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Bonuses on social business qualities - Danone demonstrates how

Danone - first Social Joint Venture Partner of Grameen and therefore also one of the triggers of the social business movement – pays bonuses to its management not only based on the contribution to the financial success of the company. Half of the bonuses are based on contributing to the achievement of the social goals of the company. Other global players can, may, should follow suit.
Franck Riboud (photo), CEO of Danone, was aware of the wider meaning of serious corporate contributions to solve societal problems earlier than most of his colleagues. Therefore, at the beginning of 2006, he immediately agreed to Muhammad Yunus’ suggestion of a common social joint venture for the production of yoghurt in Bangladesh, containing all the important food components which are regularly missing in the diet of the poorest, and which is furthermore affordable for the poor.
Ramin Khabirpour, recently appointed Head of Danone for Central and Eastern Europe, explained that the Social Joint Venture "Grameen Danone" is not at all a project rapidly directing itself. Since Danone has to introduce a completely new distribution model for it, it is a major challenge to grow it into a sustainable social business.
Despite high initial deficits and confusion about when Grameen Danone would become self-supporting, Danone fully stands by this project. Even more: The idea of social responsibility will be implemented with even more consistency in all areas of the Danone Group in future. The revised bonus system is only one example for that.

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