Marketplace The
Where Christian faith gets down to business
January February 2022
Rising Together:
Convention discusses MEDA’s plans for long-term impact Transformation through helping others Blue-collar business for a better world What about all the plastic? Pitch contest promotes next-gen businesses Indiana staircase firm soars
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The Marketplace January February 2022
Roadside stand
Why discussing racism is important for MEDA Some readers have asked why MEDA is talking about racism. Why did this magazine choose to run an excerpt from a book on the subject in our September issue? During our November convention, Randy Sawatzky, MEDA’s senior development officer for Western Canada, explained it well while introducing keynote speaker Osheta Moore (see pg. 16). The organization wants MEDA’s core values to resonate “with every partnership, every client and every interaction,” he said. In line with MEDA’s strategic plan and core values of collaboration, respect, Randy Sawatzky accountability, and entrepreneurship, MEDA aims to address structures that perpetuate racism and create unequal opportunities for staff, clients, and partners. This work includes looking internally and globally. “For entrepreneurs to truly thrive, everyone needs to be at the same table, identifying the issues and developing solutions together. “For MEDA, anti-racism is about respect — respect for our colleagues, our clients, our business partners, and our constituents. It’s about treating others as we would want to be treated, following the loving example that Christ set out for all of us.” The belief that business is a calling from God requires us to Follow The Marketplace on Twitter @MarketplaceMEDA
The Marketplace January February 2022
“actively look for ways to serve those who are in need, to right injustice, and to work against discrimination in our homes, our communities, and our work.”
Planning business succession Business succession is a topic many company owners have not yet faced. It was refreshing to hear several company leaders speak openly and honestly about family business issues at MEDA’s recent convention. Ernest Rempel, CEO of VIDIR Solutions, Keith Kuhl, the president and CEO of Southern Potato, and Mary Fehr, a second-generation vice-president of UNI-FAB, engaged in a wide-ranging discussion about the topic. “If you haven’t started planning about succession yet, it’s probably a good idea to start talking about it immediately,” said Rempel. He is a 17-year Vidir veteran, and a son-in-law to Peter Dueck, one of the manufacturing business’s second-generation coowners. “You never know when your last day at the job might be. For the health of the business, you really want continuity in place.” Talking regularly and openly was one of the key issues mentioned by the panel. “Communication is one of the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities to help this transition go smoothly,’’ Rempel said. Kuhl, a fourth-generation farmer in Winkler, Manitoba, agrees. “From my experience, any time there is failure, if you analyze the failure, you will always find that the core issue is 2
communication,” he said. Kuhl bought out his siblings in 2007 to become the sole owner of a 6,500-acre business that is about to double in size. His sons run the operation. Grandchildren are already involved as generation number six. “My succession planning started the day the kids were born,” he said. Successful business owners also recognize they don’t have all the answers. Rempel, Kuhl, and Fehr all affirmed the hiring of professional coaches. They said that outside expertise can provide helpful guidance with communication, decision-making, and transition in family businesses. Asked about treating family members equally, Fehr and Rempel made a distinction between equal and fair. Kuhl agreed. “There is no such thing as equal. It doesn’t exist. But I have committed to them. I will always try to be fair.”
A pro-entrepreneur president Tabor College president David Janzen has an entrepreneurial bent, Christian Leader magazine reports. When he taught a class on the Android operating system at California Polytechnic State University in 2009, one of his students developed Squid. This education app has been downloaded more than five million times. Janzen became a partner in that venture. “We desperately need entrepreneurs,” says Janzen, who took over the helm at Tabor, a Kansas Mennonite Brethren college, on July 1. “Businesses are closing all the time. If we don’t keep starting businesses and growing businesses, people won’t have jobs, and we won’t be providing products and services for people to live their lives.”
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In this issue
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Preparing for new opportunities
MEDA reflects on a challenging year, discusses how partnerships, North-South equilibrium and focus on agri-food market systems guide its efforts to create decent work for 500,000 people.
Ray Dirks photo
Features
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Job creation through repurposing waste plastic in Jordan, Kenya
MEDA support helps Jordanian firm convert waste to low-carbon fuel. Winner of MEDA’s 2021 pitch competition donates to a Kenyan plastic recycler to offset plastic used in packaging dog treats.
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Character building through gear manufacturing Edgerton Gear mentors young workers to express their God-given creativity.
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A steep ascent
Goshen staircase manufacturer enjoys dizzying sales growth.
Viewrail president Len Morris
Departments 22 Roadside stand 24 Soul enterprise 18 Soundbites 22 Books in brief 3
The Marketplace January February 2021 2022
Soul Enterp prise
Rising together for transformation MC USA leader calls businesspeople to find ways to lift others up Like the apostle Paul on the Damascus road, people who have been knocked off their feet by the global pandemic will rise again to a better future, Mennonite Church USA’s executive director says. “Now we are at a place where God says ‘now, get to your feet. Something better is going to come.’” Glen Guyton made the comment in a plenary address to MEDA’s annual convention. “Any time we have change in our lives, any time we’re building something new, there’s great disruption,” he said. In keeping with MEDA’s convention theme, Rising Together, Guyton centered his reflection on a transformation story from the New Testament book of Acts. Acts 26 tells the story of how Saul, a persecutor of believers, meets Jesus on the Damascus road, falls down and subsequently becomes the Apostle Paul, a promoter of the Christian faith. Guyton emphasized verses 16-17 from Acts. 26: “Now get to your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me and tell them what I will show you in the future. And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light…” Being called to do a new, even great thing, doesn’t mean that things will be easy, Guyton said. When Paul was converted and The Marketplace January February 2022
chose to follow Jesus, he did not have an easy time of it. He ended up at the center of a culture war between Jews and non-Jewish Christian converts (known as Gentiles.) “Change has always been hard for society,” Guyton noted. “What some see as pain and loss, others see as growth and opportunity.” Guyton never expected to become executive director of MC
“Let’s see what 2022 has in store for us. … How can we make this world a better place?” — Glen Guyton
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USA, but life events knocked him off his feet. He joined Calvary Community Church, in Hampton, Virginia, in 1993 while serving in the US air force. Attending a pacifist church was an unlikely destination, and it had life-changing consequences for Guyton. An encounter with Titus Peachey, Mennonite Central Committee’s director of peace education, and guidance from his pastor led Guyton to leave the military and become a conscientious objector. “Sometimes we have to look deep inside of ourselves to grow and progress,” he said. Transformation is synonymous with growth, and everything that is alive should experience growth. “The struggle is real, and the struggle is necessary.” He used the analogy of a caterpillar struggling to break through a cocoon in order to become a butterfly. “If you try to save that butterfly from its struggle, it’s going to die.” At the same time, adversity unites us and shows who our real family is, he said. Guyton called on people to be like the wise loyal friend
should, use the same skills that give them success in their enterprises within the church, he said. “Who are you being sent to? Who are you called to serve? What is your niche when it comes to serving people to having an impact?” Examples of ways business leaders can have a positive impact on society include influencing vaccination rates or modeling how iStock/guvendemir waste is dealt with, he suggested. We must understand our power and the impact our power can have on others, he said. The power of the church lies in transformation. “I can say the same about you as business owners.” That transformation will not come without effort, as we are reminded in Galatians 6 to share one another’s burdens, he said. “If we’re going to rise together, we’re going to have to get our hands dirty.” To rise together, you must empathize with another’s pain, “care enough to get your hands dirty, to get down in the muck with me.” If we are faithful to our calling, we are not just rising as an individual, but bringing others with us, he said. “Who are we going to reach down to help get at least to eye level?” “Let’s rise together and not underestimate the privilege we have.” “Who can you share your blessings with, bring into your
“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ” Galatians 6: 2
mentioned in the biblical wisdom literature, Proverbs 17, verse 17, committed to helping one another out in time of need. While some people may never have been down over the past 18 months, many others have suffered, he said. “We still need one another, whether we are rich or poor, whether we are a boss or an employee.” To live into our call, we must release the pain of the past, he said. To rise together, “we have to put the pain of 2020 behind us.” “Let’s see what 2022 has in store for us. … How can we make this world a better place?” He believes that as we seek to rise together, impact will only occur through good leaders. Businesspeople can, and
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circle, who might otherwise get overlooked?” Guyton asked his audience to be open to digging deeper, finding new ways to connect, and getting uncomfortable in the process. He challenged listeners to consider who they will empower and “bring on the journey with us.” “Who will you commit to helping rise with you?” Bringing someone along with you requires becoming an integral part of their life, and is worth it, he predicted. “Together, I know we can do amazing things.”
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Volume 52, Issue 1 January February 2022 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 2021 by MEDA. 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 the Global South 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 Rolland Enviro® Satin and is made with 100% post-consumer sustainable fiber content, FSC® Certified to help meet client sustainability requirements, Acid Free, Elemental Chlorine Free
Cover photo of Market Circle small business owner in central Takoradi, Ghana by Ray Dirks
The Marketplace January February 2022
Doing small things well for long-term impact Convention hears of challenges, agile responses, and new opportunities For Mennonite Economic Derek Cameron, MEDA’s senior Development Associates, the past vice president of global programs. year consisted of attending to small Civil unrest led to the early details and planning for long-term windup of work in Myanmar. impact. Turmoil is also In a reflection as impacting projects part of MEDA’s annual in Nigeria, Ethiopia, convention, long- time Haiti, and Senegal, board member Dallas he said. “We pray for Steiner noted that it peaceful resolution has done many little and for protection things well. for those who are “When we take vulnerable.” care of the little things, The past the outcomes have year posed many huge impacts in the challenges, noted lives of many. Dr. Dorothy Nyambi, MEDA’s president and God does not deCEO. Trying to see spise the day of small the way ahead “was beginnings, because much like peering he rejoices to see the Dallas Steiner through a fog.” work begin,” he said, But MEDA’s strategic goal quoting the Old Testament book of Zechariah chapter 4, verse 10. provided a clear path forward, “Does that not describe MEDA? allowing the organization to Small beginnings are powerful in advance the implementation of its development. Things Towards an Equal we dream of and hope World plan, she said. for just don’t happen “We have been laserovernight.” focused on our goal The pandemic of creating decent pushed 130 million work for 500,000 people into extreme people by the year poverty and food 2030.” insecurity. That MEDA had 209,000 direct clients, has set back global both individuals, poverty reduction and businesses, in 23 efforts by years and projects throughout tragically increased the its fiscal 2021, which incidence of genderended June 30. based violence, noted Derek Cameron The Marketplace January February 2022
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Openness and agility of team members in negotiating new ways of working allowed MEDA to deliver $22 million of project work and create decent work opportunities for 106,000 women, youth, and men around the world, Cameron said. Agility sometimes requires a different focus. A Senegal project helped distribute masks, gels, and flyers to raise awareness and combat the COVID-19 virus. It also distributed high-quality seeds and fertilizers to farmers in areas where most could not afford these. New projects started in Haiti, Kenya, Senegal, and Tanzania. MEDA also signed new multiyear contracts worth $42 million. Highlights include MEDA’s firstever initiative in the Philippines, targeting over 6,000 farmers in the cacao sector, and a new six-year project in Tanzania that will create the conditions for 20,000 women entrepreneurs to thrive. A new investment fund will strengthen some efforts. MEDA submitted a proposal to a Canadian-based foundation for a $50 million fund to support small or medium-sized businesses in subSaharan Africa to grow and create decent work for youth. Those conversations have progressed. MEDA is now working on a $200 million plan to support African enterprises with capital and business services. That expanded effort may launch in 2022.
Substantial donations from MEDA supporters, plus less than expected dampening impacts from the pandemic, resulted in the organization reporting better financial results than budgeted, interim chief financial officer Wendy Clayson said. MEDA saw a deficit of just $300,000 for fiscal 2021 compared to a budgeted loss of $1.3 million. An increase in the value of MEDA’s risk capital fund offset that small deficit. Paraguayan businessman Ferdinand Rempel is joining the MEDA board, part of its effort to include voices from the Global South in its decision-making. Establishing a North-South equilibrium by sharing voice and power is one of three guiding principles in MEDA’s Towards an Equal World strategic plan. This is “taking a different approach or different perspectives in the way we approach and do our work to improve people’s lives,” said Nadia Guerch, MEDA’s senior director for the Latin American and Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Pacific regions. “Those people are the best positioned and placed to know what they need. It is about … enabling them to be active participants and not only beneficiaries in designing and implementing the solutions to their problems.” Other guiding principles in MEDA’s strategic plan are refocusing on agri-food market systems, the area where it can have the most significant impact, and partnerships to have an impact at scale.
Pierre Diegane Kadet
Decent work for all is something that MEDA is committed to, Cameron said. Up to 76 percent of people in the Global South work in vulnerable, marginal, or informal employment. That affects the quality of life
and the ability of households to withstand shocks, and the tax base and capacity of local governments to invest in services for their citizens, he said. Globally, family farming is the most prevalent form of farming, noted Pierre Diegane Kadet, MEDA’s senior director for West Africa, North Africa, and the Middle East. More than 90 percent of farms, about 500 million, are run by families. Family farming produces over 80 percent of the food and represents the largest employer worldwide. It accounts for almost 30 percent of global jobs and nearly four percent of gross domestic product. That makes MEDA's refocusing on agri-food market systems one of the most promising business solutions to poverty, he said. On the other hand, agricultural expansion in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 70 percent of deforestation. Only six percent of agriculture in the region uses irrigation, so farmers are exposed to the effects of a changing climate. This recognition has led MEDA to make sustainability and mitigation efforts a core part of each project. Expanding MEDA’s partnerships will be critical to future efforts, said Helal Ahsan-UlHaque, MEDA’s senior regional director for the Eastern, Southern, and Central Africa regions. “If we really want to make deeper impact, we have to work at the system level,” he said. “We can’t do it alone. We have to do it together.”
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Next generation innovation 2021 pitch competition sees agri-food startups vying for $10,000 prize MEDA’s 2021 Reimagining Food Systems pitch competition saw diverse startups from Canada, the US and Ghana compete for a $10,000 prize to help their agrifood focused firms make a global impact. Five finalists recorded five-minute videos that were shown at MEDA’s annual convention, then answered questions from a judging panel. The annual EarthPup founder Lucy Cullen competition, held to encourage and foster innovation and Barb Schlegel and their family. in the spirit of MEDA’s mission, is A Canadian company that uses funded by MEDA supporters Ron food waste to make pet treats, and a firm that hopes to bring lower-cost fresh produce to remote How does the competition work? communities by using indoor MEDA’s pitch competition is open to start-ups in the agri-food market vertical farming systems were this systems space, where at least 51 per year’s winners. cent of the company is owned by a EarthPup, which won the person under the age of 40. $10,000 US first prize, grew out Participating teams must be less of founder Lucy Cullen’s disgust than five years old and have raised less at the level of food waste in the than $100,000 in funding, grants, or prize money. hospitality industry, where she In order to be eligible, a startup worked for a dozen years. must propose a solution related to agriHer Toronto, Ontario-based food market systems. The solution must firm produces dog treats that are address one or more of several United mostly made from rescued plant Nations Sustainable Development Goals materials and bone broth. The that relate to MEDA’s work: women-owned and led firm focuses • #1 No Poverty • #2 Zero Hunger on “a sustainable future for pups, • #5 Gender Equality plants, and people.” • #8 Decent Work and Economic Growth As much as 40 percent of food • #13 Climate Action in Canada is wasted, Cullen said. • #17 Partnerships for the Goals Juice production alone results in 600 The UN SDGs are part of the 2030 million pounds of nutrient-dense Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by UN member states in 2015. pulp being discarded annually. The Marketplace January February 2021 2022
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EarthPup addresses this issue by turning food otherwise destined for landfill into healthy dog treats. EarthPup’s products are currently sold in 44 stores across Canada. The firm is committed to being a plastic negative pet food brand, by partnering with a Kenyan organization to recycle twice as much plastic there as its products contain. (see story, page 11) Cullen thinks EarthPup can grow to the point where it will create 20 jobs and recover 60,000 pounds of food waste over the next 24 months and expand into the US. In addition to the cash prize, Cullen wins an all-expenses paid trip to MEDA’s 2022 convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she will be a judge in the 2022 pitch competition. Sky-Acres Agro Technologies, an innovative vertical farming concept, won a $5,000 second prize and will be partnered with a
Sky-Acres founder Ishaan Kohli promotes vertical farming
successful business professional for mentorship opportunities. Sky-Acres is working towards a pilot project in Fort Albany, a small community in Northern Ontario, to grow food indoors. It will use a stackable, modular system to deliver a nutrient-rich mist of water to plants which are suspended in air. The system requires 94 percent less water than traditional farming,
said founder Ishaan Kohli. A 35,000 square-foot facility filled with this system could produce as much food as 96 acres, supplying 8,000 people year-round, Kohli said. He plans to sell high-quality produce directly to grocery stores, where he estimates that it will be sold 40 percent cheaper than produce that is flown into the community. Other finalists in the competition were:
• YYC growers and distributors, which works to connect farmers and consumers in Alberta. • Muket, which tracks livestock methane emissions and provides suggestions for making beef and dairy farming more sustainable by reducing emissions. • Sommalife, a social enterprise that markets shea and cocoa butter and other products on behalf of rural Ghanaian women.
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A 911 service for Africa Pandemic restrictions prevented MEDA from holding a pitch competition in 2020. The following is an update on the progress that Emergency Response Africa (ERA) has made since winning the 2019 competition. ERA is saving lives by building a network of first responders, emergency vehicles and hospitals across Nigeria, all connected to those in need, company co-founder and ERA co-founder and CEO Folake Owodunni CEO Folake Owodunni says. began offering its services in The company uses vans and March 2021. lower-cost ambulance tricycles to The organization has serve people who cannot afford received and addressed over regular ambulances. The service 450 requests for help, added is “kind of like a 911 (emergency more than 45 emergency service service) for Africa,” Owodunni said providers and ambulances to its in a video presentation at the 2021 network, and generated over MEDA convention. $10,000 in revenue. The $10,000 prize that ERA “Those who have used our won in MEDA’s 2019 pitch service most appreciate the competition in Tucson, Arizona efficiency and the empathy shown allowed it to pilot its more by our first responders,” she said. affordable ambulance service in ERA was recently selected Lagos, Nigeria in February 2020, as one of 50 African startups to just before the pandemic hit. receive funding from the Google “We learned a lot of lessons Black Founders Fund. The money about how our solutions can save will help ERA expand its services lives, as well as the challenges of outside of Lagos to several other implementing technology-based Nigerian states over the next six solutions in the developing world,” months: Ibadan, Enugu, Owerri she said. and Abeokuta. Since that time ERA has The firm recently graduated secured over $100,000 in grant and from the Google for Startups Africa investment funding to launch. It 9
Accelerator program. “Every day, there’s still people dying needlessly from poorly managed medical emergencies, and in spite of our best efforts to make our service affordable, many can still not afford to use our services.” “We will continue to work with partners like MEDA until our vision for an Africa where everyone can receive medical help in 10 minutes or less is realized,” she said. To learn more about ERA, visit their website: https:// emergencyresponseafrica.com
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The Marketplace January February 2022
Redeeming waste plastic Litter used to create jobs in Jordan, Kenya Over half of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic produced since the 1950s has found its way into landfills or the natural environment. An estimated 12 million tons of plastic waste leak into oceans every year, wreaking havoc on livelihoods and ecosystems. Some studies suggest that if current trends continue, oceans could contain more plastic than fish by 2050. Plastic pollution is found everywhere from Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world, to the Mariana Trench, a seven-miledeep section of the Pacific Ocean. Efforts are underway in many places to repurpose these materials, which are made from natural gas liquids, liquid petroleum gases, and natural gas. MEDA’s Jordan Valley Links project helped a Jordanian business introduce a biodegradable packaging line, and another to create employment by diverting waste plastic from the environment. EarthPup, the winner of the 2021 MEDA pitch competition, is certified plastic negative. The company donates a portion of sales from each product to help an African firm remove twice as much plastic from Kenyan lands as is used in EarthPup’s products — Ed
MEDA helped several firms in Jordan deal with waste plastic, says Helal Ahsan-Ul-Haque, who headed the Jordan Valley Links project.
farming season. As much as 90 per cent of livestock deaths in the region result from goats and sheep eating discarded plastic sheets and tubes, then suffering fatal stomach and intestinal blockage. • Area landfills are being overburdened with plastic waste, which has to be incinerated, polluting the air. • Recycling operations are not economically feasible due to high energy costs in Jordan. The Jordan Valley Links (JVL) project, a five-year effort funded by Global Affairs Canada and donations from MEDA supporters, assisted two
Plastic waste is a serious problem in Jordan for several reasons. • About 6,000 tons of black agricultural plastic mulch waste is produced each year in the Jordan Valley, which is the nation’s breadbasket. • In some cases, this plastic flies in the wind at the end of a The Marketplace January February 2022
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innovative approaches to tackling the problem of plastic waste. JVL worked with RZ (also known as Alhadaf International Company), one of the largest disposable items producers in the country, to install a new manufacturing line so they could produce completely biodegradable products. Given the right conditions and presence of microorganisms, fungi, or bacteria, such products will eventually break down to their basic components and blend back in with the earth. This initiative helped RZ be competitive in the global market, expanding business opportunities to Europe and North America, said Helal Ahsan-Ul-Haque, who served as MEDA’s country director for the JVL project. JVL assisted almost 450 homebased businesses to begin using this biodegradable packaging, increasing the shelf life and customer appeal of their products, he said.
The project also So much so that they helped Jordanian busipromise to be plastic ness Karak Star reduce negative, removing twice plastic waste, provide as much plastic waste as jobs and create a carbonis used in every product reduced synthetic fuel. they sell. Karak Star was EarthPup donates a producing egg trays percentage of revenue but was facing losses, from each product struggling to maintain purchase to fund the its business due to collection of low-value high production costs, plastic waste from particularly high oceans and landfills. energy costs. Its three The plastic is competitors had already collected, processed, ceased operations. and reused by Taka Taka A feasibility study Solutions, a Kenya social led to discussions of enterprise that employs installing a machine to people to collect waste cook waste plastic mulch plastic. and produce synthetic oil. Taka Taka’s web The machine became site says it operates “a the first such effort in vertically integrated Jordan, the Middle East model of collection, or North Africa. It turns sorting, recycling, 1,700 tons of plastic composting and trading.” waste each year into The firm manages 1,300 metric tons of 2,400 tons of waste synthetic fuel. monthly, recycling more The cost of than 90 per cent of the producing the fuel is waste it collects. about one-third of the EarthPup is also market price for fuel. working with rePurpose The plastic Global to reduce use reclamation effort of virgin plastics in its employs 800 women and products. youth entrepreneurs who rePurpose Global collect, store and deliver is a New York-based waste plastic mulch to “plastic action platform” the Karak Star plant. that provides advisory, Plastic mulch helps plants grow but becomes trash at the end of the Karak Star’s action and advocacy machinery runs off gases season. Karak Star is now turning this product into low-carbon fuel. solutions to help produced in the plastic people and companies conversion process. It is also able calculate, reduce and offset their There also have been expressions to sell the fuel it produces to plastic footprint. of interest from entrepreneurs in neighboring firms. “It is almost a North America and Israel/Palestine, zero cost production line.” he said. For further information: MEDA contributed half of the https://www.earthpup.co/ total cost of the machinery for the Pet food firm reduces plastic https://takatakasolutions.com/ pyrolysis plant, about $115,000 USD. EarthPup, the Toronto-based https://repurpose.global/ Karak Star is considering pet treat firm that won MEDA’s To calculate your personal plastic footbuilding a second plastic 2021 pitch competition, is serious print, go to: conversion plant, Helal said. about reducing plastic waste. https://repurpose.global/survey
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The Marketplace January February 2022
Business as Kingdom work Wisconsin firm succeeds by helping its workers thrive Dave Hataj started working in his father’s gear manufacturing shop at age five, cleaning up around machines. When he finished his apprenticeship at the Wisconsin company 17 years later, working for the family firm was the last thing he wanted to do. “I couldn’t figure out how making gears, and the work world in general, had anything to do with my faith,” Hataj said in a keynote talk at MEDA’s annual convention. He did some short-term mission work in Mexico and in inner city Los Angeles. He worked in campus ministry and pastored at a large church. Trips to work with the rural poor in Honduras led him to realize that giving aid to lower-income communities created dependency. “We learned that if we are serious about addressing the roots of poverty, and the health of any community in the world, we need to go deeper to help folks become independent.” People need the opportunity to thrive by creating their own wealth, he thought. Seven years after leaving Edgerton Gear, Hataj had a different understanding of the value of business. He returned to the company with a sense of mission and has been there for 30 years since. Hataj is the second-generation owner of a 60-year-old business that makes gears for the machines “that make every aluminum can on the planet,” as well as for machinery that produces boxes, The Marketplace January February 2022
construction equipment, logging equipment, food processing, and textile equipment. Business can be a force for helping workers to express their God-given creativity, he said. This idea goes all the way back to the creation mandate in the biblical book of Genesis. “I have been a big fan of MEDA for years. I think you all know something much of the world, and I dare say the church, hasn’t figured out yet,” he said. “Business is one of God’s primary vehicles to usher in the Kingdom of God. It took me a long time to figure this out.” “Business, and giving a person the dignity of a job, providing for themselves and their families, is truly kingdom work. It’s redemptive work. It’s everything that MEDA stands for.” Edgerton Gear as he knew it growing up was a difficult place to be. Hataj’s father struggled with alcoholism, a dysfunction that made its way into the family business as well, leading to chaos. Screaming matches on the shop floor, pornography on the walls and a quarter barrel of beer in the lunchroom fridge, “guys going out at lunch and getting drunk, and not coming back” were all too common. When he worked at the firm as a teenager, he was content to drink with co-workers. Returning to the firm as a mature Christian, he pushed for the removal of alcohol from the shop and other changes that were met with “sabotage and resistance.” For 10 years, nothing seemed 12
to be working. “It takes a long time to rid a company of its demons and dysfunction.” Eventually, when choosing employees, he decided to hire for character rather than skills. Hataj made it his mission to get enough good people on board to outweigh the bad people, because “making gears is easy. Fixing people is hard.” At the 20 year mark, he realized “this is where I need to be.” He now believes that “we are most reflective of God’s nature when we work.” People are called to be agents, reflections of God’s goodness, “and to have our workplaces become known as places where goodness resides and is demonstrated every day,” he said. Hataj believes that workplaces and businesses “are the lifeblood of our communities.” “Can you imagine if we had a pandemic of goodness?” God cares about quality, supply chains, plumbers, electricians, store clerks, truck drivers and all the other jobs that are necessary for civilization to exist and flourish, he said. Hataj modelled that character when a supplier accidentally quoted him an order at 50 percent less than a previous month’s delivery, something that would have led to them suffering a loss. Instead of pocketing the windfall, he brought the error to the supplier’s attention. “The (Holy) Spirit kind of prodded me and reminded me to treat others as I want to be treated, because
Dave Hataj believes business can be redemptive, Kingdom work.
that’s what goodness looks like at a business level.” “On the individual level, meaningful work is God’s gift to us, to express our uniqueness, to reflect his goodness and creativity.” Hataj has come to realize that “perhaps the greatest impact I can
make in a person’s life is to give them a good job and treat them with the dignity they deserve as children of God.” The word philanthropy means to love mankind, he noted. Almost one thousand years ago, Jewish scholar Moses Ben 13
Maimon described eight degrees of ranking charity, which became known as eight levels of giving, or the golden ladder of philanthropy. For Ben Maimon, the highest level of giving is providing money to help people not become poor, by giving them a job or teaching them The Marketplace January February 2022
a trade or setting them up in business so they won’t have to ask for charity, Hataj said. The late Christian scholar Eugene Peterson wrote: “I am prepared to contend that the primary location for spiritual formation is in the workplace.” That assertion has led Hataj to realize that the best thing he can do is to try to develop a mentoring culture, “where young people can find a place of belonging, and a community, and a sense of purpose.”
Dave Hataj is committed to mentoring.
He developed a class called Craftsmen With Character, which allows high school students to job shadow older machinists, four days a week. He also had the students in a classroom one day a week “to explore their worldview, to explore their innate gifts and talents.” “We try to provide a safe place for them to heal, and to be seen and heard.” Some of these students join Edgerton’s apprenticeship program, while others find work in other local businesses. This program has helped Hataj to avoid the worst effects of the “hiring crisis” that is hampering the trades and manufacturing sector. In many machine shops, the average age of workers is mid-50s. At Edgerton The Marketplace January February 2022
Gear, the average age is now 28. Turnover at Edgerton is “virtually non-existent.” Hataj has employees that have been with the firm for decades. “Mentoring is definitely hard work. But the payoff is so incredible on so many fronts.” Edgerton Gear has run its Craftsmen With Character program for eight years. “The course has transformed our business, as all of us have come to realize that we’re not just in the gear business. We’re in the people business, helping young people to grow and flourish as well as helping all of us have a deep sense of community as we spend 40 to 60
“…meaningful work is God’s gift to us, to express our uniqueness, to reflect his goodness and creativity.” — Dave Hataj, Edgerton Gear
hours a week together.” Part of that sense of community involves empowering workers to make decisions. “I’m not smart enough to make good decisions for 40 people. I need 40 people making good decisions for us to thrive as a company.” Hataj has team leaders through the shop, constantly trying to push decision making down as far as possible. He lets employees decide which machines to buy and what customers they will take on. The company has regular meetings where sales numbers are shared. Hataj provides random bonuses several times a year and is in the process of selling the business to his employees. “For nearly 30 years now, God has been putting me through a huge paradigm shift, from bad theology to a deeper understanding of Kingdom work.” Spiritual life is key to the ability to lead, Hataj says. He finds that his time with God each morning is the most important time of day. “You just have to literally pray every day for guidance, and peace and wisdom.” Several free online videos tell the story of Hataj’s faith and business journey. To view Turning, from the Faith & Co. series, go to: https://faithandco.spu.edu/filmdetail/turning/ To see Windrider Institute’s short film about Edgerton Gear, Forged, go to: https://vimeo.com/645288372/ ac30a88ccd For a discussion of the documentary Forged, go to: https://vimeo.com/645288372/ ac30a88ccd
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The Craftsman’s Code The Craftsman’s Code is a central part of Craftsmen With Character, a course Edgerton Gear offers for students who may not have done well in high school, says company president Dave Hataj. He calls it an effort “to deconstruct their world view and give them a new one.” “We really want to impress upon them that they are uniquely created, and they have a skillset. They are smart in different ways, and the world needs them.”
1) I am not the center of the universe. The trades stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us, who learned and contributed to the body of knowledge. (The Machinery’s Handbook). Great accomplishments and advancements have happened, and will happen, because of a commitment to the collective good of the trade. I am always respectful and appreciative of the past and present, recognizing I am part of the great fraternity of practitioners of my trade. 2) I do not know everything, nor nearly as much as I think I do. I am always learning. I value and respect those who teach me. This includes even those who are learning for the first time, as they, too, can teach me new things. No one person can know everything, but collectively, our trade continues to grow in knowledge and skill. 3) There is dignity and purpose in knowing my trade. There is nothing better in work than to engage my hands, head, and heart. My head learns knowledge, but my hands test if it is true. My hands do the work, but my heart gives it meaning. My heart has passion, but my hands and head give it expression.
4)The world needs me. The world as we know it would not function without my trade. From basic necessities to extravagant luxuries, my trade supports them all. Therefore, I will commit to giving my best efforts.
5) Pay is a reward for my efforts, but not my main motivation. I need money to live, but I do not live for the money. I do not believe in the lie that money will make me happy. Rather, my reward is in the journey—in making something of quality, that is right and that benefits the world, something that uses my creative talents. 6) Every person has unique gifts and talents. There is only one me. Although I am always learning, I bring a unique skill set and perspective to every job. It is my responsibility to discover my talents and to apply them in meaningful work. 15
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Seeking shalom for all Pastor urges people to confront racism with grit and grace. Over more than 20 years in church leadership, Osheta Moore has been a strong believer in the idea of shalom. Shalom is a biblical concept that expresses God’s dream for the world as it should be. “Nothing broken, nothing missing, everything made whole,” the Minnesota pastor and author said in a speech to MEDA’s annual convention. Moore’s desire to see all people enjoy that sense of peace and flourishing has led her to focus on difficult conversations that she once preferred to avoid. Moore came from a family that preferred to downplay the conversation of race, “the realities of being an African-American person. My dad didn’t want anything to hold us back,” she said. “He desperately believed that having a conversation around race, or acknowledging any of the liabilities, or struggles that people of color might experience in our country, in a Western context, he thought it would actually prevent us from flourishing.” Moore met her husband (who is white) in New Orleans, when both were doing urban core ministry. They did sidewalk Sunday school in a housing development and street preaching during Mardi Gras. They also visited a shelter for men experiencing homelessness to offer prayer and support. “In that context ... I really saw that there are so many different systems that are at play that prevent a person from flourishing.” Moore learned to pay attention to people’s experiences, things The Marketplace January February 2022
that prevented them from reaching their potential. “One of the things that I noticed, was… the system that says some people in the world should be able to flourish, or have an easier time flourishing, because of the color of their skin. “When I was faced with that, I did not want to have a conversation about race, because it felt wrong to me. There are so many white brothers and sisters who loved me and discipled me. … As I started to look at the Bible, and as I started to look at God’s dream of shalom, it really is about looking at getting back to the Osheta Moore Garden (of Eden), where God looks at all of creation and says, it is good. “If God looks at me in my brown skin and says: it is good, then any system that prevents me from being able to say it is good and living a life that proclaims the goodness of God, is a system that we as peacemakers must interrogate and dismantle.” While teaching a nine-month discipleship course, she realized that “some of the ways we have been taught about race have not served us well.” One approach to discussing race, racial reconciliation, is important 16
for Anabaptists committed to peace, she said. “It invites us to be gracious towards one another, to honor the humanity and to seek the right relationship between us and others, but that’s not enough.” Promoting racial reconciliation was incomplete. When she talked about systemic racism, people thought the conversation wasn’t helpful for them personally. Failure to address systemic racism “does create obstacles for us to be truly multicultural because we can’t be truly honest about the brokenness of this world,” she said. So, Moore started talking with
her students about anti-racism. Some students became really excited about acting, but that discussion led to other problems. Anti-racism puts interpersonal, interracial unity as secondary, she said. It also downplays the fact that white learners can have trauma responses and doesn’t leave room for the honest questions people want to ask. A third problem of anti-racism teaching is that it creates obstacles for the church to be a witness of Christ-like love and unity. Words are sometimes spoken that trample on relationships, she said. “I deeply believe that God’s dream for shalom is a dream of wholeness and flourishing for all people … that the love of Christ should be evident in everything that we do, including antiracism.” Discussions around race need a new way that is defined by both grit and grace, she said. A third way that brings racial reconciliation and anti-racism together is Moore’s prescription for productive conversations. Trying to integrate these two approaches with the teachings of Jesus led her to invite people to become anti-racism peacemakers. These are people who are committed to addressing “the interpersonal and systemic effects of white supremacy” with empathy and non-violence. She describes her latest book, dear white peacemakers: dismantling racism with grit and grace, as a love letter. It is her “love letter to my white brothers and sisters, on this journey of becoming anti-racist, who are passionate also about the peacemaking ethic of
Jesus, who want to know, where does Jesus fit into the work of antiracism?” Moore completed the book after George Floyd was murdered by a white policeman about 10 minutes from where she lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her discomfort following Floyd’s murder involved how to have a conversation with white brothers and sisters about systems that prevent Black and brown people “from rising out of poverty, from rising out of toxic systems.” While she was excited to see so many people wanting to have conversations in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, she was also worried.
“God’s dream for shalom is a dream of wholeness and flourishing for all people. The love of Christ should be evident in everything that we do, including anti-racism (work).” — Osheta Moore
“What I really wanted to do was to have a conversation about what we are for, and not necessarily what we are against.” “What I have learned, in the many years that I have been teaching anti-racism, is that often times, when we come to this work, we come to it because we are against something. We’re against the violence that we see on the street, or we’re against a policy. I wanted to explore what we could be for.” Moore’s goal is not to convince someone in an initial discussion, but to always leave the door open for another conversation. If people know that she is available as a friend and an ally, they may be more open to further dialogue. She believes strongly in the concept of the beloved community, something that US civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. held at the forefront of his work and that Christian theologian Henri Nouwen wrote about. This posture, seeking redemption and right relationships, requires exercising agape love, something that involves risk and costly sacrifice, she said. Becoming a beloved community requires asking questions of people whose experience is different than ours, making room for Black and brown leaders in your context and becoming courageous, she said. She encouraged MEDA to be aware of dynamics that might get in the way of the clients that it serves experiencing God’s “dream for wholeness and vibrancy and flourishing.” “This is courageous work; this is a hard work.”
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Soundbites
Attracting future French farmers France is facing a major farm crisis. The country produces 20 percent of agricultural output in the European Union. Half its farmers are set to retire within 10 years, accounting for 160,000 farms. Although youth unemployment in France is north of 18 percent, 70,000 farm jobs find no takers, the New York Times reports. Hectar, a new agri-business firm, is seeking to attract young farmers into the industry by using new technologies. The company wants to train 2,000 youth a year, helping them to become entrepreneurs running profitable, sustainable farming operations. Robotic seeders and crop harvesters, equipping cows with collars that allow tracking their health, and learning new ways to grow food using less fuel and fertilizer, are all part of the free Hector program. Hector graduates still need to get a diploma from an agricultural school to qualify to be a farmer in France, the story says.
Portable power in Nigeria More than 70 million Nigerians currently live without electricity. UN studies suggest that more than 600 million Africans do not have reliable access to power. Reeddi, a firm that has offices in Toronto and Lagos, is working to supply sustainable energy at a price that people and businesses can afford. The company, which has won several prizes at North American innovation competitions, uses a daily rental model, charging 50 cents for a 24-hour period. Its Reeddi Capsules (batteries) are charged at solar power stations. People can use a variety of payment methods The Marketplace January February 2022
to rent fully charged capsules for the period of time they desire. Time magazine recently featured Reeddi among its 100 best inventions of 2021. The company is currently serving households and businesses in Lagos. Founder Olugbenga Olubanjo, who grew up in Nigeria, hopes to expand its service throughout Africa’s most populous country, then into other African nations and Southeast Asia.
Plug-in, driverless tractors A California firm is testing a line of electric tractors designed for farms that grow fruits and vegetables. Monarch Tractor hopes that its self-driving (autonomous) vehicles will help to solve two major challenges facing the industry — environmental issues and labor shortages, Fast Company magazine reports. Diesel tractors are both noisy and polluting, said to generate 17 times the carbon dioxide of an average car. Finding and training tractor drivers for seasonal work in California is becoming increasingly difficult, even at pay rates of $23 to $30 an hour, the story says. Monarch’s 70-horsepower product, which resembles a large John Deere tractor crossed with a riding lawn mower, uses a GPS and cameras that record activity in all directions. Larger farms that grow corn, wheat and soybeans use diesel or gas tractors with many times the horsepower of the Monarch product. Monarch’s tractor can work for 10 hours on a single battery charge. Charging takes four to five hours. The firm has licensed its technology to CNH Industrial, a multinational firm which will include the Monarch gear in its own future models. 18
Climate-smart farming in Honduras An agreement signed at November’s COP 26 international climate talks will lead to more support for small-scale farmers in Honduras. The International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Honduran government have agreed to work together to seek more funding for climate-smart agriculture. The agreement focuses on the Sula Valley, a farming hub that has long been vulnerable to flooding. In 2020, two hurricanes left thousands homeless. Over time the project will invest in climate-smart practices as well as access to insurance and finance for small-scale farmers.
Ag in space Astronauts on the International Space Station began experiments growing plants in zero gravity in December. A Christian from Alabama is coordinating communications between the astronauts and the scientists who develop the trials. Johnny Berry spends his time thinking about how to water plants in space, an article in Christianity Today reports. The NASA project, XROOTS -Exposed Root On-Orbit Test System — involves testing new ways to water plants in zero gravity. NASA plans to send people back to the moon later this decade, and eventually to Mars, so it is working on ways to grow vegetables in space.
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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
“Reluctant manufacturer” grows by putting all the pieces together Goshen staircase firm enjoys rapid sales ascent By Marshall V. King In the late 1990s, Len Morris didn’t have the life he wanted. He was in his late 20s and had resigned from pastoring a Missionary Church. A business he and his family had started wasn’t doing well. His family was racking up several hundred thousand dollars in debt. He was praying and meditating — for five years — asking God, “Where do you want me?” God kept answering, “You’re exactly where I want you.” “I felt like I was absolutely nowhere,” Morris said. “I was adrift in business. We were not doing well. We were losing money.” He and his wife, Marci, shut down the business and repaid the debt. He had viewed the business as short-term and realized that he needed to go all-in on his business, his marriage and with God. It’s now a very different story. Viewrail, the Indiana company he runs with other family members, is growing 50 to 60 percent a year. It has sales over $100 million. When Morris is asked how many employees the company has, he pauses because the number changes so fast. As of mid-November, it was around 325. He could greet nearly all of them by name as he walked through some of the 11 large buildings where they’re producing mod-
Photo by Marshall V. King
Len Morris smiles as he shows how his company fills orders and ships them for installation of staircases in homes and businesses.
ern staircases for high-end homes and offices. The company is adding warehouses around the country. Company values are focusing on eternal relationships, on cash, and on being responsive. “It’s a completely different culture than any other place,” said Kirk Martin, who has worked eight months in the powder coat division. “I’ve 19
worked in other companies that say they care about the eternal part of a person. This company means it.” Roughly 100 customers a day use a website to create and order open staircases made with hardwood, rods or cable, and metal handrails, or at least order pieces of such creations. The industry making, shipping, The Marketplace January February 2022
and installing custom staircases is small. But Viewrail has become a leader in it over the last decade and is becoming a great Goshen company. As a small boy, Morris and his family went to church and worked together in agriculture in Arcanum, Ohio. His grandfather gave fiveyear-old Len two rows of tobacco they raised. The boy hauled the crop in a little red wagon and gave some of the money he earned to his parents, spent some on himself, and put some into savings. The next year, Morris asked to farm five rows. As a high school student, he started a business so that he wouldn’t have to continue working in a grocery store. He bought a kit at Radio Shack to clean VCRs for others, but realized he needed scale to make money offering that service. He knew schools had a lot of the machines in their classrooms. He got contracts to clean them. In high school, he felt the call to become a pastor and studied to do that. The first eight years of his professional career were spent guiding a church or working to start other churches. But Morris realized that a pastoral role required him to manage more than lead, to keep things in order more than innovate. At the age of 28, the young pastor had a realization. Morris realized he was trying to manage a lot of aspects of his life, but was what he calls “a terrible manager.” He added, “I’m a pretty decent leader. I can inspire people in a direction well. I’m really terrible at just managing a process because I’m always trying to lead a process and not manage it.” He started a woodworking business making interior doors and trim. When it wasn’t successful, he was asking hard questions of God. He had learned from the The Marketplace January February 2022
business that when they sold parts of staircases, they made a better margin. In 2003, he started a company called Iron Baluster Inc. to sell the spindles along the steps and other supplies for staircases. He set up a website with a phone number that would ring a Motorola flip phone. His wife, Marci, who was home with young sons Caleb and Graham, sold eight jobs in one day while he was out making five sales in person. “It quickly became clear something had fallen in our lap,” Len said. People who wanted a staircase like the one Viewrail now sells had to hire their local woodworker, glass worker and metal worker to create one. Iron Baluster Inc. was later called Stair Supplies and then became Viewrail. The firm initially sold parts to builders putting in staircases. Morris told people he didn’t just want to resell things he bought, so he became what he calls a “reluctant manufacturer.” In 2013, Viewrail created its first product. The company had 25 employees. The staircase had a two-inchsquare post with wooden stairs, a metal handrail and cable filling in where the balusters would be. The focus was on design and the fine details. “Response was immediately very strong,” he said. As business grew, Amish
“We don’t hire heroes. We don’t have a hero pay schedule.” — Len Morris
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welders who were making 10 posts a day couldn’t handle the demand. They gave two weeks’ notice and passed on the old drill presses they were using to Morris’ company. Two weeks of bringing the rail creation in-house started the firm on the path of vertical integration. Viewrail has gone farther down that path than most companies. To assure that it has a supply of hardwood, it helped create a lumber company that gets trees from across the Midwest. In 2015, the company got its first computer numerical controlled machine to help with metalworking. By 2019, every cut was controlled by a computer. Last year, roughly 1,000 CNC motors guided every cut in multiple dimensions to make all the parts of a staircase. The makers of Autodesk, a three-dimensional design software, collaborate with employees who are unleashing its power in new ways. Presses cut steel into parts that become hidden upon installation. Lasers cut holes in bolts. An algorithm puts all the day’s orders into a series of cuts to maximize how wood is cut for that day’s jobs. The wood is glued together to make the thick wooden stair treads that seem to float in the air but are often on a single rail going down the middle of the stairs. Cable comes from Korea and bolts from conventional manufacturers, but Viewrail is now tempering and cutting its own glass for the staircases. It also makes the posts and metal rods. The company is producing at least 85 percent of what goes into its product and maybe more. Viewrail is now selling an average of $10 million of stairs a month at price points of $12,000 to $25,000. The staircase is often three percent of the total cost of building
(above) Kimberly Glick shows how new 3D modeling software helps a customer design their own staircase and confirm an order. Glick is a member of Viewrail’s “Nerd Team” that recently launched the software. Photo by Marshall V. King
(above right) Miniature versions of the staircases sold by Viewrail are in the training facility for the company. Viewrail offered its first staircase in 2013 and now has sales of more than $100 million a year. Photo by Marshall V. King
a house, Morris said. His son, Caleb, who oversees sales and marketing, said they offer four different styles of staircases that are often put in houses costing $1 million to $4 million to build. For all the CNC machinery on the clean factory floors, it’s the people who are the focus at Viewrail. New hires make $25 an hour. Within a few months the goal is for them to be making $70,000 a year once overtime and bonuses are included. The pay structure at the company remains flat, with leaders making no more than four times the lowest-paid staff. “We don’t hire heroes. We don’t have a hero pay schedule,” Len Morris said.
automatically for employees to fill. Ryan Rittenhouse, the firm’s automation engineer, oversaw a team called “The Nerd Squad” that launched the new software in recent months. Another team dubbed “The Pit Crew” works to integrate people with developmental disabilities into the operation. Better machines don’t replace workers, but aid in growth as the people are reassigned to do other tasks. Morris emphasizes that it’s the people who drive the company, not technology. CNC machines that make parts, fancy powdercoating sprayers, and QR codes that help move parts through the process all help the people work smarter as they collaborate to ship a staircase in just 10 business days after it’s ordered. Focusing on lean production, reducing photo from Viewrail website gallery waste, and running on solar energy are all happening Senior managers are alongside everything else. Viewrail homegrown and promoted from is completing roughly 250 orders within. Caleb and his brother, a day for parts and roughly 10 Graham, work for the company. staircases for homeowners. Their younger sister Ellie, who The company wants to be sellis a teenager, is sometimes there ing to builders in the coming year. sweeping floors. Their mother, By 2027, they have a goal of Marci, retired earlier this year to having $500 million in sales. Part spend time with grandchildren. of the strategy to reach it is to find The company has to reinvent great employees, promote from itself with every 20 percent growth, within and become more involved so it’s doing so several times a year. in the Goshen community. A friend has referred to how fast “We need to continue to be he moves and how the company healthy and create value,” Morris changes at “the speed of Len.” says. A new online system allows a customer to use software to build a Marshall V. King is a writer and journalist based staircase, see it in three dimensions in northern Indiana. His book, “Disarmed: The and sign off on the order, which Radical Life and Legacy of Michael ‘MJ’ Sharp,” is is then turned into a work order being published this month by MennoMedia.
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Books in brief
Active Inquiry for Anyone Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer (PublicAffairs, 2021 272pp, $23.49 US) In the working world where numbers dominate as metrics of success — how many dollars, how many units, how fast the delivery — this book raises some critical questions. What is the human cost of the relentless drive for more packages to be delivered in less time? Are units of production and dollars in the wallets of shareholders the best measures of success? Authors David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer are not anti-math. They recognize the value of gathering and analyzing data. But they also seek to address less quantifiable elements that contribute to human flourishing, like a sense of psychological safety, social considerations, and emotional responses. To this end, they present Think Talk Create as a practical process of active inquiry. Instead of rushing to make decisions, active inquiry draws on the Socratic method: taking time to think through open-ended questions, talking them over, and creating solutions out of the dialogue. This is a fascinating book that applies active inquiry to large companies like FedEx, to the New York Islanders professional hockey team, to local business, to the work of executives and custodians, and many others. While the book is not written from a particular faith perspective, its respect for the humanity of others is certainly in keeping with loving our neighbors, and active inquiry has much to offer leaders and teams of all kinds. As the authors say in their introduction, Think Talk Create is The Marketplace January February 2022
“for anyone — regardless of what you do — who’s interested in building a better world, together.” – April Yamasaki
What Needs to Be Recalibrated? Workship: Recalibrate Work and Worship by Peter Lai (OPEN Worldwide Publishing, 2021 170pp, $16.99 US) The faith we confess on Sunday at church is meant to be the faith we live out on Monday at work. This is not a new idea, for it is grounded in the God who created both work and worship, and who is Lord of all. In Workship, author Peter Lai takes this idea further by combining work and worship as one. His point is not to prioritize one or the other, but to integrate them. With a close reading of Scripture, paying careful attention to the challenge of translating from
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one language to another, drawing lessons from farming and other storytelling, Lai makes a strong case for understanding work as a form of worship and worship as a form of work. In keeping with this vision of an integrated life, one basic question runs through his book: what needs to be recalibrated? Can we recalibrate ministry so that instead of designating some as “full-time Christian workers,” we understand that all Christians are full-time Christians? Can we recalibrate business so that we make money, bless our community, and point people to Jesus? For Lai, this is critical to reach “all the nations” before Jesus’ return (Matthew 24:14), and why he founded the OPEN Network—to equip Christian businesspeople in areas with few or no churches to bear witness to Jesus through their work. His book is written with that evangelistic intent, but it also has broad application to living faithfully as Christian businesspeople every day of the week. – April Yamasaki
Books in brief Towards action based on rational hope Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s case for hope and healing in a divided world by Katharine Hayhoe (One Signal Publishers, 2021, 308 pages, $27 US). For Katharine Hayhoe, acting in response to a changing climate is about more than preserving a better world for our children and grandchildren. She views the work as carrying out the stewardship mandate given by creator God in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Hayhoe is a Canadian Christian who is a climate scientist at Texas Tech University. She has faced much resistance when speaking to secular and faith-based groups about the need for dialogue and action around “global weirding.”
Yet talk about the subject we all must, she argues. Saving Us grew out of a TED talk that has been viewed millions of times. Hayhoe works to move the conversation on this sensitive topic past the political polarization that often accompanies the subject. Facts and guilt trips don’t work, she notes. Appealing to the heart, to shared values, is key to connecting and bonding with people who think differently about the issue, she writes. Carefully examining the different ways people do think about this topic, she provides thoughtful suggestions on how to respond. She makes a case for rational hope, a vision of a better future and the importance of love and care for our global neighbors. Programs designed to alleviate poverty can increase people’s resilience to climate impacts and
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reduce refugee crises, she writes, making connections between health, food, water, economic and justice implications of the climate issue. Saving Us is a useful guide to speaking important truths in love. - MS
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