November December 2011
Where Christian faith gets down to business
Mobile money:
Electronic eco-system puts a bank in their pocket
Too detached from our stuff? Who says there’s no more Mr. Nice Guy? “The KGB helped smuggle my Bible”
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The Marketplace November December 2011
Roadside stand
Someone with skin on A seminary professor revised his version of the Christmas story when his young daughter was afraid of the dark. She would awake at night and cry out. Often her Mom, a lighter sleeper, went to comfort her. Sometimes Dad would wake up, and then he’d go. One night he gave her a theology lesson about God’s protection and ongoing care for her. It became a simplified lecture on the omnipresence and providence of God. The little girl listened, took it all in, then finally said, “Yes, Daddy, I know that, but I want someone with skin on.” As we approach the Christmas season we can remember that little girl’s comment. When the time came for a grand gesture of selfdisclosure, God did not write the message in the sky with a huge celestial marker pen or send a new set of written tablets. God chose to send a person, someone with skin on. We call that Incarnation. Some years ago a mission executive wanted to buy a second-hand Telstar satellite to proclaim the gospel. A space agency had a number of satellites — all outmoded but still perfectly good — circling the planet and was willing to sell them for a hundred thousand dollars each. The mission executive thought this would be a wonderful way to beam the gospel around the globe in as many languages as possible. His colleagues talked him out of it. They gently reminded him that the gospel is spread best by people and relationsCover photo (Pakistan shop owner processing client payments) courtesy of Panthea Lee/Reboot
“I was dumbfounded by how much I did not know about the environment and about the impacts of the industrial system on the environment,” he said. “A new definition of ‘success’ began to creep into my consciousness.” He came to the conclusion that he had been “a plunderer of the Earth, and that is not the legacy one wants to leave behind.” He transformed InterfaceFLOR into a leading example of how to reduce an environmental footprint while maintaining and even improving profitability. In the 1990s he pledged “to eventually take nothing from the Earth that is not naturally and rapidly re-
hips, not by simply beaming linguistic and propositional data via satellite. Numerous studies show that the most effective method of bearing witness is not giant stadium crusades, not radio broadcasts, not Christian television programs, not the internet, not door-to-door canvassing, not tracts, not even Christian magazines. The most effective method, accounting for more than 90 percent of all conversions, is by personal relationships, by people with skin on. In other words, people who show up in person. How do we send someone with skin on? Here at MEDA that’s a fairly easy question to answer. We send actual people to assist rice farmers in Ethiopia, milk producers in Pakistan and market vendors in Nicaragua. The “skin” they wear is the garb of greenhouse specialists, irrigation technicians and financial services providers. To learn more about bringing the presence of Jesus to the world’s bottom billion, check out the insert in this issue. Unless you’re in the carpet business you may not have heard of Ray Anderson, founder of carpet-tile giant InterfaceFLOR. Anderson, who died this summer at 77, was one of the world’s best examples of an industrialist who did an about-face on the environment. For years he never gave a thought to the negative environmental impact of his company, whose products relied heavily on petrochemicals. Then, pressured by customer queries about the firm’s environmental footprint, he began to study the issue and underwent a Damascus Road conversion.
The Marketplace November December 2011
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newable.” Anderson set a goal to have zero negative impacts by the year 2020, and by 2009 was 60 percent of the way there. He enjoyed pointing out that most of the waste-saving measures ended up boosting the company’s bottom line. (Globe & Mail) Fluid meetings. Caterina Fake, cofounder of photo/ video hosting service Flickr, apparently doesn’t like long meetings. To keep hers on topic she asks participants to quaff 16 ounces of water at the start. The meeting ends when someone has to, well, go. (Globe & Mail) — WK
In this issue
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From Russia with love: Smuggling in reverse. Page 14
Departments 2 4 18 21 22
Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews Soundbites News
A bank in their pocket
Cellphones are all the rage, even in developing countries. In places like Pakistan, Zambia, Nicaragua and Haiti, MEDA is helping to bring “mobile money” to the world’s bottom billion.
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Detached from our toys?
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Mr. Nice Guy
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Smuggled by the KGB
In our disposable culture we tend to buy cheap, buy often, and easily cast things aside. Wouldn’t it be better to cultivate more attachment to things and people? By Jim Pankratz
The under-performing employee wanted to quit because he thought he’d won a million dollars. Accepting his resignation would be a relief during these tough times, but then again....
It’s an impressive Bible, too big to stand upright on a bookshelf. How it got from the former Soviet Union to a new home in Canada is a story of intrigue and the KGB. By Arthur DeFehr
Volume 41, Issue 6 November December 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
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 November December 2011
What God might ask
Your boat is God’s pulpit You’ve heard the story — a crowd gathers around Jesus on the lakeshore and wants a sermon. Some fishers have come off the night shift and Jesus commandeers Peter’s vessel and uses it for a pulpit (Luke 5: 2-3). Jesus “claimed” Peter’s boat, writes Max Lucado in Cure for the Common Life. “He can do that, you know. All boats belong to Christ. Your boat is where you spend your day, make your living, and to a large degree live your life. The taxi you drive, the horse stable you clean, the dental office you manage, the family you feed and transport — this is your boat.... “Our Wednesdays matter to him as much as our Sundays. He blurs the secular and sacred.... With God, our work matters as much as our worship. Indeed, work can be worship.... You may not wear a clerical collar, but you could. Your boat is God’s pulpit.”
When you see television images of the latest famine or flood it’s only natural to want to “do more” even if you are already active in meeting needs personally or through development agencies. The emotional urge may compete with the rational response that says, “We are already doing good work. We are already working to the limit of our skill set.” As for me, I never want to become disconnected from our ministry at MEDA, which covers two of the most important functions of being Christians in today’s world: (1) that we constantly seek ways to invade our entire personal worlds (and by this we include the workplace) with the faith that animates us; and (2) that we persist in working with our particular skills to relieve the misery of those less fortunate. I don’t think God will ever ask any businessperson at the doorway to heaven why he or she did not translate the Bible into more languages or why they didn’t come up with a better translation of the gospels, or why they didn’t devise a more sophisticated strategy for missionary secondment. Those are questions for our brothers and sisters who were apportioned different gifts. God will rather ask: “How did you use the skills I gave you — the skills you used every day at work — to better the lot of the needy.” — Wally Kroeker
By the book The Ten Commandments [were] given to the Israelites in the wilderness to train them for God’s purposes. In any formative experience, there must be codified expectations, training and consequences. Sometimes it means life or death. My first professional training experience in civilian life, becoming a plumber, required me to learn the plumbing code. This book is also a code of conduct and standards setting out criteria for trench excavation, sewer pipe pitch, frost protection, material selection, joint inspection, computation tables and countless other mandates. The code book is always at the work site.... The code provides for uniformity, precision, accountability and guidance. If a worker was buried in a deep trench, it was because the design of the trench required by the code book was not followed. — Fr. Dale E. Matson in Meditations of a Plumber Priest The Marketplace November December 2011
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Enlarge your reach; “adopt” a country We can’t get to know everyone, but we can get to know one or two global neighbors, writes Karen Armstrong in Twelve Steps to a Com‑ passionate Life. She suggests a take-home project to help enlarge your scope of compassion — “adopt” a foreign country. It could be one you enjoyed visiting, one you know nothing about but would like to know more, or a country where MCC or MEDA works. Whatever the country, she suggests making this “stranger” your special friend. Look into its history; become acquainted with its triumphs and failures; watch for it in the news. “Once or twice a month make a point of reading an article or a novel or watching a movie about the stranger you have chosen, so that it becomes a vivid and regular presence in your life,” Armstrong writes. “Ask yourself what this foreign national or religious tradition can teach you. Are there things that they do better than we do? Have they influenced us in the past? What do you think that we could teach them? “Your investigations should not be a dreary duty. You can make them fun. Try to find out more about this country’s poetry and literature. Try learning the language. Listen to the music of the people you have chosen, experiment with their cuisine, start following the national soccer team, and invite friends to join you in a celebration of its national holidays.... “Think of the marvelous qualities of the country or tradition you are studying, feel gratitude for its particular contribution to humanity, but also recall its suffering, its failures, and its crimes, and extend your compassion to it.”
Soul mates? You’ve probably seen the TV ads for eHarmony, the web-based matchmaker service. Its Christian roots and business model are described in Doing Virtuous Business by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch. “An explicit goal of the company is to help reduce divorce rates in America, based on its research into successful marriages and the careful matching process it has established,” he writes. The company is reportedly the Internet’s leading paid matchmaking service as measured by marriages per match. “The company runs on spiritual values and is rooted in Christian tradition, but it also employs modern technology and scientific studies,” says Malloch. According to those studies, more than 90 percent of eHarmony couples score higher on marriage quality than those whose relationships started elsewhere, and are said to be twice as likely to have happy marriages.
Overheard:
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Philanthropy pays People who give generously often say they get more out of giving than those they give to. That might work in business, too, says family business specialist Lance Woodbury. He sees benefits to family businesses who take philanthropy seriously. Holding the family together. Giving money or time to help the less fortunate enables all family members, regardless of their business involvement, to interact in fresh ways. “It brings purpose and a level of discipline to their interaction, and it can demonstrate the diverse skill‑set among family members,” he says. “Philanthropic activity can cultivate an appreciation for one another in a way that social activity, or even business activity, cannot.” Broadening the family legacy. Companies known for making a difference in their communities tend to generate more enthusiasm and better morale among employees. They tend to be sought out frequently for partnership opportunities, and they often contribute positively to the image of their industry. Communicating important family values. Involving the family in targeted sharing of money, time and talents for specific activities (such as the environment, education, or economic development) “provides a powerful medium for communicating family and business values,” says Woodbury. Philanthropy “can shape future generations by identifying and communicating the core principles of family business members.” (Family Business Values Newsletter)
“Do your work. Do your work. That is how I shall know you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson The Marketplace November December 2011
Mobile money is creating a new electronic eco-system for the poor
Photo courtesy Panthea Lee/Reboot
A bank in their pocket
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ellphones, we all know, are everywhere. Even, it turns out, among desert cattle herders in Tanzania and slum vendors in Port-auPrince. In Pakistan, multitudes have never seen the inside of a bank, yet half of the country’s 170 million people use cellphones. In that anomaly, development organizations are finding an opportunity to bring basic financial services to the world’s bottom billion. MEDA has become a leader in this unfolding phenomenon. A few years ago it pioneered wireless capability to distribute electronic vouchers to farmers to purchase irrigation supplies. Last year it joined with a leading Pakistani bank to jump-start flood relief efforts with pre-loaded ATM cards so that victims could get back on their feet and at the same time be introduced to “branchless banking” (see next article). Mobile banking can equip poor clients with the equivalent of “a bank in their pocket.” It is more secure,
The Marketplace November December 2011
efficient and cost-effective, as cash can be expensive to deliver. It could become as prevalent in developing countries as Internet banking is in North America, says Chrissy Martin, senior consultant in MEDA’s office in Washington, D.C. “Over here, many people never touch cash, and that’s where mobile banking is going,” she says. “We’re creating a whole new electronic eco-system.” How that is happening is described in the following articles. 6
The flood and the phone
Victims got quick
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relief, and a
hat do a devastating flood, a relief effort and a mobile phone all have in common? Ten years ago, nothing. Today, all three are ingredients in an experiment to quickly reach over one million Pakistanis with cash payments through an electronic platform and — the silver lining in the disaster — a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity to bring them formal financial services. How did we get here? Since the 1970s, MEDA and other microlenders and development organizations have been working to bring millions of people into the formal financial sector. Despite enormous progress, many more millions still lack access to the most basic of financial services like an affordable and safe savings account. A corner has been turned, however, with the arrival of information and communications technologies — especially mobile phone networks — that hold the possibility to make the term “unbanked” a thing of the past. In Paki-
Photo courtesy Panthea Lee/Reboot
understand that they must offer effective and bank got better relevant services and that this requires taiinteraction with lored, infinitely adaptable and quick‑moving delivery mechanisms bottom-of-theand models to keep up with consumers’ chang- pyramid customers ing needs. Having the technology available does not, however, mean the unbanked will automatically become banked. Our research shows that poor consumers have built up complex informal financial solutions within their own social networks and communities over generations, and are not easily persuaded to give them up for an unknown formal service. But back to the flood and the phone. United Bank Limited is a leader in the Pakistan market in trying to solve the puzzle of how to take branchless to the bottom billion. The market is new to the bank for two reasons: first, UBL launched its Omni platform just a year ago, and the team and services are still settling in; second, before the introduction of Watan debit cards to provide quick flood relief, the bank had had limited interaction with the bottom-of-the-pyramid customer. Watan, a one‑off relief response to a disaster, was the catalyst for UBL to learn more about its unbanked potential customers. Here’s where MEDA and its partner Reboot came in. MEDA has been designing and delivering financial services for the poor for over 30 years, and has successfully reached marginalized groups such as rural women in Pakistan with market‑driven financial and enterprise services. Reboot in turn brings a special design industry approach to market research New delivery platform: A shopkeeper in Pakistan processes a remittance paythat uses multimedia and journalistic ment. techniques to turn a faceless customstan alone, the opportunity is huge: more than 80 million er segment like “the rural poor” into a human face with Pakistanis use mobile phones. With the opportunity to trusted social networks and unique economic behaviors. offer financial services via non‑traditional, mobile‑enabled Together, we combined our skills to offer the bank channels, these enabling technologies have been called branchless banking design research that provides a fresh way to look at the unbanked consumer and will help banks “disruptive innovation” because they allow new actors to enter the financial services market. This means that the old, like UBL leverage these powerful delivery platforms to bring product‑driven microfinance model is being chipped away, relevant financial services that positively touch the lives of since these innovators, who come from other disciplines, the poor. — Nicole Pasricha, Director, Inclusive Rural Finance 7
The Marketplace November December 2011
Smart-phones speed credit checks
MEDA’s new
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Techno-Links
magine you’re a loan officer with MiCredito, MEDA’s microfinance institution in Nicaragua. Processing a small loan for a remote client might require several visits. What if you could do your credit checks with a smart-phone? Time and money would be saved — and the client would get the loan faster. That new capability is already in place at MiCredi‑ to, and as a result the loan disbursement time has shrunk from four days to one day. Thanks to MEDA’s new Techno-Links project, MiCredito is reaching a new level of mobile capability. It has begun to revamp its MIS system with the help of a company that provides credit checks electronically rather than having loan officers do it manually in the field. The next step, which the Techno-Links pilot project will help implement, is to facilitate loan payments by phone. It is estimated that 70 percent of Nicaraguans have mobile phone access. Techno-Links also works with branchless banking in Zambia, partnering with Mobile Transactions Zambia (MTZ). MTZ’s extensive agent network moves money and remittances by sending beneficiaries a mobile voucher with a one‑time transaction number that the user can redeem for cash at designated agents. Techno-Links will help MTZ expand its services to rural communities as well as to diversify into new products and services. An example of MTZ’s work is with Dunavant, a large Zambian cotton company which is replacing cash with electronic transactions. Formerly, Dunavant had to truck cash around the country to pay thousands of contracted farm-
ers for their cotton, a costly and insecure process. Under the new system, farmers can be paid a portion of their cotton payment in the form of a voucher card which they can take to a merchant when they want to buy agricultural inputs. The merchant plugs the voucher number into the system and the amount is transferred to the merchant much like a debit card. The new non-cash transaction process means that the farmer can more easily save the money for the next agricultural season and does not have to protect the cash at home. It also reduces the transaction costs for Dunavant, which can then pass the savings on as higher payments for cotton. MEDA’s Techno-Links project will help MTZ expand into additional financial mechanisms like savings and loan disbursements as well as helping them to expand their agent network in order that more rural populations can benefit from MTZ products and services.
With the help of batteries, even a remote office can be turned into a tech center (left). Dunavant, a large Zambian cotton company, issues vouchers to farmers in partial
payment for their crop. A flyer (center) explains how their vouchers can purchase inputs like sprayers and lanterns (right). (Photos by Chrissy Martin)
The Marketplace November December 2011
project ramps up branchless banking
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Too many hands in the till
“Mobile transfers
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can identify
obile cash transfers can have unexpected results. One development worker recalls when mobile transactions were introduced to pay policemen in Afghanistan. When the first payments went out electronically, the policemen’s jaws dropped to see how much money they received. It was far more than they had ever gotten before. Why? Because under the previous system their cash wages passed through many hands and every person along the line took a cut. The police were furious when they realized they had been ripped off. “Mobile transfers can identify fraud you didn’t even know was happening,” says Nicole Pasricha, MEDA’s director of inclusive rural finance. “Many organizations don’t know they’re experiencing fraud because the data wasn’t there. This method makes it easier to spot trends of misuse.” MEDA’s partner, Mobile Transactions Zambia (MTZ)
has facilitated electronic vouchers for a major fraud you didn’t food distribution program. Instead of people even know was getting actual sacks of food they got an elechappening” tronic voucher which could be “spent” in the marketplace. The vouchers could be used only by the person who was electronically connected to it. This solved a lot of problems that often accompany large food programs. It got the aid delivered quickly and without waste, supported local businesses, and helped the poor population to engage in the financial system. Being electronically connected to the intended recipient reduced the opportunity for others to “work the system.”
Haiti: Secure and traceable
Electronic
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transfers help
EDA is financing a mobile banking pilot project for longtime partner Fonkoze, Haiti’s leading microfinance provider, as it sets up systems for advanced management reporting and innovations such as mobile remittances. This is being led by MEDA senior consultant Chrissy Martin, who has worked in Haiti with both a cellphone company and several NGOs to develop mobile money services to pay beneficiaries of cash‑for‑work programs. Mobile phones can be a secure, convenient and traceable way to distribute cash transfers, such as government payments or cash-for-work programs, she says. 1. Money is often sent to groups of people in multiple locations, and it can be easier to reach them via mobile than bring them together in one place. 2. It’s easier to track payments if they are sent electronically, which can reduce corruption and increase confidence that the right amount of money ends up in the right hands.
3. Relying on a network of mobile money ensure the right agents who already handle cash enhances money ends up in security. “This was the situation in Haiti,” the right hands says Martin, “where cash‑for‑work payments were made on‑site at camps, which created a security risk for the bank employees who had to distribute large amounts of cash in crowded, outdoor locations.” Practical challenges remain. Not everyone has a mobile phone, especially marginalized populations (some estimates suggest 40 percent of Haitians have access to cellphones). Even if they do, it’s unlikely that they all use the same service provider. “The good news is that most challenges will diminish as cellphone ownership spreads and mobile money services become interconnected,” says Martin. ◆ 9
The Marketplace November December 2011
We need more attachment to ... things? We buy cheap and buy often. No wonder we have a disposable culture. by Jim Pankratz
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t a recent graduate student conference on “Land, Life and Community” held at Conrad Grebel University College, a student proposed that a major cause of consumerism is our detachment from things. That caught my attention. “Detachment?” I thought consumerism was the result of over‑attachment to things.
We like things, we lust for things, we are addicted to things, we want to possess things, and so we accumulate more and more of them and then build bigger homes and garages to store them. The attachment to material things, I assumed, was the root of the mortgage/debt crisis that has undermined the global consumer economy. As the student went on she convinced me that consumerism’s deeper dynamic is quite different. She introduced me to the creative and insightful ideas of William T. Cavanaugh of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. “Consumerism,” wrote Cavanaugh in a 2005 article A win‑win in today’s world? Hardly seem possible? In the in Sojourners, “is not so U.S., a Charitable Gift Annuity can do do exactly that. much about having more A Charitable Gift Annuity, when mature, will benefit an as it is about having someentrepreneur whose family has no other access to affordable thing else.” If we think the credit. cure for consumerism is to Donate cash, appreciated assets or commodities and become more detached receive a fixed payment based on your age. from things, then we are Example: What your payment rates would be for the easily caught in the relentfollowing ages: less undertow of consumerism, which makes us dissatAge the gift is made Annuity payout % isfied with what we already 65 5.3% have, and eager to possess 70 5.8% the next new thing. 75 6.5%
Give A Gift — Impact the World — Get Income For Life
We see this dynamic
For more information: In the U.S. call Mike Miller or Marlin Hershey at the U.S. MEDA office (717) 560‑6546
The Marketplace November December 2011
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all around us and within us. The “buy cheap and buy often” mentality fosters
commodities for trade. The various versions of the “Flip this House” TV program treated housing primarily as an instrument for quick profit. Emotional attachment in buying or selling had to be eliminated, for it detracted from the goal of maximum monetary gain.
Our time and talents are also easily commodi-
fied. People volunteer for a cause “because it will look good on my resume.” Service to others is turned into an instrument of self‑promotion. Don’t get too entangled in the needs of others or too committed to the worthiness of a cause. Keep detached, move on, and keep building the resume. And of course our personal relationships are also prone to this dynamic. How easily we become dissatisfied with what we already have, and how eager we are to possess the next new thing. Modern technology makes it easy to accumulate new “friends” or “professional contacts” and then makes it easy to dispatch them with the click of a computer. I knew a nun in India who had a small library of 30 books. She had made a commitment to own no more than 30 volumes. If she received a book as a gift or bought one, she had to give one away to keep her collection at 30. Because she cherished her 30 books she added one only if she found great value in it. When she gave one away she did so with careful thought, for it was a cherished treasure. We need more attachment to things, places, causes and people. We need to cherish them and care for them. We need to nurture satisfaction with what we have. ◆
How easily
the “disposable culture” in which it is preferable to purchase a temporarily we become fashionable shirt that will survive only 10 washings dissatisfied with than a more expensive shirt that will look new for many what we already seasons. It makes it acceptable for newly unwrapped have, and how children’s toys not to survive their first Christmas eager we are to day. We laugh — it probably doesn’t matter if the possess the next toys survive because after our children use them (consume them) intensely for new thing. those first few hours they will probably lose interest anyway. Our children have little opportunity to value toys that quickly disintegrate and break and are easily replaced before deep attachment takes hold. Cavanaugh and others argue that part of the reason for our detachment from things is the separation between production and use. A synthetic shirt or plastic toy made by nameless workers in a nameless factory overseas has no claim on our affection or attention beyond its temporary utility or novelty. It is easy to dispose of and replace. But the sweater that grandma knit, the toy train that uncle Fred made, or the plants our friend Andrea raises from seeds — those create attachment because of their connection to a person and a time. When everything is a commodity to be bought and sold for maximum financial advantage, then everything is disposable and negotiable. Homes become mere houses,
Jim Pankratz is dean of Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont.
Attention U.S. farmers You can give from your harvest to help the poor increase their harvest. In the U.S., farm commodities such as wheat, corn and soybeans can be donated and turned into a cash gift to support a global MEDA project of your choice. To find out how, call MEDA’s U.S. office (717-5606546) and ask for Marlin Hershey or Mike Miller.
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The Marketplace November December 2011
Mr. Nice Guy Does being a good manager always help the business? You decide.
ert’s family was his wife, and that she was dying of cancer. She had only a few months left to live. And so I called Robert into my office and told him that I didn’t think he should accept the package. I said, ‘You know there is going to be a lot of upheaval in your life in the next few months and you are going to need some sources of stability. Let this company be one of those sources.’ “After his wife died Robert and his children were enormously grateful for that advice. And I was full of joy that on at least this occasion I had had the wisdom to set aside the objectives of the business, in order to do what was right for one human being.”
In 15 years as an airline executive
Garry often found ways to be “salt and light” while achieving the business goals of his job. Those included things like chalking up four straight years of improved productivity and on-time departures. And setting up a multi-milliondollar deal to provide ground handling services to another airline that formerly had been an adversary. Some highlights were not strictly business. One of them was called Robert. “He was a first-line supervisor, probably in his midfifties,” Garry recalls. “Our company was in a financial crunch and had developed an early retirement incentive program for its management staff. My corporate obligation in that kind of situation was to try to convince as many of my long-service management employees as possible to seriously consider retirement under this incentive program. “One day Robert’s immediate boss came to me to report that Robert would probably be accepting the package. I knew that the only person still at home in Rob-
“I’m quitting my job; I’ve just won
mediocre a million dollars.” That could have been music to Ralph’s ears. The employee, and employee sitting before him with a huge grin on his face now he wanted was a marginal performer. Ralph wouldn’t be unhappy to quit. How to see him go. With the poor economy squeezing lucky is that? his markets, losing this guy wouldn’t hurt a bit. But Ralph felt uneasy. He wasn’t running a charity, but he knew this employee might have trouble finding another job. As for the million dollars? Ralph had a gut feeling the employee’s windfall didn’t add up. He decided to do some checking. It smelled fishy. This wasn’t an official government-registered lottery. Not even close. It looked a lot like a mail scam of the “You may already have won” variety. Moreover, the employee, a few years from retirement, was going through emotional difficulties that sometimes clouded his judgement. He had fallen for it completely.
His job was to encourage older managers to take early retirement, but in this case it just didn’t seem right.
The Marketplace November December 2011
He was a
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“He would have been doing us a favor by leaving,” Ralph recalls, “but we knew we had to talk him out of it. We persuaded him to delay his decision until he actually received his check.” Of course, the check never came. The crestfallen employee sheepishly remained at his job and stayed on until retirement. Like the employee, Ralph sometimes mused about what might have been. But he felt pretty sure he had made the right decision.
Jason had a dirty little secret. He was
Employee Assistance Program and urged him to make the call if he really wanted to get clean. He did. Jason was put on short-term disability and paid 60 percent of his salary while he underwent substance abuse treatment. “He was never in any danger of losing his job,” says Henry. “We would assist anyone here who has a problem and is serious about bettering their life.” For Henry, employee well-being is an important part of the company bottom line. “I believe we can do things as individuals to help improve the world,” he says. “I have this crazy idea that if we all improve our circle, we can make the world a better place.” ◆
He thought
he’d lose an addict. Booze at night, cocaine by day. He managed to his job for hide it from his co-workers at the company where he operated a fork-lift. admitting his One day something snapped, and Jason couldn’t take it anyaddiction. He more. He went to his supervisor and blurted out his secret. “I needn’t have need help,” he confessed. He didn’t know if he’d be worried. able to keep his job, but now it was out there. The next thing he knew he was in the office of Henry, the CEO. Lucky for Jason, Henry was an understanding sort. He’d had his own brush with addiction, only in his case it was workaholism. Henry saw Jason’s admission as a sign of strength. Henry gave the young man the phone number of an 13
The Marketplace November December 2011
“How the KGB helped smuggle my Bible” Entrepreneurial adventures in the Soviet twilight by Arthur DeFehr
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spoke German. The Bible is Arthur DeFehr, owner of Palliser Furniture in WinniBible occupies a a magnificent specimen — peg, has been a tireless promoter of East-West special place in but its real story is how it market links from the first stirrings of perestroika my library. It lies came to rest on my shelf. in the former Soviet Union. Pivotal to MEDA’s early flat on the shelf This Bible is unique in work there, he led MEDA’s exploratory visit in 1989 since it is much too large that it was smuggled out as well as numerous others out of which emerged to stand on end. It would of the Soviet Union at a the first Christian business conference in Kiev in 1990 feel comfortable in a mutime when Christians were and the Moscow-based Association of Christians in seum or even an ancient risking their freedom if Business (ACB). DeFehr and MEDA then established monastery. It weighs 15 not their lives to smuggle the Soviet Union Network (SUN), a mechanism to pounds and is actually only Bibles into the Soviet promote East-West fraternity and business ventures. half of the Bible — beginUnion. Even more bizarre He and his wife, Leona, also founded Lithuania ning with Isaiah. The cover is that the act of smugChristian College, now LCC International University. has the severity and drama gling this Bible required of an ancient monastic active participation by the KGB. text and each page is uniquely decorated and punctuated with fantastic block illustrations. I first visited the Soviet Union in the sumThe text is in German — large Gothic letters that my mer of 1989 during the period we now know through imagination attributes to the very finger of God. German the words perestroika and glasnost — a time of radical was the language of my mother and my early religious exchanges but no certainty as to how the narrative would perience and I cannot really get past the feeling that God The Marketplace November December 2011
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experiments, a good friend in Moscow arranged for me to listen to a dozen emerging dreams. The ideas reflected 70 years of repressed individuality and in the end I offered to support the project of a famous Soviet playwright who had recently accepted the Christian faith. He had read the biblical narrative of the Nativity with the innocence of someone who was largely untouched by the accumulated baggage of centuries of ecclesiastical accretion. His artistic version of the Nativity was based on the familiar narrative but the staging was unlike anything we had ever experienced.
The author and his Bible, safe and sound in Winnipeg.
end. Remember, it was only two months since Tiananmen Square and we know that script. A friend who was a Soviet émigré and familiar with living at the edge offered to introduce me to “his Russia.” My parents were both born in “Russia,” a word that was not politically or even geographically always correct but was a metaphor for two centuries of evocative memories ranging from I was now the religious freedom to persecution, from pasproud owner of toral existence to wars and bitter losses. 100,000 Russian On my second visit a few months later I visBibles — printed ited the remote extremities of the empire plus by the Communist Moscow — the Vatican of the Soviet Union. We were at the center Party Press. of momentous change; we observed and felt both trepidation and exuberance about the implications for the Soviet Union. Entrepreneurs, artists and political actors were beginning to test the boundaries and we heard many tales of hope and daring. When I suggested to colleagues that I would like to support or finance some of these new
Banking was not highly developed at the time,
so any financial support of his project would require entrepreneurial ingenuity. My practice, on each of 12 visits between 1989 and 1992, was to travel with $30‑40,000 U.S. in cash strapped to my legs and body — usually in three separate pouches and locations to minimize the loss should I be attacked. I had about $18,000 remaining at this stage of the visit and my new playwright friend ventured that it was enough to launch a stage production. His idea was to rent the largest theater in Moscow (2,000 seats), hire the best professional actors, sell tickets at an astonishingly high price and give each member of the audience a copy of the New Testament. (Following the recent celebration of 1,000 years of Christianity in Russia it was becoming possible to get some religious literature into the Soviet Union.) There were more than a few unusual aspects to the presentation. The devil would make regular appearances from the edge of the stage to challenge the conscience of each of the main players. When emotion was required, dancers from the Bolshoi would provide it. I had a chance to see the result of my sponsorship
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when I returned during the Christmas proposal to indeed print Bibles — half of season of 1989 and attended one of nine the paper could be used to print whatever sold-out performances. I had considered I specified and the other half would be In the shadowy payment for the work — but I was not to my support as an act of charity and was a bit taken aback when the playwright ask any questions. It sounded like a fine announced at the end of the last perfor“unofficial” world deal. mance that the event was not only a critiI returned to Canada and on my next cal but also a financial success and he fully visit was told I was now the proud owner a back-pocket intended to repay the “loan.” Given the of 100,000 Russian Bibles and what were rampant inflation of the ruble I suddenly my plans. My first question was who had IOU can have found myself in possession of several printed them. They laughed and informed million of a rapidly depreciating currency. me that the Communist Party Press in Kiev abundant value. had been desperate for a supply of paper My friends told me to “buy something” so that value would be retained. I’d had and had quietly done the job! We suspect no plans to purchase anything, so my friends from “Book this was one of the first major printings of Bibles inside Chamber International,” the centralized Soviet publishing the Soviet Union in modern times. There were any numindustry, suggested that they had the ability to buy paper ber of Christian organizations entering the Soviet Union at and it would hold value. I suddenly became the owner the time and they were delighted to have access to Bibles. of a large quantity of paper which was duly stored in a We responded to every legitimate request and dispersed warehouse. this precious hoard.
On my next visit
My own travels
they asked what I intended to do with my hoard of paper. Since I had not intended to buy paper, I had no idea. They suggested I should print something. After a few days of contemplation I told my Communist friends that I did indeed want to print something — Russian Bibles. They cringed, but said “give us a couple of days.” They returned with a The Marketplace November December 2011
covered a fair bit of the empire and before all of the Bibles were disposed of I made a visit to Frunze, known today as Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Our host family served us their supply of precious items saved for special occasions and, typical in the world of limited means, would accept no payment. As was our custom we left a meaningful amount of 16
rubles under our dinner plate rather than embarrass the host. The family had a stunning antique German Bible on the mantle and I duly admired it. They asked if I would accept it as a gift. This added to the embarrassment of the elaborate meal they had just served, but then they explained. The antique Bible had been left behind by a family with permission to emigrate to Germany and it was illegal to export antiques from the Soviet Union. They did not wish to risk their precious permission to leave the Soviet paradise! I made a quick counter — the antique Bible in exchange for whatever number of Russian Bibles would fit on a truck — and I would pay for the transport. In due course 2,000 Bibles were transported to Frunze and I was now the proud owner of a beautiful antique.
The antique volume had been abandoned by émigrés who
100-plus and spoke the language fluently — I had one chit from him for whatever occasion. Now, I looked at this large old book and phoned him in Moscow to say I needed him to transport a package out of the country. He asked what it was and I responded that it was a book — “no problem” was the quick response. After the “book” reached his apartment he called back and exclaimed “A BOOK!! But never mind — I will do as you ask.”
didn’t know
A few weeks later he showed up in my Winnipeg office with a package and a how to get broad smile. “So,” I asked, “how did you get the Bible out of Russia?” He smiled and it out of the said he also had a few IOUs from officials and had decided to call in one of them. country legally. The KGB had offered — presumably as payment for some other favour — that he could exit the country one time with no exit formaliBack in Moscow it occurred to me that I ties and no questions. Those who have spent time in the now had the same problem as the émigré family who world of unofficial activities know these kinds of offers in had abandoned the Bible — how to get it out of the the back pocket are of more than a little value! He called country. It happened that a Canadian contractor who had in this particular chit and was duly escorted by limo dibuilt a number of industrial buildings for our family was rectly to the aircraft on the Sheremetevo tarmac. The KGB in Moscow. He was a Russian émigré himself, departing agent joined him on the plane and was curious. “What as a teenager with the retreating German army and had do you have? We have no intentions of taking any action, accumulated enough adventures to fill a book or two. He but what could possibly be so important and mysterious had made a career of returning to the Soviet Union and enough to require this kind of tactic?” He shared that he had friends at every level. On one occasion he had called was carrying an antique Bible. They both laughed, recme in Winnipeg to ask for a favour — he had a delegaognizing the irony of the situation, and my Bible left the tion from St. Petersburg and thought that a tour of my Soviet Union. furniture factory and a cup of coffee would ennoble the This lovely antique lies on my shelf and triggers memoday. One of the visitors turned out to be Vladimir Putin, ries — memories of borders, nights on Soviet trains, stories future president of Russia. My contractor friend liked to of my mother’s flight across the Amur, good days and make the grand gesture and had offered that if I ever tragedies. There are stories between its elegant pages and needed any favour in Russia — he was on trip number equally many stories stimulated simply by its presence. ◆ 17
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Reviews
Maybe it can grow on trees money, whether you are a business leader or head of a household.” The authors strive to be non-partisan, insisting that “this is not a liberal agenda, or a red or a blue wedge issue.” They clearly try to boost both environmenunny thing, global talism and business at the warming. With all the same time. attention and environBy their reckoning, the mental action it has smart money is already rushgenerated — and a recession ing into clean energy. This to boot — it keeps getting movement is propelled by a worse. You’d think the ecoheady mix of green faith and nomic slowdown, at least, would entrepreneurial vision, not to have made a dent in carbon-spitmention the expectation of ting. Apparently not. According to more government intervention. the International Energy Agency, “From the local to the global level, increasing greenhouse gas emissions businesses have essentially no choice: hit a record last year. climate regulation is here and more is comWhatever are we to do? Well, do more ing,” they note. “Despite the persistent claims by business, say the authors of this new book. They climate change deniers that climate regulation will see “climate capitalism” as “the best route to profitdestroy prosperity, most companies recognize that a ability and competitive advantage.” rules-based system is needed to establish a predictable The authors have plenty of green cred. L. Hunter and level playing field.” Lovins is president and founder of Natural Capitalism Lovins and Cohen see lucrative business opportunities Solutions; Boyd Cohen is CEO of CO2IMPACT. Together in energy (including solar, wind and wave power), they race through the world of corporate green transportation and biofuel technology that can and offer a breathless promotion of how smart produce motive fuel out of straw, chocolate, cofbusinessfolk can save the planet and make money fee, even cooking grease (“turkey crude”). Many at the same time. Wherever there is a global of these have applications in developing counwarming problem, they say, you can find “climate tries, such as new insurance products for drought capitalists” looking for profitable solutions. and extreme weather, as well as delivery of The stakes are high, and go beyond simply potable water. Solar-powered water filters, saving the environment. In their view, the Guess what. You for instance, enable users to not cut trees world economy depends on it. can save the planet for fuel to boil dirty water, thus mitigating “Commitments by global leaders to unand make money at carbon. leashing the green economy could turn the The book has plenty of examples of how world around,” they declare. “Conversely, the same time. aggressive environmental initiatives can delay in implementing sustainable measures profitably solve the problem. They cite DuPont, whose could deepen the current depression, now recognized as stock price reportedly rose 340 percent while it cut global the worst since the 1930s.” Quite simply, solving the cliemissions by 67 percent. “When the likes of Goldman mate crisis “IS THE WAY OUT(their caps) of the economic Sachs and Deloitte report that companies leading in envicrisis. ronmental, social, and good governance policies have 25 The good news (and there seems to be plenty of it in percent higher stock values, change is clearly underway.” this book) is that the business community, not always seen Moreover, “it is clear that behaving in more sustainable as a friend of green, can be part of the solution by using ways has moved from a chic niche position to a business intelligent market mechanisms. “The best and fastest way imperative.” to protect the climate is to reduce the unnecessary use They analyze both adaptive responses (how to get used of fossil energy,” they say. “It is also the fastest way to to living on less carbon) and mitigation responses (reducan immediate return on investment. Cutting waste saves Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change. By L. Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen (Hill and Wang, 2011, 390 pp. $27.95 U.S. $32.50 Cdn.)
F
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ing present dependence on befouling practices). Take, for example, the energy used in homes, offices and industrial facilities, which they call the “most powerful driver” of global warming. “The energy used in the building sector is almost half (48 percent) of all energy consumption.” Saving energy with better insulation techniques “is simply the best investment you can make. If you have money and you are not investing in increasing the efficiency of your home, your office, or the buildings in your community, you are throwing money down the drain.” Their bent is to solve the
problem, not merely live with it. “A rapid switch to focus on adaptation solutions would divert resources from our paramount need to shift to a low-carbon economy,” they write. “Success,” say Lovins and Cohen, “will go to the nimble,” and being nimble implies seeing that protecting the climate is not a cost but an investment. “Those who embrace Climate Capitalism are on the most dependable route to prosperity, now and in the coming decades.” In fact, they see themselves as saviors of capitalism. They quote a former oil industry executive as saying, “Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.” Thus they expend themselves telling their version of both economic and ecological truth. “Let’s unleash this new-energy economy,” they write. “We can entrepreneur our way out of the crisis and create a far higher quality of life.” — Wally Kroeker
“Behaving in more sustainable ways has moved from a chic niche position to a business imperative.”
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Soundbites
Pitfalls of volunteering International volunteering can be incredibly rewarding for the volunteer as well as the host community. Participants build international relationships, learn about local customs and come home with a better sense of global citizenship. Communities can receive much-needed support and an infusion of resources into their economy. However, there are pitfalls. Many volunteer projects cater more to the volunteer experience and less to what the community needs, wasting everyone’s time and money. Sometimes inexperienced volunteers can cost an organization more than their help is worth. And volunteer unskilled labor may simply re-
place local paid labor, crippling a developing economy. — Elisabeth Oakham in Ensemble Vacations magazine
and productivity can be controlled effectively, and when the rest of the Earth’s land surface is carefully monitored for destructive changes. We have or are rapidly gaining the tools needed to do this, but the political agreements needed to use them wisely are yet to be realized. — Tim Flannery in Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet
GPS writ large I can imagine the day when our surveillance of the atmosphere, the oceans, the land and the heavens is so complete that we will be able to anticipate most natural disasters. Such a system would also give us fair warning of when human intervention is required to disperse malign trends. I can also imagine a time when that 12 percent of the land surface that is used for intensive agriculture will be managed so that carbon flux
Real productivity? In some cases, the very attempt to increase productivity will destroy the product itself. If a string quartet trots through a 27-minute piece in nine minutes, would you say that its productivity has trebled? For some other services, the apparent higher productivity is due to the debasement of the product. A teacher can raise her apparent productivity by four times by having four times as many pupils in her classroom, but the quality of her ‘product’ has been diluted
by the fact that she cannot pay as much individual attention as before. A lot of the increases in retail productivity in countries such as the U.S. and Britain has been bought by lowering the quality of the retail service itself while ostensibly offering cheaper shoes, sofas and apples: there are fewer sales assistants at shoe stores, so you wait 20 minutes instead of five; you have to wait four weeks, rather than two, for the delivery of your new sofa and probably also have to take a day off work because they will only deliver ‘sometime between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.’; you spend much more time than before driving to the new supermarket and walking through the now longer aisles when you get there, because those apples are cheaper than in the old supermarket only because the new supermarket is in the middle of nowhere and thus can have more floor space. — Ha-Joon Chang in 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
Eating lean That’s me in the yellowing photograph, that thin young man from Port-au-Prince in the terrible 1970s. If you’re not thin when you’re twenty in Haiti, it’s because you’re on the side of power. Not just because of malnutrition. More like the constant fear that eats away at you from inside.... I’ve been eating fat for three decades in Montreal while everyone has gone on eating lean in Port-au-Prince. My metabolism has changed. And I can’t say I know what goes on these days in the mind of a teenager who doesn’t remember having eaten his fill one single day. — Dany Laferriere in The Return
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News
$6.5 million gift launches business school at CMU The Redekop School of Business was launched Oct. 19 at Winnipeg’s Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), financed by a prominent family of West Coast entrepreneurs. The school was established “as an expression of thanksgiving for God’s providential care for the family of Jacob and Maria Redekop, and their children Mary, Jacob, John and Peter,” said CMU president Gerald Gerbrandt. The two brothers, John and Peter, their nephew James, and the extended family, have together pledged a minimum of $6.5 million and potentially up to $7.5 million to found the school. Twenty‑four members of the family travelled to Winnipeg from Alberta and British Columbia for the announcement. The late Jacob and Maria Redekop, together with their four children, fled to Canada from the Soviet Union following World War 2. They spent four months in Manitoba, where they were welcomed by family and church, before settling in British Columbia. “We see the need to educate the next generation in commerce, marketing and finance, and to do this in a university that inspires and prepares future leaders with skills complimented by Christian ethics, integrity and service,” said Peter Redekop on behalf of the Redekop family. “The school will greatly enhance the university’s ability to prepare and educate a significant number of Christian business leaders who will provide a positive influence on society and the life of the church, and who will have the resources to fund the church’s institutions,” he said.
CMU’s business program will use an inter‑disciplinary approach in preparation for a global business environment. The goal is to prepare students to become engaged in business and not‑for‑profit organizations, with a worldview and character shaped within Twenty-four family members traveled to Winnipeg for the launch of a Christian university the new Redekop School of Business. community. Redekop School of Business Human Resources Managenot‑for‑profit leaders. will offer career opportunities ment; and “We are convinced that the for students through the fol• a Bachelor of Arts degree Redekop School of Business lowing programs: (3‑ and 4‑year), major in will have a positive impact • a Bachelor of Business Business and Organizational on our church, our commuAdministration degree (4‑year, Administration. nity and all those who will be with a 5‑year Co‑op opThe school will offer opserved by our business gradution) with majors in Business portunities for a term of study ates,” said Gerbrandt. (CMU Management, Not‑for‑Profit in an international setting, and release) Management, Accounting, and interaction with business and
Web & e-mails not benign when it comes to energy Many people think sending an e-mail doesn’t consume much energy as long as you don’t print off the message. Not so, according to those who monitor the growing environmental impact of our wired world. They say the power needed to send text messages and keep mobile gizmos roaming and on alert is growing by leaps and bounds with 1.5 billion people using the internet every day. A European environmental assessment agency has studied the impact in Europe and found that such technologies already contribute two percent to greenhouse gas emissions and will double by 2020. The French have taken
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the report seriously and have examined the carbon footprint of their use of e-mail, web searches and document transmission. E-mail volume is already huge, and growing. In 2009 daily worldwide volume of e-mail was estimated at 250 billion. That number is expected to double by the end of next year. The French study found that someone working for a company that employs 100 people is likely to receive an average of 58 e-mails a day and will send another 33. Based on that volume, professional e-mails can produce 300 pounds of greenhouse gas per employee per year. The carbon impact comes from the energy needed 22
by the computers to store, process and send data, as well as the energy that goes into making the components in the first place (flashdrives reportedly are high energy offenders). Web browsing also takes a toll, as servers use electricity, generate heat and need to be kept cool. An average web browser using a search engine to gather information produces up to 22 pounds of greenhouse gas per year. Among the gas-calming suggestions: send e-mails to fewer recipients and reduce storage of messages and attachments on a server. And, of course, print only when necessary. (Guardian Weekly)
Send a girl to school, boost the economy “Gender equality is smart economics,” says a new World Bank report that finds a strong positive correlation between equality and per capita gross domestic product. Countries that create opportunities for women and girls gain the benefit of stronger productivity and strengthen development prospects for everyone, says the report, released this fall. That’s no surprise to people who work in development. They’ve known that women dominate the frontlines of poverty, that more than twothirds of the world’s poor are women, and that girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from malnutrition and childhood diseases. They also know that assistance to women goes farther than the same assistance provided to men.
Income in the hands of women contributes more to household food security and child nutrition than income controlled by men. The World Bank report says output per worker in low income countries would jump 25 percent if barriers were removed that hamper women from working in certain occupations or sectors. Giving them the same access as men to education and economic opportunity would boost productivity and economic efficiency across the board. In Ghana, for example, the study found that giving female farmers equal access and treatment would boost maize yields by 17 percent; in Malawi by 11 to 16 percent. In Burkina Faso, agricultural production generally would grow by six percent if women’s
property rights were improved and if inputs such as fertilizer were reallocated from men to women. While inequality and earnings gaps persist, positive strides have been made, the report says. Female literacy has improved. Countries like Bangladesh and Colombia have narrowed the gender gap with higher school enrolment, lower fertility rates and stronger
labor market participation. “Blocking women and girls from getting the skills and earnings to succeed in a globalized world is not only wrong, but also economically harmful,” says Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank’s chief economist. “Sharing the fruits of growth and globalization equally between men and women is essential to meeting key development goals.” ◆
Impact study shows gains for Afghan women farmers Final impact figures have been compiled for MEDA’s Through The Garden Gate project in Afghanistan. The four-year project, which concluded this summer, helped 2,349 women in isolated villages to develop backyard gardens and boost family income. The project employed a “lead farmer” strategy, selecting local women with entrepreneurial zest and ability and equipping them to serve as group leaders to train other women. As a result of the project, farmers increased their annual income from $38 at the start (2007) to $323 by completion this summer.
Lead farmers, who planted larger plots and more diverse demo crops, increased their annual income from $101 in 2007 to $866 in 2011. All farmers also reported significant increases in assets and community status. More children attended school, household nutrition improved, and families reported better access to medical care. A complete final impact study appears in the fall 2011 issue of MEDA’s new So What? publication. It can be seen online by going to www.meda. org and following the media links. ◆
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