The Marketplace Magazine May/June 2011

May June 2011

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Dyslexia: a gift for entrepreneurs Selling shoes outside the box Looking after God’s Account

James and Kathy Wiebe:

Keeping grounded while up in the air 1

The Marketplace May June 2011

Roadside stand

Fishing beyond the grave up to 25 percent; staying in school means they marry later and have fewer children than drop-outs; fewer dependents can mean a stronger economic future. Women who earn more reinvest 90 percent of it in their families (medicine, bed nets and so on), while men reinvest only 30 to 40 percent.

“Of such cycles are real revolutions born,” says Gibbs.

Two fund-raising letters showed up in our home mailbox recently. Both were from Christian organizations, and both were sent to former owners of our house who had long passed away (one of them a dozen years ago).

“Wow,” we thought. “These agencies are working from a very old prospect list.” We wondered how many other pieces of fund-raising mail were being similarly wasted.

A recent survey showed

that consumers (“prospects”) are paying more attention to the environmental aspect of how companies and charities use direct mail. While only 16 percent of consumers actually research the environmental credentials of the companies they intend to patronize, many base their judgement on immediately accessible information like marketing materials. Some 30 percent of consumers saw incorrectly addressed mail as a black mark on a company’s environmental image. When it comes to charities, about the same percentage said they would be more likely to support an organization that uses environmentally friendly direct mail techniques.

Most survey respondents (87 percent) said they would not donate to an organization if they received appeals addressed to deceased people.

What’s the future of entrepreneurship on this side of the pond? Boomer women, according to Michael Adams, president of Environics Group, a polling and market research firm. “They’re the ones who have often put their careers to the side while the guy did his thing,” he says. “Now they’re saying, ‘The kids are launched.

It’s my turn.’ The energy these women have in their 50s is astounding. They can get into retail, consulting, NGOs. They want to lead. It’s their time.”

(Report on Business magazine)

Girl power. “If you want to change the world, invest in girls,” writes Nancy Gibbs in Time.

In the developing world, investing in girls pays huge dividends through what she calls the “virtuous circle.” An extra year of secondary school can boost women’s wages by

MBAs aren’t just for business anymore. At the Cass Business School in London, a fifth

Want to make peace? Put your money on food, not fighting, says economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Speaking to a Toronto gathering on food scarcity, he said investing in ways to boost agriculture productivity in poor areas will do more to enhance long-term global security than the millions of dollars a year spent on intensive military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Globe & Mail) Public support for capitalism seems to be dwindling in the United States. A GlobeScan survey found that in 2002, 80 percent of Americans believed the free market was the world’s best bet. By last year, only 59 percent thought so. — WK

Cover photo of James Wiebe by Mike Fizer

The Marketplace May June 2011

of MBA applicants now come from the voluntary sector, and the number is rising. The reason is that charities are becoming more professional and desire MBA expertise as they deal with more complex governance, management and financial issues. Says an official at Oxford University’s business school, “We are seeing a greater fascination with enterprise focused on social change, with people using an MBA as a way of combining their business talent with positive social change.”

Adds a former youth worker who has completed an MBA to help him in a new social enterprise he founded, “It has been immensely beneficial in working out strategy, managing people and project management.”

The trend is no surprise to folks at MEDA (publishers of this magazine). Former CEO Neil Janzen and current CEO Allan Sauder are both MBA grads. (Guardian Weekly)

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In this issue

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9

14

Outside the shoe box

16

God’s Account

18

“We’ve got to change this”

Departments Roadside stand Soul enterprise Soundbites News

Volume 41, Issue 3 May June 2011 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 2011 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks

“I don’t feel stupid anymore”

Three successful Mennonite businesspeople share their journeys with dyslexia, a language-learning deficit that research shows is especially prevalent among entrepreneurs.

Dyslexia: An entrepreneurial geiger-counter? Page 9

2 4 21 22

Work, pray, love

One is an inventor, the other a practical planner.

From computers to ultralights, this Kansas couple manages to combine life and entrepreneurship.

By Arlene Rains Graber

Meet “Chief Shoe Giver” Blake Mycoskie, the rumpled founder and CEO of TOMS Shoes. His mission is to “get as many shoes on kids’ feet as I can.” By Kathy Heinrichs Wiest

A businessman reflects on stewardship in the face of affluence. His family’s approach: adopt an extra “child” for estate purposes and form Firstfruits Holdings Limited. By John Oudyk

Greencroft CEO Mark King wanted to help employees put away more for their retirement. The differential matching program he devised could work for other employers. By Kirsten L. Klassen

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 32C E Roseville Road, Lancaster, PA 17601-3681.

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 32C E Roseville Road Lancaster, PA 17601-3681

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 May June 2011

No chicken on Sunday Go ahead, try this at home Here’s one person’s take on how all of us can appreciate how dependent we are on people we have never met and who may live far away: “As you walk around your home, bring to mind all the people who built it, treated its timbers, baked its bricks, installed the plumbing, and wove your linens. When you get up in the morning, remember those who planted, picked, and spun the cotton of your sheets and who collected, treated, and exported the beans you grind for your morning coffee. You enjoy their products, so you have a responsibility for them, especially if they were working in poor conditions.

Who baked the bread you toast for breakfast? Become aware of the labor that went into the production of each slice. As you set off to work, reflect on the thousands of workers and engineers who build and maintain the roads, cars, railroads, planes, trains, and underground transport on which you rely. Continue this exercise throughout the day.... We are what we are because of the hard work, insights, and achievements of countless others.” — Karen Armstrong in Twelve Steps to A Compassionate Life

The Marketplace May June 2011

If you ever hanker for chicken on a Sunday, you won’t get it at Chick-fil-A, the second-most popular purveyor of chicken sandwiches in the United States. Plain and simple, its 1,500-plus restaurants are closed on Sunday. The other six days are enough to bring Chickfil-A’s annual revenue to $3.4 billion.

The closed-on-Sunday policy was not initially based on religious principle, according to Dee Ann Turner, a 25-year company veteran who serves as “vice-president of talent” (human resources). In an interview with Mark Russell in Faith In The Workplace Newsletter, she discloses that it came about because founder Truett Cathy was tuckered out.

“He needed rest,” she says. “He said that if a person couldn’t earn a living in six days, then he needs to do something else. It was about rest, but also about spending the time to rejuvenate and get strong again to serve his customers. As he hired people, he also realized how important it was for his employees to also have a day off.”

While the policy began for practical reasons, it is also consistent with Cathy’s Christian belief that God is honored when we take a day of rest, says Turner.

“People always say to Truett, ‘You could make so much money if you opened on Sunday.’ His response is that we’ve been so successful because we have not been open on Sunday. When we started in the mall business, Chick‑fil‑A always led all the restaurants in sales even though we were only open six days to their seven. I think that is still true even though the majority of the restaurants are now free‑standing.”

Turner oversees recruitment, selection and retention of 750 corporate staff and 1,000 Chick‑fil‑A franchisees. She screens franchise applicants for moral character, competency and “chemistry” — the ability to fit in with the team and have similar good chemistry with their own community. Researching and selecting the right franchisees, who operate as independent contractors, is important in preserving the company’s values, she says. “You have to make sure you are choosing the right person. At Chick‑fil‑A, we don’t just work together, we do life together. We hope to be in a relationship with the franchisees and staff members for a very long time. We have to understand how to live and work with one another.”

It’s an expensive process but worth it, Turner says. As a result, “we very rarely have to end an agreement with a franchisee.”

The biblical Golden Rule is never far from her view. “I have to make a lot of decisions about people’s lives,” Turner says. “When I am interviewing someone, it may be the fourth or fifth person I’m interviewing that day, but it can be a 30‑year decision for the interviewee. Some decisions are easy to make, but others are very difficult.... It is not an everyday decision. It really is about someone’s life and livelihood. When I have to turn down a candidate, I remember that this is someone’s husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter. I want them to be treated in the way I would want those people in my life to be treated.”

Turner has come to see her work as a ministry, though initially she had other plans for “full-time” Christian service. “I now realize that ‘my full‑time ministry’ is to help others find their path in life and discover where they can use their gifts and talents at Chick‑fil‑A.” 4

Is this why we love coffee?

Does your morning cuppa joe give you more than just a caffeine jolt? Like a faith boost, perhaps? Biblical scholar Ben Witherington reports that coffee has a strong faith connection, having been first brewed in Ethiopian monasteries and then exported far and wide.

“The very word ‘cappucino’ refers to the Capuchin monks whose habits are the same color as this brew,” he writes in Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor. “Coffee is a Christian beverage in origins, but you’d never know it today.”

Working for love “Joy begins when we know why and for whom we work. Most of us work for love, whether we realize it or not. That is, we work to provide for people we love, such as our spouse and children, our neighbors and friends, perhaps even our nation.” — R. Paul Stevens and Alvin Ung in Taking Your Soul to Work

Have I got a deal for you

Do unto others...

It’s been 50 years since Isadore Sharp opened his first Four Seasons Hotel and began the process of building one of the most recognized lodging brands in the world. He attributes his success to strictly following his version of the Golden Rule: “The simple idea that if you treat people well, the way you would like to be treated, they will do the same.”

(Globe & Mail)

Used-car dealers often get a bum rap.

Who, then, would imagine how the simple act of selling a reliable pre-owned vehicle could have this ripple effect? A young entrepreneur sent us this note after buying his first automobile. “Cruising along to work after spending the last several years exclusively on public transit has me tearing up and giggling with sheer joy. My 9.3 hours of bus time per week has been reduced to approximately three hours in the car and my energy level (at work) has already improved (which is good for my clients, too).”

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

— Winston Churchill

Overheard:

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The Marketplace May June 2011

Photo courtesy James Wiebe

Work, pray, love From computers to ultralights, Kansas couple combines life and entrepreneurship

by Arlene Rains Graber

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hey work, play, and live together. James and Kathy Wiebe also eat, pray, and love together.

24/7? Some days, but individuality and differing outside interests reigns for this couple.

The information — or digital — age, where global communication is possible through the Internet by way of personal computers, allows professionals to work from home or even at the beach armed with a laptop and Bluetooth. It is also the age where couples join forces and home‑based businesses sprout up daily.

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor reports there are more than 18.1 million home‑based businesses in the United States alone.

The Wiebes are part of this group. Even though James The Marketplace May June 2011

“The things that trigger you as a couple will also trigger you as partners in business.”

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Wiebe has at least two offices outside his Wichita home office, he says, “All decisions are pretty much made right over there at the kitchen counter. That’s where we look at documents, go over crucial business tasks and make the bulk of decisions.”

James is a tall, lanky, fiftyish computer guru who for the last three decades has concentrated on staying ahead of technology. He

describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, having developed three businesses over the past 30 years. First, he founded Newer Technology Inc. which became a leader in Macintosh CPU upgrades, and earned a credit in the movie Jurassic Park, television’s 24, and in the original Transformer movie.

Next, with the help of his wife Kathy, they founded WiebeTech, developing and marketing digital forensic computer storage devices. At that time, the entire business was in their house. Kathy worked downstairs, James upstairs.

“We had three employees also working in our home plus our two daughters,” says Kathy. “The girls were only in junior high and elementary school, but they joined us in the distribution area, and we paid them by the piece to

“If an instructor does not give them solo status, then they have no business flying our airplane,” he says. In the past, they’ve been part‑owners in a Cessna 172 and owned a Cessna 206 and logged over 900 hours for business on the 206.

James says the plane has a market with retired pilots, amateur photographers, and hobbyists who like to build things. That’s where Kathy, who is a marketing specialist, comes in. The ultralight also fits the person who has flown for years, is losing medical certification due to age, and is looking for one last airplane.

Kathy is an attractive, smart, personality‑plus

By 2009, the team was off and running once

The Wiebes met while Kathy was at Associat-

East Wichita News photo by Cathy Feemster

pack boxes. They still work at various jobs for the business.”

They sold WiebeTech to CRU‑DATAPORT in 2008, however the name remains. James is still an occasional consultant for them, and does a lot of speaking engagements on computer forensics.

conservative, whose creative branding experience matches the visions of any start‑up company. She brings years of experience to the table from Associated Advertising, then owned by her father, Pres Huston. She started as a copywriter and eventually led the media production efforts.

She tells the story of how she and James began working together. “I had left Associated and was doing a lot with my church and charity work, plus raising two daughters, so I wasn’t looking for another job. I’m not an electronics person. I mean, I can operate the computer and am a whiz on software, but I know nothing about hardware.”

James had just started WiebeTech and was getting ready for the huge Mac World trade show. Kathy developed his marketing kit for the booth, and was ready to settle back and listen to reports of progress from the show. But at the last minute the person going with James had to back out. That meant Kathy needed to go and help him at the booth.

“Once those doors opened at the trade show,” she says, “thousands of people swarmed in and for the first two hours it was ‘James what’s this? James how does this work?’ sort of thing.”

Even with her limited hardware knowledge, it was evident they made a successful team. “That particular trade show put us on the map and after that it was expansion after expansion,” says Kathy.

When you work from home and own your own company, it’s difficult to turn it off, say James and Kathy Wiebe.

That’s why Friday date nights are important.

again, founding Belite Aircraft. The couple acquired tooling, and existing parts and production rights to the Kitfox Lite aircraft, given they would rebrand the company. Belite was born and the Wiebes were in the ultralight aircraft business. Since then, James has redesigned the aircraft parts from steel, wood or aluminum, to carbon fiber allowing for a much lighter and more economical plane.

The Belite is offered in both kit form and as a completed flyable airplane. There are no requirements to fly the ultralight, but Wiebe says they always recommend that the person be able to fly an airplane solo.

ed and James owned Newer Technologies. “It was a blind date,” says Kathy. “Not love at first sight. It took Their individual awhile to figure it out.”

There were differskills complement ences. Kathy says her is with public each other. James strength relations and accounting.

James is the visionary is the inventor, and risk taker. He is not detail-oriented and Kathy Kathy the is very detailed. He loves to go fly fishing, flying, practical planner. and camping. Kathy’s

Opposite page: James Wiebe pilots one of his Belite aircraft over central Kansas.

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The Marketplace May June 2011

outside interests are geared toward volunteerism. She works tirelessly as a volunteer for CASA (a child advocate organization) and is an advocate through the courts for a family of children. Kathy has also started a church tutoring program with Pleasant Valley Middle School, and teaches Intro to Entrepreneurship at Wichita State University.

They’ve been married 25 years, and have worked together for the past several years. So how does it work for husband and wife with varied skills?

“As an entrepreneur James is willing to take risks that I have trouble with,” says Kathy. “I’ve had to let go and trust God that He will take care of us. James can see the outcome and that’s really not my gift. If I didn’t have a faith that someone else larger than me will take care of the situation, it would be very difficult.”

Dave Franson, executive director of Wichita Aero Club, who has known the couple for several years, says “James is a genius and can make a successful business from anything. Kathy can take his genius and create a salable marketing campaign. Together, they complete each other.”

Debbie Trimmell‑Martin, good friend and gal pal of Kathy’s, says the Wiebes work well together because of two factors. “The number one factor is they respect each other both professionally and personally,” she says.

“Two, their individual skills complement each “Even in today’s other. James is the inventor, and she is the practical planner.” precarious Still, both admit it takes work. Trying to economy, it’s an get together on the same page took awhile, excellent time to and James says they definitely had some start a business.” disagreements in the beginning. “The things that trigger you as a couple will also trigger you as partners in business. You have to work at communication. The commitment to each other spiritually gets you through it. It’s all about how you handle conflict that matters. We’ve come to have a healthy The Marketplace May June 2011

conflict resolution strategy by being aware that both of us sometimes say things that drive the other person nuts.

But, we’ve learned to not only stay focused on the point of discussion, but also how to resolve it.”

“Most conflicts are not life or death,” says Kathy, “and if we let them go and not want to always be right, it saves a whole lot of conflict and increases personal emotional health. Let the me-me-me thing go.”

When you work from your home and own your own company, it’s difficult to turn it off. “James makes sure we have date night on Fridays,” says Kathy. “We pretty much own two of those balcony seats at the Warren Theater.”

The one thing that James admires most about Kathy is excellent prioritization. “She has a strong sense of right and wrong on both a business and personal level.

I’ve learned a lot from Kathy on how to incorporate my faith into my work view. You know a lot of folks profess Christianity but do a poor job of integrating it into the workforce.”

For Kathy, it is James’ determination. “When he wants to develop something he doesn’t quit until it’s perfect and workable. When we were dating, the one thing that impressed me was how open to change he is. It has never been ‘my way or no way’.”

For future entrepreneurs, James has this advice:

“Have a solid long‑term business plan, then ask yourself, how am I going to finance this thing in the event my worst case projections come true.”

Even with today’s precarious financial world, James sees advantages for a start‑up company. “You are really taking a huge risk in this economy, but if you have the means to stick it out, it’s an excellent time to start a business. The reason is this. It’s never been so easy to do branding. Because if you are doing marketing right now, you’re sticking out in front of all your competitors, who are scared to death of starting a business. Another thing is, because there are so many who have been laid off, it’s never been easier to find talented employees.”

The Wiebes have been successful, and find pleasure in sharing it with others. “We’ve discovered that one of the largest joys in life is giving things away,” says Kathy.

“We’ve been able to do some fun things for people. In fact we set up a foundation and our joy is giving.”

For the future, Kathy sees herself working in some area of Christian ministry. “I love the CASA work I do, but down the road, I can see myself perhaps working with missions — helping impoverished nations in business areas.”

For James, he says “Retirement would look a lot like our life now, just with more travel to interesting places.

This business cycle we’re in is going to take five years to grow. After that, I don’t know, but if I get a good idea, it’s possible to start another business.” ◆

Reprinted by permission of East Wichita News, Wichita, Kansas

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Dyslexia — a hidden “gift” for entrepreneurs?

A “staggering” number of business owners share a common language-learning deficit

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hink back to your school days — was there a kid vival strategies and develop razor-sharp intuition that can in the next desk who couldn’t read a sentence be a catapult into the world of entrepreneurship. without stumbling? Where is that kid today?

“We found that dyslexics who succeed had overcome Chances are, leading a successful company. an awful lot in their lives by developing compensatory That struggling reader may have had dyslexia, a skills,” Logan says in a New York Times interview. “If you language-learning deficit that makes it difficult to process tell your friends and acquaintances that you plan to start a words on paper. Many go through school thinking they business, you’ll hear over and over, ‘It won’t work. It can’t are dumb. Yet they may in fact be brilliant ... and future be done.’ But dyslexics are extraordinarily creative about entrepreneurs in disguise. maneuvering their way around problems.”

Dyslexia affects five to 10 percent of the populaHer study also found that dyslexics were more willing tion. But among entrepreneurs the figure is higher. Much to delegate authority, giving them a significant edge over higher. nondyslexic entrepreneurs who may be inclined to exert Many dyslexics excel in business. Think of Richard total control.

Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways; discount Emerson Dickman, president of the International brokerage mogul Charles R. Schwab; and Cisco CEO John Dyslexia Association in Baltimore, agrees. “Individuals T. Chambers. who have difficulty readAre they just lucky ing and writing tend to exceptions? Not by a long deploy other strengths,” shot, says Julie Logan, a Dickman, himself a dysou may have heard the old joke about the dyslexic professor of entrepreneurlexic, told the Times. “They atheist who didn’t believe there was a dog. Sadly, ship at the Cass Business rely on mentors, and as a that perpetuates the idea that dyslexia is mostly School in London. While result, become very good about reversing letters, when in fact that manifestation it is known that dyslexics at reading other people may be rare. There are many different facets. do well in business, Logan and delegating duties to Dyslexics process data differently. As a result they was the first to measure them. They become adept often have to perform vastly more mental computathe percentage of dyslexic at using visual strengths to tions to recognize certain words. Their brains may funcentrepreneurs. solve problems.” tion 400 to 2,000 times faster than other readers. “The Entrepreneurs are dyslexic will be able to master many skills faster than the When she surveyed average person could comprehend or understand them,” known as hands-on people 139 business owners in the with limited appetite for says Ron Davis in The Gift of Dyslexia.

United States she found pushing paper. Reading a “In the dyslexic, the creative urge is profoundly the number who said they lot of reports is more likely stronger than in individuals who do not possess the were dyslexic to be “stagthe domain of corporate dyslexic’s basic abilities,” he adds. “Because of picture gering.” Indeed, 35 permanagers, who barely thinking, intuitive thought, multidimensional thought and cent identified themselves register on the dyslexia curiosity, the dyslexic’s creativity is greatly enhanced.” as dyslexic, more than scale. Logan’s study found In his book Neurodiversity, Thomas Armstrong writes, triple the prevalence in the that only one percent of “Perhaps there will come a day when the dyslexic is no general population. corporate managers have longer seen as a disabled person but is looked upon more Why is this? dyslexia, far below the as a different kind of information processor whose outMany dyslexics learn average for the general of-the-box brain is a decided asset to the world.” ◆ early how to master surpopulation.

Why dyslexics are so creative

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The Marketplace May June 2011

The best-known dyslexic in the Mennonite world is Pennsylvania therapist Abraham Schmitt. His book, Brilliant Idiot: An Autobiography of a Dyslexic (Good Books, 1992), has been a huge encouragement to fellow sufferers.

He describes dyslexia as a “language-learning deficit.”

The word literally means “impaired words.” In his case, it manifested itself as a bleep or short-circuit in the brain that reversed letters within words. As a result, he did poorly in subjects that required much textual reading, like English. “But in subjects such as physics, biology and algebra, taught using multisensory methods ... I had nearly perfect grades.”

There were compensations, too, in his chosen field of therapy. “Because I had long ago realized that I could not think in a linear way, I used every effort to expand my more spatial, intuitive process of thinking,” he writes. This stood him in good stead when he became a therapist.

“Because I could not remember series of facts and exact

I

Many develop

information, I had learned to experience life situations much like many of razor-sharp my clients did.”

Not every dyslexic intuition that experiences identical difficulty. Many have problems catapults them with words they cannot visualize, such as “when.” into the world of For most, however, reading large chunks of text is entrepreneurship ponderously slow.

Also common is a seemingly universal sense of inadequacy in an educational system geared heavily to fluent literacy. As a result, they feel inferior in school. Like Schmitt, many have said, “I often thought I was a dumb child.”

In the following articles three successful Mennonite entrepreneurs share their own journey with dyslexia. ◆

Seeing life in pictures

t’s ironic that Mark Loewen would discover his dyslexleft brain thinker but may struggle to memorize phone ia by reading a book. The book was Brilliant Idiot: An numbers and recognize letters. Since educational systems Autobiography of a Dyslexic by Abraham Schmitt. tend to exalt left brain thinking, dyslexic people typically “My mother pushed it in front of me and for suffer from low self-esteem. But, as noted in Julie Logan’s whatever reason I started reading it,” says Loewen. research (see previous article), dyslexics are more likely to “What was really amazing was the way I related to the be highly entrepreneurial and often find themselves in author’s experience. I cried through lots of the book.” ownership but not in detail-driven management.

“That was a real watershed,” says his wife, Bonnie.

The discoveries helped explain why Loewen, by his “Mark does not cry easily. It was like a self-discovery that own description, “often felt stupid” even while achieving washed through 47 years of life.” business success.

As if twisting a camera lens, the book brought his “School was horrible for me,” he says. “Even though past life into sharp focus. Now he had an explanation for I pushed through one year of college and two years of his struggles in school, and for his feelings of intellectual university, graduating with a 3.3 average, I was always at inferiority amid notable business sucthe bottom or near the bottom of cess. grade school.” His older brother exThe discovery sent the Loewens celled in school and went on to earn on a hunt for more. They searched a doctorate while Mark stayed home out research online and bought whaton the farm. Their father, who was ever books they could find. Some also dyslexic but didn’t know it, once of the research was disheartening, told Mark, “If you’re not going to be painting dyslexia as a curse. But most a farmer you’ll live out of a lunchkit was surprisingly uplifting, naming all your life.” dyslexia a gift.

His father had never gone beThe reading helped undo simyond the eighth grade, yet served plistic stereotypes about dyslexia, with distinction on church and busisays Mark. “I have learned that it is ness boards, including chairing the a complex way of learning where, in Steinbach Credit Union, the leading part, we think right brain, through financial institution in eastern Manipictures, rather than left brain toba. Like many successful dyslexics, through linear thinking.” the elder Loewen relied on his wife to A right brain thinker, he explains, do a lot of his writing. can process data much faster through Mark and Bonnie Loewen at home in Today Mark Loewen carries on Blumenort, Manitoba. multi-dimensional pictures than the multiple businesses in the area surThe Marketplace May June 2011

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When his congregation launched a water project in Kenya, Loewen’s “picture vision” kicked right in. He saw opportunity for long-term investment in this project and together with his church, figured out ways to network whole communities. “He already had a picture in his head for the long haul,” says Bonnie. “He has that ability to dream beyond what I see in the moment.”

rounding his home near the town of Blumenort. He farms 1,000 acres of cereal crops and raises 30,000 turkeys.

Until recently he was a shareholder of Deere Country, a John Deere dealership. Last year, they merged with Enns Brothers, Manitoba’s largest John Deere outlet of which he remains part of the ownership group. He is part-owner of Steinbach Hatchery and Feed, the largest locally owned poultry feed mill in the province and largest leghorn hatch in western Canada.

Bonnie says his dyslexia helps to explain why he has strong “court sense,” to use a sports image. “He’s very good at seeing the whole picture, very intuitive about how things fit together,” she says. “He doesn’t see A,B,C and D separately, but sees A to Z together. He doesn’t see them in linear fashion, he sees them in pictures. If we want to build a gazebo on the house, he already has the whole picture in his head, while I only have the color of the paint.”

A close friend says, “I always knew reading wasn’t something Mark was good at, but he’s really sharp with financial concepts. When an opportunity comes up he’s very quick to understand how it works and make an assessment. He’s one of the sharper financial whizzes I know.”

Some would call Loewen a serial entrepreneur. Bonnie, a gifted writer and preacher who brings a literary dimension to the marriage, describes it this way: “I’m an insatiable reader; when the book closes I’m looking for the next one. It’s the same with Mark in business: when he closes a deal he’s looking for the next one.”

Not all these deals are “just business.” His entrepreneurship has a strong social bent, including providing affordable housing and gardening opportunities for Central American immigrants.

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Loewen is still processing his life’s experiences through the grid of his new self-understanding. He is growing more comfortable with the “gift side” of dyslexia and why he so naturally thinks outside of the box and sees opportunities where others don’t.

Now he knows, too, why reading is a chore. “A lot of dyslexics can read well but after a couple of pages they’re done,” he says. “It’s not fun for them.” And, since reading is so central to contemporary measures of educational success, “it’s hard to trust your own judgement when you feel you are too stupid to read well.”

Even personal relationships can be affected. “Not everyone is pleased to find that you can pull off multimillion-dollar deals when, after all, you can’t even read well in public,” he says. “There’s a terrible conflict when you’re succeeding even though you’re not supposed to.

But maybe there’s even more conflict if you’re supposed to succeed and you don’t.”

Now that he is nearing the age of 50, Loewen sees potential as a mentor to others.

“I think it important,” he says, “that those who have struggled all their life with dyslexia, and like me may not even be aware of the source of it, would benefit by understanding the connection between their way of learning and their strength and expression in life through business.” ◆

Graphs yes, text no

decade ago Margaret Fast picked up the book Brilliant Idiot: An Autobiography of a Dyslexic by Abraham Schmitt. She wasn’t far into it when she said to her husband, “Bill, this is you.”

“Then we read it together,” says Winnipeg businessman Bill Fast. “Until then I didn’t know.”

The discovery that he was dyslexic helped explain his lifelong unease with reading. While he has an unThe worst day canny grasp of graphs and three-dimensional drawings, was Sunday, large chunks of text will stop him in his tracks. when he’d have “I have to read every single letter,” he says. “The to read aloud speed of reading is so slow that I’d get frustrated and from the Bible just give up. I don’t like

movies with subtitles because I can’t read fast enough to keep up. If we do go to one, Margaret quietly reads the subtitles to me.”

The difficulty in reading makes spelling a major problem, so much so that occasionally spell-check does not recognize the word.

Numbers, especially financial numbers, are different.

While he sometimes has a problem with phone numbers (a pair, like 26 and 62, for example, might switch on him), he has almost a sixth sense for numbers that don’t jibe.

“If I scan a page of numbers I can pick out within a few minutes if something isn’t right. I’ll say, ‘You better check this number. We can’t have this kind of differential between one month and the next’.”

But those skills don’t help when you’re trying to pass freshman English. “All the way through high school I was not passing the English courses,” Fast says. “If it was 11

The Marketplace May June 2011

Photo courtesy of IDE

to young people. I felt like a physics or chemistry it wasn’t loser.” all writing. Oral reading was He found it all the more always very difficult. When frustrating because he loved we studied Romeo and Juliet, knowledge. “My biggest fasI’d read the classic comic cination is how do you make book to get an idea of what things work,” he says. it was about.”

To cram for exams Fast The worst day of the week was Sunday. “In Sunwould write concise lists of all day school we’d all have to the key things he thought he read a verse from the Bible. needed to know, compressed I’d try to count ahead to preinto the smallest document, figure out which verse would then memorize it. “If I put be mine, so I could practice my mind to it I could see that it in my mind. I was already page and duplicate it in my Bill Fast, left, with a client of International Development nervous, really uptight, and memory,” he recalls. “That if I counted wrong and made Enterprises (IDE) in Lusaka, Zambia. Fast is past board took me through most of my chair of IDE Canada. a mistake in which verse I math and science courses.” had to read, and end up with one I hadn’t practiced, I’d He failed English in each of his high school years and stumble and flail around and feel highly embarrassed, had to go to summer school. He came out with an averbecause this was in front of my peers. I already had all age just high enough to get into engineering at University the usual insecurities and self-image problems common of Manitoba. There was one more hurdle — first-year

☞

A way to sneak through life

M

ichael Horsch gives 50 or 60 speeches a year, but don’t expect him to show you a text. He always speaks off the cuff. Writing isn’t his thing.

He also doesn’t like long e-mails. “If they’re more than three sentences long, I don’t read them,” he says. “I delete them.” His co-workers have learned that long written discourse is no way to communicate with the boss.

Horsch is dyslexic. But that hasn’t stopped him from building Horsch Machinery into a global manufacturer of agricultural seeding and tillage equipment.

Horsch discovered his dyslexia when he was entering his teen years in Germany.

“My mother was upset because I could not read or write properly; my teachers would get mad at me. Obviously my grades weren’t very good, either. My mother talked to my teacher. At that time dyslexia was not an accepted thing. My teacher had read an article about it.

He told my mother, ‘He always looks out the window; he doesn’t really want to follow the lesson. When he has to read and write he hates it, he cannot really do it right, I think it must have something to do with dyslexia.’ He recommended she take me to a psychiatrist in Regensberg.

“I still remember the day she took me there. He did all kinds of funny things. He had me look at pictures and then he took the pictures away and asked me to describe what I had seen. I wondered, what in the world is this guy doing. The outcome was that I had some sort of dyslexia.

“When I found out what this meant, I said, ‘Hey, I can The Marketplace May June 2011

act stupid and I even have a passport for it. A passport to act stupid.’ I took that as an excuse, and I still do it today.

Whenever anything comes up having to do with reading and writing, and I don’t want to do it, I have an excuse — ‘here I am, disabled, and I have a passport for it, so don’t bother me’,” he says with a chuckle.

That “excuse” has a downside, says Horsch. Three of his four children are also dyslexic, and they sometimes turn his excuse back on him. “They’ll say, ‘Well Dad, you didn’t go very far in school, and see what came out of it, so why should we’?”

Does he see his dyslexia as a predictor of entre-

preneurship? No, says Horsch. He sees it more as an obstacle he had to overcome. “For me there were no other options than business. I couldn’t make it in the traditional text world. I had no other way to go because no one would hire me with the grades I had.”

After struggling through high school, Horsch entered a German apprenticeship program. What he really wanted was to be a farmer, so he worked on his uncle’s farm to satisfy the requirements. In the process, he could give free rein to his innate genius for innovation and design.

A pivotal experience was a year in the United States under a Mennonite Central Committee program. He worked with two Mennonite enterprises in Nebraska and Kansas, now combined as Harper Industries. (Horsch currently serves on MEDA’s board with Tim Penner, the CEO of Harper Industries.) He would have preferred to stay in

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engineering had an English course. After struggling through that, “I basically sailed through engineering.”

As if that hadn’t been punishment enough, Fast enrolled in an MBA program at the University of Western Ontario. He struggled with the heavy dose of case studies, staying up late to get them read. “By the second year I was married, and Margaret read all the cases to me. That made life a whole lot easier.”

He graduated in the top 10. “How I got there, only the Lord knows,” says Fast.

buildings and livestock handling equipment, as well as part ownership in All-Fab Building Components, a roof truss manufacturing company, Olympic Building Supplies, a retail lumberyard, Excell Battery company and ComforTek, an importer of stacking chairs.

Does he see a positive side to his dyslexia? “Because you have it, you think differently, you have to think differently,” he says. “You don’t have the expertise and ability to think the other way.”

Knowing what he knows now, Fast muses about going back to his Mennonite high school to tell students his story. “I’d tell them that just because you may be having a problem doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. I’d tell them to hang in and work with what you’ve got. There really was no way for me to correct my dyslexia, but there is a way for you to figure out what you can do on the positive side to make things work for you.”

As for teachers, “I hope they would be conscious and observant to look at the kids beyond the stupid things they do to cover up. I did a lot to cover up, a lot of stupid things. Why? To somehow compensate for my inability to excel in another area.” ◆

Fast was invited to work for his father-in-law,

prominent lumber and hardware dealer Henry Redekopp.

“I got my second MBA from him,” Fast says of his late mentor. Redekopp offered Bill and Margaret a chance to buy the window part of his business, which became Willmar Windows (sold to Jeld-wen a few years ago).

Any poor self-image he suffered in his youth dissipated when he began to succeed in business — something he has done in large measure. Besides building Willmar into a leading window manufacturer, his current involvements include HiQual, which produces fabric-covered

the U.S., but had to return home to fulfill authorities realized the important role of his alternative service obligations, as Gerhis growing company and gave him a permany still had a military draft. manent exemption. Score one for innovaHorsch worked in a hospital near his tive problem-solving. home. But changing light bulbs and helping nurses push beds wasn’t very fulfilling.

Today, Horsch runs the company He thought he could perform a better with his wife Cornelia, his brother Philipp service by starting a company. and his cousin Traugott (who serves on the “I had this idea for a no-till seeder,” board of MiCredito, MEDA’s microfinance he recalls. “I asked my father and uncle — institution in Nicaragua). The company ‘can I build it for you guys?’” employs 650 people directly, plus many They agreed, and financed him, giving subcontractors. It operates in two dozen him money to buy steel. countries — from Ukraine to the United While doing his service during the day, States. To service their far-flung market Michael Horsch: operating manuals in 18 languages he planned out his company at night and they publish brochures and operating sketched things he wanted to build. He manuals in 18 different languages. rented a farm workshop from his father and began to “I never wanted to do what I’m doing,” Horsch says. weld the seeder together.

“I wanted to become a farmer, not a farm machinery As he went about enlisting customers he discovered a manufacturer. All I wanted was make enough money to provision in the law to exempt people from service if they buy a farm. Instead, I ended up with this machinery busiwere doing something else that served the public interest. ness. Today I’m happy to have both. I’m a farmer and a With the help of a lawyer, he persuaded German authorimachinery manufacturer. But that was not the intention.” ties that his new company, although it was still mostly an Has being dyslexic been a good thing, then? “Actuidea-in-process, would qualify. They granted him a oneally, yes,” says Horsch. “It’s helped me sneak through life. year exemption.

It’s a risky way, but sometimes it makes it a lot easier.”

“In this one year I built my business,” he says. “I hired Two things about it still annoy him, he says. “I have a more people and got more orders.” hard time reading the Bible, and I have a hard time readWhen the year was up he gained another one-year ing patents. I can spend two hours reading a patent, and I exemption. This went on for 15 years. Finally the German don’t know a single thing I’ve read.” ◆ 13

The Marketplace May June 2011

Selling shoes outside the box

Journey of a giver‑in‑chief

by Kathy Heinrichs Wiest

O

n the stage in front of an audience of 1,100 business‑suited and high‑heeled executives at Fresno Pacific University’s Business Forum, Blake Mycoskie stood in a rumpled cotton plaid shirt and cargo pants. With a shock of unruly curls and wide grin, he looked more like a free‑spirited grandson of some business executive than what he really is — the founder and CEO of a $30 million shoe company called TOMS Shoes.

Mycoskie’s other title with the company, Chief Shoe Giver, fits him better. It’s easier to picture this dynamic young guy on his knees slipping a pair of new shoes on a child in a rural village in Argentina than behind a corporate desk in an executive office. The act of placing shoes on children was a life‑transforming experience for this serial entrepreneur who is blurring the line between business and philanthropy and finding phenomenal success at “doing well by doing good.”

a group of volunteers collecting used shoes from wealthy neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. Intrigued by their project, he invited himself along with the group as they traveled to the villages around the city, delivering the shoes to children.

“I remember getting on my hands and knees and putting shoes on kids’ feet and just feeling my spirit filled with joy,” says Mycoskie. “I had never really done anything like this before, and it totally overtook me.”

As he pondered his experience, he basked in the good feelings both the volunteers and the recipients had from the experience. He enjoyed imagining how the shoes would improve the children’s lives. For some it would make it possible for them to finally attend school. All of them would be protected from the injuries and foot diseases that plagued their community.

But Mycoskie’s polo instructor raised a disturbing question: What happens in a few months when the children grow out of their new shoes or the shoes wear out from daily use? Would they all be back in the same place they were before? The thought disturbed Mycoskie and started the wheels of entrepreneurship spinning. The result was a business‑based plan to provide a sustainable source of shoes for the children he had met.

Before founding TOMS Shoes in 2006, Mycoskie already had some well‑honed entrepreneurial skills.

By his 30th birthday he had started three different businesses. After an intense period of start‑up for his third enterprise (an on‑line driver’s education service) he headed to Argentina for a little rest and recuperation.

His mission in Argentina was to learn to play polo with an expert Argentinean instructor. An entirely different mission caught his imagination when he encountered The Marketplace May June 2011

Mycoskie returned home to California with three duffle bags stuffed with 250 alpargata, a traditional Argentinean shoe. His plan: sell the shoes for a price that 14

Photo courtesy of Fresno Pacific University

“To see Scripture

would not only cover the cost of the purchased shoes but also supply a pair of shoes to a village child. In three months, he figured, the duffle bags would be empty, and he would return to Argentina to spend his profits on the children’s next sets of shoes. He called the venture “Shoes for Tomorrow” (later shortened to TOMS) and the TOMS Shoes model of “One for One” was born — a for‑profit business that invited consumers to participate in giving to a person in need.

Mycoskie’s vision for this new venture was small. He would have this little shoe business on the side, he figured, while continuing work with his partners on the driver’s education enterprise. But his efforts to find outlets for his 250 shoes hit paydirt when a Los Angeles Times fashion writer happened on his display in a shoe boutique.

Her newspaper story of a shoe company where each buyer gave a pair of shoes to a child in need captured people’s imagination. TOMS’s web site was bombarded with orders for 2,200 pairs of shoes.

Mycoskie flew back to Argentina to set up a supply line to meet the exploding Serial entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie visits with students at demand. Meanwhile, Fresno Pacific University two business interns worked from the kitchen table in his Venice, Calif., apartment contacting customers to say that delivery would take several weeks.

Five months into his TOMS shoes venture, Mycoskie took his interns, his parents and other family and friends — a team of 16 shoe‑givers — on their first shoe drop. He needed the whole team because instead of bringing back 250 pairs of shoes, they were distributing shoes to 10,000 Argentinean children.

community and how they could serve. I really think that’s where I got come to life it from.”

He also finds a through a business mandate for lifelong giving in Proverbs is really amazing” 3:9‑10: “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty.”

“To see Scripture come to life through a business is really amazing,” says Mycoskie. “We were giving shoes away even when we were losing money those first couple of years, but we kept on doing that, and I think we’ve been extremely blessed that we remained faithful.”

Mycoskie says his sense of calling came at that first TOMS shoe drop in Argentina. The team had made their deliveries and was packing up to leave a village when a mother of three boys came to him with tears in her eyes. Through a translator she explained that up to that moment her sons had been sharing one pair of shoes. Since shoes were required at school, her boys would rotate, each attending school for a day and then staying home two days while the others got their turns.

Now they could all attend every day.

“When I started TOMS I knew kids needed shoes, but I had no idea it could change someone’s life this much,” he remembers. “After that conversation I said, ‘That’s it, I have been called to get as many shoes on kids’ feet as I can in the world’.”

After four years in business, TOMS Shoes has made a good start on that mission. In September the business celebrated the millionth pair of shoes given to children around the world. But to Mycoskie, that is just a step along the way. “It’s sort of a milestone that someone can write about,” he says, “but it was kind of anticlimactic for me because there is still a lot of work to do.”

In Mycoskie’s mind, the work is twofold: First he wants to alleviate suffering by providing shoes and helping with treatment of various foot diseases. Second, he wants to see others follow his lead and break out of the status quo of business. “We want to use our story to inspire other business leaders to create the next TOMS,” he says. “There is a lot of room for business to incorporate more giving and not depend on donations and the nonprofits.”

Speaking to students and business groups around the country, his business plan is outside‑the‑box, his style is unconventional and his message is focused: “Incorporate giving in your life — the earlier the better. It blesses you in ways you can’t imagine.” ◆

Mycoskie looks back at how his views of busi-

ness have changed: “When I was younger I used to think that as a businessperson my responsibility and job was to make as much money as I could…and then maybe when I was…ready to retire I would get to be in giving and philanthropy and helping others.” To his surprise he found that “you can actually do both at the same time!”

Mycoskie says his parents were key in his drive to give and serve. “My parents are both amazing, compassionate people,” he reflects. “While we didn’t really engage in a lot of volunteer trips or things like this, they were always very compassionate with the people in our local

Kathy Heinrichs Wiest is a freelance writer living in Kingsburg, Calif. Her article appeared first in the Christian Leader, the U.S. Mennonite Brethren magazine, and is used with permission.

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The Marketplace May June 2011

God’s Account Reflections on the way to Firstfruits Holdings Ltd.

by John Oudyk John Oudyk, president of Power Vac Services, Cambridge, Ontario, was recently invited to speak as part of a series on faith, money and stewardship at his congregation, Bloomingdale Mennonite Church. Following is a condensation of his comments:

Q

uite bluntly, I am affluent. By that I don’t mean to say that because my income is above the so‑called poverty line in Canada, I am wealthy. No, I’m affluent. Sandra and I do not have significant debt. We have savings and investments. We have good jobs. So I speak from a position of privilege and abundance.

I grew up in a Christian family of first generation immigrants. My parents seldom talked about money, but their actions were very loud! I John Oudyk: pushing the stewardship envelope watched my father faithfully put an us any money. We were encouraged to continue our eduenvelope in the weekly church offering plates (most Chriscation, but the unspoken understanding was that it would tian Reformed churches pass two plates around: the first be self-funded. In this way, I’m convinced the immigrant for the church budget and the second for a special cause). values of hard work and independence were reinforced; I was encouraged — no, told — to give a portion of my perhaps too much. paper route earnings to the church. Most weeks I did. But I have to confess that some weeks at the beginning of Sandra’s family of origin, on the other hand, did the offertory hymn, I would make a big splashy display of not have as much. My mother‑in‑law, with five children a $1 bill and make sure all family members noticed. But in six years, perfected the “envelope” system of money before the plate arrived, the bill would be returned to my management in the late 1950s. In the Mooibroek housepocket and be substituted for a quarter. The ting in the hold there were literally about 20 envelopes of cash metal plate would result in a discussion after church about representing various budget categories. If Sandra needed/ tithing and giving. I also remember something about the wanted a pair of boots, she would have to go the ap“left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing” propriate envelope and determine if there was enough (Matt. 6:3). cash. If there was enough, she would then decide if she Still, in my family of origin, money was viewed as a was willing to part with it in order to buy the boots. If the scarcity, even though in reality it wasn’t. Sure, financial envelope was empty, she made do. sacrifices were made in order for four children to attend Sandra and I modified these ideas somewhat when an independent Christian school. We vacationed in a tent we became an “economic unit.” We agreed early on in while others went to Florida. Many of my boyhood friends our marriage that our goal was to live on one income. So received weekly allowances or cash for A’s on their report those first five years when we both worked outside the card. When I would float this idea, I’d be reminded that home and did not have children were significant accumy daily chores weren’t always completed. But there really mulation years. We could quantify our effective tax rate was more than enough. My parents just chose to not give The Marketplace May June 2011

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when we did our taxes every April. We also saw that our charitable giving essentially redirected dollars from the general coffers of government to charities whose values we felt were more in line with ours. When daughter Anneka arrived, we attempted to both work part‑time: Sandra three days a week and I four. Sandra and a friend joined the garage sale circuit. We shopped at the Thrift Store. We had various degrees of success. Sandra introduced a ledger for each child, the “Oudyk” bank (a shoe box covered with paper) which paid three times the prime rate and so forth. Unfortunately, our children will tell you that their Mom and Dad are not very consistent record keepers.

Nonetheless, this Oudyk “economic unit” was able to enroll our oldest child in kindergarten at an independent Christian school. For me that moment held more than the typical emotions some parents have when their children begin school. I was profoundly grateful that we were financially able to leave our child at a school John Oudyk and Sandra Mooiwhere our Christian broek — “economic unit” beliefs and values would be reinforced as an acceptable point of view. However, even in our community of believers here at Bloomingdale, this was not always viewed similarly. Not long after we started attending here in 1994, a BMC member wondered out loud to me about our “very good income” which allowed us to afford independent Christian school rather than wondering about the things we were giving up.

Progress Indicator. For example, does it really make sense to include as positive economic activity all the goods and services associated with environmental disasters like last spring’s Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout?

But in such a Christian school in 1975, I

chological breakdown in 1996 was due to my imaginary financial pressures. I am not able to count the number of times Sandra had to show me with pen and paper our expenses, our income and our resources. Regardless, my recovery was hampered by the financial reality of being the sole income earner of a young family with three children who were under seven years old. I was, and am still, self-employed in a service business that provides a “want” not a “need.” Up to that point Sandra and I had often joked about the fact that once the children were born, our financial partnership remained on a sound footing: I would look after the inflow and she would look after the outflow. Not a lot of dependence on God’s sufficiency in this joke, is there?

I recently became aware of a book by Eugene Smith in which he says the Christian church’s mission over the last centuries has had four major compromises, the fourth being a compromise to money. How are we here at Bloomingdale doing with respect to this compromise? ◆

Much of my thinking about faith and money

comes from a little book in our church library, Firstfruits Living: Giving God our Best by Lynn Miller (Herald Press).

I skimmed over it last night hoping to cite him as the person who said the Bible speaks about money more than any other topic. Instead, I was reminded that among other things, Lynn wrote and spoke about living a life of gratitude in which we give God our best. He suggests opening a bank account labeled “God’s account” to distribute funds. We did this with a title of “God’s Account” care of John Oudyk and Sandra Mooibroek. I then asked my lawyer to change the name of our numbered holding company to “Firstfruits Holdings Limited.”

Over time my attitude to money has shifted. I now try to operate out of a model of sufficiency not the false dichotomy of scarcity or abundance. I like the retirement/ financial planning idea first introduced to me by the Mennonite Foundation: Establish a figure or lump sum of money you feel necessary to provide you the income to live and distribute the surplus income or capital to charities.

With respect to our will, Sandra and I have also advised our three children that they have a symbolic “fourth sibling.” In other words, if Sandra and I were to die before they reach the age of 25, our estate will be distributed in quarters, not thirds. The “fourth” sibling represents a list of charities and organizations that will benefit from 25% of our estate. I update the list of recipients as charitable priorities change over time. We now give much more to organizations that have a global emphasis: MCC, MEDA, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation.

I am convinced that part of the reason for my psy-

remember studying the novel Silas Marner by George Eliot. In particular, I remember a repetitive scene in which the reclusive main character removes the floor boards in his bedroom to pull out his sack of gold coins. He then lovingly lets the hoard of metal tingle through his hands.

Yet, at that point in the novel, Silas has no family, no community and lives a miserable existence. It is obvious to me now, and was back then, that this is not healthy. Not long after that I started to question the wisdom of my coin collection.

Later in my MBA schooling, I would learn a lot of economic jargon: terms like opportunity cost, M1 and M2 money supply, trade balances and GNP – the Gross National Product. I faithfully regurgitated the definitions in order to get my degree. However, at the same time I became aware of organizations like the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto whose economists were proposing alternate definitions like the GPI — the Genuine 17

The Marketplace May June 2011

Reviews

by Kirsten L. Klassen

W

“We’ve got to change this” Greencroft matching program helps employees build their future

hat do you do to help employees put away more for retirement?

That was one of the issues Mark King faced in 2004 when he became president and CEO of Greencroft Communities, Goshen, Ind., which provides retirement living and services at six affiliate communities in Indiana and Ohio.

While he was impressed with Greencroft as “a very healthy organization” geared to steadily improving quality, he sensed that not enough employees were building a secure retirement. In fact, only 10 to 12 percent of them were contributing to their own plan. King was concerned about this, particularly what it meant to those making low wages.

“We’ve got to change this, don’t you think?” he asked his CEO Mark King and Kathy Brewton, vice-president for human resources, review management team. He strongly plans for a new wellness center at Greencroft’s Goshen facility. believed it was important to create a healthy environment (both body and finances) for Employees in the lowest‑income group would contribemployees. Moreover, he wanted employees to be able ute only one percent of their salary to be eligible for the to someday afford a Greencroft community when they full three percent match. The middle income group would retired. contribute two percent, and the highest‑income group “A lot of employers offer matching programs, but would contribute three percent. a certified nursing assistant making $9 to $12 an hour Greencroft participates in Mennonite Retirement finds it hard to think about savings,” King said. “To me, Trust, which is sponsored by Mennonite Church USA and this is a justice issue. All Mennonite employers should be administered by Everence Trust Company. King presented concerned about helping their employees save for retirethe idea of a differential matching contribution program ment.” to Marlo Kauffman, Everence’s retirement plan manager.

Kauffman was intrigued. “We had to do some reKing devised a plan. First, Greencroft would search to determine how to implement Mark’s request,” contribute three percent of each employee’s salary to the he says. “Internal Revenue Service guidelines prevent emaccount. Then, they would divide employees into three ployees with higher salaries from getting better benefits groups according to their salaries to contribute an addithan those with lower salaries. No one had ever tried to tional match. Greencroft would contribute an additional offer better benefits to employees with lower salaries.” three percent to each group, but the criteria for each In the meantime, King asked his employees how they group were different. would feel about the proposed match. He found higher The Marketplace May June 2011

18

paid employees were not offended by the proposal; instead, they thought it made sense.

Once Kauffman gave the go-ahead, King’s management team was still skeptical that employees would actually increase their contributions. The team agreed that if they got 50 percent of employees to contribute, they would call the initiative a success.

Today, five years after it was implemented, 75 to 80 percent of the lowest and highest‑income employees contribute to their retirement accounts. The middle income group lags slightly behind.

“This has been fantastic,” says Kauffman, who also believes Greencroft’s approach could work with other employers.

enough. For us to be able to maintain our lifestyles, we should be saving 12 to 15 percent,” King says. “So that’s our next challenge — finding ways to help employees save even more.”

For King, helping employees build a more se-

cure retirement is part of a larger values‑based orientation that seeks to involve employees in big decisions about their benefits, such as healthcare.

“In the last 10 years, the cost of providing em“All Mennonite ployee health coverage employers should has gone from $2,000 to $8,000 a year,” King says. “So far, we’ve paid be concerned 100 percent of the cost of our employees’ coverabout helping age.”

Greencroft is at the their employees end of a five-year conversation about changing this. “Our management save for team believes it’s important to give people time retirement.” to think and process. We talk with our employees, help them understand the issues, and ask for their ideas. We propose solutions and then test them.”

In 2009, Greencroft began a formal wellness program, offering annual health screenings to provide their employees with baseline information. Employees were screened in four areas: blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and smoking.

The organization also established a wellness committee and plans to offer yoga classes at lunch, as well as lunch‑and‑learn events that feature health topics.

In 2010, employees were screened again. Those who did not meet the minimum standard in one or more areas had to pay up to 10 percent of their health insurance premium.

Greencroft has asked Everence to provide individual and group coaching services. “Employees appreciate getting help and counseling in areas they need it – cholesterol and weight management, diabetes, for example,” King says. “We’re also building a wellness center for residents and employees, thanks in part to a large donation from a local family.”

King believes the role of management is best summed up in Micah 6:8 — “... what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” For King, doing justice for employees means, “We’re ambassadors. We’re here to serve our employees.” ◆

One of the keys to increasing participation has

been education — about the retirement plan matching program, and on broader topics like money management. Christine Scherer helps provide that education in her role as Everence financial advisor for Greencroft. She says, “There are really three types of people: those who have had matching programs before are quickly on board, those who are initially skeptical and reluctant, and those who are afraid the program is taking something away from them.

“For the people who are concerned about what’s coming out of their paycheck, I break it down into dollars and cents, showing them how much money they’re leaving on the table if they choose not to contribute. When they realize it’s something for them, they’re on board.

This is something that happens again and again,” Scherer says.

Some people think only those with lots of money save for retirement, and that, therefore, they’re excluded. “Setting such a low threshold for participation helps get these people to realize that saving for retirement has relevance for them,” she says. “I really want people to at least get the match. Once they see I have no ulterior motive, they start to think of the match differently.”

Still, King believes there’s room for improvement.

“Just the other day, I read in the Wall Street Journal how saving seven to eight percent of our incomes isn’t

Among the goals — enable employees to afford a Greencroft community when they retire.

Kirsten L. Klassen works in the marketing department of Everence, formerly MMA.

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The Marketplace May June 2011

The funny side of faith Starting his own business was like walking a tightrope without a net

by John Longhurst

I

s faith funny? Cuyler Black thinks it is.

“I believe that God is a God of joy,” says Black, who draws cartoons about the funny side of Christianity.

“When Jesus talks about heaven, he talks about a banquet or wedding, a place of joy and laughter,” he says. “Laughter is a part of who God is.”

Born into a preacher’s family in Ottawa, Black, 44, published his first comic strip when he was 10. From 1984‑90 he published another strip about life in high school in a local newspaper; when that ended, he syndicated a new strip in a dozen newspapers across North America.

In 1996 he gave up cartooning to work with young people. “I decided I didn’t want to be chained to my drawing table, so I dove into youth ministry,” he says.

His first youth ministry job was at an Anglican church in London, Ont.; in 2000 he moved to an Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, Conn. Three years later he picked up his pen again, this time to create a few cartoons to raise money for a youth mission trip.

“People really liked them, and asked me to make more,” he says.

As demand for his cartoons grew, he pondered doing cartooning full‑time. “I checked out Christian bookstores and discovered there was a humor deficit in the Christian marketplace,” he says. “I thought I might try to fill it.”

In 2008, Black started Inherit the Mirth, a company that produces greeting cards, calendars, books and other products about the funny side of faith.

He acknowledges that not everyone will appreciate his sense of humor, which has been described as The Far Side — a wry, surrealistic and bizarre comic by Gary Larson — meets the Bible.

In one of Black’s cartoons, for example, a younger bearded man is wearing a robe and riding a skateboard over a building. The caption: “Jesus clears the temple.”

In another, an older bearded figure is doing his laundry, putting light clothes into the washer and leaving darker items in the basket. The caption: “And God separated the light from the dark.”

A third shows two bearded men in robes playing basketball. One stops the other from scoring. The caption? “While playing a lively game of pick‑up basketball, The Marketplace May June 2011

Peter denies Jesus three times.”

“Not everyone’s going to find them funny,” says Black of his cartoons. “But my goal is not to make fun of Christianity — just to have some fun with it.”

Drawing cartoons about the funny side of faith

might be fun, but the business side of being funny isn’t always a laughing matter.

“Life as youth minister was much more secure,” he says. “Starting my own business is like walking a tightrope without a net. My income is whatever I generate by myself and with my talent.”

When you’re a one‑man show, generating that income isn’t easy.

“People don’t realize that the person taking their order, filling it and taking it to the post office is me,” he says.

Finding time to be creative is also a challenge.

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Soundbites

Sandy bottom “I need to balance time for drawing with dealing with the business side of things. Some weeks I do nothing artistic at all,” he notes.

Something that really helps small companies like Inherit the Mirth today is the Internet — it’s an inexpensive way to reach millions of customers. But it’s also a bane; copies of his cartoons float without attribution on the Web. “There’s nothing I can do about it,” he says. “All I can do is encourage people who get them in an e‑mail to tell the senders about my website. Maybe they’ll go there and buy them.”

In addition to his cartoons, Black has also published two children’s books The business side and a collection of cartoons called What’s That Funny Look on of being funny Your Faith? (Zondervan) He also produces youth isn’t always a curriculum, animated e‑cards and is exploring laughing matter. applications for phones.

“The jury is still out about whether I can make a long‑term go of this, or whether it will end up being just a hobby. But I believe there is a huge audience for Christian humor. I think God wants me to be in this, to use me to help show a side of who He is.” ◆

A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built on sand. — Dorothy Sayers

Shrinking leisure In the 1960s, in the heyday of belief in “progress” through work and technological advancement, it was once suggested to a U.S. Senate hearing that by 1985 people could be working just 22-27 hours a week, and many would be

able to retire at 38! These calculations would be laughable if they weren’t made in earnest, reflecting an earnest and naive belief in the human capacity to remake the world, the workplace, and ourselves. Alas, a survey in 1990 showed that between 1973 and 1990 the actual amount of leisure enjoyed by the average American worker shrunk by 37 percent, with the average work week rising from 41 to 47 hours a week. — Ben Witherington III in Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor

Letters Jesus and panhandlers While the March/April 2011 issue of The Marketplace was quite good, the piece on panhandlers provoked.

Sure, it’s easy to agree with Sider that we should work for “sweeping reflection and change.” While we are doing all of this reflecting, holding many conferences on the poor and structural change, writing project proposals for sustainable programs for the poor, and wringing our hands during the boom and bust cycles, those panhandlers as well as the invisible poor remain with us, as we read that there are now over 24 million millionaires in the world.

I used to have queasy feelings about beggars staring at me while the traffic light stayed interminably red. If I gave some change, what would he/she do with it? Buy drugs or alcohol or a bit of food, or take it home to his/her mansion? Then the light would turn green and I would escape.

Now I often roll down the window, looking the panhandler in the eye, seeking signs of his or her dignity and worth, respectfully handing him/her a couple of bucks, maybe some food, hoping it will do the person some good, hoping I will feel rotten inside because I have avoided his/her squalid life condition through hard work and luck. My wife and I also give to our church, and to local and international groups (including MEDA) that work for and with the poor.

Having spent much of my life working for church and secular non‑profit organizations, I have no expectations of joining the 24 million millionaire club. I respect those who have ethically succeeded to accrue more wealth than I have, and who generously donate much of it away.

Just think again about that next panhandler you see, and about how Jesus would respond. — Richard MacBride, Waterloo, Ontario

John Longhurst directs media relations and marketing for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Winnipeg.

More information about Cuyler Black and his products can be found at inheritthemirth.com

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The Marketplace May June 2011

News

Grizzly-proof bins were Olympic metal winner Photo courtesy SouthGrow Regional Initiative

There’s no Olympic Games medal category for trash bins, but if they had one for metal, Dennis Neufeldt would be a clear winner.

Spectators who attended probably didn’t know it, but the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Whistler, B.C., were much safer because of Haul-All Equipment Systems, based in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Haul-All is North America’s leading producer of bear-proof trash bins, which can be seen in national parks in western North America (and were featured in The Marketplace back in 2001).

By keeping edible litter out of ursine paws, they’re doing people and animals a favor, whether the bears know it or not. Once bears develop a taste for leftover lunch, they keep coming back for more and can become a danger to humans and ultimately to themselves. That’s why wildlife officials say, “A fed bear is a dead bear.”

A hidden latch on Haul-All bins makes them inaccessible to black bears, which have curved front paws that can’t trip the lever.

Some grizzly bears, however, need special attention.

They have less curvature in their claws and can find their way into places that black bears can’t. So some of the container lids had to be modified to keep out all bears.

Neufeldt took on the challenge of coming up with a special bin that would keep grizzlies out. He did it in record time, too. He received the contract only a few weeks before the games opened back in February of 2010. By the time patrons showed up, his obelisk-shaped trash bins could The Marketplace May June 2011

see if he could spot one during the ceremonies, “but there were too many people in the way.”

Haul-All makes 200 different products, and is an industry leader in the production of waste containment, collection and transfer systems. Besides seeing its animal-proof trash bins in national parks, you may have seen its recycling bins and side-loading No free bear lunch: Dennis Neufeldt collection vehicles in with his Winter Olympics entry. your neighborhood, be seen throughout the town anything a community needs of Whistler. for “a cleaner tomorrow.” It The bins are made of stainless sells widely throughout the steel and contain two doors (gar- United States, as well as to bage and recyclables). Neufeldt South America. The company kept watching the television to also makes on-site heaters for

Nutrition tagged as culprit in “hidden hunger” crisis women in India and two-fifths of those in Indonesia are anaemic from lack of sufficient iron in their diets. In Malawi, a third of the people do not get enough calories, but twice that number lack vitamin A. The long-term social damage is pronounced. The “hidden hunger” of micronutrient deficiencies “harms even more people and inflicts lasting damage,” the magazine says. Children suffer more diseases (blindness, organ failure, etc.) and don’t perform well in school. Ill-nourished adults earn less and probably die earlier. “Famines lay waste to countries; bad diets cripple them silently.”

The magazine says govern-

You don’t have to look far to know there’s a food crisis afoot. More people are going hungry as they have to use more of their scarce resources to get the daily calories they need. A common policy response is to ramp up food distribution, but that often comes in inadequate forms like more bread and rice.

Some authorities are saying the bigger issue for the poor is nutrition. Even people who are managing to get enough food on the table may not be getting enough micronutrients.

Diseases from malnutrition are “stunningly widespread,” according to a recent world health report in The Economist. It says more than half the 22

Haul-All’s story was featured in a Marketplace cover story in 2001. the construction industry.

Haul-All’s Olympic performance was recently featured in SouthGrown Productivity, a publication of Alberta’s SouthGrow Regional Initiative. The magazine also drew attention to Haul-All’s workplace diversity, noting that its 100 employees come from 16 different countries and have earned it an Immigration Achievement Award. “On the factory floor, Haul-All is a mini-United Nations,” the magazine said. ◆ ment food programs often do little to get the proper micronutrients (iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A) to the people who need them. It notes that better success has been achieved by market garden programs that encourage the growth of vegetables.

It proposes “little interventions” like adding iodine to salt and distributing vitamin A supplements.

The benefits of such interventions — preservation from fatal diseases, higher lifetime earnings — “massively outweigh” their relatively tiny costs.

“Top-down efforts fail. But governments, companies and international institutions can do good by stealth,” such as by growing biofortified crops with extra vitamins bred into them.

Education and “policy nudges” can do more good than the common default of subsidizing the price of rice, it says. ◆

Afghan project closes; farmers vow to carry on March 31 was a bittersweet day for the staff and clients of MEDA’s Through the Garden Gate (TTGG) project in Afghanistan. About 100 people gathered in Kabul, the capital, to celebrate the project, which has officially ended. But the women farmers at its core vowed its impact will continue.

The project, supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), reached the end of its term and was not renewed because CIDA is pulling out of econom-

ic development in Afghanistan to focus on humanitarian aid, education and health.

Over the past four years, TTGG has brought prosperity and hope to more than 2,500 women farmers and their families, said Catherine Sobrevega, MEDA’s Afghanistan country manager. “But more than that, it has given these women pride in their accomplishments and new respect within their community,” she added.

Sobrevega cited the example of Mahbooba Hashimi,

TTGG village facilitator in her community of Balaghel. A mother of nine, Mahbooba’s son Abuljamin, a translator, was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul four years ago.

The boy’s death was such a blow that Mahbooba’s husband became despondent and could not work. So Mahbooba moved back to her home village of Balaghel and got involved with Through the Garden Gate. “Now I am strong,” she said. “Now, we have learned this new system of life, so things can be better and better.”

Among the dignitaries present at the celebration was Scott Gilmore, executive director of Peace Dividend Trust. He

Help creative juices flow “See, I am doing a new thing!”

(Isaiah 43:19) Want to sharpen your company’s innovative edge?

You don’t need to have special genetics, for almost everyone has latent innovative capabilities, according to the RLB Newsletter.

To encourage innovation at your business, create an environment where ideas can cross-fertilize, like the Medici family in Italy who brought together first-rate sculptors, scientists, poets, philosophers, painters and architects. As these people’s skill-sets intersected, innovation thrived and ignited the Renaissance.

Here are ways to spark your own innovative renaissance: 1. Let staff experiment and take risks, even if it means a few failures. Thomas Edison needed many “failures” before he produced a light bulb that worked.

2. Create spaces for employees to bounce ideas off each other, explore trends and perhaps make connections that generate a new product or service.

praised MEDA for its success in coordinating ministries, local partners and international organizations to work together with the private sector. “This project is a shining example of how to integrate all levels of expertise and implement locally at the grassroots level,” he said.

“When I asked if they will carry on,” reports Helen Loftin, MEDA’s director of women’s economic development, “the response was an overwhelming ‘yes, of course.’ They are having their weekly meetings and are involved in seasonal activities, such as planting carrots and cucumbers — all with skills and knowledge they have learned through the project.”◆

3. Expose employees to fresh ideas. Invite outsiders to challenge and test their thinking.

4. Urge staff to network and attend idea conferences such as Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED).

5. Encourage employees to ask Why? Why not? and What if?

6. Cultivate vigilant observation. Finding small details in the behaviour of customers, suppliers or other companies can provide insight into fresh methods or inspire new products.

Creative juices thrive in a vibrant, fun and perhaps even irreverent work environment.◆ 23

The Marketplace May June 2011

The Marketplace May June 2011

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