Fred Allen, Leadership Editor at Forbes, offered a short piece on February 26 called How Entrepreneurs Led the Way to Revolution in Egypt in which he cited a post by Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres’ at The New York Times and an opinion post at Politico co-written by Ayres with his fellow professor Jonathan Macey. Both of these “argue convincingly that the rise of entrepreneurship in Egypt opened the way to the wave of change that has just swept that nation.”

These authors have begun to correlate for us the importance of human agency within democracies and even perhaps within a new form of the healthy capitalist economy. Entrepreneurs are the prime example of people who exercise personal will to affect the world, the foundation of democratic government. Where agency is fostered, people are more likely to vote, to create, to solve problems as they arise, and to take accountability for their actions as well as responsibility for improving the larger systems in which we all live. In fact, they tend to take the strongest kinds of action, such as over throwing governments that have suppressed such agency. Pretty important stuff! And agency is the basis of true responsibility in business, in contrast with what currently passes for corporate responsibility.

I just had the privilege to mentor a social venture team participating in the final rounds of the University of Washington’s Global Social Entrepreneur Competition. My team was from Bangladesh, the home of Mohamed Yunus, where they are graduate business students at the University of Dhaka. Their chose to make their new enterprise a food business entry because Bangladesh is a nation of great malnutrition and they felt they could help reverse that, as well as help ease poverty for many fellow citizens.

The new business is the Black Bengal Meat Company. The purchase of goats and the eventual sale of hygienically dried goat meat are the launch and end points. How the team will get from one to the other is a path paved with innovation for social and financial outcomes. It will benefit the entrepreneurs, the community, and the nation as a whole.

Here’s how it will work. The new baby goats (kids) will be entrusted to the care of respected women in local villages, two kids per woman to start.  The women will care for  kids until they are two years old, making a profit in return by selling milk. After breeding the mature goats, the women will slaughter them using methods designed to insure appropriate hygiene. Then they will sell the meat to Black Bengal Meat Company, which will be owned by the entrepreneurial team responsible for funding the project. The company will then resell the meat through established business channels. One team member’s family owns the largest fleet of trucks in the country, and they will take on distribution.

Two additional entrepreneurial aspects enrich the new business’s mix of social and economic development. First, Kathibs at the local mosques will be trained in slaughtering and care for the meat, and they in turn will train the women who will slaughter and butcher the goats. The Kathibs will certify the slaughter according to Muslim guidelines, just as kosher food is certified, thus providing local credibility.

Second, the women, raising the goats and others who want to become involved in other aspects of the business will be educated in nutrition, and they will spread this knowledge to other village inhabitants, further ensuring its value generation. Goat meat is already highly prized, but under existing commercial methods it is too expensive for most villages. As a social venture, the business will market meat at one quarter of the commercial rate. At the same time it will give a good return to investors and owners.

The amazing part here is how many entrepreneur-building processes are incorporated in this venture. The women who raise the goats and sell milk and dried meat will also sell goats to other women who wish to become part of the business. The Kathibs, who live in near poverty, will become part of the new business at the same time they are carrying out their religious mission, helping to reduce local poverty, and contributing to the education of villagers.

A copy of the Black Bengal Meat Company’s detailed businesses plan is available, but it’s not my purpose here to bring it to you. Instead, I want to highlight the unique features that make this business a great financial and social investment. These may also serve as a good guide to anyone wishing to make social investments.

The Black Bengal Meat Company will succeed based on the following practices.

1.  Foster development and the expression of human agency. A socially responsible business strengthens democracy and engenders healthy entrepreneurship at the same time. The meat company fosters entrepreneurship and agency at every juncture in the value-adding process, Most of the jobs created will be self-developed and self-run businesses, which will reliably support their owners’ families.

2.  Reflect local stories and cultures. This new business will be led by locals. Many other social ventures in Bangladesh are from outside the country and therefore their leadership is not based on cultural details that would ensure success. Involving the Kathibs is a strong way to blend with the local culture, especially because the religious leaders will be integrated into the business in ways that make them self-reliant. Poverty tends to politicize local leaders; entrepreneurship enables and empowers them. Empowered leaders make businesses work based on respect and engagement. Interviews with Kathibs regarding their involvement indicate that they understand how their responsibility and the benefit they will generate extend well beyond their own families to their entire communities.

3.  Almost all of the money earned by the business will stay in the country. The only exception is the first round of capital and the return on that investment. Investing with entrepreneurs who send profits out of the country does not support democracy and is not socially responsible capitalism. Both ways can win, but true responsibility includes significant gains for in-country entrepreneurs.

4.  Women entrepreneurs in prominent leadership roles have been shown repeatedly to ensure a venture’s success. The backbone of the Black Bengal Meat Company is the women who raise and sell the meat and who educate the village communities. In interviews, the women entrepreneurs all associated their work with creating healthy villages, not just healthy families. The ripple effect is great.

5.  Businesses must not be confused with philanthropy; rather they are endeavors in which individuals become increasing capable and self-determining. In the Black Bengal Meat Company, every partner earns a return on their investment of time and labor and builds personal independence.

6.  Deeply foster an enriched life for people in the community. This business will go much further than just making living conditions in the villages less bad. It will build economic producing capacity into the community. In this way the Black Bengal Meat Company is doing business and, at the same time, rebuilding a nation.