News

MEDA and MWC to host faith/business consultation

Businesspeople from around the globe are being invited to a faith/ business consultation planned jointly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and the Mennonite World Conference (MWC).

Theme of the event, to be held at the Best Western Premiere, Harrisburg, Pa., will be “Frontiers of Leadership: New Models for Leading in Chaotic Times.”

It will run from 9 a.m. Monday, July 20 to noon on Tuesday, July 21 (immediately before the Mennonite World Conference Global Assembly, July 21 to 26).

Subthemes will include:

• Family busi-

nesses: Their unique strengths while facing real challenges in the current environment. • Self-care as business owners and managers: How to deal with failures? How do congregations and pastors help the process?

• Cooperatives:

Do they have a unique attraction for Christians in business? Are they viable in the current global economic environment?

• Creating commu-

nities of faith within a business: How do congregations/pastors relate to such opportunities? Are there risks to the bottom line? • Dealing with violence as business entities: How can business development promote peace? Also planned is a special feature

Officials hope to build on the success of the 2009 global business dialogue held just prior to MWC Assembly 15 in Asuncion, Paraguay. Shown here, Indonesian businessman Yohanes Sutanto addresses businesspeople from 11 countries.

on “Fresh expressions of Anabaptist values that inspire new approaches to leadership.” Presenters will be business leaders from North America, Europe and the Global South who are affiliated with MWC member churches. Attendance will be limited to 90. Cost to attend will be $119. This will be the second such global dialogue, says MEDA’s Howard Good, who is coordinating the consultation. The first, based on the theme of “Connecting business and faith in the marketplace,” was held in 2009 prior to MWC’s Assembly 15 in Asuncion, Paraguay. “That was an exciting attempt to bring Mennonite businesspeople together from around the globe,” says Good. “We want to build on that success by exploring how global Mennonite businesspeople are modeling vibrant business and faith leadership at a time when society is being pulled in so many chaotic directions.” To register your interest in being invited to this event and for MWC’s Global Assembly go to www. mwc-cmm.org or call (717) 826-0909. ◆

Don’t write off family businesses

Anyone who reads the abundant literature on family business enterprises knows that the ranks get slimmer as a company passes through the generations. Only a small minority of these businesses make it to the fourth generation.

But that doesn’t mean anyone should give up on family firms. A recent article (“Business in the blood”) in The Economist says family firms are holding their ground and “in recent years have increased their presence among global businesses.”

The article says family-controlled firms (including biggies like Walmart and the Buffet clan) now compose 19% of the enterprises in the Fortune Global 500, which tracks the world’s biggest companies by sales. This is up from 15% in 2005. Since 2008, these companies have seen their sales grow 7% a year, while nonfamily firms grew by 6.2%. These trends are expected to continue. ed bosses). • The presence of a founding family seems to be good for the company’s image.

There’s a negative side, too. The magazine says one of the “rocks on which family businesses have a unique propensity to founder” is “the risk of squabbles among relatives.” It goes on to observe, “No issue is potentially more toxic than the transition from one generation of a family to the next,” especially since children don’t always want to join the family company, or did not inherit the founder’s entrepreneurial genes. One study found that less than a fifth of family firms have solid succession plans in place. ◆

A bigger presence on the global scene

Why have family firms done so well? Among the reasons: • They are less likely to load up on debt. • They often have done better in labor relations (workers tend to trust founding families more than import-