January-February 2021
Where Christian faith gets down to business
1
The Marketplace January February 2021
Roadside stand
Pandemic sets back development efforts substantially COVID-19 has left a $4 trillion shortfall in funding needed for developing nations to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the World Economic Forum says. Even before the pandemic hit, experts suggested another $2.5 trillion in annual funding would be required to meet the 17 UN goals. Sarona Asset Management president Gerhard Pries discussed the importance of investment capital for developing nations in a speech to MEDA’s annual convention (see story pg. 14). Ninety of 122 developing nations entered recessions in 2020 due to lockdown measures. These countries saw a $700 billion drop in external finance last year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says. In a separate study, the International Monetary Fund said the pandemic may wipe out gains low-income countries have made in tackling inequality since 2008. These grim realities make MEDA’s work of creating business solutions to poverty all the more critical. See the story on pg. 6 about MEDA’s plan to create or sustain 500,000 decent jobs in the agribusiness sector over the next decade.
work to improve the situation of them,” he told listeners at MEDA’s annual convention. Nicaragua’s challenges continue to mount, sadly. About a week after Gonzalez spoke, Hurricane Iota slammed through Central America, killing several Nicaraguans, and forcing 170,000 people from their homes and into shelters.
metric tonnes per year, with 90 percent of total production grown by small-scale farmers. Ghana is the world’s secondlargest exporter of cocoa, after Ivory Coast. Most of this is unprocessed, ready to be turned into chocolate and other products in Europe and the United States.
Cocoa honors for MEDA
Few sectors have been hit harder by the pandemic than the hospitality industry. As participants in The Virus and the Vegetable panel at MEDA’s annual convention (see pg. 16) point out, disruptions continue to occur at every stage in the food chain, from farm to fork. This has resulted in closure of longtime successful restaurants (see pg. 19) and predictions of much more economic pain to come. The US National Restaurant Association says the foodservice industry’s revenue losses totaled $240 billion in 2020. In the early months of the pandemic’s first wave, eating and drinking places laid off more than six million employees, a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report says. As of late November, staffing remained at more than 2,000,000 jobs below prepandemic levels.
MEDA received two honors in the second edition of the Ghana Cocoa Awards. MEDA was named non-governmental organization (NGO) of the year. Robert Austin, MEDA’s country director in Ghana, was honored for outstanding contribution for entrepreneurship. Cocoa is Ghana’s most important export crop, accounting for 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and 20 percent of total export earnings in 2014. Annual production fluctuates between 750,000 and 850,000
For the farmers
.
For Jorge Luis Gonzalez, MEDA Nicaragua’s agri-business and environment coordinator, trying to improve farmers’ living conditions makes it easy to get out of bed in the morning. “Once you get to know their stories and the challenges they face every single day, it’s hard not to try to work every single day and Follow The Marketplace on Twitter @MarketplaceMEDA
The Marketplace January February 2021
An inhospitable climate
Comments Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to mstrathdee@meda.org Robert Austin, MEDA's Ghana country director 2
Features
6
Mike Strathdee photo
In this issue
Towards an equal world
MEDA unveils an ambitious plan to create or sustain 500,000 decent jobs over the next decade, with a focus on women and youth in agriculture.
8
Forecasting the future of food
Author Amanda Little sees major changes coming to the global food system. Population growth and environmental pressures will require many new approaches, she told MEDA’s annual convention.
19
Closing time
For decades, At The Crossroads was a popular restaurant and meeting place on the edge of Elmira, Ontario. When the pandemic took hold, owner Anton Heimpel knew it was time to close the doors forever.
Julie and Anton Heimpel
Departments 22 Roadside stand 24 Soul enterprise 22 Review
Farmers like this Tanzanian woman will benefit from MEDA's new job creation efforts. 3
The Marketplace January February 2021
Soul Enterp prise
Business by the Book Biblical narrative repeatedly demonstrates importance of business careers were highlighted within Throughout the Bible, business the parables, including fishermen, and work are highlighted as valued merchants, tentmakers, and more. practices, Beryl Jantzi says. Biblical examples of business Jantzi, who serves as director and faith highlighted by Jantzi of stewardship education at include: Joseph in Pharaoh’s court Everence Financial, made the in the book of Genesis, serving comment in a seminar entitled for the greater good of Egypt as “Does Business matter to Jesus?” at well as other areas experiencing MEDA’s annual convention. On that question of whether famine; Lydia, the businesswoman Jesus cares about business, “the named in Acts 16 who lived out answer is an overwhelming yes,” her witness; and the Apostle he said, adding that business is Paul, who along with Aquila not just about the employers, or and Priscilla, were tentmakers in businessowners, but also about the city of Corinth, engaged in employees who are impacted, and the customers who are served. Doing a job or operating a business for the greater good is in keeping with God’s plan, he said. “We are called to be collaborators; we are called to have a sense of purpose and direction in our lives.” Seeing business as a calling means it is more than just a job. “It’s about how we live our lives; it’s about how we use our gifts.” Jesus’ work as a carpenter/ stonemason during his teens and 20s likely provided ideas for a number of his parables. “I’m sure that in the course of his work with Joseph, his stepdad, he picked up interesting observations and probably used a lot of those in his own interactions later on.” A number of Jesus’ parables use business as a metaphor for the Kingdom of God, he said. Treatment of employees was a common theme within the parables, dealing with the wicked tenant, the wise and foolish builders, and the forgiving of debt. Many Beryl Jantzi The Marketplace January February 2021
4
bivocational work. Paul was committed to supporting himself when he visited a place, also using his work to engage with people out in the marketplace and build relationships. This practice is “another model for us today,” Jantzi said. In Luke’s gospel, chapter eight, Mary, Joanna, and Susanna were identified as wealthy benefactors of the ministry of Jesus. In Romans 16, Phoebe, a wealthy businesswoman, is noted as being a financial supporter of Paul’s ministry. John, chapter two, in the New Testament records the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. Jesus was attacking a practice that had become common within the temple, of money-changers charging pilgrims high rates for changing money into temple currency. Jesus was lashing out against a lack of concern for the poor on the part of the money changers. Money that the temple received in its coffers as a result of these transactions was then lent out to farmers and merchants at high interest rates, contrary to prohibitions against usury. “There were loopholes that people followed, and the whole system had become corrupt. Business was practiced within even the temple setting, and Jesus was speaking out against that. He was concerned about business. He was concerned about the values and practices that were either for or against what he was trying to bring in.” Another challenging passage, in chapter 18 of Luke’s gospel, relates the story of the rich young ruler, a man
who had possessions and position and power. This man was the only character told to sell everything he had, give it to the poor and follow Jesus, Jantzi said. This command is not a prescription for all of us, but it was for the rich young ruler, “probably
because he had made, in business, his resources an end in and of themselves.” Business and resources are intended by God to be a means for living out our Christian life, he said. “When they become an end, when they become what we are driven
by, what gets us up in the morning, that’s a dangerous place to be.” Churches need to recognize the efforts and contributions of businesspeople, Jantzi said. He often encourages churches to use Labor Day Sunday to bless businesspeople, not just children and teachers. “Why do we not make more of blessing the businesses in our community, of the blessing of our employers, middle management and employees?” “I think that a lot more could be done, and I think there is a Biblical basis for it, in terms of honoring the role of business.”
.
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”
Volume 51, Issue 1 January February 2021 The Marketplace (ISSN 321-330) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2020 by MEDA.
— C.S. Lewis
Editor: Mike Strathdee Design: Ray Dirks
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 33 N Market St., Suite 400, Lancaster, PA 17603-3805 Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 33 N Market St, Suite 400, Lancaster, PA 17603-3805. To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters, email mstrathdee@meda.org or call (800) 665-7026, ext. 705 Subscriptions: $35/year; $55/two years. Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA’s economic development work in developing countries creates business solutions to poverty. MEDA also facilitates the connection of faith and work through discussions, publications and conventions for participants. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-6657026. Web site www.meda.org Want to see back issues or reread older articles? Visit https://www.meda.org/download-issues/ The Marketplace is printed on Endurance Recycled Velvet and is 10% recycled (postconsumer waste), FSC® Certified to help meet client sustainability requirements, Acid Free, Elemental Chlorine Free
5
The Marketplace January February 2021
MEDA to create or sustain 500,000 decent jobs over next decade, convention told New strategic plan sets target in alignment with UN development goals MEDA is setting an ambitious target of creating or sustaining decent jobs for half a million people within a decade, attendees at the organization's annual meeting heard. “We have a bold new goal of helping 500,000 people obtain decent work, primarily women and youth, by 2030,” said Leah Katerberg, MEDA’s vice-president of innovation and impact, said of the organization’s new strategic plan, which was launched in July. MEDA will reach the goal by leveraging expertise and strength in the areas of agri-food market systems, working with farm entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises, she said. Three-quarters of workers in developing countries are in vulnerable employment, and most of those living in poverty are in the agricultural sector. MEDA’s strategic job creation goal is aligned with The United Nations’ sustainable development goal to “achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all women and men by 2030.” MEDA will continue to provide risk capital, business and technical expertise to its farmer and business clients, Katerberg said. The organization is committed to making certain “that the entrepreneurs we The Marketplace January February 2021
Leah Katerberg
work with succeed in an ethical manner, by ensuring environmental sustainability, gender equality and valuing inclusion and diversity.” Reaching its job creation goal will mean working differently. MEDA will shift its focus from securing more and increasingly large contracts to achieving impact at scale and focusing on creating system-level change. Dorothy Nyambi, MEDA’s president and chief executive officer, sees “challenging, but exciting opportunities ahead.” “We need to acknowledge that things are different and will continue to be different,” she said, noting that MEDA was already looking to the future prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. MEDA remains financially 6
strong, well positioned to navigate the COVID-19 turbulence and deliver on its mission to create business solutions to poverty, Karin Krahn said in her treasurer’s report. While the organization reported a loss of $1.1 million in the year ended June 30, that was attributable to $1.7 million of investment and foreign exchange losses due to the economic downturn. Both revenue and expenses were lower than budgeted for fiscal year 2019. MEDA proactively managed and contained expenses by holding off hiring certain new and replacement roles and reducing discretionary costs. Donations of $6.5 million were better than forecasted in a COVID-19 environment. The organization had $5.8 million in
Karin Krahn
non-restricted cash reserves at the end of its fiscal year, funds that “will allow MEDA to weather some economic storms (and) ensures we will be there for the people we serve.” Over the past year, MEDA served 1.9 million clients in 58 countries. The MEDA Risk Capital Fund, with $23.9 million in assets, is more important than ever to provide a source of financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the least developed countries, Krahn said. The pandemic has had “significant adverse impacts” on the ability of SMEs in these countries to access financing. As an example of MEDA’s efforts to address that problem,
she cited MEDA advancing $1.1 million in loans to financial institutions in Nicaragua that work with small agricultural producers. The pandemic has had widespread effects on marginalized populations and local Simon Carter markets around the world, said Simon Carter, MEDA’s interim senior lead, global programs. These include disrupted agrifood supply chains causing food insecurity, an alarming global rise in gender-based violence, reduced
Pandemic is warmup for climate change threat, MEDA expert says The global pandemic is a dress rehearsal for climate change, the greatest threat to many people’s futures around the world, says MEDA’s expert on environmental issues. “The pandemic has been all-consuming, yet despite all these changes the pandemic has forced upon us, I am reminded every day that this pandemic is Dennis Tessier merely a dress rehearsal for our greatest challenge yet, and that is climate change,” said Dennis Tessier, MEDA’s technical director of environment and climate change. Tessier made the statement at MEDA’s annual convention, which was held online Nov 6 and 7. Seventeen years ago, the Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels passed the 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold for the first time in history. (A 350 ppm level, last seen in 1990, is considered by scientists to be an upper safe limit.) During April 2020, the peak lockdown period, daily CO2 emissions
dropped by an unprecedented 17 percent compared to 2019 levels. For 2020 as a whole, CO2 emissions are expected to drop by between four and seven percent compared to 2019 levels. Higher CO2 levels, now about 412 ppm, mean “the world our children and grandchildren are going to inherit is going to be drastically different that what humanity has ever experienced before.” “We are inundated with stories of sea level rise, droughts, hurricanes and record fires… As with COVID-19, the sense of urgency with climate change must match the threat,” he said. COVID-19 presents unique opportunities to pursue a path to meet the climate change challenge, he said. MEDA is working with many partners to build a business case for environmental sustainability in developing countries. “We are striving to support our clients in a way that ensures their livelihoods thrive, within our planetary boundaries.”
.
7
mobility, sales and incomes for farmers, and many people left without work, he said. MEDA launched a number of new activities last year that are helping the organization understand how to navigate more purposefully the field of impact investment and gender lens investing. The Second Chance Success project in Kenya and Rwanda provides technical support to women entrepreneurs to increase their access to finance. The Emerging Markets Impact Investment Fund in southeast Asia is a collaboration with the Sarona private equity firm to fund innovative new ways of investing in order to generate more employment and business opportunities for women. In the new fiscal year that began July 1, MEDA has secured several new projects. USAID has provided funding to support the development of small and medium enterprises in Haiti. USAID is also supporting expansion of work with cassava seed systems in Kenya. MEDA is working with the Mastercard Foundation to expand work in Senegal and respond directly to the impacts of COVID on small-scale farmers in the south of that country, and also to support technical and vocational training for young people in Kenya. A new institutional funder for MEDA, the Danish aid agency Danida, is supporting work on the shea value chain in Nigeria. The shea tree produces nuts, the fat of which is used to make shea butter. Shea butter is used both in cosmetics and food preparation.
.
The Marketplace January February 2021
Reinventing food More people, demand for meat and climate change will force massive changes to agriculture, author says A growing world population climatic disruptions, she said. plus declining crop yields due to Climate models from Stanford environmental stresses will trigger University show that countries radical changes to what we grow that are already hot and dry will and how we eat in coming decades, become even hotter and drier. Amanda Little says. Coffee, which thrives in “Climate change is becoming weather that is neither too hot nor something we can taste,” she said too cold, will be the most disrupted in a speech to MEDA’s annual by changing conditions. convention. “This is a kitchen table Whether they are growing issue in the literal sense.” coffee, tea, papaya, bananas, nuts Little is an author and or other crops, small-scale farmers journalism professor at Vanderbilt in developing nations need better University, a private research connections to markets, she said. institution in Nashville, Tennessee. They also need “a greater depth Her second book, The Fate of FoodWhat we’ll eat in a bigger, hotter, smarter world, is an ambitious look at the global food system. Little spent three years travelling through a dozen countries and 50 US states to understand the future of food, and how food production needs to change to feed 10 billion people who are expected to live on the planet by 2050, compared to seven billion currently. Not only is the population increasing rapidly, but growing middle classes around the world are demanding more diverse and protein-dense diets. This challenge will be exacerbated by crop yields that are expected to drop by two to six percent every decade this century, and water supplies that are in jeopardy in many regions. Many specialty foods are produced in sub-tropical and equatorial nations, areas most vulnerable to Amanda Little The Marketplace January February 2021
8
and breadth of information about how to grow their crops in new and changing circumstances.” Some experts have predicted that by mid-century, current agricultural practices will not be able to support the population, she said. Little believes that a race to re-invent the global food system is on. The world needs to solve the problems of industrial agriculture while also preparing for the environmental pressures ahead, she said. While agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, the industry also has great potential to become crucial to environmental solutions going forward, she noted. Seventy percent of the world’s fresh water flows to the world’s farms, and one-third of the world’s grains go towards feeding livestock. Over the past 50 years, there has been a doubling of the world’s population and a tripling of meat consumption, she said. “I am myself among those consumers.” Little calls herself a lapsed vegetarian who has been vegan but loves the taste of meat. She grew up in a family that ate a lot of red meat, with a parent who considered chicken and fish to be vegetable matter. Her family tries to grow its own food in their backyard. “It’s a wonderful project, and we’ve done it year after year, but the truth is, we aren’t very good at it.” Recognizing that the question of how to fix the
Screen captures of Amanda Little's MEDA virtual convention plenary session
world’s food problems will not be fixed by vegetarians and backyard gardeners led her into a three-year project of observing the food space, investigating old and new ideas around the world. Little visited apple orchards in Wisconsin, computerized food chains in Shanghai China, Norwegian fish farms, and famine-stricken regions of Ethiopia. She interviewed farmers, scientists, activists, and engineers, including Kenyans growing the country’s first GMO corn as a solution to pests ravaging crops across much of Africa. “I began to see that farmers, entrepreneurs and academics are radically rethinking national and global food systems,” she said. These pioneers are marrying old-world notions around agri-ecology with state-of-the-art technologies to create what she calls a third way to the food future. This involves taking the opportunity to marry old world wisdom with very sophisticated technologies. In Arkansas, a company is using artificial intelligence to develop See & Spray, robotic precision sprayers
that target weeds while sparing the crops. This approach, employing cameras and computer vision, helps farmers cut their herbicide use by more than 90 percent. “I learned how robotics can end the practice of broadcast spraying chemicals across millions of acres of crops.”
9
More significantly, use of intelligent machines will allow precision spraying of pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers on a plant by plant and field by field basis, she said. “Eventually, that kind of hyper-specific robotic farming can allow for more diversity and intercropping on fields, so that larger farms can begin to mimic natural systems and improve soil health.” Little admits to initially being skeptical of the idea of integrating the old and the new. She thought there were two camps: on one side the tech investors like Bill Gates, who has famously said that “food is ripe for re-invention,” and on the other there are sustainable food advocates wanting to return to preindustrial agriculture and keep technology out of food. Eventually she came to see the debate as false opposites, that there is no need to choose one way or the other. Concerns about water scarcity in many areas of the world are leading to a variety of efforts to create drought-proof water supplies. The Marketplace January February 2021
Desalination technology, which removes salt from ocean brine, is energy intensive but is gaining ground as costs come down, she said. Toilet to tap is another water reclamation effort being used. This process is similar to desalination technology, but at half the cost because there is much less salt in sewage. Orange County, California is now using the technology to provide a drought-proof water supply. Little visited the facility, drank water that hours earlier had been raw sewage, and found that it tasted as good as bottled water. In water-scarce Israel, attention is turning to advances in smart water networks. Between 40 to 60 per cent of water in municipal systems is lost to underground
leaks and bursts in antiquated water systems, she said. New systems use sensors to prevent, detect, or repair leaks. Plant-based, alternative meats have been eagerly embraced by consumers, she noted. In recent months, demand for plant-based meats has increased by more than 250 percent. There is promise in the future of lab-grown, cell-based meat that is grown with up to 85 percent less CO2 emissions in decentralized, indoor facilities that are less susceptible to environmental disruption, she said. Little ate a piece of bio-reactor grown duck breast as part of her research. “It actually tasted like meat, because it was meat, just grown outside the animal.”
Decentralized food production less susceptible to disruptions, author says The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the challenges posed by centralized food production, Amanda Little says. “Decentralized food production will become increasingly important to resilience,” she predicts. Little, author of the book The Fate of Food — What we’ll eat in a bigger, hotter, smarter world, and a journalism professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, made the comment in a speech to MEDA’s annual convention. At the beginning of the pandemic, meat supplies were disrupted in the US when workers fell ill at a facility that processes 20 percent of the nation’s pork, she noted. Farmers had to euthanize animals because they couldn’t deliver them for slaughter. The pandemic also posed significant challenges in vegetable and potato production. Half of the North American supply goes to the food service industry, but banquet halls and restaurants closed or reduced capacity, often due to government restrictions, in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Rigid supply chains lacked the infraThe Marketplace January February 2021
structure to shift and divert supplies to where the food was needed. At the same time, 95 percent of US food banks were reporting increased demand and significant funding shortfalls. Antiquated laws governing food chains and centralized food production resulted in the disconnect, she said. “Resilience comes with decentralized production, bringing food production close to urban centres, the towns and cities that need to eat it.” In one of many visits she made to food producers in doing research for the book, she toured vertical urban farms, with aeroponic systems used to grow greens. These farms use 95 per cent less water than in-ground crops, and the crops grow 40 per cent faster. While this approach is not a grandscale solution, it can work to provide more local sources of some high-flavor, very perishable food that other-wise requires long distance refrigeration and trucking. Such farms will also be good for regions that are vulnerable to drought and other climate impacts, she said.
.
10
“This might be a much cleaner, much more environmentally friendly approach to high-protein meat production.” Scientists and engineers are embracing third way thinking around food production, exploring the intersection of the ancient and the radically new, in many areas of production, she said. Animal-free dairy products that are nearly indistinguishable from conventional dairy, artificial intelligence efforts to make aquaculture sustainable, and efforts to scale cover crops to turn farms into carbon sinks are all part of this trend, she said. “Human innovation which marries new and old approaches to food production can… redefine sustainable food on a grand scale.” “There is no doubt that the future of agriculture is regenerative agriculture.” What it will take to get us there is the big question, she added. Governments need to put economic signals in place to scale regenerative ag, to improve soil health, allow farmers to plant crops that contain carbon in the soil and limit use of fertilizers that end up as nitrous oxide, she said. “There needs to be incentives for this.” At the same time, Little notes that leaders in the industry are recognizing the need to transition from being “climate sinners to climate saints.” The problems are on North Americans’ doorsteps, not just in some far away land. In Iowa, winds from increasingly severe storms have flattened soy and corn fields. In 2019, too much rain too quickly resulted in $7 billion in losses because it was too wet to put machinery on fields. “Big agriculture cannot survive if they don’t figure out how to solve it.”
.
A valued collaboration Food processors, tourism firm say MEDA support has strengthened their businesses, improved the lives of their farmer suppliers Partnering with MEDA has been key to success and providing improved incomes to thousands of people who supply or work for their operations, say three entrepreneurs who spoke at the organization’s annual convention. MEDA’s convention in early November was held online over two days instead of the usual threeday, in-person experience, due to the pandemic.
“We wouldn’t have been able to survive (in) the market without such big support from MEDA,” said Happy Amos of the Nigerian firm Roshan Renewables. Roshan produces energyefficient cookstoves and rice parboilers, as well as briquette fuel made from agricultural by-products. Other panelists were Margaret Komen of Mace Foods Ltd., a Kenyan food processor that specializes
in spices and ethnic, indigenous vegetables, and Rudaina Haddad of Bookagri, a Jordanian agri-tourism firm. All three companies are lead firms, MEDA partners who provide training and other assistance to the small-scale farmers who supply or work for them. Amos started Roshan six years ago, after her grandmother become ill and Amos had to go care for her. Amos had to cook with fire-
Happy Amos built a company around her energy-efficient cookstove. 11
The Marketplace January February 2021
Rudaina Haddad's Bookagri offers farm and food tours in rural Jordan.
wood. She had a terrible experience, both with the smoke and the time it took to cook. “This must be the experience of a lot of women who constantly use firewood to cook,” she recalls thinking. When she wondered about other solutions to make things easier for women and searched the Internet on her phone, “I got introduced to a world of info about improved cooking.” Her research led her to realize that she could produce cookstoves locally in Nigeria as a replacement for cooking over open fires. After designing Happy Cookstoves and starting to sell them in the community, she hired “Happy women” to distribute the product in their communities and train women on their use. The next step for her firm was making briquettes from agricultural waste for fuel. Rudaina Haddad started Bookagri — the name means booking agricultural experiences — after doing 10 years of tour guiding in Jordan. The firm, which offers tours that combine visits to farms with gastronomy, developed from The Marketplace January February 2021
an increased demand for tours and a desire of farmers to be included. Haddad started with two farms as tour sites. With MEDA’s support, that has grown to 30 farms and up to 200 direct beneficiaries of the work. The visits engage local women and entire families in rural areas, she said. Margaret Komen’s Mace Foods was founded in 2002. A fair trade certified firm, Mace largely works in the business-to-business sector, supplying both bulk and retail markets, domestically in Kenya and for export. More than 1,800 small-scale farmers supply Mace’s raw materials. Mace provides training so the farmers can supply the desired quantity and quality of spices and vegetables and view their work as a business. Mace has established demonstration plots and helps women and youth to understand a climatesmart approach. The firm takes a train-the-trainers approach to reaching everyone in its network by targeting lead farmers who then train others. Helping women learn to do 12
some processing at the village level adds 15 percent to the value of their production, Komen said. Farmers are also trained to use plant waste as compost. Mace’s future plans include a focus on drying and storage facilities. Partnerships with microfinance institutions are providing access to finance for women, something that helps them to invest in proposed drying facilities, she said. The Roshan cookstoves have three major benefits for the women of Nigeria; saving lives, saving money and improving the air quality of the surrounding environment, Amos said. Stoves are up to 70 percent more efficient than open cooking with wood, as cookstove users spend $3 on briquettes compared to $10 for wood previously. This change increases women’s disposable income, allowing them to cook more nutritious food, send their children to school — or buy shoes and uniforms for their children, she said. Both men and women work on the cookstove production line. Men are employed to produce the metal casing for the stoves. Once stoves are built, women who previously had no income now make money from selling cookstoves. Roshan also designed parboilers for rice for women cooperatives that are now processing rice and selling it in their communities. “That has opened a whole lot of economic opportunity for people, from the people farming the rice, to people processing the rice, to people selling the rice, and also people milling the rice,” she said. Since its beginnings, Roshan has seen stove sales increase fivefold in Bauchi state, partly due to its partnership with MEDA, Amos said. MEDA provided ideas on
microfinance so that customers could afford to buy stoves. When Roshan entered the parboiler market, MEDA provided a discount so women could afford the purchase, she said. The partnership has created a market niche “in a place where we did not even have a market share.” Another agency operating in Bauchi state heard about Roshan because of the partnership with MEDA and has since purchased 700 cookstoves. Bookagri has benefited greatly both from MEDA’s financial support and its reputation, Haddad said. She described the partnership as being like a family relationship where there is openness to sharing about challenges and successes. “It’s a beautiful outcome of this kind of interaction,” she said. For Mace Foods, MEDA’s support has helped the firm improve the efficiency of its raw material supply, increase volumes of products sold, and raise employ-
Margaret Komen
ment levels both at the village and factory level, Komen said. Mace has grown the number of households it works with from 1,810 to 2,134, introduced new products into new markets and developed an export strategy that it will use over the next five years. Panelists acknowledged the
challenges faced by women in business. “We are always facing one challenge or another as a woman business owner, as a mother,” Amos said, apologizing for a baby crying in the background as she spoke. As a mother, she has had trouble getting people to take her seriously as a business owner. Access to finance is also an issue, particularly for women farmers who do not have bank accounts, and in some cases the education required to develop lengthy business plans, she said. Komen agreed. “The list (of challenges) is endless, she said, highlighting difficulties in accessing technical training and microfinance. Some of her clients have begun to use table banking. Groups of women gather and put money on tables. That money is then used to finance the business needs of group members, and the funds rotate through the group.
.
New thinking required for business survival during a pandemic, entrepreneurs say Surviving as a business in the developing world during a pandemic has required innovative thinking and new approaches for business owners in Kenya, Nigeria, and Jordan. Three women entrepreneurs who told their stories at MEDA’s annual convention say the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reassessment of their goals. For Margaret Komen and Mace Foods Ltd., the situation required thinking “not outside the box, but without a box.” Part of adaptation at Mace has been shifting value addition processes to the household level for its Kenyan suppliers. That change has had several positive outcomes. Mace can give farmers higher prices for the higher-value product they supply, and the company has reduced the amount of waste they transport. The
waste is now turned into green manure at the farm level. Happy Amos of Roshan Renewables found that the pandemic “was a scary situation for us when it started” in Nigeria. Demand for cookstoves plummeted, as sales agents could no longer do community demonstrations to promote sales. Amos adapted by creating a video in her own kitchen of herself frying fries and promoting the benefits of Happy stoves, then posting the video on social media. The video received many views, leading to both questions and orders. She dealt with the issue of how to safely get stoves to customers by hiring people to do bicycle deliveries and drop the stoves at doorsteps. “COVID-19 has given us another 13
entire avenue to market our cookstoves and our products, online.” For Rudaina Haddad of Jordan’s Bookagri, the pandemic helped to develop local business, as people in surrounding areas who couldn’t travel outside of the country decided to take time to learn more about Jordan. During a three-month lockdown “the only escape was Bookagri, so they tried Bookagri,” she said. A social media promotion and inquiries from universities and private clubs led to bookings for a number of tours. “This made a big boom in business for Bookagri and all of our partners or farmers. "Now I can really be more than happy for this opportunity that God gave us.” Bookagri also delivered locally made food products from their farmer suppliers to people’s homes during the lockdown.
.
The Marketplace January February 2021
Capital, not charity Developing nations need investment to raise living standards Supporting the growth of economies in Africa and other developing regions means moving beyond aid to investment, says the head of a private equity firm that focuses on investing in that space. “What if just maybe… the most successful way of interacting with Africa is not as a donor, but as an investor in their people and their businesses, as a job creator,” suggests Gerhard Pries, founder and CEO of Sarona Asset Management. Pries made the comments in a seminar titled: Investing in a Global Disruption: Investing to build healthy new economics at MEDA’s annual convention. Sarona is a private equity firm that has its roots in MEDA. It was spun out as a separate entity in mid-2011, with MEDA retaining a 10 per cent ownership stake. Since World War II, people in the west have generally thought about Africa in terms of images of women working in fields in subsistence agriculture, Pries said. “What if just maybe, this isn’t the true Africa?” For the past 75 years, the relationships between developed countries and developing markets has been one of donation and aid, he said. “That’s a relationship of donor-receiver. It’s a very unequal relationship.” The relationship then moved to development work, as people thought Africa (and other regions) needed good development programs, he said. “We talk about a military complex, well there’s a massive global development The Marketplace January February 2021
Gerhard Pries sees investment opportunities as the middle class grows in developing nations.
complex out there.” But in development programs, the relationship remains one of donor-receiver. “Maybe it’s the full commercial investment that is needed.” Pries recalls moving through this continuum in his own life, viewing as heroes rock musicians such as Bob Geldof and Bono who 14
held large fundraising concerts to raise aid and awareness for Africa. “Aid was the solution in 1984, as our TV screens were filled with images of poverty.” Later that decade, people began talking heavily about development programs. Pries did a stint with Mennonite Central Committee during a time when MCC was
fraught with a debate over whether it should do development programs or just be present with the people. In the 1990s, Pries worked with MEDA as chief financial officer, “and we began to invest in emerging markets, building microfinance banks, microfinance institutions, supporting, investing in or providing micro-loans to entrepreneurs.” “Today, I understand that the economy cannot be separated from values, that you need to bring the two together for it to be sustainable. Not just in Africa, but also here.” When the United Nations and its member countries looked back in 2015 on the Millennium Goals set at the beginning of the century, they found that many had been achieved, at least in part. While extreme poverty and hunger in the world were not eradicated, they were cut by more than half. Pries attributed the success to the existence of targets, and “most significantly, it was the broad economic growth across developing markets,” not aid or development. Institutions around the world realized: “it’s not us, it’s the private sector that’s creating jobs and solutions to poverty.” Twenty years ago, when rock star Bono went to Los Angeles to raise funds for an aid project, an African man got up at the back of the room and shouted: “Bono, please stop, you’re killing us,” a vocal reproach to an aid-based mentality. That call has been increasingly heard, from Africa and other emerging markets, Pries said. People are calling “for you to believe in us and invest in our real businesses.” In 2015, the countries of the world came up with 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. The UN estimated at the time that there is a $2.5 trillion investment shortfall in order to achieve these goals.
“The shortfall has increased. COVID has increased it, there’s a number of reasons why that shortfall has increased.” Estimates are that developing markets are the home for only 10 percent of the $350 trillion of capital in the global markets, even less in some sectors. “It’s clear that without investment, Africa will never thrive,” he said. “The developing world needs our commercial investment, needs your commercial investment, not just aid and not just development, not just soft investment, but real commercial capital.” “Without that commercial capital, growth in those markets, poverty reduction in those markets, equality in those markets is neither scalable nor sustainable. “With investment, the need for donations will decrease dramatically, without investment, it’ll increase. Two big ideas, global trends, present a great opportunity for long-term investors, he said. The global middle class will grow from 1.9 billion people in 2000 to 4.9 billion in 2050. “It took the last billion people 250 years to move from poverty into middle class. Within 50 years, three billion people are moving from poverty to middle class. That’s not us. All of those people are in emerging markets. The rising middle class of emerging markets is moving from
“It’s clear that without investment, Africa will never thrive.”
one to two dollars a day, to $10 a day, to $20 and $50 a day, he said. That rising middle class is changing the household economy. The first things families do when they move from $1 a day to $10 a day is, they buy education for their children. Next is health care for the family and protein for the dinner plate. “As this transition happens, the economies are being disrupted significantly.” As the middle class in emerging markets increases, spending by this group will grow even faster, he said. Between 2015 and 2030, the growth in spending by the middle class in Asia Pacific is projected to be 197 percent, 82 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, and 74 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. That compares to only eight percent in North America and 15 per cent in Europe. “If you’re going to establish a retail operation, where are you going to go? This is a massive transition that is happening in the world right now.” A second big idea is a global convergence on values, where women matter, gender equality is broadly accepted, “minorities matter, the earth matters, differences matter.” That provides a winwin investment situation, he said. MEDA president Dorothy Nyambi asked what Sarona is doing to ensure that impact investing doesn’t become the next wave of colonization in Africa. In response, Pries noted that local teams structure, manage and lead deals in which Sarona invests. One of the struggles African firms face in raising capital locally is that many African pension firms, by law, are allowed to invest in the treasury bonds of their governments, but are not allowed to invest in the real economy, he said.
.
15
The Marketplace January February 2021
Rethinking food from farm to fork Farmers, distributors, retailers shift operations due to pandemic pressures to quickly The COVID 19 determine pandemic has what to do disrupted the with unsold food supply inventory, and chain from how to pay top to bottom, suppliers. causing major He spent the adjustments following weeks and uncertainty buying millions for farmers, of dollars worth distributors, and of food, as retailers alike. usual, but “I That’s the didn’t know consensus of what I was going a group of younger food Growing, distributing and selling food has changed dramatically, this business panel told to do with it.” Given his industry leaders MEDA's 2020 convention. philosophy who spoke at that “you can’t sell from empty a panel entitled The Virus and and two poultry barns. wagons,” he thought he should keep the Vegetable at MEDA’s annual • Jorge Luis Gonzalez, convention. well stocked. agri-business and environment “We’re short product all the The only business that coordinator, MEDA Nicaragua. time because suppliers can’t supply remained stable was a hunger Derstine saw 500 customers us with the product they did in the relief initiative the company had close overnight in mid-March. past,” said Zach Derstine, president started a year earlier, serving some He laid off one third of staff, had of Derstine’s Inc., a family-owned, food banks. Pennsylvania-based food service He struggled with the reality that distribution firm. while the need for food relief was “I think that uncertainty is increasing, there were packaging the biggest challenge we face, and issues. It was difficult to take that’s a lot to do with change.” someone a flat of 15 dozen eggs. Other members of the panel were: On Good Friday, his wife • Crystal Weaver, chief suggested they watch an online operating officer and co-owner service of a new church. A large of Commons Company, a family non-profit was talking about of food, beverage and hospitality feeding hungry people but needed businesses in Lancaster, PA, supplies. His wife said they including Prince Street Café, should pray about helping this Passenger Coffee Roasting, Merry organization. Maker Catering and Blue Line He was open to that Lancaster. suggestion, “because when the • Chris Mullet Koop, a fifth food (he had ordered) shows up, generation egg farmer and grape I have nowhere to put it and no grower in Lincoln, Ontario. His money to pay for it.” farm includes a 45-acre vineyard Three weeks later, Derstine’s Zach Derstine The Marketplace January February 2021
16
Crystal Weaver
phone rang. The organization he and his wife had prayed about was calling, looking for food, an initial shipment worth $1 million. That led Derstine to weeks of shipping product around the US to help food insecure people. “That’s God’s work in action.” Still, he struggles with outstanding receivables from clients, trying to find labor and general uncertainty. “Every day is different than last year.” On March 15, Weaver closed her Lancaster coffee shops at seven pm instead of 11. Some stores closed indefinitely. Others began offering takeout only, on limited hours. Within 48 hours, she laid off 70 of 100 employees. “For us it was pretty significant. The minute COVID hit, everything changed.” Through the spring, her retail companies had 70 per cent less revenue than pre-pandemic. Some were completely closed. Sales have since recovered to only 30 percent less than they were before March 15. Commons Company purchases over $2 million worth of food products annually. She had friends
and employees who wanted to avoid going to the grocery store. Putting those two things together created a new opportunity to serve. By the end of March, her firm had created an online grocery shopping website. They invited suppliers to sell products through that website. Customers could shop twice a week, receiving touchless food drops into their car trunks at the coffee shop. This approach served 1,500 unique customers. The business paid out over $350,000 to suppliers, only charging those suppliers enough to cover the expenses of running the service, she said. Decreased revenue and increased costs related to supplying personal protective equipment for staff have Weaver uncertain. “For us, one of the obvious challenges is that we’re still not financially stable, and who knows what the winter will hold for us as a restaurant,” she said. “We have a few cafes who are bleeding money every day, but we’re open, because that’s better than being closed, but you question whether it is actually better than being closed some days, depending how long that continues.” Mental health issues among staff, many of them aged 17 to 27,
“For us, one of the obvious challenges is that we’re still not financially stable, and who knows what the winter will hold.”
17
are a concern, she said. “It’s not a fun environment to work in.” Commons Company has responded by paying for three counselling sessions for staff members with a professional therapist and will subsidize future sessions. The pandemic has been “one of the most disruptive events of our era” for farmers, said Chris Mullet Koop, an egg producer and grape grower in Ontario’s Niagara region. Grocery stores wanted more eggs, but demand from restaurants and food service operations plummeted.
Chris Mullet Koop
In the vineyard business, the crisis intensified labor issues due to the closure of the Canadian border. International exports of ice wine, a multi-million dollar market for Ontario farmers, have dried up, he said. In Nicaragua, 30 families that Gonzalez works with started growing vegetables, fruits, and medicinal plants to provide food security. “Our main challenge as a country is dealing with uncertainty, not knowing how the market or investment is going to react, while working with entrepreneurs, small businesses and producers The Marketplace January February 2021
that are trying to move forward economically despite the challenges,” he said. Gonzalez named a recent socio-political crisis, a hurricane that caused some damage, and upcoming elections in 2021 as contributing to the uncertainty. Some businesses have seen positives in changing situations. One of Gonzalez’s agribusiness clients has enjoyed increased demand for honey due to its perceived medicinal properties. They launched a natural medicine honey product, which has had great market acceptance, he said. The food hub/grocery service Commons Company has provided formed a bond with the local community, Weaver said. “It allowed us to serve them directly in a different way than we were used to doing in our cafes.” Commons Company had
The Marketplace January February 2021
previously given staff financial incentives to volunteer in the community. Staff are now preparing 70 bagged lunches for homeless people every Sunday. “That’s been great. It fits, it’s a way for us to give back, it also helps them … start thinking about ways they can give back in their community.” Derstine is concerned about the impact of a second round of the pandemic during flu season and more restaurant closures. Collecting money owed by customers and finding labor are among the challenges he faces. “The answer is uncertainty. We have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Weaver sees many restaurants closing for good by the spring. “I’m not sure there is any way around that.” Commons Company is
18
diversified with a coffee roastery that allows them to do both wholesale and retail. As the wholesale business declined, her retail business selling coffee, a higher-margin operation, has grown. Weaver is still driven by her company’s mission “to nourish our community.” She is energized by solving problems and views the current situation as “an entrepreneur’s playground.” “As a person who is wired to love problem-solving, that brings energy to me.” “I was created for this. I want to see what I can do with this.” For Derstine, “When I wake up in the morning, I know that my strength comes from the Lord.” Food he supplies is now going not to bars and taverns, but to feed the food insecure. “I’m glad I can help a greater cause.”
.
Walking away from a 30-year vocation Pandemic forces business owner to close longtime Elmira restaurant By Mike Strathdee The restaurant sector has always had a high mortality rate. Industry statistics suggest one in 10 new restaurants in Canada, and a much higher number in the US, close within their first year. Only half make it past the five year mark. Anton Heimpel came close to 25 years of operating At The Crossroads restaurant in Elmira, Ontario before the pandemic made him realize it was time to shut the
doors permanently. There had been a restaurant on the site since the late 1980s. Heimpel began working there in 1990 and became owner in mid-1996. Over the years, it was a popular destination for buffet lovers and groups that held breakfast meetings. But in an industry that measures profitability in a few cents on each dollar of sales, the prospect of extended, uncertain business
interruptions spelled the end. Heimpel knew he should abandon the business in late March, when the second extension of the pandemic lockdown in Ontario was announced. At The Crossroads had been doing takeout for a few weeks, in part to get rid of food on hand, but shut the doors for the last time in early April. Although Heimpel is a partner in the building, the restaurant was
Happier days: Anton Heimpel (right) with his mentor Don Brox, At The Crossroads 19
The Marketplace January February 2021
a tenant. “With no money coming in, with no light at the end of the tunnel to start making money, there was no way I could see taking on debt for that,” he said in an interview at his home. A federal government program offering $40,000 loans to small businesses was equal to a twoweek payroll at the restaurant, not including the rent or other basic costs, he noted. “It was so gut and heartwrenching for us. It was not an easy decision, and not an easy time for us to be going through.” While some people reached out from their church community, they couldn’t get together with church or extended family. “It’s something we’ve had to bear.’ Heimpel entered the hospitality industry as a part-time,13-year-old dishwasher. He was considering studies to become an accountant when a high school teacher encouraged him to stay in the restaurant business. One of his first jobs was working for now-deceased Elmira entrepreneur Don Brox at Brox’s Town Village. Brox did some consulting for Christian Horizons, a charity that works with individuals who have developmental disabilities. At the time, Christian Horizons had its offices in the At the Crossroads building, and briefly operated a menu-based restaurant to provide training for its clients. In 1990, Brox took over the restaurant, and Heimpel began working for him there. His apprenticeship through the early 90s involved “doing whatever needed to be done.” Dishes, floor mopping, janitorial work, cooking, salad-making and other food prep were among his early tasks. Over the three years before he purchased the restaurant, The Marketplace January February 2021
he supervised staff, worked the front cash, seated customers, and answered the phone. “If it got busy, I’d serve tables.” “I wouldn’t ask my staff to do something I wouldn’t do myself.” By mid-1996, at age 23, Heimpel was in charge of a 180seat capacity restaurant. It grew to seat 240 within a few years. A subsequent, twoyear expansion completed in 2008 increased seating to 340. “A month after we finished construction, we had one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression. (20)08 wasn’t the greatest timing. But we held on and did okay through that.” At the Crossroads employed between 75 and 85 depending on the season, most part-time. The business was always highly seasonal. January through Easter were the quietest, roughest months. April would bring Easter gatherings and “you’d start kinda holding your own,” Heimpel recalled. “September to December you’d hopefully make enough to make it through January, February, March the next year. It was a cycle for us. If you managed it right, you could hopefully make it through (the next winter) without borrowing or anything like that.” Heimpel’s favorite memories of running At The Crossroads include helping couples plan 50th anniversary celebrations, and in one case, a 70th anniversary party. Being invited to weddings of staff members and seeing their families grow was another highlight. As he and his wife, Julie, reflected on their years at the restaurant, they could count many couples who met while working there and later got married. The Heimpels were among those couples. “She was a 14-yearold server. I was a 17-year-old cook when we first met.” 20
Julie worked at the restaurant through university, getting a degree in social wellness studies and going on to work for several organizations. As the Heimpel family grew, she returned to the restaurant, eventually full time, as a floor supervisor, manager and helping with overall operations doing scheduling, hiring, payroll and bookkeeping. Anton Heimpel attributes the long success At The Crossroads enjoyed to being attentive to customer needs. “One of the things we tried to stick to was serving the customer and what they wanted,” he said. “We did a lot of things over the years that other restaurants wouldn’t do.” Accommodating special diets and offering gluten-free options on the buffet long before that became common were also details that kept people coming back, he said. “We were ahead of the curve on that.” Hiring staff for their attitude was another key to success. Customer tastes have changed over the decades. A generation of diners who grew up with access to niche restaurants serving shawarma, sushi, Thai and Indian cuisine, among others, are less likely to have country-style buffet as top of mind. “I don’t really see in the near future how a buffet restaurant will really hold its place in the marketplace,” Heimpel concedes. “You’ve got so many niche options out there now that having a large buffet restaurant is probably not going to work anymore.” He is far from done with the hospitality industry, and now works for a Kitchener restaurant supply firm. Asked about the transition to being an employee again instead of an owner, he says: “It’s got its benefits and its drawbacks.” While he cannot make all
the decisions, he can pass off questions from an upset customer to a manager. Having evenings and weekends off and not having to deal with sick employees, burst pipes or other emergencies also
provides some peace of mind. Heimpel doesn’t see himself ever starting another large hospitality business. “There are other ways to use that knowledge and help people who are passionate about it.”
“I think that the position I’ve got right now is a really nice mix, as a street salesman, I’m kind of working on my own, for somebody else.” “There are a lot of days I can be happy not calling the shots.”
.
Restaurants face challenges for several years yet, industry watcher says. Difficult as 2020 was for the hospitality industry, even worse days may lie ahead for large restaurants, says a University of Guelph professor who follows the sector. “You couldn’t overestimate the (pandemic’s) impact and how horrific the horizon is looking for full-service restaurants,” Bruce McAdams says. “The problem now is, good operators are going to be going out of business.” McAdams held management positions in restaurant chains for almost two decades before moving to academia in 2009. Restaurants that try to operate at 50 percent capacity to comply with physical distancing requirements are lucky to have 30 percent of seating available once they remove tables, he said. Pandemic realities have completely changed the restaurant experience, he noted. People typically go to a restaurant to get away from life and things that bother them, but “you cannot help (but) be reminded of COVID at every step of the operation.” Restaurants are cutting back their menus to 50 percent to manage cash flow and the challenges of dealing with inventory if they are required to close temporarily due to the pandemic, he said. The restaurant industry talks about average profit margins running between three and four percent. McAdams says that statistic is misleading, an average brought down by poor operators. In good times, strong operators have profit margins of between five and 15 per cent, often settling in at between eight and 10 percent, he said. McAdams doesn’t see much future for buffet restaurants, noting that they “were challenged to begin with” (prepandemic.) Buffet clients tend to be older, people who have underlying health challenges even in normal environments. The all-you-can-eat format is not
attractive to millennials and Gen Z (people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s), and will be further challenged by stricter health regulations that will emerge post-COVID, he said. “Buffets really have nothing going for them, unfortunately.” Hotels have increasingly got rid of their buffet, “and they are not going back,” he predicted, noting that hotels are happy to leave behind a moneylosing service. The collapse of the hospitality industry is having a major impact on employment. In the US, restaurants used to employ 12 million people. The Bruce McAdams National Restaurant Association says employment has dropped by two million people, with 100,000 restaurants closed permanently. Another 40% of operators think it is unlikely their restaurant will still be in business in February if there are no additional relief packages from the federal government, according to a September study by the restaurant association. In Canada, 800,000 people were laid off during the pandemic’s first wave. Lost jobs in the sector will not be coming back soon, McAdams said. 21
One possible silver lining in the pandemic may be the fact that the forced closures of spring 2020 gave restaurant operators time that they previously never had to look at their balance sheets and do some strategizing, he said. The current restaurant model is broken, particularly for operators who lease premises, and many recognize the need for a new model to emerge, he said. “There’s going to be a new model. There’s going to be a huge reckoning of restaurants over the next two years, unfortunately.”
.
The Marketplace January February 2021
Review
Mindfulness, meditation and slowing down Former monk promotes self-care as a spiritual practice Think Like A Monk: Train your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day, by Jay Shetty. (Simon and Schuster, 2020 $27.00 US) By Fred Redekop There is a picture of Jay Shetty on the cover of his book. He does not look like a monk. He is handsome, with perfect dark hair, a wonderful smile, and he has a small tattoo on the left side of his neck. He is wearing an olive-green T-shirt. Shetty is no longer a monk. He grew up in London, England in a wealthy East Asian family. He went to a lecture by a monk, Gauranda Das, in high school. He continued to be intrigued by the ideas of this monk from India. During university, he decided to study hard during the school term, but went to an ashram in India during the summers. He then decided to be a full-time monk. The hardest thing for him was not becoming a monk but telling his parents of his new direction. “I had three career options: a doctor, a lawyer or failure. There’s no better way to tell your parents that everything they did for you was a waste than to become a monk…,” he wrote. His parents did not approve and had hoped for a successful career for their son. The book describes the many learnings from Shetty’s time as a monk. I believe he wants the The Marketplace January February 2021
reader to gather the insights for our own lives and use them to strengthen our spiritual journeys. There is no defined route to being a monk. Shetty spent four years in the ashram in India. He still uses the skills he learned in his life there in his life in America. The book has three parts to it: Let Go, Grow and Give. He does not really say anything new in the book, and he tells the reader this many times. We can find it in all religious spirituality. He quotes from a variety of people, including Christians. With the recent focus on mindfulness, meditation and slowing down, this book tries to 22
convince us to do it. Shetty makes a convincing argument of why this approach to life can be beneficial. The strength of the book, I believe, is in the four practices that Shetty gives to the reader. The first practice is Breathe. The second one is Visualize. The third one is Chant. The fourth one is a composite of the other three. These practices are nothing new to the meditative world, but they are great practices to explore. Many of us find it difficult to be disciplined in things other than work. Exercise, good eating, and prayer are hard. The four practices named by Shetty are difficult to maintain as a spiritual practice. Just try breathing. It is something we have to do to stay alive. “Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth. When you inhale, feel your stomach expand (as opposed to your chest). When you exhale, feel your stomach contract. Continue this at your own pace, at your own time. When you inhale, feel that you are taking in positive uplifting energy [or God]. When you exhale, feel that you are releasing any negative, toxic energy.” It is interesting that this former monk has become an internet sensation. So, you do not have to go to India to slow down, take care of yourself and breathe. Try it. You will like it.
.
Fred Redekop is a pastor at Poole Mennonite Church and a Woolwich Township councilor.
Review
Ten Commandments for the Christian Entrepreneur The Christian Entrepreneur: Dream, Plan, Execute, Grow by Brock Shinen (Bethany House Publishers, 2020 224pp, $19.99 US) By April Yamasaki The subtitle of Brock Shinen’s new book makes being a Christian entrepreneur sound easy: “Dream, Plan, Execute, Grow.” But of course there’s nothing automatic about these four steps to building a thriving business. They may sound easy, but they take risk, deliberate action, hard work — and there is no guarantee of success. To assist Christian entrepreneurs in working through these four basic steps, Shinen offers reallife examples, practical exercises, and helpful questions, all drawn from his experience as a lawyer and business adviser. He writes clearly, with both a positive attitude and a realistic appraisal of the challenges. The book begins with evaluating a potential business idea, then follows with creating a business plan, engaging with customers, dealing with legal issues, addressing growing pains, and other business realities. Whether you envision a for-profit business offering, a non-profit service, or working as a creative solopreneur, this book is a helpful guide for getting started and evaluating your progress. In addition to these business fundamentals, the book addresses what it means to be a Christian entrepreneur, what it means to do business “in a way that has God’s fingerprints all over it.” Shinen writes: “When you’re a Christian entrepreneur, your ‘Christian’ value system permeates every professional decision you make. It becomes impossible to
separate the secular from the sacred because the secular becomes sacred through God’s presence in your professional activities.” “It’s sort of like expecting food coloring and water to stay separate once you pour them both into a glass. Unlike what oil does in water — stays separate — food coloring permeates water. This is our faith in business, our Christianity in the marketplace.” Shinen’s “Ten ‘Commandments’ for the Christian Entrepreneur” are a good example of this combination of the secular and the sacred. These appear as an epilogue to the book, but they’re much more than an optional commentary. Instead, they pull together some of the key ideas from the book and offer a fitting conclusion. For Shinen, the first commandment is “Seek God first in all you do.” In other words, give God your dream, look to God as 23
you plan, execute, and grow. For the Christian entrepreneur, this spiritual grounding is foundational. Then Shinen follows this with a second commandment: “Prepare to fail (and be okay with it).” And a third commandment: “Take care of yourself.” These are perhaps less obviously “sacred” than the first commandment and more “secular,” but Shinen relates both to God’s call in our lives. Instead of being undone by failure, the Christian entrepreneur learns from failure and remains focused on the mission. To practice healthy selfcare, the Christian entrepreneur finds rest and renewal in God. Other commandments touch on developing expertise, learning to communicate more effectively, setting goals, taking responsibility, understanding finances, being willing to innovate, and finding validation not in the world, but in your relationship with God. These 10 commandments are my favorite part of the book. The author even includes a bonus 11th commandment, but I won’t spoil the surprise by including it here. If you’re curious, read The Christian Entrepreneur and discover the 11th commandment for yourself. I appreciate the book’s approach to being a good businessperson while also being a person of faith. I read it for this review and now plan to work through it to strengthen my own entrepreneurial ministry efforts.
.
April Yamasaki is resident author with a liturgical worship community and often speaks in other churches and venues. She blogs regularly at AprilYamasaki.com, WhenYouWorkfortheChurch.com, and is the author of Four Gifts, Sacred Pauses, and other books on Christian living. The Marketplace January February 2021
The Marketplace January February 2021
24
