month. Many of their new ideas come from their. They say they know where crime is increasing, where crops are good, where health is a problem. They have a better handle on the state of the citizens of Bangladesh than the government could ever have.

He keeps controls better than any business I have ever seen. Every branch has a daily report that they fill out and it generates a daily profit and loss sheet and every field worker knows if he is viable or not - meaning, is he bringing in more revenue to the branch that what he is costing them.

This rigid accountability goes all the way up to the top throughout the entire organization. Besides a daily P&L, each branch manager is given monthly comparatives of the other branches, so he always knows where he stands.

He is a tremendous entrepreneur. He has feedback channels built into his organization so good ideas can flourish. He allows for a safe atmosphere of experimenting. He said, don't tell me about your idea - go try it, don't tell anyone what you are doing and if it works, then tell us about it. I would easy nominate him for Entrepreneur of the Year.

He is tremendously pragmatic. If something doesn't work, he leaves it and try's something different. He will abandon methodology and theory for something that works.

He is a tremendous leader. You can tell his driving passion is to help the poor and their families. The values that he states are reflected throughout the organization. Honor, dignity, self-reliance, hard work, unity, and love are all preached and practiced. He had spent time in the trenches along with all the other senior staff we met.

I could easily see Mohammad Yunus being the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize someday. It was an experience I will greatly cherish.

Tim Stay
Unitus Board Member