The holiday season is once again upon us. Ever since my childhood the season has been marked by several classic films. Once I began to travel I understood that it is common around the world to spend some of the holidays with old classic holiday favorites. In the United States, perhaps the most famous holiday film is It’s A Wonderful Life. The film offers food for thought on morality, faith, community, and small business.
Often overlooked are the starring roles that business plays in the movie. George Bailey, the protagonist, owns a small savings and loan that fills a niche market in the town providing low interest financing to families that are considered un-creditworthy by the ‘big bad bank’ owned by the film’s antagonist. Having just read Muhammad Yunis’s Creating a World Without Poverty this time last year I was left wondering if he didn’t get his idea for microfinance in Bangladesh from George Bailey.
As the world becomes ever more globalized, we are finding that small business has an ever larger role to play. The work that CIPE does around the world helps those small businesses formalize and thrive in their own communities through enhanced engagement with government officials and their business colleagues.
The success and proliferation of small businesses, such as the one owned by George Bailey in the film, are an integral part of any modern society. Small businesses not only provide goods and services to the community, they are also often the leaders of efforts to improve social services and the overall wealth and happiness of their locality. For the holiday season this year I am going to give thanks for the small business people of the world who every day try to make their businesses and their communities better places for all of us.
Happy holidays!
Published Date: December 22, 2010