January February 2019
Where Christian faith gets down to business
Facing business challenges
Convention 2018:
Building on success Sustainable waste disposal Advice for young professionals Being a healing presence
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The Marketplace January February 2019
Roadside stand
Committed to helping her suppliers thrive
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f there was an award for perseWith only $5,000US in capital, she verance in presenting at a MEDA couldn’t afford to buy the amount convention, Rose Mutuku of of product she needed. Because the Smart Logistics Solutions would be farmers trusted her, they gave her the hands-down winner. Mutuku, a credit to buy her first supplies. MEDA lead firm partner who flew Mutuku has developed a process in from Nairobi to be part of several to cut the cooking time for dried panel discussions in Indianapolis beans, a staple in Kenya, from several (see story, pg. 12), showed up under hours to 10 minutes, simply by putextremely difficult circumstances. ting them in a glass of hot water. The A few months earlier, she suffered process, which she jokingly calls the “under the bed” method, came about a manufacturing accident, breaking after she found a plate of dried-out her arm and hand in more than 20 beans that her son had left under his places. Despite being in considerable bed. Annoyed, she set the plate on pain and requiring some assistance, she cheerfully took part in tours, con- the table and poured hot water over versations and multiple presentations them to make cleanup easier. over the weekend, then travelled on to Ottawa for sessions with Canadian government officials. (You can watch the latter presentation on the web, at vimeo.com/302144477). Mutuku is grateful for how the support of MEDA’s M-SAWA (equitable prosperity) program has allowed her to grow her business and improve the lives of subsis- Rose Mutuku with MEDA staffer Nikesh Ghimire tence farmers in Kenya. “It keeps me smiling the whole Returning later to the table, she day,” she said. “That’s what made found that the beans were both fully me come here with a broken hand, cooked and tasty. because I know we are supporting Not having to collect firewood people, men and women in this world, and using far less water to cook and we are doing the work of God.” beans provides significant time savHer commitment to suppliers’ ings for women, and environmental wellbeing cost her an earlier job, as benefits as well. supply chain manager at East African Mutuku’s business approach has Breweries. When management there been transformative for her farmer noticed that she spent more time suppliers. She helps them obtain the helping farmer suppliers than just inputs needed to grow crops, buys doing business as usual, she was told their harvest, adds value to the prodto quit focusing on farmer well-being ucts and resells them. Smart Logistics or quit the job. She chose to leave mobilizes farmers as door- to-door and started Smart Logistics in 2009. distributors of dried beans, bean The Marketplace January February 2019
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powders and other products as well, creating jobs and hope for people who previously had little of either. Investing in farmers is more sustainable than investing directly in the business, she says. All in with lean Indiana entrepreneur Steve Brenneman, who became committed to lean manufacturing concepts after losing a business in the 2008 recession (see story, pg. 14), doesn’t confine his drive to find efficiencies to the shop floor. A “bit of a fanatic” when it comes to improvements, Brenneman incorporated some lean thinking into his home life. Tired of finding dirty dishes in the kitchen, he gave his children color-coded plates to underline their responsibility for not leaving a mess behind. “If you decide to just get up and throw your stuff on the counter and not do it (clean up), we all know who it is.” He has also worked on a way to reduce the waiting lines at his church’s booth at the Michiana relief sale. Worth pondering TEDX talks often provide valuable insights. If you get a chance, watch Bruce Taylor’s “Better than Charity” speech to the TEDX UW 2017 conference. Taylor, president of EnviroStewards, makes a pitch for economic development that sounds like it could have come from a MEDA staffer. Here’s the closing line from his argument: “When you invest in charity, invest in durable, shared prosperity.” -MS Follow The Marketplace on Twitter @MarketplaceMEDA
In this issue
Features
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Life in the fast lane
Farm boy says car racing brings him closer to God.
Winning through Sustainability: Student gets $5,000 from MEDA pitch competition (pg. 10) David Richert
Departments 22 24 20 23
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Roadside stand Soul enterprise Review Soundbites
Incoming president Dorothy Nyambi inherits a growing organization
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Editor: Mike Strathdee Design: Ray Dirks
Success through organization
Indiana trailer manufacturer builds on lean manufacturing.
Volume 49, Issue 1 January February 2019 The Marketplace (ISSN 321-330) 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 2019 by MEDA.
Another record year for MEDA
Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106. 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 mstrathdee@meda.org or call (800) 665-7026, ext. 705 Subscriptions: $30/year; $55/two years.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-4106
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
Steve Brenneman with an ATC product
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Visit our online home at www.marketplacemagazine.org, where you can download past issues, read articles and discuss topics with others, all from your desktop or mobile device.
Food and conversation
Souderton restaurant focuses on relationships.
cover photo of Sarah William Kessy by Steve Sugrim
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The Marketplace January February 2019
Soul Enterprise
Three Signs We’ve Made Work an Idol By Jeff Haanen
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think there are at least three signs we can see in our lives when we make work an idol. 1. Exhaustion. Always busy, and always tired. That’s the way many Americans live out their lives. Often, I’m the worst offender. Do one more text in the car (at a stoplight, of course); get in one more email; go in early; stay late. Squeeze in a bit more on the weekends. Inevitably, exhaustion floods in. And as I started to hack out exercise and hobbies, I also started to become more irritable with everyone around me. Oddly enough, I think this is as true for the over scheduled second grader as it is for the mom juggling two part-time jobs, house cleaning, entertaining guests, and decorating a new shanty chic kitchen. The late Dallas Willard used to start all his spiritual formation retreats with making people sleep until 9 a.m. Their souls were as exhausted as their bodies. The reason? Work had become all consuming. 2. Fear. What will happen if we don’t get more donors? What will happen if not enough people come to the next event? What will happen if my pitch gets rejected? What if? What if? What if? Fear often drives us to overwork. What will happen if I don’t succeed? So we adopt the spirit of the rugged American individualist: “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” But underneath is the worry that I won’t have, I won’t succeed, I won’t (fill in the blank). Jesus says, “Why do you worry about what you will eat or drink? Don’t you know your Father knows what you need?” At the heart of this The Marketplace January February 2019
fear is a deep loneliness. “I’m all alone in the world,” we whisper to ourselves, “and I have to do this by myself. Praying and trusting God will provide — well, for a 21st century materialist, that’s a long shot, right? No, I need to work harder. More. For salvation surely will come from the work of my own hands…
For many, work is how we centrally define ourselves in modern society, the way we measure our worth and success. When we do this, we no longer see work as worship — instead, we worship work. Hush. If you’ve ever seen these symptoms in your life, then what can be done? The biblical answer is rest.
3. Pride. Tim Keller once said, “Many modern people seek a kind of salvation — self-esteem and self-worth — from career success. This leads us to seek only high-paying, highstatus jobs, and to ‘worship’ them in perverse ways.” For so many, work is not just a job. It’s the chance to prove myself. My worth and value. Why is “busy” the #1 American answer to “How are you?” It’s because we want people to know just how important we are. It’s the heart’s never-ending quest for self-justification.
“You shall work six days, but the seventh is to be a Sabbath to the Lord.” Why in the heck was breaking Sabbath punishable by death in the Old Testament? It’s because when we don’t rest, we make work an idol. And it violates the first command: You shall have no other gods before me. The very center of biblical faith is to love God will all your heart, mind, soul and strength. But when work supplants God, it immediately become destructive, just as all idols leave a trail of tears in their wake. Sabbath reminds us that it’s not all up to us, but that God is our Pro-
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vider. Sabbath reminds us that our identity comes from Him, not from our jobs. Sabbath brings a quiet rest to our soul. Augustine recalls one of the final moments with his mother Monica that describes this kind of deep, inner peace. He says, “The tumult of the flesh was hushed. The water in
the air was hushed. All dreams and shallow visions were hushed. The tongues were hushed. Everything that passes away was hushed. Self was hushed. And they moved into a sort of silence.” It’s as if only in Sabbath can we hear that our very life (and work) is a gift from God. It is from Him that
we have every good and perfect gift. And it’s from Him that we receive the peace that Jesus gave to his disciples (John 14:27). A peace that can then accompany our work days, uncertain as our jobs and professions may be. ◆ Jeff Haanen is the Executive Director of Denver Institute for Faith & Work and a contributing writer for Christianity Today.
Joy in domestic drudgery A recent issue of Christian History magazine that focuses on medieval lay mystics tells the fascinating story of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a 17th-century French monk. Brother Lawrence was put to work in the monastery’s kitchen as cook and dishwasher, “a job he disliked intensely but embraced thoroughly for 30 years.” He found a way to channel his devotion to God through his toils: “Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do… We can do little things for God. I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for the love of Him; and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him who has given me grace to work. Afterwards I rise happier than a king.” ◆
“Integrity is the only path Overheard: where you will never get lost.” — Mike Maples Jr.
“I have said this before, and I will say it again. I do believe that our Creator works in the week just as well as on Sunday in the pew. This is number one to remember in our work. Number two, it is extremely important to keep open lines between employees and employer. And number three — which is just as important — is that we deliver one hundred cents on the dollar, the value to our customer who gives us the dollar. Basically, I think if these three ingredients are kept we have all the chances to succeed.” -P.W. Enns Spoken at one of the first Triple E Canada board meetings
PW Enns was the founder of Triple E Canada in the mid 1960’s. The Manitoba company is the only manufacturer of Class A motorhomes in Canada. 5
The Marketplace January February 2019
From farm tractor to the fast lane Manitoba farm boy beats the odds to become a professional race car driver
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avid Richert finds it easy to In 2002 he bought a go cart and connect his racing career won rookie of the year honors. The with his Christian faith. following year he bought a faster go Given the odds against cart that could reach 100 miles an hour him succeeding in professional auto and won rookie of the year once again. racing, he has no other explanation Convinced of his skill as a for the past 16 years. driver, he attended a racing school “Racing and God intersected with in Quebec, then took a racing test each other, in the sense that God in Savannah, GA. Told by the team used racing as a tool for me to have owner that he had the most talent an opportunity to experience him for and ability, Richert assumed a racing myself, and how he operates in the job would follow. world around me,” Richert told an Unbeknownst to him, drivers audience who attended a workshop had to pay $250,000 to race. “In auto about his life story at MEDA’s annual racing, you can literally be the fastBusiness as a Calling convention. est driver in the world, but if you As a child who grew up collectdo not have the financial backing to ing eggs on his family’s farm south of pay your way up through the levels, Winnipeg, Man., he had no interest you go absolutely nowhere.” in motorized vehicles. When he finally discovered racing at the age of 20, he was told that he was both too old and too tall to be a race car driver. “I have absolutely no money in a sport that is driven by money, and I’m from a farm. I shouldn’t be a race car driver. It’s not supposed to happen, yet it did.” Richert’s interest in racing started when he saw a Formula One car race on TV. After seeing another race from the upper deck of the Indianapolis speedway, he wanted to compete. Told that it would be impossible for a farm kid to become a racer, he did some research and discovered that most people start out racing go carts. Richert: a passion for racing The Marketplace January February 2019
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Richert chose to change his life and put all his money into racing. Part of the plan included postsecondary studies in marketing and international business. In late 2004 he sold his go cart and flew to Spain to pursue the dream of driving a single-seat race car. After a two-day taste of racing there, he took two years to learn the business of auto racing, and business in general. Rickert is a poised, polished and compelling speaker. But things weren’t always that way. Growing up in rural Niverville, he recalls being a shy, quiet guy who was afraid of loud noises on his family’s farm. Getting a chance to race professionally required pushing himself. “I realized that if I wanted to have success as a race car driver, I was going to start having to take some risks in my life.” Richert experienced God after stepping out of his comfort zone to introduce his racing concept to investors whose support he desperately needed. “In those situations, you can no longer rely on yourself. When everything else is stripped away, nothing is familiar. In those moments you can clearly see God moving in the world around you,” he said. “There was no denying that with the impossible nature of it, there was only one being that
David Richert photos by Steve Sugrim
made it happen. That awareness didn’t make the journey easier. Nothing happened the way he wanted it to. After months and months of work, plans would fall through. Once he realized that God is in control and writing the script, “life became so much more peaceful.” A Christian since an early age, he attended a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Winnipeg for the first 26 years of his life, and now attends churches around the world. David Richert with Jodi Martin, MEDA’s volunteer program manager, at convention. Describing his raccrew from Winnipeg flew to Italy and ness in the gym … then I wouldn’t ing ventures since 2012 as a miracle, did a documentary on his efforts. he says “God orchestrated something be able to last a race.” He then took a year to develop His big break came in 2008. that was absolutely absurd.” a business plan, allowing qualified Volkswagen named him one of the At age 36, he spends most of his investors to put money into a limited time developing partnerships to raise top 30 young race car drivers in partnership, and met his target of North America. He still had to pay a money. “The vast majority of drivers raising $500,000 to boost him up to $35,000 entrance fee and was reI race against are there because their higher racing circuits. sponsible for any crash damage to mothers and fathers are willing to In 2014 and 2015, he was able the vehicle, regardless of who caused give them millions of dollars to drive it. In his first race, someone smashed to race full-time in Europe. In May racing cars. I’m not complaining, 2016, he raced in Monaco after raisone of his door panels, leaving him that’s just the way it is.” ing $400,000 in four months. Actor with a $3,000 bill to pay at a time Richert has won several races in George Clooney’s tequila company when he only had $200 to his name. Germany. That doesn’t make getting became the title sponsor for his car. to the next contest any easier. Prize Richert designed his own vehicle money in Europe is minimal to non“There’s more because he couldn’t afford to pay existent, perhaps 100 Euros (about anyone to do it for him. $220 US dollars), he said. Purses Canadians have been “There’s more Canadians that are larger in North America, but still in outer space than have been in outer space than have don’t come remotely close to supcompleted a circuit in Monaco.” porting the costs of competing. have completed a Racing in the most famous of “I know that the only way I’m contests, the Indy 500, would require going to have the opportunity to con- circuit in Monaco.” raising $2.5 to $4.5 million. Particitinue my racing career, and advance Luckily, VW had a media contest pating in Indy Lights, the highest step up to the highest levels, to go race in for the driver who could get the most on the Road to Indy, a program of events like the Indy 500 in the next media attention for Volkswagen. He racing series leading up to the Indyyear or two, is if I treat racing as a won the contest with twice as many Car Series, costs $1.7 million. business, first and foremost.” mentions as other contestants, despite Richert hopes to qualify for Indy Racing is as physically demanding a sport as any. Richert has “never competing with a driver whose father through a less expensive series of had hired a public relations firm. European races. been as beat up, physically beat up, In 2011 he signed with a team “I’m excited for what the future as I’ve been driving a racing vehicle.” in Italy, raising just enough money holds, as long as God is at the con“In these vehicles, if I wouldn’t to participate in several races. A TV trols.” ◆ maintain some sort of physical fit7
The Marketplace January February 2019
Helping more people realize better lives MEDA posts record results for second consecutive year Indianapolis — As Allan Sauder’s leadership of Mennonite Economic Development Associates ended in 2018, the organization’s success in creating business solutions to poverty reached an all time high. MEDA set new records, both in donations received and clients served, for the second consecutive year, Sauder noted in his final address to the organization’s annual convention in November. In the year ended June 30, MEDA received $8.2 million in private donations from supporters in North America and Europe, up 31 per cent from a year earlier. During that period, MEDA worked through 401 partners in 62 countries. Its projects helped almost 103 million families realize healthier, more economically sustainable lives. MEDA’s Building Enduring Livelihoods fundraising campaign has secured $40 million of gift intentions toward an overall $50 million target, a full year ahead of schedule, campaign chair Rob Schlegel told the convention. When Sauder became president in 2002, MEDA was reaching about 200,000 clients, with annual revenue about one-seventh of current numbers. Sauder expressed pleasure about the work that MEDA is currently doing in the areas of promoting gender equality and environmental sustainability. But he also wished that the organization’s sensitivity to environment and climate change issues had been as strong as it is today back when he joined MEDA in 1987. “We The Marketplace January February 2019
photo by Steve Sugrim
Allan Sauder with his successor, Dr. Dorothy Nyambi, at the MEDA convention
are probably at least 31 years late. But that doesn’t mean it is too late, or that there is nothing to be done.” His successor, Dr. Dorothy Nyam8
bi, brings a wide range of expertise and life experience to the position. The first woman to head MEDA, she is also the first person of African
descent to lead the international development charity. She comes from a Presbyterian background. Nyambi, a bilingual, dual citizen of Canada and Cameroon, worked as a physician for seven years in Africa before moving into international development. Nyambi sums up her philosophy of leadership by saying that it is “a collective effort, one within which I always seek to have everyone bring their whole self, to solve any problem or idea.” Empowering MEDA’s partners to do more doesn’t always mean that
MEDA will need to do more things, she said. The focus should be on enabling partners and clients to do more of what is relevant to allow them to stay strong and grow. “The best work happens when we know that what we do is not just work but we are doing something that will improve other people’s lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at MEDA, and this is the opportunity that really drives me.” “Many organizations aspire to change in the world, but very few have all the elements required…
MEDA has proven that is has all of these in abundance. As the incoming leader, I cannot ask for a better foundation.” New board members appointed at the convention include: Jeremy Showalter of Seattle, a Microsoft veteran who works in global sales with Microsoft Philanthropies Technology for Social Impact Group; and Fort Myers, Fla. resident Verda Beachey, a retired insurance broker who previously served on the MEDA board in the 1990s. Beachey has also worked on the board of the Sarasota MEDA Network Hub. ◆
Building capacity in Nigeria
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EDA’s work in northern Nigeria is “the right project, in the right place at the right time,” strengthening businesses, creating jobs and fostering women’s equality, MEDA staffer Kim Pityn says. MEDA’s chief operating officer made the comments about a recent visit to Nigeria during the organization’s annual general meeting in Indianapolis. “I was overwhelmed with the entrepreneurial spirit of the clients. It was fabulous.” MEDA’s main project in Nigeria is called WAY — Youth Entrepreneurship and Women’s Empowerment. The effort, a five-year program funded with $15 million from the Canadian government and $1.1 million from MEDA, is in Nigeria’s northern Bauchi state. It aims to reach 16,000 clients, and 25,000 community and family members. The WAY project has three main components: • Improving the business capacity of small entrepreneurs and small growing businesses, particularly those run by women and youth. These firms are part of three agricultural value chains MEDA is focused on: rice, soya beans and peanuts.
Kim Pityn
• Improving the business environment in which these businesses operate by supporting networking and alliances between businesses, building capacity of support services, and increased access to financial services. • Reducing the vulnerability of girls at risk of early marriage. Among the clients MEDA is working with is a group called No Retreat, No Surrender, a women’s co-op of 250 women that grows and sells peanuts. The group’s constitution says that to be a member, women have to make sure their daughters finish secondary school. Another client, Ebiku, is involved
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with peanut processing and packaging. MEDA is helping support the firm’s marketing campaign and expanding storage facilities in their Abuja factory. After a MEDA staffer introduced Ebiku to the women’s co-op, they have entered into a business partnership for a regular bi-weekly supply of peanuts. A woman named Happy Amos owns a company called Roshan Global services. Her firm manufactures cook stoves and rice parboilers. After watching her grandmother cook over traditional three stone stoves, which produce considerable smoke and consume lots of wood and charcoal, she designed stoves that are 60 per cent more efficient and pay for themselves in three months. MEDA is helping Amos to educate and support women to adopt these green technologies to reduce labor and time spent on household cooking. “The beauty of this project is that these are sustaining changes, permanent changes in the lives of these people — women, entrepreneurs that will continue to give to their communities, to their families, to Nigeria, long after the project is finished,” Pityn said. ◆
The Marketplace January February 2019
Sustainable waste disposal University student wins MEDA 5K pitch competition with system to help visually impaired people
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Photo by Steve Sugrim
photo by Andreas Patsiaouros
Institute for the illary Scanlon Blind, custodial doesn’t want staff and a manuvision loss to facturer of waste prevent people and recycling from sustainably disposing containers. their waste. “The last Scanlon, a 23-year-old thing I wanted Wilfrid Laurier University to do was crestudent, has a personal ate a product stake in the issue. that works for Two years ago, she lost me, but not for her vision due to a rare anyone else, neurological condition. so I included She responded to that various custodial challenge by starting a Hillary Scanlon staff and physical company, Sustainability resources in the actual process of Through an Inclusive Lens (STIL) designing these mats.” through her school’s social entrepreSTIL products comply with US neurship option. Scanlon’s efforts and Canadian accessibility standards, recently won her a $5,000 prize in and work with most institutional the MEDA 5K pitch competition. cleaning machines and products. The pitch event, held in IndiaTesting has indicated the product napolis as part of MEDA’s Business will be helpful to both blind and as a Calling convention, featured sighted people. four finalists who promoted their Over one million Canadians are concepts to a judging panel. Contescurrently living with blindness or tants were evaluated on how their partial sight. In the US, almost 7.3 business aligns with MEDA’s values million people have some level of of sustainability, scalability, innovavisual disability. Those numbers may tion and empowerment. double within 25 years. STIL designs systems of rubSTIL’s product involves tactile ber floor signs to help blind people and visual mats, proximity indicators independently dispose of waste, that cover the ground around a waste recycling and compost in a sustainable fashion. “STIL developed out of my personal frustration with my inability to participate in the seemingly simple task of proper waste disposal in public spaces,’’ she said. “I could no longer find waste containers or sort my trash if I happened to stumble upon one.” Scanlon held design labs with blind individuals, environmental activists, the Canadian National STIL mats help people sort their waste The Marketplace January February 2019
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container. This allows people to easily identify when they are close to a container. By placing the system on the ground, persons with vision loss do not have to touch or feel the containers. A second component is stream indicators, similar mats that are placed directly in front of containers. Raised shapes help people know if they are in front of a waste, recycling or compost container. For Scanlon, STIL is more than a series of mats on the ground. “It is an enabling and inclusive device for public institutions and environments.” She thinks her company has the potential to help millions of blind people globally contribute to a more sustainable future. Her MEDA success was only one of several wins in 2018. A $32,500 award in February will allow the STIL system to be implemented at WLU campuses in Waterloo and Brantford, ON next year. Her biggest expense in bringing the product to market is the $9,000 up front cost to produce moulds used to create the mats. The systems will sell for between $50 to $90. The initial product is a low-tech system that aims to be as inclusive as possible. Scanlon hopes to eventually develop an app to allow blind individuals to identify waste receptacles using their phones and expand products to international markets. “Ten years from now, I hope that members of our community, both with and without sight, will never have to think twice about how and where to properly dispose of their waste. For today, I just hope I’ve helped you all to see sustainability through a more inclusive lens.” ◆
Focusing on what’s important Turnaround expert applies business lessons to succeeding in life
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or all his business adventures, ship, fitness and finance. Sticking formula to turnaround a company. Greg Brenneman thinks of Success in business or life inwith that list will help people do personal relationships when well, he said. cludes following simple rules, includasked about his biggest regret. His book grew out of an article ing staying focused and reflecting on “In life, my biggest failure was for the Harvard Business Review what is truly important, he said. probably not doubling down on He encourages businesses to about his most famous turnaround, my faith (earlier),” Brenneman told Continental Airlines. build a fortress balance sheet, have MEDA’s annual convention in IndiaThe carrier was a widely replenty of cash on hand, and match napolis. viled, money-losing service when debt maturity to assets. In life, people should choose Brenneman, executive chair of he arrived: worst ranked in on-time freedom by figuring out how much private equity firm CCMP Capital, flights, baggage handling and custhey need to live and giving the rest is a leading business turnaround tomer complaints. photo by Steve Sugrim away. “Money can either be expert. He has served in a faithful servant or a relentsenior roles at prominent US less master.” businesses, including Burger Business success comes King, PWC Consulting and from focusing on how to Continental Airlines. generate revenue, not cutting A Hesston, Kan. native, costs, he said. Many busihe wrote the best-selling nesses that get into trouble book, Right Away & All At take the latter approach, not Once: Five Steps to Transform realizing that “you can actuYour Business and Enrich ally make an airline so crappy Your Life. that nobody wants to fly it.” Asked to reflect on failSometimes businesses ure, Brenneman confessed need to make radical changes that he wishes that his heart to their staffing to succeed, he had been fully interested in said. At Continental Airlines, Christian work 10-15 years Brenneman inherited 60 ofearlier than when he commitficers, 51 of whom he had to ted to that purpose. Greg Brenneman signs copies of his best-selling book dismiss. “It’s really hard to dig After leaving Burger a company out of the ditch King 12 years ago, he was with the same people who put it in feeling unfulfilled and wondered if During his time at Continental, the ditch. It just rarely happens.” success in writing one-page plans the carrier went from a $650 million It is important to treat the people to turn around a company meant he loss to a $770 million profit in three you fire with dignity and respect, could do the same for his personal years. It reached 18th on Fortune both for them and the people who life. When he wrote a one-page Magazine’s Top 100 places to work, watch them leave, he said. plan to turn around his life, he found became number one in on-time People need to be aware of that it worked. performance and won the JD Power Eeyores — the melancholy donkey “I actually got much closer to award as best airline for many years. from the Winnie the Pooh stories — God, I became a better Dad, a better After the Harvard Business Rein their lives and minimize the time husband, and I thought: this could view article became a best seller, he spent with them, he said. “You have probably be useful to people.” received multiple requests to write a to stay focused on people who can He now evaluates decisions acbook. He eventually agreed, on concording to how they fit into one of dition that he could write about steps help you deliver on what God has five categories: faith, family, friendto turnaround a life in addition to his called you to achieve and do.” ◆ 11
The Marketplace January February 2019
Helping farmers meet market challenges Female agri-food entrepreneurs share tales from the trenches
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emale entrepreneurs are making great strides in raising living standards for farmers around the world, but still face challenges getting financing and other resources to expand. That was the message of a panel discussion featuring three women who are doing innovative work in the agri-food sector. Two African business owners, Kenyan Rose Mutuku and Tanzanian Sarah William Kessy, along with Indiana entrepreneur Lali Hess, shared stories about efforts to do business in challenging environments, at MEDA’s annual convention. Mutuku’s Nairobi-based Smart Logistics sources beans from 10,000 small growers, 70 per cent of whom are women, farming about one acre. The firm has 17 full-time and 130 seasonal workers. The biggest hurdle Mutuku faced was getting financing for equipment to process beans. Men in her marketing team did the original negotiations with a lender, and things were looking promising. But when the banker met her and realized the head of the company was a woman, “that was the end of the financing.” That barrier faces many African women who want to start businesses, she said. “We have no collateral. Even if you have collateral, you have to get your husband, in Kenya, to sign to agree that the collateral should be used.” Hess owns the Juniper Spoon, a full-service catering company serving central Indiana. Juniper Spoon feaThe Marketplace January February 2019
tures farm-to-table menus and serves groups from 20 to 500. She also faced challenges in dealing with banks. A loan officer, after reviewing her business plan, pushed the document back across the table and said: “This will be a very nice hobby for you to have, but we won’t fund it.” Undeterred, she called her parents to borrow several thousand dollars. “For every doubter, there’s always a cheerleader too to support you. “Maybe I had doubters, but the people I surrounded myself with were supporters, even though what I was planning on doing wasn’t something there was a business model out there for.” Kessy is founder and managing director of Halisi Products in Tanzania’s Arusha region.
“Farmers have a problem. Sometimes they grow what the market does not need.” Her firm mills nutritious flour, makes soy drinks, dries spices and packages honey and peanut butter. She started Halisi in her home in 1999 after a career teaching women tailoring in her backyard. She began manufacturing flours in her kitchen, products which soon gained a strong local following. A skeptical local store owner reluctantly agreed to carry her products. Halisi products are now sold in over 200 stores. 12
She sources raw materials from 500 women growers, some of whom farm only half an acre. Halisi mills between two to three tonnes of flour a week. Mutuku’s interest in helping subsistence farmers grew out of her life experience. She was raised in a family that farmed a small plot of land and struggled to pay its school fees. Hess chose to become a subsistence farmer. After living in Ecuador at age 19, she took an internship at a farm in the US. She rented a small piece of land and sold her produce at local farmers’ markets for three years. In 2001, she started working for catering firms in Lancaster, PA. Three years later, she and her husband moved to the Indianapolis area. Working with local farmers, she helped them grow products she wanted. She buys from about 80 farmers and food producers in central Indiana, people who make BBQ sauce, grow potatoes, livestock or other products she can use. Hess knew nothing about business when she started out. Realizing she needed help, she asked six people at First Mennonite Church in Indianapolis to provide free counseling regarding finances, management and development. The council met quarterly for three years, by which time she felt comfortable in her role and could afford to take them out for a farewell meal at an Indian restaurant. “They really gave me the confidence to keep going.” Prior to starting Halisi Products, Kessy faced doubters of a different
Steve Sugrim photo
Rose Mutuku, Sarah William Kessy and Lali Hess
kind. She wanted to “help school dropouts and young women who were staying home, without any contribution to their own lives or their families.” She began training people so they could employ themselves but lacked a proper venue. She arranged a shelter to become a classroom, so “instead of keeping chickens, I’m starting the training.” Some students didn’t like the rustic space and dropped out. The students who remained were able to create their own jobs. The dropouts, after not managing to find work, returned to her. By that time, she had built a proper shelter in her backyard. Kessy and Mutuku credit MEDA for helping them to expand their reach and help suppliers earn better incomes. Kessy compares MEDA’s first visit to Halisi with the Old Testament story in Genesis of Abraham and Sara receiving visitors at their home. “Eventually, after the visit, they received the blessing of a child. When MEDA came to me, I had some blessings which I didn’t even think of.” Financial assistance has helped Halisi to scale its operations and work with more subsistence farmers
to get quality raw materials, she said. Halisi now has five silos at its factory that allow for storage of five tonnes of maize. Kessy also has integrated machines for speeding up operations and moved to using gas instead of firewood for boiling and roasting, benefiting both her bottom line and the environment. Halisi went from producing 130 cartons of soy milk to 230 cartons per week because of new machinery supplied through MEDA’s matching grant initiative, she said. MEDA support also helped to hire three professionals at the firm. Support from MEDA helped relieve Mutuku from the burden of supporting farmers financially until their crops have been sold. That helped her to redeploy capital in other areas of Smart Logistics, buying equipment and hiring staff. “For that, I say thank you to everybody in this room for just being a MEDA supporter, because you have supported my business indirectly. I owe you so much for what I am today.” “Farmers have a problem,” Mutuku said. “Sometimes they grow what the market does not need.” She gives them direction on the products she wants, the variety they 13
should grow, and how they should grow it. Additionally, she hires some of these same young women and men to become distributors of her products. Kessy also praised MEDA’s lead firm model of investing to strengthen growers. When she works with small farmers “they have gained a hope from what they are doing.” Having assured markets for their products means that “now they are sure of taking their students to school, they can afford to pay the fees, and also they are sure of their daily bread.” Many of the farmers Mutuku knows live in mud houses with thatched roofs because they can’t afford anything else. One day, a farmer called her to say that money she received from selling produce to Mutuku helped her afford a proper metal roof for her house. Mutuku’s work with young men has led to transformed lives. They quit sitting at home drinking bad alcohol, and “get the courage of being a man again and looking after their families again (after they get reliable work).” “That’s what makes me go everyday to work, just to make that difference.” ◆ The Marketplace January February 2019
Success through lean manufacturing Indiana businessman adapts to make his trailer firm more efficient after losing a business
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leven years ago, Steve Brenneman had two thriving businesses. After starting Aluminum Trailer Company in 1999, he bought a small door manufacturing firm in Napanee, Ind. He built the latter company from $1.5 million in sales in 2000 to about $40 million by 2007. It was selling exterior doors to the recreational vehicle industry, bought a new extrusion press from Spain, and “really got it humming, just before the downturn.” A year later, the 2008 recession engulfed the door company. By the time the dust settled, 250 employees had lost their jobs and the firm’s assets had been sold off. Looking back, Brenneman could see numerous mistakes, and similar issues at trailer maker ATC as well. “Part of our problem was, we had been doing it the primitive, old-fashioned way, which was pretty common in Elkhart County,” Brenneman told a seminar about his business journey at MEDA’s annual convention. “You look around, and we were doing it the same way everyone else was.” After a month off, he started adopting lean methods, the North American embodiment of the Toyota production system. Aluminum Trailer Company (ATC) had $10 million in sales in 2009. Orders had dropped by twothirds from two years earlier. “We The Marketplace January February 2019
photos by Clayton Miller
Steve Brenneman adopted lean production methods to help his trailer manufacturing firm grow
were really in survival mode.” The trailer firm had less fixed costs than the door business. The manager running ATC had a finance background “and was able to keep us alive, but it was really scary.” ATC’s bread and butter is building trailers for car haulers and race car hobbyists, which accounts for about one third of sales. Once Brenneman decided to embark on a lean manufacturing journey, he moved to dramatically improve work flow. The change in philosophy required four years of training and efforts to fix things. Lean manufacturing is often referred to as a five S system: sort, set in 14
order, shine, standardize and sustain. Beyond sweeping and cleaning up, the transition required a complete change in thinking by staff. That included reorganizing the shop floor so things that are touched every day are in arm’s reach. “Easy to reach, and easy to put back where they belong.” He then began making “spaghetti diagrams,” tracing a worker’s movements throughout the factory. The goal was to simplify and get rid of spaghetti-like paths that staff needed to make to get what they need to do their jobs. “You don’t want spaghetti. Spaghetti’s bad.” By introducing kits and standard workflow, output per worker in-
creased by 40 per cent. mostly Amish workforce ATC also introduced a that were paid on piece spreadsheet of tasks an opwork, based on their proerator would do in the best duction. “That’s how all way possible. Elkhart County is.” A nine-month rollout The piece rate pay of standard work processes structure, commonly used with teams led to a further by area recreational vehicle 60 per cent improvement in manufacturers, didn’t work worker productivity. “Really well when ATC got into a fopowerful stuff, but really cus on lean manufacturing. difficult to do. I would not Over a seven-year perecommend starting your riod, Brenneman lost about lean journey with this.” 70 per cent of his employAfter organizing the ATC shop floor, productivity rose Next, ATC developed ees. “Our workforce wasn’t substantially, Brenneman says. standard, stackable containreal keen on that, because ers to make things easier for its supat my company a lot about vocation.” they didn’t believe in it.” While he admits lean processes pliers and for workers on the shop Faced with employee objections involve a counter-intuitive way of floor. Parts arrive in the order that that daily clean up was a waste of thinking about things, he thinks they they will be used in the assembly time, ATC eliminated piece rate and are consistent with his Anabaptist process, saving skids, shrink wrap went to hourly wages. Ironically, had heritage. Neatness and organizing, and other containers. workers stayed the course and achumble inquiry, curiosity about “This is a system where the cepted the changes, they would have whether things can be done better and made more money doing piece work worker can focus on creating value questioning the status quo are all traits than on the hourly wage that is now for the customer.” that run through Anabaptist history. Lean manufacturing discipline the norm at ATC. Still, if Brenneman So is making things simple and extends to tracking financial results had to do it over again, he might clear, he said, contrasting the simas well. ATC does a profit and loss have introduced change at a more statement each Monday for the previ- plicity of a recipe from the Moremoderate pace. With-Less Cookbook with the comous week. Rethinking how things get plexity of a high-end gourmet cookAt the start of the lean manufacdone will impact his career as well. book. Putting recipes from the two turing journey, ATC had $1.5 million Brenneman has hired an experienced in inventory on $10 million in output. texts up on a screen, he told how he chief executive officer to run the firm. found the former highly intuitive and “I have discovered over the past two It has grown to $65 million in sales the latter highly frustrating. from three plants. Raw material inyears that I am really an entrepreventory levels remain at $1.5 million. neur, I’m not a business operator.” Bringing suppliers into the lean ATC has surpassed 300 employ“This is a system manufacturing journey included ees, and Brenneman finds managing simplifying and reducing the number where the worker can at that level challenging. “I don’t of interactions. They built aluminum experience with that, and the focus on creating value have carts with part numbers on them, level we are at, it’s risky to use the for the customer.” so the supplier would know which model of ‘fail fast’ when a business wheel, axel or lug nut needed to be gets to a certain size.” replenished. Workers didn’t need to He plans to take six months to a A common perception of lean promake calls asking for parts. year off recharging, touring businesscesses is that it requires employees to Since 2014, ATC has reduced tire es and determining what he wants to work harder. “There is a more steady inventory by 40 per cent while doudo next in his entrepreneurial career. workflow, but it is an even flow,” that bling sales volume. “Those things re- eliminates some tasks, he said. The trailer firm is better placed ally add up,” Brenneman said. “That Putting supplies beside the line, for to weather the next economic downmeans more cash to do things with, instance, eliminates the need for em- turn, protecting plant as well as office rather than sit in inventory.’’ jobs. “We have taken some of our ployees to walk across the plant to get “We see our work doing things a new set or gloves or a Sharpie marker. success and turned it into stability.” that we think reflect our Anabaptist Given that ATC’s competition The corporate transformation has values, like striving for justice, and doesn’t pay attention to lean manuresulted in a lot of employee turnmaking sure we treat people fairly facturing, his company has a greater over. Before embarking on the lean and give them a valued wage. We talk journey, ATC had a highly skilled, competitive advantage, he said. ◆ 15
The Marketplace January February 2019
Under 40s explore change through business
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sing business to bring about societal change in North America is a complex issue that requires collaboration and tenacity, a conference for students and young professionals was told. “I don’t know about you, but the people I work with don’t want change, said Roxann Allen Kioko, of Eastern Mennonite University’s business and leadership programs. “People usually hate change.” But, “How we have done business for the past 40, 50 years really does need to change.” Kioko made the comments at the Business+Justice=Change panel at MEDAx, a mini-conference for young people held at MEDA’s annual convention in Indianapolis. The panel included: Jeff Boodie, co-founder/chief executive officer of Job Snap, which helps young people get hired based on video profiles; Kristen Cooper of The Startup Ladies, focused on women entrepreneurs, and Matthias Pries, a social finance consultant. White males dominate the venture capital market, Boodie said. Black Americans face major challenges in attracting money to finance the growth of their new businesses. He started JobSnap to create a business that solved problems for people like him. Many people he serves with JobSnap were previously incarcerated or homeless. Cooper struck a similar tone. “Women and people of color are grossly underfunded,’’ she said. Since Cooper created The StartUp Ladies, the #METOO movement has led to more discussions around inequity. “It is easier to have discussions with anyone about the disparities.” Collective consciousness about The Marketplace January February 2019
photo by Steve Sugrim
L-R: Matthias Pries, Kristen Cooper, Jeff Boodie, Roxann Allen Kioko and MEDA staffer Clara Yoon
discrimination and inequity has increased, she said. Smart people want to understand issues and collaborate to figure how to help make positive change. “I think now we can have these conversations.” Everyone needs to consider what their role is in changing how investments are made in people who are grossly underrepresented, she said. In the US, only 2.19 per cent of all venture capital investments went into women-led start-ups last year. Efforts to make change will likely result in failures, panelists agreed. “Whenever you talk about innovation, you’re also talking about failure,” Pries said. The education system has failed students in not teaching them how to deal with failure, Kioko said. “Framing failure as learning is key,” she said. For Boodie, what seemed like a success turned into a failure. Early in JobSnap’s evolution, it had its app in the Apple online store. But Apple has stringent rules around what app developers can put in their products, 16
making it a poor fit for JobSnap. “We took it off the shelf,” he said. “Ultimately Apple was controlling my innovation for what I wanted to put out to the world.” He realized the people he wanted to serve didn’t necessarily have smart phones, and would be better served by a web app, where he had more control over the technology. Cooper says it is important to normalize failure as a teacher. “If I have to suffer, I definitely want to learn from it, because it’s so painful.” She urged young adults to build a network of investors, mentors and other advisors who can continue their education, or risk becoming stagnant. Pries, who works in the Canadian government’s Privy Council office, advised people to be tenacious. His first job came after repeatedly e-mailing the head of the company where he wanted to work. “In part, it was the tenacity to just bug somebody until they’ll listen that helped me out.” ◆
Listen to others’ journeys, understand how to help, pastor urges
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eople under-estimate their ability to be a healing presence in the world, Shannon Dycus says. “We know — what MEDA embodies — is that there are many significant ways to make impact upon the lives of burdened people,” she said. Dycus, co-pastor at Indianapolis’s First Mennonite Church, made the comments in a sermon entitled “Her touch, our faith and the power of Jesus” at the closing session of MEDA’s annual convention. She built the sermon around a story in the New Testament book of Luke, chapter eight (verses 42-48), where a woman receives healing after touching the edge of Jesus’ cloak while he was making his way through a crowd. The woman, who had lived with the reality of hemorrhaging blood for 12 years, was an outcast who stepped out in faith to become whole. Dycus challenged her audience to consider how they have opportunities to give power and hope to the most vulnerable. Many people make the mistake, when they hear the story of the woman’s healing, of distancing themselves from the possibility that they could provide healing in another sense for others. While being awed by Jesus’ miraculous work, they fail to understand how they too could contribute to healing. “There is a flow of compassion within you that can restore her hope,” she said. “We have a channel of investing that can re-establish her resources. You have the capacity to
“In our individual and collective beings, we possess a power that loves, heals, restores” see her in a way that will restore her dignity. In our individual and collective beings, we possess a power that loves, heals, restores. But we forget.” Intersections like the one where Jesus met the hurting woman are “places of connection and conflict, chaos and community,” she said. “Jesus, in this segment of Luke 8, stands at the possibility of empowering the most vulnerable. We stand with him.” We need to continue to listen and understand the road hurting people have travelled as life brings us to the intersection of new projects and new relationships, she said. “We cannot simply see the people in front of us and miss the story that shapes them… When we see the person and the road, we are able to heal bodies and journeys.” Dycus told of spending a year living in the Dominican Republic, working with people who were being exploited by drugs and sexual violence. While she was sent to support and help those people, she found that learning about their lives expanded and challenged her world. “I continue to be sure their impact on my life is far greater than mine on theirs.” Jesus calls people to live into the same power that was breathed into him, she said. He “models a way of seeing and blessing others so they 17
might have the resources to be both healthy and whole.” That journey requires following God into the crowd. “It means following a God that we cannot predict or control. It means following a God that leads us through healing and heartache and healing again.” At the end of her message, Dycus noted that for the ancient Israelites, prayer smelled like frankincense, royalty smelled like myrrh, and sacrifice smelled like hyssop. “To be anointed with oil was to be chosen, consecrated and commissioned for a holy task.”
Shannon Dycus
She invited people in attendance to come to the front of the room to have their hands or forehead anointed with oil as a symbol of remembering. “The Spirit of God invites us to remember and restore the power in your body, in this body to heal and bless that all of creation might be well,” she said in conclusion. “Come and Remember! Go to proclaim!” ◆ The Marketplace January February 2019
Coffee chats Souderton restaurant builds relationships By Eileen R. Kinch Souderton, PA — When Pam and Andy Brunner went into the restaurant business 17 years ago, they did so for a simple reason: they wanted to work for themselves. Both were employed by a local plumbing company, with Andy as a commercial foreman and Pam in the bathroom design department. After the Towne Restaurant in Telford, PA. went up for sale, Pam and Andy purchased it and began running a restaurant. Along the way, however, the Brunners discovered their customers and employees were hungry for family and community, not just for food. The Brunners grew up in the Franconia area, surrounded by family and their Mennonite faith communities. They currently attend Ridgeline Community Church, a Southern Baptist Convention church which meets in the former Rockhill Mennonite Church building. As Pam and Andy operated the Towne Restaurant, they noticed not everyone had the nurturing experience of family. The Brunners realized they had a gift of family and community to share and felt a sense of call to serve people by treating everyone in a loving manner. The couple has three children, ranging in ages from 15 to 22, who have all helped with the family business. They started out by helping Andy in the kitchen, and eventually moved on to dishwashing and cleaning. Aaron, the Brunners’ daughter, now works full time in the kitchen. “She is a true asset in this position,” Pam said. “She understands the menu [and] food presentation and owns our philosoThe Marketplace January February 2019
phy of customer satisfaction.” In 2013, Pam and Andy bought the Franconia Café and Market in Souderton. Expanding was one of the Brunners’ best successes, both financially and spiritually, as the two restaurants served at least 3,000 people weekly. They are thankful that the community accepted them “in two places, only a mile and a half apart,” Pam said, especially since there are a number of other locally owned restaurants in the area. The Brunners give back by sponsoring local sports teams and hosting benefit fundraisers.
Being part of a community means being a place where the community wants to be The Brunners also recognize the importance of community within their business. They consciously cultivate a team environment for their employees and maintain an open-door policy. This sense of caring filters down to the way the staff treats customers—many of whom are regulars—by remembering their names and the details of how they prefer to pay. Pam and Andy strongly feel that being part of a community also means being a place “where the community wants to be.” The community does want to be there: the bustling Franconia Café has 240 seats, including The Gathering Place, a closed-off space for holding parties, meetings, and other events, including MEDA’s Delaware Valley Network Hub’s Third Thursday breakfast series. 18
Pam and Andy continued to operate both restaurant locations until the summer of 2018, when they closed the Towne Restaurant. A variety of reasons went into the decision. Some were personal — the Brunners are caring for aging parents — and others were practical: managing two restaurants and 92 employees was a challenge. Closing the Towne meant that some employees would be out of a job. This caused some sleepless nights, Pam admitted, since the Brunners want to treat their employees fairly and with dignity. The early July closing of the Towne was deliberate and designed to have the least impact on workers’ lives. As it turned out, some employees were planning to leave anyway, and others got jobs at the Franconia Café. For the Brunners, running a business is about more than financial gain. They want to operate the Franconia Café in a way that embodies their Christian faith. They sense people are watching to see “how we act, how we react,” Andy said. This can be a challenge as they deal with unhappy customers. On one exceptionally busy day, someone ordered chocolate chips, but the restaurant had run out. Pam informed the customer that they did not have the chocolate chips — and the man proceeded to shout angrily at her. The verbal assault was so loud that the rest of the café became silent, and Pam stood quietly until the man left. Afterwards, other customers asked her how she could simply let this man shout at her. She told them, “He had a right to be upset,” and recognized that shouting back would not have helped
Photo by Joel Nofziger
Pam and Andy Brunner
the situation. Even difficult customers need to be treated with love. The Brunners also try creative ways of engaging workplace conflict. After some employees clashed, the Brunners sat down with one employee to listen and hear what she needed. The employee was grateful for the process and commented that she had never previously had a boss who treated her this way. Not every interaction with a customer or employee is a spiritual one, and it can take years to build trust, they admit. Pam and Andy are also quick to point out that they are not perfect. They make mistakes and miss opportunities. But they want their business practices and loving treatment of all people to reflect their Christian faith. As Andy said, he and Pam try to “live out our Christian walk; we share it when we can.” Pam and Andy have known
customers through births, sadnesses, and deaths. Sometimes they simply listen to people share, and other times, conversations have opened doors to discussions about the Bible or resulted in a quick prayer. The Brunners are sure some customers are not returning simply for food. “We don’t really sell food,” Pam observed. “We sell relationships.” ◆ Eileen R. Kinch is a freelance writer who lives in Lancaster County, PA.
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The Marketplace January February 2019
Review
Creativity as a pathway to corporate change By Eileen R. Kinch
“Comstock’s advice is to embrace tension as part of the creative process, as uncomfortable as it might feel.”
Imagine It Forward by Beth Comstock (Random House Canada: BeeCom Media LLC, 2018 416 pp., $30 US)
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mixture of memoir, how-to, and inspiration, Imagine It Forward describes Beth Comstock’s journey of becoming vice president of corporate communications and advertising and then head of marketing and innovation at General Electric (GE). Comstock shares personal stories, offers suggestions for cultivating imagination and innovation in a corporate setting, and encourages readers to imagine and to work for change in their lives and careers. “I’ve been courting change my entire career,” Comstock writes. This began with a personal crisis. Then, as a single parent, Comstock moved to New York City to continue her work in public relations. Later she accepted a position at the GE headquarters. Her first major task was to make sure the financial world was watching as Jack Welch named his successor, Jeff Immelt. Her second major task (and accomplishment) was to produce hopeful advertising for GE in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Change involves risk. Comstock challenged her GE colleagues to look toward the future by developing and investing in clean energy and digital technology before these were accepted realities. Daring to imagine new ideas went against the grain of GE’s corporate culture, which prefers predictable, deliverable results. Many of her colleagues were fearful to try something unproven. To create a culture of innovation, Comstock co-initiated Imagination Breakthroughs, a program that allowed GE companies to propose and test new ideas in a protected setting. Failed ideas would not impact the The Marketplace January February 2019
company’s earnings or an employee’s performance evaluation. Creativity is needed, on all levels, to adapt to changing times. Innovation, however, must also be managed. As a result of one of the Imagination Breakthroughs, GE built a $100 million factory to produce sodium batteries that could be used to back up generators. Unfortunately,
Comstock pointed out, “there was no single market segment big enough to accommodate all those batteries.” GE had only considered developing good technology, not the overall market picture. From this failure, Comstock created GE Ventures and a structure for evaluating projects. GE then began to experiment with small-scale changes, and a growth board would meet every 90 days to review projects. If a project was not working, then it could be discontinued before incurring major loss. Comstock’s desire to use imagination and innovation (channeling Thomas Edison, GE’s founder) was not welcomed by everyone. In fact, it sometimes created open tension with her colleagues. Comstock’s advice is to embrace tension as part of the creative process, as uncomfortable as it might feel. Imagine It Forward is rich in advice on how to cultivate and test new ideas in a business setting. The corporate culture of the large companies Comstock describes, however, is brutal. Perhaps something to be learned from her book is that measuring success only in terms of financial gain is also a failure of imagination. Making money to maintain power and status without also working toward the flourishing of relationships and all creation might be an empty enterprise. ◆ Eileen R. Kinch is a freelance writer in Lancaster County, PA.
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Reflections on business journeys Young Kansas entrepreneurs share stories of lessons learned in building their businesses. By Susan Miller Yoder, Kan. — Many youths get their first entrepreneurial experience by mowing lawns. However Shane Iwashige, now in his early 30s, has reversed the pattern. After working on several unrelated small businesses — cutting firewood, raising dogs and running a small farm — he started investing in real estate and offering home services to people in the Hutchinson, Kan. area. In July 2018 he added lawn mowing, edging and landscaping services to the collection of small companies he founded under The Rock Group. Since late summer and Mark Horst with ground mount solar unit autumn rains kept unirrigated lawns state politicians have not brought in were founding members of Climate green until after the first snowfall in incentives to encourage the solar sec- Energy Business Council. Horst carmid-October, Iwashige spent many ries on the Kings’ efforts to provide work hours mowing grass on the 170 tor, except a property tax exemption for the amount that solar equipment sustainable energy. properties he manages. adds to a home’s value. Horst, who has attained the Recently, Iwashige and Mark Nevertheless, a federal tax credit highest certification in the solar Horst of King Solar told a Kansas of 30 per cent of the industry, designs and oversees all MEDA Network Hub meetcost to install solar the King Solar projects in residential ing how they seek to better energy in residences homes, rental homes and businesses their communities and and businesses helps across Kansas. support their families with all US solar firms. If he had the opportunity to do their services and products. Like Iwashige, one thing differently since starting Climate also affects Horst worked in other his business, Horst would hire fullHorst’s business. The family and creative time employees earlier than he did to sunny climate — 224 days occupations before reduce his own work hours. He put a year in Hutchinson — is buying King Solar his pottery art work on hold to have good for the solar energy from Nicholas and more family time with his wife and business. Unlike a dozen Rhonda King, uncle their two young sons while he directs states that offer support and aunt of his wife, operations at King Solar. for solar energy, includKendra. The Kings Education is an important part ing Colorado, California, had established the of Horst’s job. He helps individuals Pennsylvania, Arizona and business in 1982 and make wise decisions about investShane Iwashige South Carolina, Kansas 21
The Marketplace January February 2019
ments in solar power and Iwashige tries to educate government bought his first leaders on the economic rental propand environmental advanerty and began tages of solar energy. managing rentThe economic payals for some of his friends. back on a solar system Later he bought has several variables. The and renovated return on investment is best fixer-uppers for when both the state and rentals. In 2016 federal governments offer Mark Horst Iwashige got tax credits and the regional his realtor’s license and became a electric power company buys unreal estate agent at Coldwell Banker needed electricity generated by Americana. homeowners’ solar systems instead He added Rock Rentals in 2013 of charging fees to homeowners to and Rock Renovations in 2016 as connect to the utility grid. Payback micro industries to The Rock Group. also changes in relationship to the In April 2018, he added a cleaning cost of electrical power. Nevertheand janitorial service, Refresh by the less, an investment in solar energy Rock. Iwashige chose his business’s provides a “philosophical benefit” name because his Japanese surname and the cost of solar equipment is means “heavy rock.” going down even as its quality and Iwashige named himself “keeper efficiency improves. of the culture” for The Rock Group. King Solar’s annual growth averThe corporate culture stresses buildages 10 per cent year over year. ing community by valuing people more than the bottom line and developing leaders to become everything they can be. Putting people first and working in partnership were key strategies in running Horst’s solar business as well. Asked about the challenges he faces, Horst cited difficulties with time management that have led him to try to work more intentionally. Iwashige confessed that keeping himself The Marketplace January February 2019
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on task is a work in progress. Horst’s leading life mentors are his pastor father, Kurt Horst, and businessman Tim Sweigart, a Kansas electrician who is a MEDA supporter. He also takes business advice from his father-in-law, Ken King. Iwashige learned from his grandfather, a pastor and farmer who advised him, “It’s important to let them have your way.” His grandfather was actually talking about cattle, Iwashige said, “but I’ve found that the same principle also applies to people in various roles.” Finding that the advice they gave to customers didn’t hold up was “most painful,” Iwashige said. Once he underestimated the costs of a property he advised an investor to buy. Horst remembers having to admit to a customer his misjudgment on how fast his solar investment would pay for itself. Both panelists were asked by moderator Mike Miller how they would advise prospective entrepreneurs. Iwashige urged people to have clarity about their enterprise before starting “I [started microbusinesses] because I could.” People considering starting a business should “formalize solutions and systemize processes so you don’t have to solve the same problem over again,” he said. Horst advised starting a business that will have adequate cash flow. Meeting the continuing and changing needs of established customers helps a business get through financial lows, he said. “Protect yourself, family, and customers. We want to make everybody happy, but sometimes we can’t. Horst and Iwashige practice their Christian faith as they run their businesses, teach in church, parent their young sons, make pottery, work in the public eye or behind the scenes. “We believe we do worthwhile work. God gave us gifts that we’re supposed to live out,” Iwashige concluded. ◆
Soundbites
Dozens of gender lens funds launched in 2018
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ore than two dozen private funds that make investments in women-led businesses were launched in 2018, a study by the Wharton Social Impact initiative suggests. The study, spearheaded by social impact and gender lens advocate Suzanne Biegel, shows considerable growth in gender lens investing — investing to generate financial returns and a positive impact on women. The Wharton School is part of the University of Pennsylvania. Results suggest that 87 private equity, venture capital and private debt funds raised $2.25 billion last year, backing 828 firms. In 2017, 57 gender-focused firms raised $1.3 billion and backed 650 companies. Over two thirds — 69% — of these investments were first-time funds, which are first funds from a given team with a gender lens. (The venture partners may not be firsttime fund managers, but this is their first fund together with this focus or under this name.) Additionally, investments are becoming increasingly diverse in geographies reached. While 40 per cent of the investments targeted North American firms, this is a major change from 2017, when 80 per cent of investments were US-focused. “The market is clearly evolving, and the ability for investors with different priorities to deploy capital into these vehicles is getting sharper and sharper,” Biegel said. “Even better are the stories behind the funds, how they are investing, the types of companies and entrepreneurs they are backing.” ◆
Faith-based credit
Faith-based credit unions are a shrinking group in the United States. But those that remain provide essential services for church members,
a Religion News Service story suggests. Nationwide decline in church attendance has forced some small, church-based credit unions to close. There are 133 active faith-based credit unions in the US, and 276 inactive ones, National Credit Union Administration figures show. Those that remain, including one operated by Milwaukee’s Greater Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, provide credit to people who have trouble securing loans elsewhere. Otherwise, credit union members would go to payday lenders and other high-interest rate institutions, board president Ed Murphy said. Notre Dame Federal Credit Union in Indiana responded to the challenge of costly compliance and technological changes by creating the Catholic Credit Union Association. That group, which has 30 member credit unions across the US, aims to help share resources and help member organizations stay in business. Over the past six decades, the number of Catholic credit unions has fallen from over 800 to fewer than 100. ◆
Bio-bricks built of waste
South African students have found a way to turn human urine into bricks, the University of Cape Town says. Urine mixed with sand and bacteria is turned into bio-bricks using room temperature moulds. The finalized bricks are created through an organic process called microbial carbonate precipitation, the same process that creates the hard elements of coral. The zero-waste building material creates nitrogen and potassium during the moulding process. Those elements can be extracted from the liquid gold to produce fertilizer. Suzanne Lambert, a master’s student at the university, found a way to produce bricks from urine without 23
kiln-firing, a traditional brick-making procedure that results in the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide. Each brick requires between 25 and 30 litres of urine, the equivalent of about 100 bathroom trips, researchers estimate. The bio brick is viewed as an important step towards the creation of a sustainable construction material. ◆
Loans for African farmers
A new United Nations-led investment fund aims to help young African farmers and agribusiness whose struggle to access loans threatens food production and global goals to end hunger, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. The Agribusiness Capital Fund will provide loans of between $100,000 and $1 million to small and medium-sized enterprises, farmers’ organizations and ‘agripreneurs.’ This group, described as the missing middle, cannot secure financing either from banks or microcredit organizations, according to the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. About 60 per cent of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are under 25, giving the continent the world’s youngest population. But only three million jobs are created for the 12 million people who enter the workforce every year, the African Development Bank says. ◆
Comments? Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to mstrathdee@meda.org
The Marketplace January February 2019
The Marketplace January February 2019
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