July August 2016
Where Christian faith gets down to business
High-stakes sports
Keeping your values in a murky world It takes a team to keep us healthy Coming soon to a screen near you Special insert: How MEDA helped Morocco’s youth 1
The Marketplace July August 2016
Roadside stand
Below-radar generosity Back at work. Former MEDA president Dr. Ben Sprunger has come out of retirement to serve as interim president of Hesston (Kan.) College, effective Aug. 1. He succeeds Howard Keim who served Sprunger more than 11 years as president. Sprunger, who was MEDA’s president from 1994 to 2003, has an extensive background in higher education. He taught at Wheaton (Ill.) College and served as president of Bluffton (Ohio) College — now Bluffton University — from 1972-78. He was also president and Larry Bartel photo
A volunteer at a large ministry to homeless people told us how hard it would be to feed our city’s hungry people if it weren’t for anonymous donations from local business firms. This ministry provides free breakfast, lunch and dinner to 500 at each sitting. People driving by can see the folk lined up outside before mealtimes. But they don’t see everything. Like the delivery van from a sandwich franchise that without fanfare drops off 500 sub sandwiches every Tuesday. Or the pizza chain that brings free pizza for 500 people once a week. Or the local farmer who donates several thousand pounds of fresh produce every year. None of the donors ask for publicity; their left hands don’t know what the right is doing. One can only imagine how often this same scenario plays out in other cities across North America.
Now available:
Enchantment and Despair Montana Childhood Stories 1925 – 1937 by Calvin Wall Redekop Drought, grasshoppers, relentless toil ... enchanting skies, endless vistas, the nocturnal howl of coyotes. This is the Montana heritage of Calvin Wall Redekop — a magical world to a wide-eyed boy. Amid hardship and wonder the mutual interdependence of a homestead community impressed on Redekop the power of cooperation and the importance of the environment in human survival. Readers will be transported back to another age and, like the author, pass through despair to find themselves enchanted. Redekop, a sociologist, has taught at Hesston, Goshen, Tabor and Conrad Grebel colleges as well as the Earlham School of Religion and the University of Waterloo. He has written widely on faith and business, the sociology/theology/economics of Mennonites, and the environment.
CEO of the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges, and later created his own company, Life Skills International Consulting, Inc., which trained curriculum writers and trainers in Life Skills Drug Prevention programs in six countries. Sprunger’s Hesston appointment runs to the end of 2016 and possibly up to June 30, 2017 to allow adequate transition for the college’s next president. Name that firm. No one has researched whether a clever company name actually generates more business, but at least it offers amusement along the way. Some recent names that have crossed our screen, thanks to the Internet: • Jurassic Pork (hot dog stand) • Surelock Homes (mobile locksmith) • Pane in the Glass (window repair) • Indiana Bones Temple of Groom (dog boutique) • Lawn & Order (landscape maintenance) Senior start-ups are a thriving business force among the Freedom 55 crowd. In 2013 20 percent of new businesses were started by people 50 to 59, and 15 percent by those over 60. In Britain, 70 percent of new firms started by seniors last more than three years, compared to only 28 percent of those started by younger folk. The seeming success of “encore entrepreneurs” is attributed to their being able to think more clearly about goals and pitfalls, as well as having more social, human and financial resources. (Lyndsay Green in Ready to Retire?)
Available in ebook ($2.99), hardcover ($24.99) or paperback ($14.99) Order from: FriesenPress, Amazon, Google and most online bookstores. Order ebook from Kindle, Google Play and Nook.
The Marketplace July August 2016
2
Cover photo provided by njgphoto, iStock
In this issue
6
Staying true in a murky world
Play fair and the best team wins, right? Well, not always in the world of high-stakes sports. Marketer Pat Vendrely takes us into the trenches and shares how he keeps his ethics intact.
11
From 2008 to 2014 MEDA’s YouthInvest project helped Moroccan young people find their way in the world of commerce. This So What? insert looks at the impact of financial inclusion.
MEDA Paraguay: bricks, jobs and 20 years. Page 22
15 Departments 22 24 10 22
Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks
Pre-convention reading list
This year’s MEDA convention (Oct. 27-30 in San Antonio) features a lineup of keynoters who are all accomplished authors. To help you prepare, MEDA staff reviewed three of their books.
Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews News
16
Many hands of healing
18
Coming to a screen near you
Volume 46, Issue 4 July August 2016 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 2016 by MEDA.
A hand up for Morocco’s youth
Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106. To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org
Staying healthy takes more than doctors and nurses. Many toil behind the scenes to maintain the pulse of healing. Cardiologist/photographer Joseph Gascho honors his often-unsung compatriots.
From innovative daily work to persistent peacemaking, Mennonites have wielded influence far beyond their modest numbers. A major new video project examines their role and their future.
For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-4106
Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026. Web site www.meda.org
Visit our new online home at www.marketplacemagazine.org, where you can download past issues, read articles and discuss topics with others, all from your desktop or mobile device.
3
The Marketplace July August 2016
Hot off the what? Working for a hire cause It was every pastor’s dream — a line of 200 people outside the church, waiting to get in. This wasn’t Sunday morning, it was Thursday, and they hadn’t come for a service, but for a job. Welcome to Church Job Fairs (this one in Covina, Calif.), a faith-based effort to help churches plan and promote job recruitment events. The idea is simple, writes Sophia Lee in World magazine. “A church is meant to be a place of hope, encouragement, and love to its community. So why not host a job fair in a church and meet both physical and spiritual needs?” The concept was launched when salesman Gerhard Kramer held a pilot event in his church in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., as a form of community outreach. Forty company recruiters and hundreds of job seekers showed up. In 2014 he quit his day job to promote the concept full-time. Since then 60 events have been held in southern California churches and 10,000 people have attended, most of them unchurched. Three dozen companies had recruitment booths at the Covina event. On average nine out of 10 employers return after their first event, writes Lee. Recruiters told her they liked the “personal touch” of the Church Job Fairs. “Instead of packing everyone into the room at once — usually resulting in several job seekers queuing up to speak with one frazzled recruiter — job seekers enter in groups of about 20.” The process includes a strong religious component, such as a gospel presentation and prayer. Among the people Lee interviewed were a 57-year-old man who had lost his job of 37 years at a food plant, and a 32-year-old man who had lost his dishwashing job and had been without steady work for 18 months. A 55-year-old former carpenter who was now homeless told Lee he appreciated the prayers, which he believed were already working. He had just talked to the recruiters from a heavy equipment training school and looked forward to applying. “I’m going to school!” he told Lee. “One day I’ll be able to go down a freeway I helped build, and my kids will say, ‘My daddy did that!’”
The Marketplace July August 2016
4
The printing industry is struggling in the face of stiff competition from new technology. A bit of historical perspective may be in order as we lament the passing page. Imagine where Christian history would be if not for the invention, half a millennium ago, of movable type. Johannes Gutenberg’s invention (pictured) is the chief reason why so many people know the name Luther and not pre-print predecessors Wycliffe or Hus. Doubtless there were newly idled monks who grumbled about being displaced by a machine, just as many today gripe about handheld gizmos. Gutenberg’s new technology revolutionized Europe and made Martin Luther a household name. An explosion of books ensued. “A single working press might produce 3,600 pages a day, whereas a monk might have copied four or five,” write Armin Siedlecki and Perry Brown in Christian History magazine. The press gave Protestantism an enormous marketing boost. Now just about everyone had access to the latest religious thinking, prompting a Catholic cleric to complain that Reformation ideas had spread so feverishly that “even tailors and shoemakers ... and other simple idiots” had access to the revolutionary ideas. Luther himself professed to be stunned by how his 95 Theses flooded Europe. He wrote, six months later: “It is a mystery to me how my theses ... spread to so many places. They were meant exclusively for our academic circle here.”
The message stuck Probably every reader of this magazine has used a Post-it note. The little sort-of-sticky patches of paper were once hailed as the best new consumer product in a generation. Many readers know the notes had their beginning in a church choir. Well, part of their origin, anyway. Equally important was an enlightened corporate policy at the 3M corporation that other companies may want to adopt. It was a Sunday in 1974, and Art Fry was singing in the choir at his Presbyterian church in St. Paul, Minn. He had marked the pages of his hymnal with scraps of paper, but they kept fluttering out. Fry, a researcher in product development at 3M, suddenly remembered an adhesive that had been discovered years earlier by another 3M scientist. The adhesive was weird. It was strong enough to hold, yet easily removed. Fry realized in a flash that this “un-glue” adhesive might be just what he and other choir members needed. Luckily, his company had a policy called “bootlegging,” which allowed scientists to spend up to 15 percent of their work time on discretionary projects. The policy wasn’t just corporate altruism. Shrewd bosses knew that people work hardest on things close to their heart, or in this case, hymnal. Fry set to work. For 18 months he experimented with what are now ubiquitous self-sticking slips of paper that can be removed and repositioned without a trace. The marketing department still needed to be persuaded that consumers would pay extra for glorified scratch paper. Fry persisted and 3M struck gold by meeting a previously unperceived need. Today, Post-it notes are found on millions of office walls, computer screens and refrigerators. An industry magazine commended 3M’s recipe for success: “Art Fry was not only allowed but encouraged to set aside some of his assigned work to pursue a goofy idea in which only he could see value.” The company’s creed of “never say ‘never’ to a person with passion and an idea” paid off — handsomely. And Art Fry never lost his place in choir again. Overheard:
Plan now for Labor Day [Psst. Don’t read this unless you are a worship planner.] It’s a bit early to talk about Labor Day but not so much for worship planners, for whom it’s just around the corner. Here are some Labor Day Sunday (Sept. 4) tips for how to affirm and celebrate the Monday-toFriday activities of your members. • Plan “workplace testimonies” where selected members explain “How I connect Sunday and Monday.” • Many churches commission people for mission work or voluntary service. Why not do the same for Tom the techie or Rita the receptionist? • If you have a church newsletter, devote the Labor Day issue to anecdotes featuring members’ jobs. • Organize a display titled “Our dispersed church” showing photos of members at work or where retired members used to work. • Invite members to show up at church wearing their usual work garb to illustrate the diverse cultures the congregation penetrates every week. • Use “tools of the trade” for a worship display, or a showcase of goods and services put forth by members during the week. • Put a sign above the main exit door that says “Service Entrance.” Make sure it’s posted on the inside, not the outside. That way it’s the last thing worshipers see as they leave, reminding them that they are heading out into the world to spend the next week as ministers.
“If you want to be a great company, think about what social problem you could solve.” — Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba
5
The Marketplace July August 2016
Staying true in a murky world How a global sports marketer survives with ethics intact
T
hey call it the Beautiful Game, but the image of international soccer has taken some nasty hits. Lurid headlines allege scandal, like paying bribes to fix a game, sway a vote on where to host a championship match, or corner the market on uniforms and footwear. Sports marketer Pat Vendrely (a MEDA board member) lives in this swirling world. His Chicago-based company, TGI Systems, is a global leader in sports signage, decor and branding. If you watch a soccer match you’ll see his bright electronic graphics and dazzling perimeter signs. In hockey, it might be the sponsor ads on the dasher boards. In baseball it could be the outfield walls. There’s little about the world of professional sports he doesn’t see. The Marketplace July August 2016
Even its corruption. He knows what it’s like to lose a contract because someone beat him out with an under-the-table payment. He knows people who have “worn wires” or now “wear ankle bracelets.” He also understands — though does not condone — why the stakes are so tempting. The money is eye-popping. Global soccer sponsorships can go for $50 million to $500 million; television rights for $1.7 billion. Total global sports marketing revenue? $150 billion a year.
When he started out Vendrely’s goals were modest. Planning to teach in athletics, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in education from Goshen College and a master’s from Indiana University. Then he was drawn to the organizational side and worked for national amateur bodies 6
who oversaw U.S. teams in international competitions. He also got involved with the Federation International Football Associations, known as FIFA. He became commercial director of the U.S. Soccer Federation, working on event production in areas like sponsorship, television, licensing and contract review. In 1997 he left to start TGI Systems, which would specialize in producing, installing and managing large-format graphics and advertising systems for sports. “In my way-out dreams, I wanted to provide the signage for the world’s greatest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup,” he says. He got the contract for Major League Soccer’s expansion team, the Chicago Fire. Then he won a fouryear contract for project manage-
ment, design and logistics for FIFA’s perimeter sponsorship ad boards. TGI Systems grew into one of the most wide-reaching marketing and event signage companies in the sporting world, including English Premier League soccer, the NCAA and the FIFA World Cups (2006, 2010 and 2014). In arranging a thousand or so international sporting events he has traveled to 175 cities in 60 countries on five continents. He downplays the global glamour. “It’s like a vacation, work and a Goshen College Study-
and square and the best team wins, right?” He would learn otherwise. Like the time he bid $12 million on a contract and the next lowest bid was $22 million. It seemed like a sure thing, but then suddenly the other guys were down to $14 million. “Something smells funny here,” Vendrely told a soccer official. “I was pretty sure we were $10 million apart; now suddenly it’s only $2 million.” In the end, “somebody’s relative” got the contract.
Pat Vendrely has been called a softie who will go the second mile. “I never give up on anybody. I never burn a bridge.”
Service Term (SST) all rolled into one,” he says, referring fondly to cross-cultural lessons from his undergrad semester in Central America. As he landed one solid contract after another, a good friend from international football said, “You are probably the only guy ever to win a FIFA contract who didn’t have to pay someone.” “I was naïve,” Vendrely says. “The thought had never entered my mind. At that point I had not been exposed to any kind of corruption or illegal payments. It was not part of my mindset. I was taught to play fair
“Economic influences are always part of a decision,” Vendrely says. “There is always some relatedness to decisions that don’t seem logical!”
This spring Vendrely ad-
dressed the Lancaster, Pa., MEDA chapter about how he strives to stay true to his values while growing his
“I was taught to play fair and square and the best team wins, right?” 7
business in a murky moral climate. He cited MEDA’s international policy framework as a positive example. He noted that its definition of fraud and corruption covers intentional deception, theft or misappropriation of MEDA assets, false claims for payments or reimbursement, accepting or offering a bribe or accepting gifts or other favors that could influence an employee’s decision-making. Values of integrity, transparency and accountability were well articulated. “MEDA promotes an organizational culture which encourages the prevention of fraud and corruption by raising awareness of the need for the highest standards of personal conduct,” he said. He noted the value of having a clearly articulated written policy. “I bet every employee in any of the many countries where MEDA works knows this policy exists,” he said. This wouldn’t guarantee immunity from corruption (as MEDA has found, despite its vigilance), but “naming it and talking about it is the best place to start.” Vendrely said this was missing in the culture in which he works. “The stories about my business circles are a result of not having policies, not having stated policies with written procedures,” he said. Instead, his world had a shady underside, unaddressed by written policies, which could lead to “envelope deals.” In the chapter presentation and in a subsequent interview Vendrely spoke further about the roots and results of corruption. Is it as bad as the media suggest? Some discrepancies are a product of different ways of doing business, says Vendrely. Checks and balances can vary from region to region. In some countries, unlike in the U.S., money is taxed the moment it flows into a bank account. Shrewd operators can find ways to avoid paying such tax, such as by having a U.S. account. “A lot of my friends use U.S. credit cards for all their transactions. I don’t know if that’s right or The Marketplace July August 2016
wrong, but it’s different. Some are afraid their government will nationalize the banks and take their money.” How about paying bribes to “fix” the outcome of a game? “I know guys who had conversations with referees. It’s so easy to throw a game. It just takes one or two guys to slip or dive. When a critical match ends up seven to one, when last time they played it
A clear written policy won’t guarantee immunity from corruption but “naming it and talking about it is the best place to start.” was zero-zero, something smells funny. Yeah, teams sometimes just fall apart, but when you realize that a star player didn’t play because he was mysteriously sick, you start to wonder.” He names another key player who was out with a serious ailment, then suddenly recovered. “You look at this and you think, maybe there’s threats on their lives.” Vendrely knows of companies managing to control the value chain, such as benefitting from the construction and/or transportation contracts. He names one executive who was indicted for being an exclusive provider controlling tickets and travel packages (basically what we call a monopoly and have laws prohibiting, but in that particular country not unreal). Is it true that countries will offer incentives to win the location for a major event? “Absolutely,” says Vendrely. Lower on the star spectrum, payments might be made to give an upand-coming player a fleeting moment in the sun. The Marketplace July August 2016
Pat Vendrely’s business plays on a big pitch, like this one in Britain.
“I know for a fact that agents will beg and plead with national team coaches — ‘please try my player for the national team. I’ll give you a third of whatever I make on it.’ What does the coach do? He thinks, ‘Well, this is easy. I just call him into training camp and put him in a game for seven minutes and I make a couple of hundred grand.’ All of a sudden this young guy goes from a $200,000 player to a million-dollar player because he’s played twice for his national team. “It happens more often than you realize.” Have you lost jobs because other 8
guys paid bribes? “I wouldn’t say often. It’s probably happened to me five or 10 times. “In one case there was a guy, a friend, who would never give me any work. Why? I really think he was getting a kickback from one of my competitors. In another case, a company that was competing with us offered a key decision maker a week’s vacation in the Cayman Islands with his family. That relatively small incentive can make a difference as to who gets the contract.” Is soccer more vulnerable to corruption than other sports? “No, I don’t think so. It’s in every
sport,” he says, pointing to “deflategate” and stolen play calling signs in the National Football League. Even Major League Baseball? “Why,” Vendrely asks rhetorically, “does the pitcher cover his face with his glove during the mound meeting? Because he knows some competitors employ lipreaders to see if they can pick up and relay a clue to what’s coming next. I’m serious. When there’s so much money on the line, winning is everything.” How should we respond? “How should we work with, or around, corruption? Turn tail and flee? I have chosen to work in and around this ‘crucible,’ sometimes knowing, sometimes being very, very naïve. “I struggle with our ‘passive response,’ how we interpret turning the other cheek. I’m not advocating that we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of but ‘being the quiet in the land’ is easily interpreted as avoidance. I think we should never be afraid to associate with others, even if they may be corrupt. “I believe we are called, as Christians, to work with everyone. We cannot always pick and choose. My view is, don’t run from it; it is an opportunity to be a change agent. After all, the Great Commission in Matthew 28 calls us to go into all the world. “So run your ethical business, even in a corrupt world. Be that agent, that witness, in your church, in your community, wherever that may be. That is your marketplace, the place you are called to serve. “We are called to be different, called to be radical in our marketplace.” How can we be different? “A month or two after the first hailstorm of arrests I
“We are called, as Christians, to work with everyone. We cannot always pick and choose.” reached out to one of the indicted guys to see how he was doing. He worked with an agency that participated in payments to predict outcomes. When this all went down he had to wear an ankle bracelet and stay home. I always thought he was a very successful professional; now I found out why — he was buying the results. And he is forever tainted in the industry that he worked in for 20+ years. “I did not distance myself from him, but picked up the phone and called him. One of the first things he said was ‘Pat, you really know who
your friends are as you go through a situation like this. I’m surprised how many people unfriended me on Facebook.’ “It had never entered my mind to completely drop someone because they’ve been arrested. Here’s an opportunity for ministry. Not that I am one of his best friends, but I think we have a responsibility to show compassion to everyone. We may not agree with their behavior and business practices, but when the guy was down, he just needed to talk to someone.”
Low and outside “I am a competitor. I really love challenges. I like the thrill of competition. I was in grad school when In Search of Excellence was big. I truly want to be the best at what I do, whether it’s cash flow, a contract, or a more efficient process. I just want to show everybody that we’re smarter at TGI Systems. I can hit the fastball low and outside,” he says, referring to one of baseball’s toughest pitches. That said, he has been called a softie who will go the second mile with an employee. “I never give up on anybody. I never burn a bridge. “I think I can be a difference, a witness. Maybe we’re called to interject our values into these situations rather than run from them. What would Jesus do?” Vendrely doesn’t usually bring evangelism into a sales pitch, “but in every situation I try to apply my faith values so that every interaction I have with people glorifies God. It doesn’t happen very often, but once in a while the people sitting on the other side of the meeting room say, ‘There’s something different about you. We trust you.’ And that’s when I know I’m doHard work has its rewards, like taking a break from ofing my job well.” ◆ ficial duties on Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro. 9
The Marketplace July August 2016
Reviews
A how-to guide for business and life Right Away & All at Once: Five Steps to Transform Your Business and Enrich Your Life. By Greg Brenneman (Rosettabooks, 2016, 240 pp. $26 U.S. $33 Cdn.)
G
reg Brenneman’s book is both a “how-to” book and an autobiography. The son of Howard and Sharon Brenneman, the author grew up in Hesston, Kan., where his father was president of Hesston Corporation. Brenneman learned the value of hard work early. By the third grade he held a paying job and by the summer of his junior year in high school was putting in 18-hour days mowing lawns, delivering office furniture, and baling and stacking hay. He went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School and joined Bain & Company, became a partner at age 30 and a board member soon thereafter. Brenneman first earned his business bona fides as a turnaround genius at Continental Airlines. Working first as a consultant with Bain and then becoming the airline’s president and chief operating officer at age 33, he along with Gordon Bethune are credited with one of the most stunning corporate turnarounds in American business. Continental in the early 1990s ranked last of the 10 largest U.S. airlines in key customer service areas as measured by the Department of Transportation including on-time arrivals, baggage handling and customer complaints. Under Brenneman’s leadership and a “five steps” roadmap, the airline became number one and returned to profitability. He used this same process at Burger King, PwC Consulting and other companies. Today Brenneman is chair, president and CEO of the private equity firm CCMP. The critical first step in his The Marketplace July August 2016
process is to develop one-page documents called Go Forward plans for the company. This “helps you to begin with the end in mind. It permits you to say with utter clarity, ‘this is where we want to be three years from now with our company.’ In a powerfully succinct way, it lays out how we intend to get ‘there’.” Real-life examples show how this discipline has been used to turn around companies in crisis as well as those that are “satisfactorily underperforming” (appearing healthy but performing far below full capability). While the book aims to help leaders “to transform your business and enrich your life,” its real genius is how the “enrich your life” part is effectively integrated. Brenneman outlines how he uses a parallel “five steps” discipline and Go Forward plan for himself. Much of his writing reflects deep Christian faith without being “preachy.” Guided by five Fs — Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness and Finance — he outlines how you can “transform and enrich your life.” Rather than working at work/life balance, the reader is encouraged to develop work/life integration. The foundation of a personal Go Forward plan is what Brenneman calls “Choose Freedom” and includes five rules for financial freedom which he considers essential for a rewarding and fulfilling life. One of the rules is 10
“always include a minimum of 10 percent savings and 10 percent giving.” Giving is a recurring theme with an emphasis on the less fortunate. This is underscored by citing Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and Christian Scriptures on helping the poor. “They all urge their fellow human beings to reach out to the less fortunate and provide whatever help they can. It’s one of the very few universals you’ll find in our fractured world.” Themes of generosity and stewardship that permeate much of the personal portion of the book reflect values instilled by his Mennonite parents and the Hesston community. Generosity means more than giving 10 percent, as some of Brenneman’s most satisfying gifts include time and mentoring young married couples, who he and his wife Ronda invite to a weekend retreat every year. This holistic approach of time and talent is particularly powerful. Throughout the book are tributes to people who have influenced the author. Mentors include his father, George H. W. Bush and Paul Friesen, who was his pastor during his early years. The tribute to Friesen, well known as an accomplished potter, is particularly warm and recognizes someone who he sees as his “North Star.” Anyone who is running a business or trying to live a more meaningful life will find this candid “howto” autobiography extremely helpful and potentially life-changing. — JB MIller JB Miller recently retired to his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, after a 24-year career at Everence.
So What?
July August 2016
Welcome to So What?, a periodic look at MEDA’s long-term impact around the world. What really changed as a result of our development efforts? What got better for young people and communities? This issue looks at MEDA’s involvement in YouthInvest, which operated in Morocco from 2008 to 2014.
Morocco youth:
Navigating seas of commerce
M
dream. When a nearby institution began offering a program called YouthInvest, Mohammed was quick to sign up. Many of his neighbors were not as fortunate. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), more than 100 million young people — a third of the region’s population — are either underemployed or lack jobs entirely. Less than 13 percent of them have bank accounts, and a scant five percent have taken credit. That’s why organizations like MEDA have come to see “financial inclusion” as a critical lever for sustainable economic development. The following article describes a MEDA “intervention” that operated in the region from
ohammed, in his late teens, lived in the Moroccan port city of Nador along the Mediterranean coast. He had a job on a fishing boat but dreamt of having a fishing enterprise of his own. He was lucky to be able to read and write, which would help him utilize the special training he desired. He hoped to also become financially literate so he could navigate not only the waters of the Mediterranean but also the choppy waters of commerce. A savings nest-egg and a start-up loan would help him acquire his own boat. The resourceful youth had an idea how to launch his
YouthInvest at a glance The overall goal was to create inclusive financial services and work-oriented training for Moroccan youth, especially those living in underserved rural areas. This involved two thrusts: (1) devising business-related training to encourage youth entrepreneurship skills, and (2) helping existing microfinance institutions (MFIs) to develop innovative products for these potential clients. Until recently, MFIs have not focused on them, partly due to perceived risks of serving young people who lacked collateral or work experience. “The area of financial services for youth is in its infancy,” said MEDA president Allan Sauder when announcing the program. “The MasterCard Foundation and MEDA agree that by taking a youth-centered view and working with leading microfinance institutions, we will create a new standard for financial services to youth, which we can share with the industry.” A goal from the start was to document findings and build a business case to encourage MFIs in other countries to view youth as an attractive client population. b 11
The Marketplace July August 2016
2008 to 2014 and has brought hope to more than 60,000 young people.
What we did
Fabled Morocco, country of ancient intrigue and mythic Casablanca, was the site of an ambitious MEDA venture to boost financial literacy and entrepreneurship among the burgeoning youth population. It aimed to train young people — who compose 30 percent of the population of 32 million — in the ways of business and help local microfinance institutions (MFIs) devise youth-centered financial products to better serve them. The project ran from 2008 to 2014. Its $5 million cost was underwritten primarily by The MasterCard Foundation, which has a long commitment to bolstering the fortunes of global youth.
How we did it
MEDA sought to partner with leading banks, MFIs and training organizations to develop youth-friendly financial products and training services geared to youth aged 15 to 30. From
By the end of the training, young entrepreneurs like the man on the right were equipped to start a new business or improve one they already had.
the outset it wanted to help these organizations grasp the benefits of working with youth and design appropriate products, such as savings for education or loans to start a business.
Traction came early It didn’t take long for the project to show positive results. By the end of the first year participants showed sharply improved financial literacy. Many had found jobs and were earning more. Almost all had opened savings accounts. Other results: • Youth were grasping the importance of saving, had begun to set goals for themselves and were using their savings accounts to plan for achieving them. • Employment and income rose. A quarter of participants were working, nearly double the number at the beginning. This showed that youths were gaining confidence to knock on employers’ doors. A third of the new jobs came from self-employment as students put into practice the entrepreneurial skills they learned from the training. • Youth were better prepared to enter the workforce through strengthened personal and professional development. Most reported better attitudes and outlook on life. Among the majority who opened savings accounts, 28 percent said they planned to use the money to start a business or improve an existing business. Respondents said the program helped them with accounting, marketing, customer relations, savings and credit, personal skills, and understanding how to start a business. Mohamed Lamrani, who runs an appliance repair shop in a village in eastern Morocco, said the program taught him basic budgeting and the value of advertising. “Now, I place samples of materials to repair outside my shop,” he said, “and I have made an advertising poster which I hang outside, on the door of the store. The advertising has had a large impact on people.” b The Marketplace July August 2016
12
A student (left) makes a deposit in his new account. Banks learned the value of creating youth-friendly financial products.
An immediate task was to connect with the formal banking system, which didn’t previously cater to young people who haven’t set down roots and aren’t known as savers. An early victory was to persuade a large bank to offer a special savings product adapted to youth, enabling them to open a bank account. The hope was to help establish a savings mentality among youth. YouthInvest designed loans specially tailored to youth over 18 who wanted to start small businesses, ranging from raising goats to a small academy to train hairdressers. It aimed to help MFIs study youth financing and determine financial needs and to train trainers and loan officers to service this under-reached segment. This filled a gaping void in the offerings of MFIs, who were not equipped to meet the needs of youth
and who in fact regarded them as too unstable and mobile. The other prong of the strategy was to develop special training materials. At the core was a curriculum titled “100 Hours to Success.” It featured 108 hours of instruction which young people could take over three to six months: (1) general financial education; (2) entrepreneurial skills; and (3) life skills, meaning “soft skills” like communication and working in groups. By the time they were finished, the young people were equipped to improve whatever business they already had, start a new business, or improve their current employment prospects. The final goal was for them to open a business or find a job. To that end the project arranged with companies to offer one-month internships to those who completed the YouthInvest program. Mid-way through the project YouthInvest began working more intensively on product development with MFI partners who were not as involved in the project from the start and thus did not “own,” or internalize, project objectives as thoroughly as MEDA would have envisioned.
The goal of the “100 Hours to Success” training was to equip young people to find a job or open a new business of their own.
What we achieved
By the end of the project, 63,807 youth and MFI staff had been served.
Students were trained in “soft skills” like communication and working in groups.
“This means huge numbers of Moroccan youth are now prepared to enter the labor market as entrepreneurs or employees,” says Jennifer Denomy, MEDA’s director of Youth Economic Opportunities. “The financial services and training they received will help them begin their lives as economically active members of their households and communities.” The numbers bore this
Tangier Portugal
Spain
Morocco
28,812 youth trained 23,362 youth linked to savings
Rabat Casablanca
Algeria
Marrakech
2,110 youth linked to a youth-friendly loan 8,868 youth loan renewals after MFIs received customer service training 13
The Marketplace July August 2016
out. A majority of participants (77 percent) reported an increase in their incomes because of the project. Almost all benefitted from the savings component. When the project started, only 19 percent of the youth had savings accounts. This grew to 96 percent. Said one, “When I save at Financial institutions gained a better picture of the potential of young entrepreneurs. Instead of seehome I spend ing them as risky they began to see them as productive players in their country’s economy. my money easily because it’s always at hand, but rose from 83 percent at the beginning those who did not. when it’s in the bank I take out my to 93 percent upon completion. Studies also showed that youth money only when I really need it.” Institutions discovered significant (especially females) who completed Youth kept savings accounts the training gained more control over value in targeting the youth sector. open even three years after the train“MEDA successfully showed MFIs their finances. Two-thirds of young ing had ended. Extensive follow-up that youth are not inherently riskier women said at the beginning of the studies showed that, compared to training that they were able to decide than adult clients, and that youthother young people in the region, friendly loan products could enhance how to use their money. By the end those who took the MEDA training of the training this figure had risen to a strong portfolio,” says Denomy. had larger savings balances than After receiving training on customer 85 percent. Among males, this figure service, 98 percent of MFI staff reported having a better understanding of why youth are important. “The MFIs convincingly learned that once a young person has access to apA yardstick MEDA uses to gauge success is if a project is sustainable, propriate financial services, they are measurable, replicable and scalable. loyal clients, more likely to remain Sustainable — MEDA found that after taking a loan, youth continued with the bank or MFI that they first to invest in their businesses and plan for the future. As they acquired joined.” assets and grew their businesses, they became more experienced and atRigorous evaluations confirmed tractive clients to financial service providers. that the 100 Hours training scratched Measurable — MEDA’s monitoring systems measured youth training where many youth itched. “It boostoutcomes as well as satisfaction, access and usage rates in both savings ed financial inclusion and increased and credit products. Partner agencies’ tracking indicators showed the positive future orientation of youth,” benefit of youth-friendly financial services and strategies. says Denomy. Replicable — MEDA applied the YouthInvest model to projects in Youth unemployment is still a Yemen and Nigeria, replicating the model of appropriate, youth-friendly huge issue, but thanks to YouthInfinancial products alongside youth-appropriate training. Further, it disvest, Moroccan youth are no longer tilled its learnings into toolkits available to MFIs and NGOs working in as trapped in a downward spiral of youth financial inclusion. financial and social exclusion, she Scalable — Three partner MFIs now can leverage their new organiadds. Youth feel more empowered to zational capacity and loan product design expertise to scale their youthseek out and even create economic friendly loan products nationwide. b opportunities for themselves. b
Measures of success
Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates
The Marketplace July August 2016
Canada: 155 Frobisher Dr., Ste. I-106, Waterloo, ON N2V 2E1 U.S.A.: 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106 Europe: Heinrich‑Schütz‑Str. 12a, 56566 Neuwied, Germany 14
Visit our website: www.meda.org E-mail us at: meda@meda.org or call our toll-free number: 1-800-665-7026
A Convention 2016 reading sampler You’ve saved the date for MEDA’s convention, Oct. 27-30 in San Antonio. Now you can get a headstart on the theme — “Women Changing the World” — from books by the keynote speakers. (For more go to medaconvention.org)
attitudes and governmental responses. The power of the experiences and the women’s voices will stay with you. — Reviewed by Virginia Appell, who works in MEDA’s Waterloo office as senior program manager, integrated support services, gender
tion planning and chapters
Sally Armstrong, winner of three Amnesty International Canada media awards and author of Ascent of Women: Our turn, our way — a remarkable story of worldwide change
Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner, EMU graduate and author of Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
R
ews reports on the two civil wars in Liberia between 1989 and 2003 documented the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and thousands of people displaced by the conflict. In this book Leymah Gbowee gives a face to this conflict, to which so few people in the west paid any mind. Hers is “an African women’s story,” a kind that is “rarely told” — and you need to hear it. Gbowee’s vulnerable, heartwrenching narrative is one of personal struggle, a nation in crisis, and a “sisterhood that transcended the power of guns.” Her story compels us to deeply consider the complex realities of trauma and war through an intimate portrait of life in a nation in conflict. She reminds us that women are “experts” in their communities and are key to preventing conflict and building peace; this is because both the victims and the victimizers are their children. For Leymah and her Liberian sisters, peace was the only way to survive, and they fought to build it. If you care about Africa, conflict resolution or peace-building, read this book! — Reviewed by Allison Nafziger, who works in MEDA’s Lancaster office as an administrator, including conven-
ara Wenger Shenk looks at how 56 young adults are incorporating childhood experiences of faith and church into who they are today. Composed of interviews with people aged 20-29, the book shares how young adults learn to make meaning in ways that sustain a worthy adult life and how they shape a way of life within a community of belonging. Wenger Shenk heard a “longing for the experience of a spirituality that invites us towards becoming whole…a longing to know God as active in all things and as the undercurrent and overarching pattern to all we do.” These young adults feel the Jesus story is “the most compelling narrative for informing a way of life and a worldview that is sufficient for the questions and crises of this time and place.” They want church to incorporate their energy, gifts and leadership. They value church for the “good stuff,” but also want it to be open to change. Young adult participation in church in general has decreased in the 10 years since the book was written. Meanwhile, the Mennonite Church is struggling with LGBTQ inclusion and theology. Would today’s young adults express the same feelings of commitment to the church and desire to be involved? — Reviewed by Carol EbyGood, a manager in MEDA’s Lancaster office with special responsibility for convention planning
ead Sally Armstrong’s book for two reasons. Read it to learn about the unending variety of ways, in countries around the world, that some men — and some states — use to constrict, harass, murder, neglect and abuse girls and women. But read the book, too, to be encouraged by the numerous ways women and men have arisen to protest and to demand structural change in social mindsets and in legal and religious systems that harm girls and women. Each chapter recounts a personal experience, which is then linked with wider efforts to change constitutional and legal frameworks. The survivors’ accounts are terrible: sexual abuse as an act of war or genocide; social stigma for the victims and the effects on survivors of legal systems that punish women for being victimized. Armstrong’s tone is ultimately hopeful because she has seen the vitality, strength and intelligence of women’s and men’s efforts around the world to hold states responsible for protecting women’s rights. She believes the tide has turned, that new ways of responding — social media, in particular — are changing
N
15
Sara Wenger Shenk, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and author of Thank You for Asking: Conversing with Young Adults about the Future Church
S
The Marketplace July August 2016
Many hands of healing
R
estoring health takes more than physicians and nurses. It takes a team of people, many behind the scenes. As a cardiologist, Dr. Joseph Gascho knows and values the colleagues who help make up the healing chain. Besides his “day job” as professor of medicine and humanities at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, he is also an accomplished photographer. He recently celebrated members of his extended team in a photo exhibit at his congregation, Community Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pa. The subjects, who all work at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, carry out tasks that are part of the chain of healing — from cleaning to security to driving the hospital shuttle bus. In the text accompanying his photos, Gascho wrote: “What one usually sees in prominent hallways in hospitals are portraits of the department heads, founding physi-
The Marketplace July August 2016
16
cian fathers and mothers, and board presidents. Important as these persons are, hospitals would not be able to care for anyone without the persons who register patients, clean the floors, keep the air conditioners cooling, transport people from parking garages to front doors and patients from rooms to laboratories, chip off peeling paint, and feed visitors in cafeterias. “These portraits emphasize the importance of such persons working in these supporting roles — in the same attire as that of people traditionally featured on the walls of hospitals. Each person holds an object symbolic of the vital job she or he does.” Gascho also paid tribute to his father, who many years ago moved his family east from Nebraska so young Joseph could get an education. “He worked as a maintenance worker at Eastern Mennonite College, for 75 cents/ hour,” wrote Gascho. “Seldom was he told that what he did was of any consequence.” That is not the case with Gascho’s compatriots, whose daily toil reflects their role in God’s circle of healing. ◆
1717
The Marketplace July August 2016
Coming — to a screen near you Major video project to probe Mennonite fabric in North American life
Y
ou may not know the term “business pacifism.” Filmmaker Burton Buller does, and he plans to note some of it — and much more — in a new documentary about Mennonites in America. Buller explains that in 1896 the inventor of dynamite left a will establishing the Nobel prizes, including one for peace. In 1910 industrialist Andrew Carnegie gave $10 million to found the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. How did pacifism suddenly become popular among the business class? “Dead men buy no clothes,” a garment tycoon said in 1907. In any case, “business pacifism became a first principle of the Gilded Age,” says Buller. Business is only a thin slice of Buller’s ambitious project. He is using his extensive experience as a writer, filmmaker and analyst of Mennonite life to develop a two-hour documentary tentatively titled The Mennonites: A People Apart. It is a joint project of his company, Buller Films LLC, and the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society (ACRS), associated with Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va. “We want to open a window into one of America’s more insular religious groups,” says Buller.
When Mennonites arrived
in America several centuries ago they brought with them a strong sense of community built around a shared The Marketplace July August 2016
belief system and a firm pacifism, he the affairs of the church. By re-bapsays. “As a result they have been and tizing themselves they denounced remain outliers in American society, the state’s claim on their lives — and choosing to varying degrees just how invited torture and martyrdom. much they allow American culture They became known for their defenselessness in the face of perseto infiltrate their communities. Some Mennonites today still drive a horse cution. Their refusal to retaliate and take human life made them targets of and buggy to their meeting houses on Sunday. Others embrace nearly all social and state violence. But it also gave them an influforms of technology and have become business and politience that for cencal leaders while continuturies belied their ing to identify with their small numbers. faith communities. Some scholars credit “This documentary them with foreshadwill look at the contribuowing the separations this small, seemingly tion of church and insignificant group has state, which enabled made to American society, democracies to from helping transform emerge and become the Great Plains into a enshrined in the bread basket to showConstitution of the ing compassion to those United States. who lost homes to natural “Mennonites disasters to revolutionhave been the most Filmmaker Burton Buller izing mental health care. creative in their as pictured in the proConversely, it will also peace witness durgram booklet of the examine how living in ing times of war,” Montreal World Film America has influenced notes Buller. “The Festival where he served Mennonite faith and life war eras also precipon a jury that awarded and even reshaped Menitated the greatest an ecumenical prize. nonite self-identity to changes in the way where some wonder how long it can Mennonites viewed themselves and survive the corrosive effect of contheir relationships with the broader temporary culture.” society. We want to examine how war pressures reshaped Mennonite The Mennonite religious nar- faith and life, creating a uniquely rative is well known and documented. American Mennonite identity.” At the height of the Protestant Reformation (1525) Anabaptists in Europe A highly visible contribution insisted that the state not interfere in has been to create institutions that 18
embody core Mennonite values. Mennonite Central Committee grew from feeding dislocated Mennonites in Russia to administering alternative service programs through which young Mennonites could serve the world. Mennonite Disaster Service gave Mennonites a reputation as first-responders to natural disasters, mucking out flooded houses, cleaning up after tornadoes and forest fires, and rebuilding homes. As Mennonites moved from farms to business and professions, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) harnessed their energies to create business solutions to poverty around the world, while also modeling daily work as a platform for Christian service. Mennonite conscientious objectors who worked in American mental institutions in lieu of military service were shocked by the substandard conditions they saw. They formed Mennonite Men-
From innovative daily work to persistent peacemaking Mennonites have wielded influence far beyond their numbers. tal Health Services which created a chain of facilities offering compassionate care and sparked reforms across the U.S. “We want to explore how this new consciousness impacted not only how Mennonites saw themselves, but how men and women began to impact the broader society,” Buller says.
Mennonites helped entrench conscientious objection in rule of law, regardless of religious affiliation. They fleshed out the meaning of peace beyond non-participation in
Burton Buller and wife Mary film a scene for the documentary, Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness.
war, and became known for restorative justice and redemptive victim/ offender relationships. Howard Zehr’s book, Changing Lenses, widened the dialogue on criminal justice and is now used by U.S. courts and schools. Other contributions will be duly noted and explored, says Buller. For example, agricultural contributions went well beyond the celebrated introduction of Turkey Red winter wheat brought from Russia by 1870s immigrants. Mennonite colleges regularly make it onto national rankings, their professors known for expanding the world of ideas. Mennonites have made major contributions to community building, as well as to choral singing and to folk art through their quilting and fraktur.
“We want to explore how this diverse group came to embrace both horses and automobiles, and the difficulty they experience by holding countervailing views on allegiance and warfare,” says Buller. What will it mean to be an Anabaptist Mennonite in the future? he asks. What new ingredients will be thrown into the cultural mix? Will what Mennonites have to offer be so diluted that their presence will go mostly unnoticed? Will the Menno19
nite salt have lost its savor? Or will the meaning of Anabaptist Mennonite be redefined for the coming age and remain a prophetic voice in culture? “Mennonites sometimes have had trouble recognizing how cultural and sociological events have shaped who they’ve become,” says ACRS steering committee member Cal Redekop. “This documentary should help clarify that.”
The film project recently
received a $20,000 grant from the Schowalter Foundation, Newton, Kan., to research and script the documentary. Lee M. Yoder, chair of ACRS, says this and other contributions puts them more than two-thirds of the way to meeting the goal of $100,000 for phase one of the project. When the script is completed in 2017, production and distribution partners will be secured. The high definition video is expected to be broadcast across North America through conventional channels as well as social media platforms. More information can be found at www.themennonitesfilm.com. Or e-mail burton@themennonitesfilm. com. ◆ The Marketplace July August 2016
Night market, MEDA-style
Photos by Nate Bergey
Vendors offered crafts and tastes from around the world.
Visitors partied until one in the morning.
F
or one exciting evening in early June the festive “night market” phenomenon touched down in eastern Pennsylvania and showcased the global reach of MEDA’s mission to create business solutions to poverty. Night markets are all the rage in many Asian countries and elsewhere. When the sun goes down, locals find their way to party-like venues to stroll, meet friends and knosh on street foods. On June 4 more than 2,000 people swarmed MEDA’s first World Night Market, which lit up a shopping center in Souderton, Pa. The Marketplace July August 2016
from dusk to the wee hours. MEDA’s display table (with raw cassava tubers in foreground) provided insights into projects. Ten tents, each featuring a “MEDA country,” pulsed with project. energy as visitors took in music from More than 20 area sponsors and local bands, watched a soccer toura hundred local and international nament and listened to live Skype volunteers highlighted ongoing partcalls with MEDA projects in Ghana, nerships between the local commuUkraine and Myanmar. Global flavors nity and the global MEDA family. As the night wound down, and aromas hung in the air as visivisitors left with satisfied appetites, tors sampled cuisine from around lively memories and a better grasp the world. The Tanzania tent, for of MEDA’s commitment to economic example, offered plantain chips and empowerment around the world. ◆ information about MEDA’s cassava 20
21
The Marketplace July August 2016
News
MEDA Paraguay marks 20 years MEDA Paraguay, a local offshoot that emerged out of the same soil that produced MEDA more than six decades ago, celebrated its 20th anniversary this spring. A group of 70 people, including several members of the MEDA board and staff, got together in Asuncion for a festive dinner and speeches. MEDA Paraguay was formed by 26 Mennonite businesspeople on April 18, 1996. The vision was two-pronged. Like many MEDA chapters in North America, MEDA Paraguay sought to promote ethical business behavior and reach out to those in poverty. Much of its work has been developing four factories to produce commercial starch from manioc (cassava), a popular tuber grown in Paraguay. Many smallholder farmers grow manioc for their own food needs, and often have some left over which can be turned into starch that MEDA board chair Bert Friesen displays a new strain of manioc being tested for better quality and quantity.
Last year APICSA processed 40,000 kilograms of honey purchased from smallholder beekeepers. The Marketplace July August 2016
22
Comments?
has industrial uses. The enterprise, known as CODIPSA, last year produced 29,500 metric tons of starch, and has become the largest such producer in Paraguay. The plants employ 162 people and provide a market for more than 2,000 smallholder farmers. CODIPSA also operates greenhouses to produce better quality and disease-resistant manioc. Two other current projects are production of honey and bricks. APICSA buys raw honey from small apiarists and processes it for the commercial market. Last year it Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org
MEDA vice-chair Tim Penner enjoys a traditional Paraguayan yerbe beverage.
produced 40,000 kilograms of honey. Another project employs 45 people in the production of bricks (four million last year). Other past projects have included
credit for dairy farmers, an ethanol production plant, and the production of charcoal. ◆
A display celebrates the manioc starch enterprise, now the country’s largest.
Same old? Maybe it’s time for a sabbatical Professors get to take sabbaticals from their work; why not people in business? Research shows that academics who take sabbaticals come back with a better sense of well-being and less stress than those who don’t, writes Lauren Alix Brown in Quartz, a digital business magazine. She cites advertising and design executives who took a year off to travel and recover their creative mojo when work started to “look the same.” “Being out of your ordinary surroundings makes you establish new relationships and collaborations and lets you present your ideas in a different context,” says Robert Austin, dean of business administration at the University of New Brunswick. Companies like Adobe and General Mills have recognized the value of time off work, but they are among the few, writes Brown. The
Society for Human Resource Management says only five percent of U.S. companies offer paid sabbaticals and 13 percent offer unpaid. Brown traces the concept of sabbaticals to the Old Testament, which called for giving the land a seventh-year rest from agricultural activity. “Our minds, like the soil, need rest to make way for new new growth,” she writes. ◆ 23
The Marketplace July August 2016
The Marketplace July August 2016
24