Soundbites
Measurement matters All the good business leaders I know are maniacal about measuring things. They know their sales data and customer satisfaction numbers, which divisions of their company are beating expectations and which are lagging behind. Some even analyze their calendars to make sure they’re spending time on the right priorities. (I admit I’m one of those.) Measurement is a big part of mobilizing for impact. You set a goal, and then you use
data to make sure you’re making progress toward it. This is crucial in business — and it’s just as important in the fight against poverty and disease.... If you want a better world, you need to constantly take stock. — Microsoft founder Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Time
that are changed, you really can see communities transformed. — Peter Greer, coauthor, The Poor Will Be Glad
God of leisure? It is bemusing and sometimes saddening to see where people think they find God. They act as if God must be hiding among the forests of a national park or between the gunwales of a canoe. Someone claimed to find God best at a U2 concert. Pity the poor
Changed wallets When you see hearts that are changed and you see wallets
It’s spelled j-o-b-s The biblical way to help people rise out of poverty is through wealth creation, not wealth redistribution. For lasting results, we must offer the poor a hand up, not merely a handout. You spell long-term poverty reduction “j-o-b-s.” Training and tools liberate people. Trade, not aid, builds the prosperity of nations. — California pastor Rick Warren in the Foreword to The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution
Limited charity
Tarnished brands? What can the church learn from business, or vice-versa? Plenty, says historian Diana Butler Bass, owing to the many things they have in common. For one thing, American churches and 20th century corporations were organized on similar principles and structures, she writes in Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. “Beginning around 1890, denominations built massive bureaucratic structures, modeling themselves after American businesses, complete with corporate headquarters, program divisions, professional development and marketing departments, franchises (parish churches), training centers, and career tracks. Other than the fact that denominations offered religion as the product, they differed little from other corporations that dominated America in the last century.” While corporations have gone through tough times and suffered image problems, so too has organized religion, she says. “The religious model that once worked so well serving to educate, spiritually enliven, and socially elevate so many does not accommodate those goals as well any longer. As with other corporations of the same vintage, church executives became too distanced from the regular folks; managers (i.e., pastors) grumbled about pay, benefits, and working conditions; creativity was strangled by red tape; expenses began to outrun income; and huge facilities needed to be maintained. Faith increasingly became a commodity and membership roles and money the measures of success. The business of church replaced the mission of the church. Slowly, then more quickly, customers became disgruntled. Resources declined. Brand loyalty eroded.” ◆
The Marketplace November December 2013
who cannot afford a trip to the mountains or a ticket to hear Bono, tempted as we all are to embrace celebrity as authority when its views coincide with ours. If you can’t find God in the madness of the city or the frenzy of daily toil, it’s because you haven’t looked. — Haitian philosopher B. Boku
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Charity has never helped any country escape underdevelopment. — Former Haitian president Rene Preval
Climate what? If you talk to farmers they’ll say, “Well, my ponds are drying up, my animals have more heat stress, and I’m planting two weeks earlier.” They’re saying all the right things, but they can’t spit out “climate change” because it’s been politically tainted. — Charles Rice, soil science professor at Kansas State University, in USA Today
Your ego or mine? Most assume a Wall Street investment banker would have a bigger ego than a humanitarian aid worker in Africa. But I have been around do-gooders
