Investment bank Goldman Sachs has an interesting initiative that mixes ethics and business opportunity. It's a program designed to show that ethics can be good for business.

The 10,000 Women project is passing on the virtues of entrepreneurship and business education to women in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The idea is to pass these skills on to a large section of the population that has not traditionally had access to this sort of knowledge. The initiative also involves business schools from all over the world, from Harvard, Wharton and Stanford to the Indian School of Business.

The project will see Goldman Sachs supporting partnerships with universities and development organizations that will have women receiving a business and management education. It will also establish mentoring and networking channels for women and encourage career development opportunities extending beyond the classroom, work with women's development organizations and establish parallel programs and partnerships to provide more business and management education for disadvantaged women in the United States.

The interesting feature is that Goldman Sachs is not approaching it as an exercise in altruism or philanthropy. Instead, it's about building a market and generating the kind of wealth that keeps Goldman Sachs in business.

Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs says: "Those of us who champion open markets must also do our part to create more opportunity to ensure economic growth is more broadly shared. 10,000 Women focuses on a critical, yet often overlooked area where we believe Goldman Sachs can use its resources and convening power to help build the foundation to expand the ranks of businesswomen, managers and entrepreneurs around the world."