Sir Richard Branson has launched dozens of companies during his career, everything from banking to space travel, but it's his big non-business idea that may end up having the greatest impact. (Branson visited BusinessWeek and talked to writers and editors for an hour this afternoon) He and rocker Peter Gabriel came up with the idea of bringing together some of the most respected people in the world to act like the elders in a traditional village and help to solve the global community's most difficult problems.

They took their idea to Nelson Mandela and womens' rights advocate Graca Machel, and, with the help of Desmond Tutu, Mandela and Machel formed an organization to pursue that goal. The group formally began its activities less than two years ago. It now has a dozen members, including Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, and former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson. In spite of its newness, the group has already made its presence felt, Branson told us. He credits Annan and Tutu for helping to head off civil war in Kenya last yaer, and says that though a group of The Elders was prevented from entering Zimbabwe, their combination of behind-the-scenes diplomacy and vocal public pressure helped broker the creation of a coalition government with the right guy in command. A group of The Elders is traveling to Israel and Palestine next month on a humanitarian mission. "It's early days, but they're quietly building a foundation for the future," Branson told us.

At a conference I attended recently, somebody asked Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the social venture capital group Acumen Fund, if it was realistic to think that extreme poverty can be eradicated some day. Her answer was an unequivocal "yes." The same goes for peace, too.  If you don't believe it, and work at it, it will never happen--and you won't even get close. This is the power of belief. Branson's got the right attitude, too, about business and about more important things.