(This was nearly impossible to read on mobile)
Michael Otto’s family has been as omnipresent in German
postwar retail as Wal-Mart, Sears and Target have in the
U.S. So what does this 70-year-old patriarch of this $18
billion clan most want to talk about? A factory in
Bangladesh.
With gusto he describes how he and Nobel Peace Prize-
winner Muhammad Yunus hatched a plan to build a humane
clothing factory, where all profits would go back into the
community for schools and hospitals. At best, the Otto
Group would recoup its initial investment. Immediately
they faced red tape. Electricity would take five years.
Officials wanted bribes. Otto refused to base a social
business on a corrupt footing and walked away. “It’s
unbelievable,” says Otto, pounding on his wooden desk in
his corner office in Hamburg, Germany. “You would think
the government must be happy somebody is building such a
company and leaving the money in the country.”
...