March April 2010
Where Christian faith gets down to business
Pastor on Main Street
A rural church with a heart for business
Honey is flowing on Kansas plains Brubeck, business and all that jazz Baltic “beacon” trains young entrepreneurs 1
The Marketplace March April 2010
Roadside stand
Tracking our soulmates in Haiti A former employee and longtime friend of MEDA was a victim of the January disaster in Haiti. Anna Prophete joined the MEDA staff in Port-auPrince in 1984, working for then‑country manager Ron Braun. When MEDA ceased direct operations in Haiti two decades later, she was the office receptionist. Over the years Anna calmly handled all the struggles of working in one of MEDA’s hotspots — including repression, coups, embargoes and civil strife. When the earthquake hit, Anna was at work with her current employer, and perished when the building collapsed. Haiti was a major field of operations for MEDA for many years. As noted in the news story on page 23 of this issue, we began work there in the early 1980s, and launched a major microcredit program in 1986. In the 1990s we became involved with another leading microfinance institution, Fonkoze, and eventually merged our operations with theirs so that our rural clients could have access to Fonkoze’s burgeoning array of additional services. We remain a Fonkoze partner, not only in terms of investment and governance but also as a soulmate. “We have been partnering with MEDA ever since we got here,” says Fonkoze director Anne Hastings. “There’s a total overlap in our mission.” While no longer involved in day-to-day operations in Haiti, MEDA is working with
Cover photo of Floradale pastor Fred Redekop by Wally Kroeker
The Marketplace March April 2010
to rebuild and normalize Fonkoze’s operations. Some 250 of Fonkoze’s employees lost their homes and assets. As noted on page 23, Fonkoze’s sprightly rebound drew praise from national media and the U.S. Secretary of State’s office. More details will be forthcoming shortly. On a different note, MEDA staff have been in regular contact with another longtime MEDA-ite, Odette Austil. Like Anna Prophete, Odette was one of those early stalwarts who gave spine to our work. In recent years, when the country was overrun with violence and kidnappings, she relocated part of her family to the northeastern U.S. so her children could go to school in safety. She now plans to return to Haiti. “Morally, I can’t stay in the U.S. while the country needs all its children to rebuild,” she told MEDA staffer Kim Pityn, who worked with both Odette and Anna in Haiti in the early 1990s. Odette plans to put her considerable skills to work
Anna Prophete Fonkoze to help Haitians get back on their feet. “In the early stages following a disaster,” says Allan Sauder, MEDA’s president, “survivors need food, water and shelter, but almost immediately they also require ongoing access to cash, savings accounts and remittances from family overseas.” Once immediate needs are met, Haitians need to regain some sense of normalcy. In a country where few are formally employed, they need to replace the tools of their trades lost in the earthquake so they can get back to earning an income. MEDA was quick to begin raising funds for its local partner. Fonkoze’s clients, many of whom have lost inventory and equipment, will be helped to obtain new loans and access their savings to get back into business — essentially kick‑starting the economy. A new project is in the works. One component will be small one-time grants to clients who lost their homes and/or businesses to help re-establish shelter and basic needs. Existing loans will be forgiven and once shelter has been restored new loans will be issued to restart their businesses. Another component will be 2
doing what she knows best — helping the poor. She has been hired to assist with Fonkoze’s rebuilding efforts, bringing her long journey with MEDA’s mission to full circle. Read and be happy: Want to be happier? Read the newspaper (or this magazine). Want to be sadder? Watch more television. A recent study of 45,000 adults linked reading the newspaper to higher levels of happiness, while watching lots of TV correlated with lower happiness levels. (Consumer Reports on Health) Always working: The line between work and home is blurring, says Richard Donkin in his new book, The Future of Work. “We don’t stop living when we go to work and, very often today, we don’t stop working when we arrive home.” That can pose problems, he says, as studies show that working more than 55 hours a week can cause stress and mental decline, which of course threaten productivity. — WK
In this issue
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Lithuania graduates “cream of the crop.” Page 14
Departments 2 4 18 20 22
Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews Soundbites News
Pastor on Main Street
With 30 or so entrepreneurs in his congregation, Fred Redekop finds it important to keep up with the pressures of running a business. Here’s a tour of his flock in the hamlet of Floradale, Ontario.
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Where the honey flows
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Business & all that jazz
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Baltic beacon
It’s one of the oldest foods mentioned in the Bible, but for Kansas honey producer Brent Barkman, the spiritual principles don’t stop there. By Susan Miller Balzer
What can you learn from the Brubeck and Marsalis clans? Plenty, says family business expert Reg Litz. So go ahead and put on a CD at the office. It might be all in a good day’s work.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, visionary Mennonites jumped in with a fresh message of business and Christian values. The school they started has become an economic powerhouse.
20 Volume 40, Issue 2 March April 2010 The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) 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 2010 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks
Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1821 Oregon Pike, Suite 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-6466. 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 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 1821 Oregon Pike, Suite 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-6466
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
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The Marketplace March April 2010
Just say No Have you been taught that saying Yes is morally superior to saying No? Often it is. But not always. Sometimes we have to say No, even to a worthy request. With overcrowded schedules, the “right” thing may be to say No if you want to maintain balance and health. Most of us cringe when others decline our assignment or request for help. But sometimes it’s for the best. Better to have an overworked person say No than say Yes now and then renege at the last minute. A judicious No preserves energy for the important things. Time and resources are finite, and sustainable stewardship demands some triage. Saying No is vital to a crisp mission — either in life or in a company. You do some things; you don’t do others. The more you say No to some things, the more you can say Yes to things that meet strategic objectives. Former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson said, “The power of Yes is meaningless unless twinned with the menace of No.” Mennonite church leader Orie Miller once got a panic call from a colleague who wanted him to rush over to his house on an urgent matter. When he got there, the colleague was sitting on his front porch, rocking in a chair. “What was so important that you needed to see me right now?” Orie asked. “You’re sitting here rocking in your chair.” The man said, “I am so busy, everybody has given me so much to do, I am overwhelmed. I don’t know what to do.” Orie responded, “I can tell you one thing. Not all the tasks you are being asked to do are from God because God does not overwhelm his children. The scripture tells us that God will not allow any tasks or things to come upon us that we cannot bear with his help.”
A $70 billion question for business & church
The greatest “unrealized potential” in the Christian movement for the next 20 years probably rests on the shoulders of Christian businesspeople. That’s great news for every Christian person who loves business. Talk about a life of adventure. What more could you ask for when your faith and your love for business intersect? The marketplace is the only institution that touches virtually every person on planet earth. Pastors are very limited in their direct exposure to the marketplace. At the same time, the marketplace in general terms doesn’t look to professional church staff for guidance on managing their business. They do look to their pastors to help disciple them on how to live out their faith, but most haven’t showed them how to connect it to the marketplace. Here is the $70 billion question. What is our strategy to reach this world for Christ? Do we try to hire another 600,000 pastors, missionaries, worship leaders, etc? Or do we unleash six million businesspeople to take the Christian movement to the next level? For too long, many faithful Christians have “outsourced” their responsibilities as believers. They give generously to the church and then allow the “organized church” to do the work. Honestly, it’s easier. You can live your life in compartments. There’s your taskdriven, results-oriented, hard-charging business world. Then there is your church world. But what happens when you are asked to combine your sacred activities and your spiritual activities? Have we been indoctrinated to believe that oil and water do not mix? No wonder many successful entrepreneurs and business owners can’t wait to “cash out” when they are 50 or 55. For them, perhaps business was all about business. There is a new generation of business leaders who see the world differently. For them, God has called them into business. Their company is to be used by God for his purposes. They are passionMore than 1,400 recent MBA graduates have signed on to the “MBA Oath,” ate about creating products or serpledging to avoid “decisions and behavior that advance my own narrow ambivices. They love marketing and sales. tions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves.” The oath was begun They are always mindful of the at Harvard Business School and now includes other schools, including Columbia bottom line. But there is a higher Business School. “Some executives have begun noting the oath when they hire calling. Everything that the church recent graduates,” writes Bill Droel in Initiatives newsletter. He adds that not stands for is actually expressed in everyone favors the movement because a personal pledge can mean little when “real terms” in their business. — even laws and regulations don’t prevent financial immorality. For more, check out Business as Mission Network the oath’s website: www.mbaoath.org
Promises, promises
The Marketplace March April 2010
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Spiritual globetrotting You pack a carry-on and board a jet to Africa or Turkey — what’s religious about that? Potentially a lot, says travel entrepreneur Rick Steves (shown in photo), well-known PBS travel host. “Travel is a spiritual thing,” he says. Overheard: Its spiritual impact can be considerable as people learn to appreciate “their place in the world,” says Steves, an active Lutheran with a keen interest in poverty issues. “People have a lot of fear. The flip side of fear is understand“When man found the mirror, he began ing. When you travel to places new to you, you understand to lose his soul because he became too more, so you fear less. And then you can love people, as a Chrisconcerned with his external image.” tian should. The less you travel, the more likely that media with — Stephen Covey a particular agenda can shape your viewpoint. Those of us who travel are a little more resilient when it comes to weathering the propaganda storms that blow constantly across the U.S. media.” He says he especially likes taking westerners to Muslim countries to encourage greater cultural and religious understanding. He also enjoys expanding their grasp of poverty. “When you venture to the developing world you are challenged to interpret the Bible from other people’s perspectives.... Our goal as thoughtful travelers is to see things from an economic-justice point of view,” says Steves. His latest book, Travel as a Political Act, promotes globetrotting as a means of good citizenship and peacebuilding (www.ricksteves.com) — Christian Century 5
The Marketplace March April 2010
Pastor on Main Street It takes a special gift to lead a church with so many entrepreneurs. Fred Redekop seems to have it. by Wally Kroeker
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t’s lunchtime in Floradale, a crowd says. hamlet of 200 people a few miles “Because we have so many entrenorth of Waterloo, Ontario. Bonpreneurs,” says one, “it’s important nie Martin, proprietor of Bonnie for Fred to know business.” Lou’s Cafe, is closing in on the hundred or so cups of coffee she’ll have Redekop is in his 19th year served today, a good many of them as pastor of Floradale. Before that to members of her own congregahe pastored a Mennonite church in tion, Floradale Mennonite Church. Lancaster, Pa. On this day, half a dozen of He describes Floradale as theologthese members are chatting amiably ically conservative, with a high view around a corner table. What sets of Jesus and Scripture, but socially them apart from many churchly gathliberal and known for its generosity. erings is how many of them are in When MCC was looking for a Fred Redekop: Important to know a business. There’s a cabinet maker, a church to sponsor 12 Palestinian thing or two about business florist, an electrician, a couple of folk refugees, it very quickly zeroed in who make modular buildings, and the local blacksmith on Floradale Mennonite Church. The church agreed to who doubles as an artist. sponsor the three Muslim families, which involves guaranAnd then there’s their pastor, Fred Redekop, whose teeing support of $25,000. They’ve previously sponsored flock may be one of the most business-laden around. refugees from Central America, Laos and Vietnam. The conversation flows easily, suggesting a high level of comfort among them. Floradale’s businesses aren’t big, but represent a mix of small-business entrepreneurship, the kind Businesspeople sometimes complain that often described as the backbone of the economy. A short their churches don’t “understand” them, and tend to rely stroll down Floradale’s main street will put Redekop in on them solely for financial support. A popular Business as touch with half a dozen of his parishioners (see sidebars). Mission website recently asked pointedly, “Does your pasHe’s made it a point to understand entrepreneurs, tor ‘get you’[and] validate your role in the business world? perhaps more than some pastors might. His awareness Does your church understand your call to serve Christ in of how business can relate to the congregation and the the marketplace?” global mission of the church has been honed by expoThose questions might surprise the folks at Floradale sure to MEDA events. He regularly attends meetings of Mennonite Church. They’d be likely answer a resounding the Waterloo MEDA Chapter, which carries out an active “yes.” program highlighting the intersection of business and The congregation has about 220 members, of whom Christian faith. 30 or so are entrepreneurs or farmers. That’s a higher conParishioners Murray and Yvonne Martin began bringcentration than you’ll find in most Mennonite churches. ing Fred and his wife, Shirley, to MEDA’s annual convenAnd it shows, in more ways than one. The new tion several years ago. church building, constructed four years ago, is clipping “Fred got to know MEDA that way,” says Martin. along quite nicely in financial terms. “We thought that would bring some business perspective “We had two-thirds of it paid for before we moved to his ministry.” in,” one member says proudly. “We’ve got only $500,000 left to go.” A glance around Redekop’s church office sugBut there’s more to it than financial health, the coffee gests a pastor who reads widely, not only for his own The Marketplace March April 2010
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interest but also to keep in touch with his wider audience. There’s a book on basketball, another on the 10 Commandments. He reads anything by The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell, who hails from the area, and keeps up with fiction, like A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. He also follows economic issues, and mentions The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate our Culture by Terry O’Reilly and Nick Tennant. Does he tailor his preaching to the large business component in his congregation? “He does preach about business sometimes,” says one member. “He’ll use business illustrations from time to time.” Like one story he told of a farmer he knew (in a different part of the province) who “didn’t run everything through the till and years later was so disappointed in himself for cheating the government.”
only about profit, Redekop says. He has seen firsthand a depth of genuine concern many entrepreneurs have for their employees. He mentions one member who earlier in the day had shared freely around the coffee table that after 34 years in business he felt “worn out” and “out of gas.” Some of the man’s built-up stress was the price of feeling great responsibility for employees, something not always understood by people outside the business community. “They really do feel their responsibility,” says Redekop. “People don’t understand how much of a stressor that can be.” The man who said he was worn out “felt stress about every truck that went out. He couldn’t relax until all the trucks were back,” Redekop says. Another thing he’s found is that businessfolk tend to be more progressive than they are given credit for. “Entrepreneurs aren’t as dogmatic as some. They’re not set in their theological ways.” And, he adds, “I’m always amazed at how generous they are.”
Redekop notes there are certain unfounded ste-
reotypes about business, such as that people with money have undue influence in the church. That’s not the case at Floradale, he says, adding that he doesn’t let the strong business presence control his preaching. He also questions whether the New Testament is as anti-business as some critics think. “I’m convinced that most of Jesus’ economic parables are about greed, not business,” he says. Another false stereotype is that businesspeople care
Several members were also generous with their praise for their pastor. “He knows the demands in our business,” says one. “That helps as we face questions of how much to grow, how big we should get.” “And we don’t want him to leave,” says another. ◆
Bonnie Martin, Bonnie Lou’s Cafe
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t’s the kind of place you look for in a small town — a homey atmosphere rich with local history and tradition, a friendly place to meet the locals and enjoy a fabulous butter tart, or more. The rich wood floors and shelves of antiques bespeak an earlier era when this venue served as a general store for four generations. Bonnie Martin opened the café last year, an addition to her family’s farming operation. She’s open six days a week from eight to 4:30, serving breakfast, lunch and a hundred cups of coffee. One day a week she’s open for supper, as well. She employs a staff of eight, five full-time and three part-time. Martin’s clientele is both local and tourists. “It’s become a destination place,” she says, “and we’re always full at lunch.” ◆
Bonnie Martin: A “destination place...always full at lunch.”
Sheri Clemmer, Floral Fusion
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fter 16 years working as a florist for others, Sheri Clemmer took the plunge last fall and opened her own shop. “Financially it’s very scary to start your own business, but I’m loving it,” she says. Being located in a community of 200 does not seem to be a handicap, says Clemmer, who is enjoying a brisk
trade. “You’d be surprised how many people come through here, from small towns, going through to Waterloo, and they’ll stop in here to get their flowers.” Much of her business is weddings, celebrations and funerals. Her modern European designs are finding their own niche as a “taste of Toronto” in rural Ontario. 7
The Marketplace March April 2010
“Our funeral work is very distinctive and very different,” Clemmer says. “People who go to the funeral homes can pick out the ones we did. It’s something new that no one in this area has ever seen before. I think that’s why people come back.” She appreciates the support she has received during the startup phase, not only from Pastor Fred, whom she describes as “very knowledgeable, sensitive and heartfelt,” but also from the larger congregation. “You know that everybody at the church is going to support you and pray for you,” she says. “A lot of people have said, ‘You know we all want you to do well’.” ◆ Sheri Clemmer: “We all want you to do well.”
Murray Martin, C. L. Martin & Co. Limited
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ou can detect a gleam The bulk of their of pride in his eyes as business (over 80 Murray Martin demonpercent) is boards strates a high-precision forklift of education and his company designed. When private schools you’re in the business of buildthroughout Ontario. ing modular classrooms, things As new subdivihave to fit just right, and this sions develop in specially-designed forklift will do fast-growing areas, just that, Martin says. It’s clear school divisions that he enjoys the problemutilize the portable solving challenges of running a classrooms, which company. come complete with After 42 years in the busichalkboards and Murray Martin (left) and longtime associate Richard Bauman. ness, “I’m still having fun,” he bulletin boards. says. “When they His company specializes in building and leasing get a school built, we pull them out again and use them relocatable modular buildings for use as classrooms, ofsomewhere else,” says Martin, who has 530 modular fices, daycare centres and storage rooms. The company, units out on leases ranging from a few months to several originally started by his father, Clayton, as a construction years. business, offers a complete turn-key service package. They He enjoys meeting customers from all over Ontario. build the modules, transport them to the site, install them “I like filling their needs,” Martin says. “I like the idea and handle all servicing and maintenance. of a happy customer.” ◆
Derek Martin, ClayMar Electric
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any older folks would wish for a grandson like Derek Martin. The young electrical contractor was so fond of grandfather Clayton Martin that he named his company after him — ClayMar Electric. When Derek was in his formative teen years he was strongly influenced by his grandfather, who had retired from the modular building company he founded and spent a lot of time doing woodwork and building furniture. The two bonded in a special way. “I spent a lot of time with my grandfather,” says Derek. “I Derek Martin: A tribute to his grandfather. The Marketplace March April 2010
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took a real interest in what he did, and he took the time to teach me.” Out of high school, Derek was encouraged by his father, Murray, to get a trade, and he chose to become a master electrician. He spent several years working for the family company but came to the conclusion that “portables wasn’t really my passion.” He started his own company to do commercial, indus-
trial and residential work. He enjoys the hands-on work and the challenge of owning his own business, setting his own schedule and dealing with customers one-on-one. He continues to do all the electrical work for C.L. Martin & Co. Limited. His congregation, he says, is “supportive.” As for his pastor — “he’s approachable, down-to-earth and really knows his Bible. He’s easy to chat with.” ◆
Ron Metzger, Custom Cabinetry Inc.
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or Ron Metzger, business is too good. He’s too busy. Metzger produces custom cabinetry for half a dozen major customers who build high-end homes. He also farms 90 acres on the side. There may have been a downturn in other parts of the country, but you’d never know it from Metzger’s volume of work. The housing business in his area remains strong. “We never skipped a beat during the recession,” he says. And that’s part of his problem. “I need to cut down the workload,” he says, though after 22 years in business he still enjoys what he does. Some people have suggested he hire more people in addition to his two full-time and one part-time staff. “But I don’t want to manage more people,” Metzger says. “I enjoy the hands-on part.” But he yearns for more balance. “I’ve been accused of not only burning the candle at both ends, but the wick,
too,” he says. “If I could just throw the calendar away....” Asked about his church, he notes that “we never have trouble meeting our Ron Metzger: Yearning for more balance. budget.” That’s not only a result of members’ generosity, but also the congregational makeup. One benefit of so many businessfolk is that there are plenty of people who know a few things about fiscal discipline and how to handle money. ◆
Robb Martin, Thak Ironworks
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a field in which Martin is an acknowledged specialist with an international reputation for fantasy armour. “Making armour is fun, but very tedious,” he says. Fashioning historic armaments may not seem very Mennonite, but another side of his artistic genius fits very well. Fellow Floradale church members speak with awe of being profoundly moved by one of his major artistic creations — a looming rugged metal sculpture of Christ on a cross with a crown of thorns. It was displayed in the Floradale church for a time before going to its final destination in Ottawa. Martin once told a magazine reporter, “I have friends who are into crafts but don’t know anything about business. I don’t want to be a starving artist. Some people can’t make the transition from a hobby to a business, but I’ve made that transition.” ◆
obb Martin is one of those lucky folks who makes a living at his hobby. “I love my career,” he says simply. Martin is a blacksmith, armourer and metal sculptor. When you swing open the thick wood-hewn door of his shop on Floradale’s Main Street, you emerge into a noisy medieval world of soot, anvils and forges, a scene from the days of yore when the blacksmith was the master of trades who made the tools for everyone else. He can make you a stylish wrought-iron fence and railing for your garden, or an intricately embossed breastplate to make any knight proud. If you want, he’ll rent you a complete suit of armour for a movie or reenactment event. Most of the time, though, he makes wrought-iron hardware, hinges, hooks and fireplace utensils for the wholesale market. Upstairs you’ll find a historical library relating to the Middle Ages,
Robb Martin: Artist with a forge and anvil 9
The Marketplace March April 2010
Where the honey flows It’s one of the oldest foods in the Bible. For the Barkmans of Kansas, the spiritual bouquet of this nectar of the plains is rich and flavorful. Photo by Ray Dirks
by Susan Miller Balzer
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kosher honey used by observers of Passover and Ramadan. Because of automation, little human labor is needed as the honey is poured into bottles, which are then sealed and capped, labeled, boxed, and put on pallets that are shrink‑wrapped, stacked, and loaded on semi trucks and shipped to warehouses or directly to customers. Team members are rewarded whenever they report an infraction of rules for safety and cleanliness. Their scrupulous attention to ensuring a pure, uncontaminated product from the time the barrels of raw honey come into the flow‑through plant until the shrink‑wrapped pallets are loaded onto semis, qualified Golden Heritage Foods for the highest level of “Safe Quality Food” certification. Barkman said the company is the first U.S. honey supplier to achieve this level of certification.
rent Barkman, executive chairman of the board of Golden Heritage Foods, says he’s not a preacher like his GrandDad was; nevertheless, he aims to witness to consumers, customers, suppliers, employees, competitors and community members by the way he manages the family business. “Choose a career that’s going to glorify God – where you can share your faith,” he advised Tabor and Hesston College business students who recently joined Kansas MEDA members for a tour of Golden Heritage Foods in Hillsboro, Kansas. As Barkman led visitors through the nearly football field‑sized plant, he showed how the company works to attain its goal of serving others.
Raw honey comes into the plant in barrels that are washed immediately, then the honey is transferred into tanks (16 barrels per tank). The barrels are washed again before they are returned to domestic suppliers. Employees (known as team members) take random samples to the in‑house lab to test flavor, color and bacteria count and use computers to formulate the various blends of honey. The honey is flash‑heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit to break down crystals and to guarantee a two‑year shelf life as liquid honey. The honey also passes through filters that take out impurities (including pollen). Records are kept so that each batch of honey can be traced to its point of origin. Because of the prevalence of chemicals on many U.S. farms, Barkman said it is impossible to claim that domestic honey is organic. Most of the honey labeled organic at GHF comes from the rain forests of Brazil. GHF also sells The Marketplace March April 2010
Scrupulous attention is paid to ensuring a pure product; employees are rewarded for spotting lapses in safety 10
GHF was also the
first to package honey in inverted containers. The plant had to add equipment to turn pallets of these filled containers over so the bottles are right side down. Last year GHF introduced two-ounce Baby Bear bottles. The larger Busy Bee Honey® branded bears continue to be the biggest seller. GHF pioneered in the sale of honey to the food service industry and is the
Photo by Susan Miller Balzer
Since they are separated by 800 miles, Barkman and Stoller use videoconferencing for board meetings. They “strive for complete honesty” as they seek to advance the business, which, Barkman says, “belongs to Someone else.” The company gives 10 percent of its income “off the top” to charity. “That first 10 percent is God’s,” Barkman emphasized. Golden Heritage Foods employs about 75 team members “Queen Bee” Joyce Barkman, left, helped her son, in Hillsboro and another 50 in Brent Barkman is a Brent, host MEDA visitors to Golden Heritage Ohio. “A gift I’ve received is to third‑generation beekeeper. Foods. She and her late husband, Richard, founded help people,” Barkman said. “I His well‑traveled bees winter the first honey packaging plant in Hillsboro, Kanlike giving people jobs — that’s in Oklahoma and spend sumsas. Joyce says she is retired, however, she operwhat drives me.” mers in South Dakota. They ates a bed and breakfast and catering business. Barkman seeks to follow the also go to Maine to pollinate Golden Rule as he relates to team members. “I never ask blueberries and to California to pollinate almonds. Barkanyone to do anything I wouldn’t do myself,” he said. man’s bees produce about one week’s worth of the honey Barkman said his company treats legitimate comprocessed and packaged at the Hillsboro plant. petitors with respect, and tries to “gain business by our His parents, Richard and Joyce, founded Barkman virtues” rather than undercutting the competition. At the Honey Company 50 years ago. Their regional packaging same time, Barkman is working with U.S. and internacompany first gained a national presence when Sam’s tional customs enforcement to try to stop China’s illegal Club became a customer in the 1980s. “dumping” of honey on the U.S. market. “I’m very hopeIn March 2002 Barkman Honey combined with ful we will see remedies in 2010,” he said. Stoller’s Honey, another family‑owned honey packaging business in Latty, Ohio, to form Golden Heritage Foods, Another challenge to the honey industry is LLC. The name brings to mind the golden color of the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). When bees work biotech company’s main product, the business and faith values of corn, sunflower and other plants whose seeds have been the Barkman and Stoller families, and the plan to add admodified with insecticides to kill insects that could destroy ditional food products as the company grows. the crops, the bees may be affected with neurological Barkman met Dwight Stoller at National Honey Board problems that can cause the whole colony to die off. meetings where both are leaders. Stoller now serves as Barkman lost most of his bees twice to CCD, but has been the company’s CEO. able “to come out of it both times.” Despite these difficulties and the need to downsize and let go some 25 employees due to the recession, Barkman remains optimistic. Asked about 10‑year plans, • 1/12 teaspoon — amount of honey an average he responded that rapid growth and changes necessitate worker honey bee makes in her lifetime. three‑year plans, instead. Ongoing goals are to grow the honey processing and • 300 — beekeepers who sell honey to GHF packaging industry, add complementary products, and to • 2 ounces — size of the smallest containers of honey continue employing and contracting with local people. packaged at GHF Every business decision has to fit the company’s core • 55 gallons — size of the largest drums of honey sold purpose — which is to serve God by using the resources by GHF entrusted to GHF to serve others, Barkman said.* • 2,000 — cases of honey bears packaged in an He plans for the business and the beekeeping induseight‑hour day try to be sustainable for future generations and dreams that “someday Golden Heritage Foods may be as big as • 10‑12 — number of semi loads of honey to leave the Kraft.” ◆ plant every day • 50,000,000 — pounds of honey processed and packSusan Miller Balzer is a freelance writer living in Hesston, Kansas. aged per year in Kansas and Ohio GHF plants top provider to this market. Molasses is also packaged and processed at the Hillsboro plant for the food service market. Barkman said that although selling honey to the pharmaceutical market is not highly profitable, he is interested in clinical research that shows honey can stop the growth of bacteria in wounds and so may be applied to bandages to speed the healing of cuts.
Sweet numbers
* See www.ghfllc.com/about.html for GHF’s complete purpose statement
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The Marketplace March April 2010
Business — and all that jazz What family businesses can learn from the Brubeck and Marsalis clans
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hat does jazz have to do with family business? What can musical legends like Dave Brubeck and Ellis Marsalis teach someone who is slugging away in a family firm? Plenty, says Reg Litz, a family business specialist at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business. But to glean the lessons, you have to do more than enjoy Take Five on your iPod. You have to look behind the cool sounds to see how the first families of jazz have employed the genius of family relationships and nurture. Litz, himself a pianist who hails from one of Winnipeg’s leading musical families, has gained renown for sussing out links between his academic and musical interests. Before he went on to PhD studies, he was involved in a family company. He knows all about the grit in those gears, whether it be grooming the next generation or making astute decisions while juggling family pressures.
Iola (who have written music together, one example of which can be found in the Mennonite Brethren Worship Together hymnal) have six children, four of whom chose independent careers in music (keyboards, electric bass and trombone, drums and cello). How that happened, according to Litz, is instructive for family business owners.
One of the hallmarks of jazz is improvisation, where musicians take off in mid-stride with new ideas within the framework of time and key signature. Their free-style riffs soar in the distance while sidekicks maintain a supportive rhythm and melody, then come back again as if it were planned ahead of time, which it wasn’t. They all have to work almost as one spirit to pull it off without sounding chaotic. If you watch jazz musicians perform you can detect them interacting through subtle nonverbal cues such as eye contact, volume change and body positioning, says Litz. Jazz “happens” as two systems of musical competence and social relationship interact. The structure of melodies, harmony and rhythms need a supportive social structure to produce co-creation. Part of the genius is that individual musicians can create new musical ideas in a collective context, says Litz. That improvisation (similar, perhaps, to innovation in the on-the-fly pressure of running a business), “involves simultaneous creation during performance without aid of either sheet music or rehearsal.” As in a business, innovation is the result of on-the-job collaboration, he says. It becomes more than simply the
One thing he discovered was that the lion’s
share of family business scholarship has focused on issues of succession, to the neglect of other critical areas. Take innovation, for example. A family firm can’t always just go out and hire the best and the brightest. Cousin John may be competent, but not necessarily creative. It’s tough to maintain a fresh edge when much energy is absorbed managing issues at home. Litz began to search for families that had mastered innovation, and settled on legendary pianist Dave Brubeck, who is to jazz what Warren Buffet is to investing and Steven Covey is to management.* Brubeck and his wife
* Litz and Robert F. Kleysen published these findings in a scholarly paper titled “Your Old Men Shall Dream Dreams, Your Young Men Shall See Visions: Toward a Theory of Family Firm Innovation with Help from the Brubeck Family” in Family Business Review, a peer-reviewed journal. For a PDF of the article, contact Reg Litz at rlitz@cc.umanitoba.ca
The Marketplace March April 2010
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Adult mentors sum of individual efforts, it actually emanates from the synergies between family members.
are important.
Why did most of the Brubeck children choose musical careers? The decision was neither demanded nor expected by their parents, Litz says. There was minimal coercion, and the children were encouraged to make their own mark rather than feeling a sense of duty to Mom and Pop. They did, however, have to take piano lessons to gain an aesthetic appreciation for the art form, if not a career calling within it. Father Dave explains, “I was fully aware of how difficult life as a jazz musician could be. However, I wanted them to have music as a fulfilling part of their lives, so their piano studies began early, as did mine.” Adult mentors played a part. One son was influenced by the household visits of drummer Joe Morello and became a drummer himself. A new generation was being molded by exposure to adult role models at an early age. As in a family business, a sense of innovation was nurtured as the parents equipped the young with the necessary tools, in this case musical competencies. But then children need freedom to follow their own path or else you get “static competence devoid of creative endeavor.” Children need to feel a sense of parental relinquishment, says Litz. “The emergence of creativity in family firms may require parents to pay the open-ended price of permitting the next generation to explore and experiment, even to the potential detriment of the firm. However, some in the elder generation may be unwilling to pay such a price, allowing room for only their dreams, not their offsprings’ visions.” Dave and Iola were not disappointed that two of their children did not pursue music, Litz says. “The elder Brubecks never defined the two non-musicians as failures or defined the four Reg Litz musicians as successes simply because they were following in their famous father’s footsteps.” Meanwhile, the younger generation needs to take charge of the challenge posed by the biblical prophet: “Old men shall dream dreams, and young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28). This verse, says Litz, “encapsulates the phenomenon’s essential challenge: to facilitate the creative interaction of both founding and inheriting generations.... Unless ‘young men see visions’ there can be no innovative impetus beyond the present.” Litz found similar themes in the Marsalis family**
Wynton Marsalis got his first horn from Dad’s boss, Al Hirt.
whose eight members comprise five distinguished musicians: Father Ellis (piano), sons Branford (saxophone), Wynton (trumpet), Delfeayo (trombone) and Jason (drums). Over four decades they have participated on more than 500 different recording projects and have won
eight Grammy Awards. Interestingly, they had never played together as a family in a large-scale public performance until 2001 when Ellis invited the four sons to jam with him on the occasion of his retirement. The patriarch now had the opportunity to play “sideman” to his sons, something that many family business founders have difficulty doing. The Brubecks, too, had their family time in the sun and for several years performed as Two Generations of Brubecks. Like the Brubecks, the Marsalis children received mentoring from Dad’s cohorts. Wynton, among the best jazz trumpeters in the world, received his first horn from the legendary Al Hirt, in whose band his father played. The children all had the liberty to choose their own instruments. “We would argue,” says Litz, “that this intra-domain freedom was important because it provided the younger generation with a sense of individual space within which to engage the domain.”
As in many successful family enterprises, the
children needed affirmation from outside the family circle. “They had to earn their stripes on their own,” comments Litz. “There are some things that can’t be given.” “There are limits to what parents can do,” agrees Ellis, who facilitated his children’s exploration. He recognized that “he could only invite and not demand his children’s interest in the domain,” Litz says. When the Marsalis family jammed together in 2001, the unusual event took on special luster as a capstone to their father’s musical career. As Litz notes, intergenerational creative collaboration cannot be “planned” like a strategy “but at best only indirectly facilitated.” They could do this “only because of what had gone on before — namely a long process that included invitation, exploration, enablement, engagement and reinvitation. This process ... prepared each son to step onto that stage not simply as their parent’s progeny, but also as their parent’s peer, capable of both individual creative endeavor and collective creative collaboration.” For Litz, one of the lingering truths for family business is that “Jamming with others means making room for others to jam.” ◆
** Documented in the paper “Jamming Across the Generations: Toward a Theory of Intergenerational Creative Collaboration with Help from the Marsalis Family”
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The Marketplace March April 2010
Baltic beacon A flourishing university in Lithuania had its start with a robust vision for business as mission
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countries. Most are from former Soviet republics — Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, a few from Russia, and the “stan” countries of Kazakhstan, Kirghizistan and Tadzhikistan. Others are from Poland, Hungary, Romania, a surprisingly large group from Albania, and a few from as far away as West Africa. Religions include Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim.
rthur DeFehr had no idea he would start a university when he made his first visit to the Soviet Union. His own roots reached deep into the region’s tumultuous past. Both his Russian-Mennonite parents had fled the Bolshevik turmoil of the 1920s and found their way to the Canadian prairies, where his father established a manufacturing firm now known as Palliser Furniture. Later, as president of the company, DeFehr went back to explore his heritage. But it turned out to be more than a retracing of roots. An unusual sequence of events put him on a path that would lead to the formation of Lithuania Christian College, today recognized as a beacon of faith, education and entrepreneurship — a model of “business as mission.”
The school, approaching its 20th
anniversary and since renamed LCC International University, sits on a 15-acre campus in the city of Klaipeda, Lithuania. Unique in the region, it offers a liberal arts program entirely in English. Students are required to study foundational courses in western civilization, Christian theology and philosophy. Majors are offered in business administration, English, psychology, theology and general studies. Faculty, representing a full‑time equivalent of about 35, includes a bevy of short-term volunteers who come to teach English and business. The student body numbers 650 from 21
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The seeds for LCC were planted in the first Christian business conferences organized in the former Soviet Union by MEDA in 1990 after the collapse of communism. DeFehr was a key figure in those events, and became a leader of MEDA’s Soviet Union Network. As a result of those involvements he became connected with Otonas Balciunas, a Lithuanian Christian leader. It was a time of ferment. Lithuania, a Soviet “They were like satellite, was struggling for independence and wanted to waste no time forging consponges. The nections with the west. That led to an English language summer school in Lithuania in the summer of 1991. Then a winter session free enterprise was added, and the ball was rolling. The origins had “a very high political system is just content,” DeFehr recounts. Lithuanian leaders were eager for westnot part of their ern influence to counter the Soviet legacy. One leader told DeFehr, “when this is all vocabulary, and over we expect to be a free country.” DeFehr and his wife, Leona, along it’s so intriguing with fellow Canadians Dennis and Rene Neumann and numerous other supportto them.” ers, set to work navigating many political 14
neur and more recently ran the MBA program at Eastern Mennonite University. He also serves as chair of the MEDA board of directors. Nofziger is an international real estate developer from Goshen, Ind. “Allon and I just shared our life’s pilgrimages, how we were reared as kids by benevolent parents, how the church is so important to us, and the free enterprise system we live under,” says Nofziger. “We basically just told them our life story.” In his case, this meant explaining at a rudimentary level the life of a commercial land developer, from acquisition to zoning to utility services to buildings. “They were like sponges,” he says. “The free enterprise system is just not part of their vocabulary, and it’s just so intriguing to them. They sat on the edge of their seats.” After Lefever’s first presentation the convenor arranged an extra session. “I expected only a few to show up,” Lefever says. “I was stunned when the room was packed with 45-50 kids. They were keen and wanted to know more.” The next day there was another invitation for one-onone meetings, and Lefever was greeted by lineups. “I was very impressed by the eagerness,” he says. “They’ve gone through two generations of no interest or awareness of business. The bubbles were bursting.” Both Lefever and Nofziger now serve on the LCC board. And with their connections to MEDA, they hope some form of microcredit lending could eventually be made available to graduates who want to start their own
and regulatory obstacles, investing huge amounts of time and money along the way. The upstart college initially encountered plenty of opposition from both the presiding Catholic and academic establishments. “But now we’re very well accepted,” DeFehr notes.
Given its origin as a completely new kind of liberal arts offering in a region that had been suspended in a religionless communist amber, it made sense for the school to showcase areas like business and faith, both of which ran thick in the blood of its founders. Today, more than two-thirds of the students choose to major in business. From the start, visiting entrepreneurs from North America, many of them Mennonites, helped out by providing hands-on training in the ways of western business. “We have businesspeople come to tell their story to the students to encourage business as a mission,” says Leona DeFehr, who has been part of the college since Day One and remains as a member of the board. “The business department is our biggest enrollment.”
Allon Lefever and Myrl Nofziger are two who have served as Entrepreneurs in Residence. Lefever, of Harrisonburg, Va., has spent all his life as an entrepre-
Most of the 650 students are from former Soviet republics, but some come from as far away as West Africa. 15
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The school has become an economic powerhouse, spinning off “cream of the crop” graduates throughout businesses. Financing is a major problem for those wantcountries. ing to start businesses, says Nofziger. “It’s not readily available unless they can borrow from a relative.”
Usrey, who took the reins as president last year. A former lawyer with a long resume of global experience, Usrey was previously dean at Friends University in Wichita, Kan., a Christian school with Quaker roots. He succeeded longtime LCC president Jim Mininger, who came from Hesston (Kan.) College and led LCC from a fledgling institution to a fully accredited university. “When I talk to the business community, the government, the churches in that entire region, they all say the same thing, ‘Your alums are different’,” Usrey says. He describes it as an ability to think well, critically and “integratively,” and to communicate well. “They are people of values, people of integrity.” The goals are high, says Usrey. “There are lots of universities that teach ethics, but frankly, they are teaching what might be termed ‘best practices.’ We teach more than ‘best practices,’ we get to the heart of things, to be Christ‑centered, focused on what it means to be engaged in a love relationship with God and be of service to others.”
former Soviet
LCC has become an economic powerhouse, spin-
ning off graduates to plum jobs throughout the Baltics and beyond. Its graduates are fanning out to former Soviet countries and moving rapidly into influential positions in business and government, says Ben Sprunger, former MEDA president and now vice-chair of the school’s board. “They’re seen as the cream of the crop.” In countries that are still trying to dig their way out of the old Soviet model, the crisp business perspective and Christian values the graduates bring to their work is in high demand, he adds. Moreover, says DeFehr, being trained in a non-Soviet style creates a different kind of confidence and casualness that someone coming out of the local university system often doesn’t have. “These kids can look you in the eye when they talk to you.” One early graduate went on to head a joint MBA program run by four leading European universities. A number joined accounting firms like Ernst & Young and immediately were transferred internationally. Many others have taken jobs with oil companies or have started their own businesses. Some have gone on to graduate studies in prestigious schools like Yale, Brandeis and the London School of Economics. DeFehr notes that the first graduates have now been out in the work force for some 15 years and are just hitting their prime. “The senior roles they will take are still ahead,” he says.
Visitors strolling the campus today will see names they may recognize from the Mennonite culture back home. Structures like DeFehr Centras, Neumann Hall and Neufeld Hall memorialize the investments of families who trace their roots to a difficult history in the former Soviet Union. The founders are people “who still want to give back to those areas in which they had a heritage but also experienced loss,” says Usrey. “The gift of giving back to the former Soviet Union has multiplied in many different ways.” Usrey calls it a form of creating social capital that is helping build a “new civil society.” The potential impact is huge, not merely in Lithuania, but through the Lithuanian “window” to the entire region in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. “It’s amazing to see the impact of young, well‑educated Christian young people in that region,” he says. ◆
The school’s unique blend of business, faith and liberal arts prepares students for a changing world, perhaps even for careers that don’t yet exist, says Kyle The Marketplace March April 2010
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Fishy tale Maybe it’s time to update a cherished old slogan
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carcely a week goes by without someone saying, “Give people fish and you feed them for a day; teach them how to fish and you feed them for life.” It’s a handy slogan, and ever since Chinese philosopher K’uan-Tzu came up with it 2,500 years ago, it has neatly expressed a core truth about giving help that lasts. He understood how short-term handouts relate to longterm impact. Christians can relate to the image. The disciples caught fish; Jesus employed fish in powerful metaphors that endure. Like any good phrase, however, it has been overused. It also glosses over the complexity of today’s poverty. Maybe it’s time for an update.
Are fishing lessons what the poor need most? Chances are, they already know how to fish, maybe better than we do, but they lack other necessities to make it happen. Besides, not everyone fishes the same way. Using bamboo baskets to catch red snapper off the coast of Haiti is different than angling for trout in Manitoba. Before we head out to teach, we have to be sure we actually possess the skill they need. Maybe what they really need is better equipment. But how to get it? The banks probably won’t lend them money to buy it because the poor may not have collateral or credit history. There’s always the local loan shark, but who wants to pay 250 percent interest? Perhaps what they need is affordable credit so they can purchase the items on their own. So now they have the right fishing tackle. Can they gather by the river? “Whoever owns the pond decides who gets the fish,” says African-American minister John Perkins. No matter how well they can fish, they’ll stay poor if they can’t get access to the water. In order to feed themselves for life, they may
need help getting fishing rights. That complicates things. Maybe the help they need has less to do with imparting a skill than pressing for larger issues of justice. Let’s say the poor have managed to arrange a spot on the river but a factory upstream (perhaps owned by corporations in which we hold stock) is dumping effluent that contaminates the river. Poisoned fish can’t be sold or fed to the family. To really help the poor we may have to help them achieve better environmental standards. Or, at the very least, urge corporations who do business there to behave themselves and not make messes that keep people poor.
Okay, let’s assume our fisherfolk have over-
No matter how well they fish, they’ll stay poor if they can’t sell their catch 17
come all these obstacles. They know how to fish. They’ve obtained credit at a decent price to buy fishing equipment. They’ve gained access to the river. The water is clean and the fish are edible. But when they bring in the fish they discover they can’t sell their catch. Why? The export market has collapsed because rich countries have imposed duties on imported fish, or have subsidized their own producers so heavily that they can dump their product on the rest of the world. Maybe the best way to help is to improve trade laws to give poor countries an equal footing. Meanwhile, well-meaning North Americans have sent a shipload of second-grade canned fish which relief agencies are giving away on street corners. Now even the local people won’t buy their product. Why pay for something that others are handing out for nothing? K’uan-Tzu had it right — in his day. But today’s poverty is far more complex. So are the solutions. Which means we have to get beyond glib slogans, heartfelt as they may be, if we want to make a difference. — Wally Kroeker The Marketplace March April 2010
Reviews
The work of our hands Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. By Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin, 2009, 246 pp. $25.95 U.S. $32.95 Cdn.)
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f you’ve ever held a bare crankshaft, know something about torque heat, and like what the Apostle Paul said about manual work (1 Thess. 4:11), this book might be for you. It’s the closest thing you’ll find to a scholarly ode to the craft of repairing. Matthew Crawford is a trained electrician who also has a PhD in political philosophy and used to be head of a Washington think tank, but he cast it all aside to pursue work that was more intellectually engaging. For him, that meant opening a motorcycle repair shop. “I quickly realized there was more thinking going on in the bike shop than in my previous job at the think tank,” he says in Shop Class as Soulcraft. He lays bare pretensions of the white collar workplace and elevates the “work of our hands” (though without the Apostle Paul’s exhortation). By his reckoning, something important has been lost in the rise of the “knowledge generation.” It has, he
“Things need fixing and tending no less than creating” contends, produced a class of people who may know a lot but can’t actually do anything. In society’s yearning to educate everyone so they won’t have to soil their hands, what has been lost is the “experience of making things and fixing things.” Vanished, he says, is the old high school shop class The Marketplace March April 2010
because educators wanted to prepare students to become “knowledge workers.” The new generation, however, disdains manual work and seems bereft of any aptitude for analytical reasoning. Manual trades are not the mindless drudgery of an assembly line, says this philosopher/mechanic. They hold the possibility of highly integrated work in a world that is increasingly segmented. Your standard-issue repair specialists, he notes, have to first of all use their brains to analyze a problem, and then use their hands to fix it. “I believe the mechanical arts have a special significance for our time because they cultivate
not creativity, but the less glamorous virtue of attentiveness,” he writes. “Things need fixing and tending no less than creating.” Not only that, but in these uncertain times there’s a kind of security in building and fixing, as those skills cannot as readily be outsourced or made obsolete. Plus, he adds, it’s the kind of work that can tie us back to our local communities and instill the pride of doing something genuinely useful. ◆
Turning off the tap of aid Critics of the aid “industry” say they can’t compete with an electric guitar
Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is A Better Way for Africa. By Dambisa Moyo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, 188 pp. $24 U.S.)
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ll along, the west thought it was doing good in Africa. Not so, says Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist with degrees from Harvard and Oxford and stints at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs. She insists that African countries are poor precisely because of all that help. She’s not the first to question the benefit of aid, but she pushes the critical envelope further by asserting that aid actually makes things worse. “Aid has helped make the poor poorer, and growth slower,” she writes. “Aid has
been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world.” Dishing out vast sums of money has actually been a kind of curse because it encourages corruption and conflict and discourages free enterprise, she declares. Lest individual donors worry, what she is attacking is the huge direct transfers of aid from one government to another, the kind of money that is most vulnerable to misuse. She is not talking about the much smaller amounts of aid 18
that are channeled through non-government agencies (like MEDA, for example). In fact, many of the things that NGOs do to help the poor, such as microcredit, get high marks from her. But the larger “systemic” aid gets quite a thrashing. She heaps scorn on well-meaning celebrities who delight western audiences by strumming the same aid chord. “One disastrous consequence of this has been that honest, critical and serious dialogue and debate on the merits and demerits of aid have atrophied,” Moyo writes. Critics of aid are not heard because their voices cannot compete with an electric guitar. Moyo examines numerous planks of the aid platform, like positive efforts to “teach” democracy, and finds them
African countries have already hit rock bottom and can only go up. “Isn’t it more likely,” she says, “that in a world freed of aid, economic life for the majority of Africans might actually
wanting. “What is clear is that democracy is not the prerequisite for economic growth that aid proponents maintain,” she says. “On the contrary, it is economic growth that is a prerequisite for democracy; and the one thing economic growth does not need is aid.” She’s a big fan of trade, but not the kind of pseudo-trade where outsiders distort markets with fat subsidies for their own products. She notes that the villain here is not simply the west, but a whole raft of countries — China, Turkey, Brazil, even Africa itself. After systematically deconstructing the misguided intentions of the aid “industry,” she offers a radical prescription – “What if, one by one, African countries each received a phone call ... telling them that in exactly five years the aid taps would be shut off — permanently?” A common rejoinder to that might be – But what will happen to Africa if even today’s flawed aid were to stop? Her answer is to fear not, as many
Excerpt: Mosquito net paradox
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here’s a mosquito net maker in Africa. He manufactures around 500 nets a week. He employs 10 people, who (as with many African countries) each have to support upwards of 15 relatives. However hard they work, they can’t make enough nets to combat the malaria-carrying mosquito. Enter vociferous Hollywood movie star who rallies the masses, and goads Western governments to collect and send 100,000 mosquito nets to the afflicted region, at a cost of a million dollars. The nets arrive, the nets are distributed, and a “good” deed is done. With the market flooded with foreign nets, however, our mosquito net maker is promptly put out of business. His 10 workers can no longer support their 150 dependents (who are now forced to depend on handouts), and one mustn’t forget that in a maximum of five years the majority of the imported nets will be torn, damaged and of no further use. This is the micro-macro paradox. A short-term efficacious intervention may have few discernible, Making mosquito nets to battle masustainable longlaria in Tanzania. term benefits. Worse still, it can unintentionally undermine whatever fragile chance for sustainable development may already be in play. Certainly when viewed in close-up, aid appears to have worked. But viewed in its entirety it is obvious that the overall situation has not improved, and is indeed worse in the long run. — Dambisa Moyo
improve, that corruption would fall, entrepreneurs would rise, and Africa’s growth engine would start chugging?” Maybe so. While her prescription might brighten the day of anyone committed to business solutions to poverty, the harshness of her critique might stand in the way of being heard. One of the delicate realities of the debate is that it’s not easy to harness the heat of misguided good intentions without extinguishing the flame. ◆ 19
The Marketplace March April 2010
Soundbites
Doing the math for Office Space ministry Whether it’s in our neighborhoods, at the office or around the world, the mission of The Church really matters. All of these “spaces” are invaluable places to trade in the pursuit of the American dream for a world that desperately needs Christ. But the Office Space is particularly important because it’s the space where people spend most of their time and it’s the space where “professional ministers” have the least direct contact and impact. Let’s assume the average work week is 40 hours. Let’s also say the average amount of time a person in the work force spends on churchsponsored ministry activities is around three hours a week.
The Marketplace March April 2010
times as many opportunities for ministry in the office space. Nobody is calling for a stop to “regular” ministry activities. But the greatest strategic opportunity exists beyond the walls of any building or formal program. There’s so much untapped potential. We haven’t even begun to scratch the ceiling of how far the Christian movement can go if we start embracing work as an opportunity for worship. — Justin Forman, Business as Mission Network
That adds up to about 156 hours, compared to the 2,080 hours they’ll spend in their “office space” over the next 12 months. That means that in one year we’ll have more than a dozen
Bank on this The community as a whole demands of the banker that he shall be an honest observer of
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conditions about him, that he shall make constant and careful study of those conditions, financial, economic, social and political, and that he shall have a wide vision over them all. — Thomas Lamont, head of J.P. Morgan & Co, speaking to colleagues in 1923
Empowered women Women’s economic empowerment is arguably the biggest social change of our times.... Millions of women have been given more control over their own lives. And millions of brains have been put to more productive use. Societies that try to resist this trend ... will pay a heavy price in the form of wasted talent and frustrated
citizens. — The Economist in its first edition of 2010
Food frontier? Africa is the final frontier of food. We’re going to need to double food production by 2050. Where’s it going to come from? What country has potential? The water sources in Africa are underutilized. There’s land available for production. Wouldn’t it be a grand irony if the continent now receiving emergency food aid becomes a continent that is helping to feed the world? That’s Africa’s potential. — Former Wall Street Journal reporter Roger Thurow, co-author of Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, in Christianity Today
your retirement. How are you going to fill up all the days after that? — Rick Robertson, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, in the Globe & Mail
Fishing for change Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or to teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry. — Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, which trains and supports social entrepreneurs
Preventing abuse Microfinance has done more to bolster the status of women, and to protect them from abuse, than any laws could accomplish. Capitalism, it turns out, can achieve what charity and good intentions sometimes cannot. — Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Fork it over You get to vote with your fork three times a day. That’s a lot more votes you have than in any other realm of life. Getting that vote right even once a day makes a difference. — Food guru Michael Pollan in TIME
Now what? People don’t think enough about how to keep themselves active and excited in retirement. You ask them, “What are you going to do?” and they say, “Well, I’d love to take a trip to Europe.” Okay, now we’ve dealt with one month of
Down on the farm Farmers are the original environmentalists. Telling a farmer to take care of the land is like telling the ice cream man to keep his freezer plugged in. — Texas cotton producer Wally Darneille, quoted in The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy 21
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News
Ontario credit union supports peacebuilding in Afghanistan Money and war can go hand in hand, but as a community that has been richly blessed, we know that responsible stewardship involves using our economic resources to work for peace in a troubled world. Mennonite Savings and Credit Union (MSCU), was looking for a practical way to support peacebuilding internationally as part of Stewardship in Action, which promotes peace, social justice and mutual aid (ranging from financial literacy for low-income and immigrant segments to green initiatives and no-interest loans in special cases). As a financial institution, lending and savings are what we know best, but our ability to do lending and savings is bound by provincial borders, so we needed an international partner to be able to make an impact. It was natural for MSCU to turn to long time partner organization, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). In particular, MEDA’s expertise in microfinance — small loans to small businesses — was attractive to MSCU, given the focus on lending and savings. MEDA was excited to get MSCU involved in its work in Afghanistan. Women in the wartorn country face huge challenges in feeding and caring for their families, and MEDA partners with Women for Women International (WWI) to provide small loans for farming, retail, service and production businesses run by these women. As part of this work, MEDA has also recently become involved in the Afghanistan Challenge, a Canadian government dollar‑for‑dollar matching initiative. The Marketplace March April 2010
Through these partnerships MSCU has donated $50,000 ($25,000 from MSCU, $25,000 in matched funds) to women like Butool, who says, “My husband always struggled to find work. I had been raising our two children and also trying to earn money to support us. But we had very little — every day was a struggle. The microfinance program has been essential for us. We can now cope with the hard times of life. We know we can find our way out.” Through the MEDA Trust
“We can now cope with the hard times of life.” — Afghan client
website (medatrust.org), MSCU staff have been able to allocate microfinance loans to real women in Afghanistan. Each branch and head office department set up its own “giving group” on the website to track and personalize the experience. In the coming months, MSCU will work with MEDA to promote the initiative to the broader community and get others involved in practical peacebuilding. — Benjamin Janzen, MSCU Stewardship in Action advisor
Private investors launch global “fund of funds” investors crave.” The fund is a response to investor calls for more creativity in “impact investment” offerings, Pries says. “All too often interested investors can’t find an opportunity in this space that meets their needs, but by solving the liquidity problem, this fund is a gamechanger for private investors.” Sarona’s unique evergreen offering, with annual closings, allows investors in and out each December, he adds. “Our unique value proposition to investors is that, by creating a fund of funds, investors get diversification across countries, industries and the best managers in the sector,” says Serge LeVert‑Chiasson, Sarona’s VP and Chief Investment Officer. “We also invite our investors to travel with us so they can see where their capital is invested.” Sarona has become a leader in the international impact investment sector, says Pries.
Sarona Asset Management Inc., a MEDA company, has completed the first closing of its Sarona Frontier Markets Fund I LP. With over $12 million in investor commitments raised during the three-month fundraising window, Sarona expects the fund to grow quickly in the next years. The new fund, described as a global industry first, is a private equity “fund‑of‑funds” that offers investors an aggressive strategy of financial, social and environmental targets in developing country markets, says Sarona president Gerhard Pries. He says the new fund opens up a whole world of opportunities for private investors. “Never before have investors been able to find global diversification and high value impact in one instrument. This fund captures the significant developing country upside, and marries it with the human and environmental values that 22
“While MEDA has been at it since the early 1950s, many investors are just now catching a glimpse of the financial opportunity, and the social/ environmental impact that is available to them.” Building on its 57-year history of representing investor interests in developing country markets, Sarona brought MEDA together with five private investors to launch this fund, each of them committing $1 million or more. Thirty other investors then joined the Founders Group, bringing total commitments to $12 million. Sarona Asset Management Inc. is a MEDA company based in Waterloo, Ont., and is a (co) founder and/or manager of a number of impact investment funds, including the Sarona and MicroVest groups of funds. Together, these funds have over $200 million of assets under management in developing countries around the world. ◆
MEDA partner draws praise for speedy ‘quake response Money might not be the first thing people think about when the world is literally crashing down around them. But it’s a sure thing that before very long those still on their feet will need cash, either their own or as remittances sent from abroad. When the epic earthquake hit, Haiti’s leading microlender — a MEDA partner — was quick out of the blocks with its own form of disaster relief. Though suffering itself — five staff lives lost, buildings damaged, computers silent as electricity died — microlender Fonkoze moved speedily so its thousands of clients could get their hands on emergency cash. It became a “ready-made lifeline,” said Newsweek magazine in praising Fonkoze’s agility. With dust and debris not yet settled, Fonkoze arranged a quick shipment of cash by helicopter from New York so those of its branches still standing could dispense money to clients. “While Port‑au‑Prince’s nine commercial banks were in a shambles and Western Union was paralyzed,” said Newsweek, “half of Fonkoze’s 42 agencies were up and running in four days, and all but two of the rest within a week. The amounts were trifling: no more than a few dollars per client. But for tens of thousands of desperate Haitians, the nimble infusion of cash amid the chaos and ruin literally meant survival....giving families access to cash for immediate needs as they waited for emergency rations of food, water, clothes, and medicine.” The U.S. Secretary of State’s office noted that Fonkoze’s
quick rebound may well have stabilized Haiti’s banking system for the country’s most vulnerable population. Fonkoze is the largest microfinance provider in Haiti, reaching 46,000 women borrowers and 200,000 savers. MEDA began its microfi-
call their own. It has almost as many borrowers as the country’s entire formal banking system. It offers loans of various kinds, currency exchange and remittance services, as well as literacy, education and health services. Today, MEDA remains an investor and active partner of Fonkoze, providing both governance support through its seat on one of the Fonkoze boards, as well as advisory services for microfinance operations. Fonkoze’s dramatic rebound has sparked renewed discussion of the role of microfinance in national economies during monumental disasters. Newsweek quoted one authority as
The nimble microfinance rebound may have stabilized Haiti’s banking system for the country’s most vulnerable population.
saying that “Devastation typically paralyzes the big banks. Microfinance institutions are used to dealing at grassroots levels in a way that large commercial lenders cannot.” The magazine notes, “Because they tend to the poor, microlenders move in and out of dangerous areas, such as crime‑ridden slums, where button‑down lenders do not or will not go.” Fonkoze executive director Anne Hastings adds that the huge client base of microfinance organizations “creates a network that can locate people as the population migrates out of the destroyed capital and help distribute food, water and tents.” ◆
nance work in Haiti in 1986, starting with an urban program that was spun off into a full-fledged credit union in 1994. At that time MEDA shifted its focus to rural areas and started a community banking program. MEDA and Fonkoze have worked together ever since Fonkoze began in Haiti. MEDA helped Fonkoze get its early bearings, and when the new organization began to grow phenomenally, in 2004 turned over its operations and most of its employees. This enabled MEDA’s clients to access an array of expanded services such as savings, deposits and business development loans. Fonkoze soon became the bank that Haiti’s poor could 23
The Marketplace March April 2010
The Marketplace March April 2010
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