Business as Mission Case Study: Consumer Decor Products
Sector: Designer, manufacturer and supplier for Export of consumer décor products. The company develops and produces an array of glass products for retail sectors in North America and Europe. With on-site design teams, the company can assist customers in creating products to suit their market needs. Innovation in the production processes is quite evident – certain product construction designs are unmatched and could even justify an application for an international patent. While originally a “crafts shop”, the company has evolved into a high capacity producer of niche products used in decorating homes and buildings. Custom orders are still accepted, but are only processed for a manufacturing fee that is significantly higher than the standard repetitive manufacturing fees.Market: The company only sells its products to retailers in North American and Europe. At present, there is no domestic marketing effort and no domestic distribution of products. Consideration of expansion into domestic markets has been given in the strategic planning process (as evidenced by several passing remarks), but focus continues to be on providing products of reliable quality to foreign distributors at a competitive cost (cheaper production costs than western manufacturing). The company has several noteworthy quality control certificates. Considering moving into more solutions-oriented sales as market returns continue to shrink.
Structure: Wholly-owned foreign company. The company is privately owned, with the bulk of shares being held by a single individual. Some mention was made of “two boards of directors” – one offering business consultation, the other providing spiritual guidance and support. Daily operations are administered by a management team that is compromised of expatriates and nationals. A few other expatriates are employed by the company to provide support in marketing (native English voices). The presence of non-national staff has been controlled as to develop a business that is truly “national” There is tangible delegation of authority – this is not a business where all decisions are made by one person and then rubber stamped by a paper-only leadership team. With the delegation of solid responsibility, however, comes genuine expectation and accountability. Measurements of success are used in a variety of ways to evaluate the performance of company leaders – failure to meet standards can (and has) resulted in shifting positions and termination of employment.
In this company, however, success is judged not solely by financial achievement, but also by contribution to company’s “quality of life”, relational development, and commitment to pursuing and teaching eternal skills (service, charity, honesty). The company also has a ministry team comprised of two national workers from each ‘floor’ of the factory. This team, working with the owner, prayerfully develops ministry initiatives and takes the lead in implementation.
Champion: Expat who came to this country over 20-years ago, first as a language student, then, once the door opened to register a business, set up shop. Started with a range of products of which their mainstay was a minor possibility. Main product part artistic, part manufacturing advantage. Managed to hit a niche market for several years that led to incredible annual growth. However, niche market disappeared almost overnight. Though no formal business training, this champion has had a passion for prayer, learning and seeing God draw in very capable people to create a capable team. He has had a hand in most aspects of this company, from product design to marketing, to hiring and firing and developing ministry initiatives. From early on he decided to place himself under the spiritual authority of a national pastor in the community. From this position he has sought to develop a partnership with the local church and sees their role as complementary.
Business formation: Company is a wholly owned foreign enterprise. At present, the business operates out of two production centers. One is urban, the other rural. The urban center employees 550 individuals while the country site employs 80 people. Each branch is, at present, profitable. Initial investment for operations was solicited from US parties. It is reasonable to speculate the loans have now been recovered or small percentages of ownership issued. Central to the company’s goal is profitability and independent sustainability. During the interview sessions, it was noted that the historical preference of the company has been to convert offers of financial support into business contracts whereby product is sold to individuals desiring to give support. As a sustainable, for-profit enterprise, this manufacturer seeks to secure and preserve measurable financial success by the standards of normal commercial exchange.
Vision: The company was established by a man with no formal business training. His previous life experience was in the areas of teaching and counseling. However, with varied interests, the visionary was able to use unique skills in craft design to develop products that were attractive to American consumers. Yet the heart of the enterprise has never been to promote the development and sale of charming home decorations. Instead, the original intention (which has certainly been refined over the years) was to establish a work place that invited people to consider the faith while simultaneously nourishing both believers and nonbelievers spiritually, physically, socially, and economically. One of the primary values of the company is that eternal things are more important than temporal things. All leaders take the principle of stewardship seriously, possessing a pronounced conviction that they are caretakers of something which has been entrusted to them. In seeking support, the management team has established a variety of habits (including innovation) which are crucial in invoking the presence of God in daily, tangible ways. Their desire to be agents of change starts within the walls of the business, but then must impact the surrounding community where many of the employees live, are involved in helping an orphanage, and other kinds of life skills training.
Story: Over 20-years as a business in this community of this city. For a stretch of years they grew at an extraordinary rate - from 25 to 125 employees overnight because of hitting a market niche. For a stretch of 4-5 years they received the ‘most caring employer’ award for the city.
Over the past years, the company has been committed to developing and implementing resourceful strategies that encourage the formation of eternal skills among all staff members. Principles of honesty & fair play are reinforced by scriptural excerpts, promotion is offered to those people who demonstrate reliability in their daily duties (he who does well with little will be given more), values are posted bilingually for all to see as they come and go, accountability is taken seriously (workers evaluate supervisors, managers are judged by those they direct), and employee training (production skills & character development) are built into the operations program.
Additionally, the company has used its prosperity to support local efforts to alleviate serious (and sometimes unacknowledged) injustices. Funding has been used to build orphanages, time has been donated to organizing foster care networks, and summer programs are offered for the children of staff members at no charge. Personal development, in a variety of areas, is encouraged by seminars ranging from marriage & relational counsel to financial planning. Of particular importance is the decision on the part of company leaders to open a second factory in a rural community nearby the city. This decision was made in an effort to remedy the problems that undeniably arise when country workers migrate to urban areas for employment, including inability of their children to attend city schools because of regulatory prohibitions. The company also recruits workers from the street side, offering training and employment to the homeless of the host city. These endeavors have been met with both success and disappointment.
Lessons learned:
Stewardship: The power of seeing the business as something that we have been entrusted to manage as stewards, not owners. This attitude keeps our actions and attitudes in the proper perspective
Social mobility and empowerment: Creating a culture that gives a future for employees. For instance, allowing employees to move up from living in an orphanage, to a line worker, to a line leader, to an office worker. They look for intelligence, not education. Not just in the fatalistic mindset of being bound by whatever our family or history tells us.
Putting oneself under local authority: Import for respecting local government and government relations and when working with local religious institutions. High value on trusting, good government relations. In addition, a deliberate effort to have transformational efforts happen in coordination and under the authority of the local religious leaders and even have a good relationship with the local religious bureau.
Commitment to innovation and continuous improvement: Giving divine credit for innovative solutions to problems. If you are controlling everything you’re doing, there’s no room for any input outside oneself.
Holding fast to one’s convictions: There was no tolerance for dealing with kickbacks. Also noticed that women are better at dealing with it than men.
Intentionally in putting teams of different genders together: Helped in creating a team in the long-run.
One lesson stands above all others: it is possible to foster an authentic and effective workplace witness through prayer, careful consideration of strategy, and the assembly of a well grounded (even if small) team of servant leaders. Under this paradigm, the work that matters more than all other work can be accomplished at the office instead of after the close of business (with The Presence and His blessing). The pursuit of excellence in the business operations of the company breeds respect for the enterprise as a whole and its leaders. This respect is vital in the ability of like-minded individuals to expose the gospel in the business environment.
Future plans:
No future course of action was revealed, though it is the intention of the ‘visionary’ to continue in this endeavor until prompt for change is discerned.
The ‘visionary’ is determined to avoid one thing, however: stagnation and the refusal to consider new avenues for spiritual & operational improvement. The practical manifestation of this principle, as often discussed by the ‘visionary’, is to cling to the habit of teachability and to maintain a culture of adaptability. On the business side they were in the process of doing a thorough review of the financial viability and doing a strategic marketing plan.
Results:
Sustainably profitable business for over 20 years
Providing jobs with training and a future for 550 in the urban setting and 80 in the rural setting
Intentional, disciplined practice of daily prayer
Seen significant percentages of all employees be eternally transformed and several churches formed and grow at both sites.
Won ‘best employer’ award for the city for several consecutive years
Excellent relations with government and religious bureaus
Visible impact on the vulnerable in their community (orphanage, beggars/homeless)
Focused long-term intercession, employment, understanding needs and blessing of one urban community
Observations:
Major obstacles to profitability lie within the boundaries of marketing and sales. Up until this past year there was no marketing office in the west, yet all clients are western retailers. A few passing comments indicated that there have been significant problems at various points in the past with identifying and soliciting new markets. Perhaps consideration should be given to formalizing and bolstering the marketing resources in the west.
Looked for every opportunity possible as a chance for transformation, and transformation not just limited to eternal (but the ultimate, intentional goal is for all to have a chance to respond).
Don’t automatically fire someone because of a mistake, but tried to work the problem through together with them.
Incorporate eternal/Biblical principles into their daily work: For example, serving the person in front of them on the production line, rather than talk only about how many end products go out
For us visitors, this was the most inspiring and challenging BAM model we’ve seen all year. In terms of the thoroughness of the intentional integration of Biblical values throughout the company, the emphasis on daily prayer for each person, the innovation and professionalism of the workplace, the obvious transformational impact both in variety and quantity (from numbers who’ve come to faith, to clubs established and growing, to works among the vulnerable, to winning ‘best employer’ award). Add to this the humility of the champion and his willingness to invest time in us, and offer training to other businesses in the community and to the BAM effort on a broader scale.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies, Decor Products
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Business as Mission Case Study: High-tech, non-branded Manufacturing
Sector: High-tech, non-branded manufacturing.Market: This multinational company has low-cost design, manufacturing, assembly, and testing capabilities in multiple factories in-country. They serve the high-tech industry (both domestic and export) through customer service and sales representative offices located internationally.
Structure: Publicly held foreign company. The company has over 11,000 employees of which over 1,000 are expatriates. Of their employees, 166 have a PhD, 1,300 employees have a Master’s degree, and 3,533 have a Bachelor’s degree. The company headquarters is located in-country and overseen by a nine-member board of directors.
Champion: Founder is a like-minded entrepreneur with a PhD in electrical engineering, nearly 30 years of experience in technology development at a prestigious high-tech company, and many years of management experience. He also has experience in opening high-tech manufacturing facilities all over the world. He desires to create an environment where transformation can take place in the communities that the company has created inside and outside the factory walls.
Business formation: With a tremendous amount of capital investment and government subsidies, the founder was able to establish a high-tech manufacturing facility in-country. With continued strong government support and large sums of capital investment, the company was able to expand at a blistering pace. They now have multiple manufacturing facilities in-country. They have been successful in the acquisition of certain related technologies to advance and support core competencies. As they have built their high-tech enterprise, the company has been able to leverage creating a community at each site. Advertised as a benefit for their employees, the community includes a range of housing options, a private school and a place of worship all located adjacent to the manufacturing facility.
Vision: Their vision is to profitably be the single largest manufacturer of this high-tech product in this country. While advancing technologies and applications, they desire to increase their market share with great integrity. With each manufacturing site, the company has intentionally created a community (housing, school, church) as an environment where transformation can take place through meaningful relationships and activities.
Story: The champion established the first in-country manufacturing facility in 2000. He brought in a team of 300 expatriates to start-up this incredibly high-tech manufacturing facility. The start-up costs for these high-tech manufacturing facilities are incredibly high. Yet, with the help of large government subsidies and approvals, the champion was able to not only establish a manufacturing plant, but also build an adjacent community complete with community center, housing complexes, a private bilingual school and church. Land subsidies were provided by the government and the church building was funded entirely from non-company funds. This community provides employees a valuable benefit and by design to mitigate prohibitive expat salary packages. Like-minded expats sense a calling to join this work and community. They, along with like-minded staff for the private school and church help create a positive community with enriching activities which have catalyzed some transformation.
Within a matter of years, the company has been able to expand at an unusually rapid pace. They now have multiple manufacturing facilities all over the country, and even acquired an existing facility from another high-tech manufacturer. They now have many different capabilities for various applications for their high-tech product, and now in the process of seeking partnerships for sharing technology with other high-tech companies. They are currently trying to keep up with the rapid growth of their company, as human resources are stretched thin and their stock has taken a beating since its IPO.
Lessons learned:
Build a team. The founder brought in a team of 300 expatriates when starting up the company. Having a large team of capable workers provided a strong foundation for establishing this company in the forefront of manufacturing this high-tech product in-country. They have also been able to bring in experienced professionals to fill many of the managerial positions, many of whom have been able to leverage relationships from previous jobs for the company’s growth.
Planning for long-term. The company is currently stretched thin on many fronts (human resources, cash reserves, capital, etc.) because they wish to establish their presence in-country in anticipation for increased market demand. The pace at which they are artificially growing has been a source of stress and frustration for the company, due to great external pressures to continually expand and grow.
Resolve tension with stakeholders. As a publicly-held company, their activities are subject to the approval and criticism of the stakeholders. There are tensions with certain non-core business activities and the value they provide to stakeholders, such as a large housing complex, community center, and private school. The company has maintained that these valuable benefits the company must provide, which will inherently add value to the company and add to the well-being of employees.
Gain favor with officials. Due to the controlled nature of the business environment, it is crucial to gain favor with the local officials in order to be successful. This company has successfully gained favor with the local government, which allowed them to obtain tremendous grants and subsidies to aid in expansion and development. This company is an employing powerhouse and high-tech manufacturing giant, which has paved the road for local governments creating favorable terms for this company to locate one of their factories in their province.
Future plans:
Continue to grow, not just expanding but developing existing manufacturing facilities. As they increase their market presence in-country, they are gaining competitive advantage by establishing themselves as the premier supplier of this high-tech product in the domestic market. This will create a barrier to entry for competitors, one of whom has the largest market share. Continuously improve technologies by acquiring technology through partnerships with other high-tech companies.
Results: In amazingly short amount of time (less than 8 years) have gone from nothing to the third largest manufacturer in this sector with over 11,000 employees Have blessed the host country by advancing their technological capability several 'generations' in this short period of time Have leveraged their technology to provide a favorable environment at each of their locations for community, education and fellowship. Have drawn many like-minded, vocationally qualified and gifted people to join the effort.
Observations:
As they entered the market a few years back, they were able to leverage large capital investments and the favor of the local government to gain huge momentum in establishing their company in-country. This sort of momentum would not be achievable without the favor of the local government, and the growth has been artificially sustained with the help of the local government. The local government has allowed them to build large living complexes and community centers, allowing the company to provide employee benefits in lieu of lower wages, especially for the expatriates.
The champion has been transparent about his vision and purpose of the company. This has allowed him to intentionally create a positive environment for sharing life and heart matters.
The community living complexes are mini-cities in their own right. There are schools, stores, groceries, community centers, etc., on site which are conveniently located near the factories. They also have a counseling and medical staff for the employees on site. The company has specifically asked to build a church at every manufacturing location, which has been granted by the local government.
The community living complexes and schools may be a source of financial strain for the company, as the company heavily subsidizes these extra-business activities. The company encourages personal involvement and philanthropy of the employees. The company does not give corporate money to benefit the local community, as this may create more tension between the stakeholders and the company.
Their government relations efforts are not just for local government, but due to the significance of this high-tech sector, they have had to invest considerable amount of time and resources at the national level in three countries.
Because the product they bring (critical high-tech manufacturing) is highly coveted, they have been invited to set up shop in many different areas. This great benefit has also allowed them, in two locations, to have the host government build the facility and let them operate/manage it. This high value has also leveraged their requests for land, subsidies and approvals for their residential communities, private schools and church buildings. However, this benefit/draw may also be part of their present quandary as it is politically incorrect to turn down offers to build more!
The schools are fairly unique – a hybrid of a local school and international school. The schools are allowed to enroll both expatriate and local children and run parallel English and local language schools. All expat teacher and administrator visas are provided through the manufacturing facility.
The ministry emphasis seems to be creating an environment and drawing like-minded people to join. Living near work in a full-service community seems to allow much freedom for neighborhood outreach. From what we could see and hear from our short visit there appeared to be very little intentional company-led strategies – outside of character training topics that were encouraged to be taught by each department (just topics, no curriculum).
Tensions resulting from their "special" government relationships. A combination of their desire to quickly establish a large company footprint before the competition enters and the allure and value of what they offer has resulted in company expansion at an unnaturally quick pace. The downside is a major source of financial and human resource strain for the company.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies, High Tech
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Business as Mission Case Study :: Exterior Housing Products
Sector: Manufacturing of exterior household product.Market: 100% export, all to parent company in US who does distribution to regional retail stores Structure: Wholly foreign-owned for-profit manufacturing enterprise, providing manufacturing for previously existing US company. Sister company registered in more business-friendly location helps with administrative work. CEO and most decision-making still done in US home office.
Champion: Expat who majored in political science during college where he also studied the country’s language for 2 years with the intention of going there to teach and other heart reasons. He worked primarily as an English teacher for 8 years previous to starting company after a connection with like-minded American company with desire to begin operations in country. With no previous business experience, he in cooperation with a businessman from his home country, started the business in spring 2006.
Business formation: Like-minded owner who start company has been running several companies and had been interested in having operations in country. Due to increased opportunities for community involvement and legitimacy, current GM decided to quit English-teaching job to begin operations outside US. With the help of experienced entrepreneurs doing an on-the-ground survey, they realized the GM’s location was in a place that specializes in a craft that would compliment their operations very well. The last two years have had this one expat as GM and between 4 and 20 employees, depending upon production line being in use or not.
Vision: A sister company established in more business friendly location desires to start like-minded companies with vision of being a positive influence in their communities. This company specifically is interested in sharing their beliefs with anyone with whom they engage.
Story: During a visit to the US, after working in the company as a teacher, a like-minded businessman encouraged him to think about opening a business. A family friend, and GM of several successful companies, approached him with the idea of expanding his operations overseas. 2 years ago the equipment was shipped overseas and business operations commenced.
Lessons learned:
- Make sure you get what you’re getting before accepting a large order of faulty products.
- The amount of time and effort put into the product preparation and logistics of setting up a business.
- Hiring like-minded employees for key positions of plant manager, administrative assistant, etc. This helps greatly in continuing on the vision as well as understanding local language and culture.
- Establish values of honesty, fairness, and quality from the founding of the company. But be ready for mistakes to happen, confront them and move on.
- Identify your company as Christian from the start. There’s no need to broadcast it, but don’t hide it either.
Results:
- Facilitates a core of like-minded employees to have a venue to meet for fellowship
- Seeing one employee come to faith and many other opportunities to share the truth with employees/clients/government officials
- Ability to make 150 units per day at full capacity
Observations:
- Good working relationship with parent company in the US
- Difficulty of finding others to pass the baton to in order to keep this business running! There are others in this community who are also champions for getting the Message to the people, but thus far none who are interested in taking over the business!
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies, Internships, Recruitment and Job Opportunities
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Sign-Up Begins for Business as Mission Journey-Part II
Business as Mission Journey Participants: Primarily seeking business-related majors, as well as those with a gifting in entrepreneurship, management, administration, HR, teaching/training, finance,marketing , etc.Time: 1-2 semesters Aug '08 to Feb/July '09 (6-12 months)
Goal: Participants would gain a fuller understanding of the principles and issues of BAM,and wrestle with them in real life as they visit and interact with practitioners and businesses trying to make it work in this world. Ultimately, participants would become part of a new generation of entrepreneurs who can take the lead in following Him to set up fruitful and sustainable BAM enterprises to facilitate church planting among the least-reached.
- Enroll as a full-time language and culture student in an excellent language school (one-on-one or small group classes with an emphasis on listening and conversational skills)
- Meet weekly to discuss Biblical foundations for BAM,key BAM principles and concepts
- Bi-weekly trips to visit BAM practitioners and facilities, follow-up discussions and summarizing observations and lessons learned in BAM Journey notes which are shared with others
- Future potential opportunities to intern at participating BAM ventures (upon reaching a threshold language capability)far east
PROGRAM INTEGRATING BUSINESS AND FAITH: "God has gifted some with the resources of mind and spirit to be businessmen and women. Business as mission seeks to support and encourage those who are gifted by God in this way. It aims to stimulate interest in, and commitment to, doing business as unto the Lord. Its desire is to assist business people to see the opportunities that exist, to use their skills and talents to bless those in the poorest and most needy parts of the world, and to provide in those contexts credible opportunities to demonstrate and proclaim Christ."-Harry Goodhew
For more information, please contact Liz Miller at liz@imi.org.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Recruitment and Job Opportunities
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A Twenty Something Business as Mission Journey : Design & Manufacture of Gift and Tourist Products
Core business: Design and manufacturing of sculptures, gift and tourist products. Partner businesses: (1) Provision of immersion conversational English boarding school and (2) Foster care for orphans.Market: Initially 100% export, presently 70% export, 30% domestic
Structure: Wholly foreign-owned for-profit manufacturing enterprise with related, but independently registered partner companies – educational institution and non-profit humanitarian organization.
Champion: Did not meet, but heard that founder is a like-minded local entrepreneur, business couple. Present expat manager has background experience in real estate management, initially came over for language study. Met founder and original expat business partner and took over the business when original expat partner left. The business appears to run as a partnership between the original founder and present expat manager.
Business formation:
Initial manufacturing operation started up by like-minded local entrepreneur in his home. Within first year or two a like-minded foreigner joined in, registered the manufacturing business as wholly-foreign-owned. In mid-90s, original foreign partner handed the business over to the present foreign champion. Business moved from high-rent, urban interior location to a rural township location, purchased land, took over a shampoo factory site and over time has built up property to include facilities for the foster home and language school.
Manufacturing facility now has 70 employees from designers (recruited from urban areas) to basic craft, painting, packing and labor (primarily from local rural township). Language school has 60 boarding students and expat English teachers (primarily from the US, provides housing, visa and living stipend, minimum 1-year commitment). Foster home has capacity for 21 orphans, raises funds for medical treatment (primarily heart operations), and is staffed by perhaps a dozen trained ‘aunties’. Facility also includes a western-finished guesthouse that can house up to visitors for short-term visits, English camps and retreats and an activity center.
Vision: Initial vision we were told was to create a business that demonstrated integrity in all its business dealings. Present vision appears to be using the for-profit enterprise as a foundation by which to create other platforms with intentional ministry objectives. The conversational immersion language school allows them to board students for 4 month terms and 1-month short camp terms and catalyze abundant relationship building and sharing opportunities. The foster home allows them to demonstrate compassion by providing funds for medical treatment for at-risk orphans, providing housing and care for up to 21 orphans and training families and placing orphans into homes for foster care. Long-term vision appears to be replicating this for-profit/non-profit model in other locations (not necessarily with the same for-profit business) and expanding their present for-profit business to the south where resources are more abundant.
Story: Did not meet the founder nor really hear much of the story of how they came to move to this rural property or even what/who catalyzed the start of the foster care or English instruction initiatives. Did hear that the founder has developed connections to the growing network of domestic like-minded bookstores and more and more of their market is now domestic.
Lessons learned: Not much shared, just a comment about learning the boundaries on how open they can be in support of the local church – they used to host large church meetings in their large meeting room, now have learned to encourage the groups to divide up and meet in smaller groups at venues off the property.
Future plans: Were told that they plan to move most of the manufacturing capacity south for purely business reasons. They plan to leave the design capacity along with English school and foster care at this facility, and have already started purchasing property at a southern site where the raw materials and transport of their core-product are more favorable. Also hope to replicate the English and foster emphases at the southern site.
Results:
* Provides over 20 expat visas through the core business and allows these people to live in a fairly rural community. All visas provided through the for-profit core business.
* Foster home has provided critical medical care for dozens of at-risk orphans and given them a healthy, loving environment at the Center and placed more than a dozen in local homes. Reported that some of the families who’ve been trained for foster care have been transformed.
* Immersion language school seems to have found a niche and is attracting a steady stream of students and seeing transformation happen as they live on or near the property and have abundant relational opportunities with the teachers.
* Seem to have a good influence on the surrounding township community, offering some training programs (parenting, financial management) and foster parent training. They also have provided some philanthropic initiatives at a local public school.
* Appear to be supporting a growing domestic Christian bookstore network
* Appear to have developed long-term relationships with many western schools, clubs and individuals who regularly provide short-term teams for their English camps and orphan outreach (so much so that they have a full-time expat staff to coordinate visitors and their guest house).
Observations:
* Core business has successfully grown for over 10 years. Do not know how profitable it has been (manager’s comment that one particular product was the first successful one they’ve done) nor what kind of volume they are doing.
* Were told that all non-core businesses are all self-sufficient.
-The language school has gained enough of a reputation (marketing solely via the internet) that they now have 60 students and are growing by 15 per semester.
-The foster home is a 501c3 registered charity and offers child sponsorship, does fund-raisers in the nearby large city and has corporate sponsors. They run training programs for foster parents and offer a financial subsidy for foster parents (monthly stipend, formula, supplies and school tuition)
* When asked about intentional ministry efforts, emphasis was on the non-core business initiatives (school and foster care) and how much they have blessed. Appears that intentionally developing the core-business manufacturing company culture as ministry is not the focus.
* Present expat manager is entirely self-funded via his passport country real estate business. So perhaps all the expats are donor- or self-funded.
* Shared (local and expat) company management and vision seems to be their key for their developing good government relations, developing strong networks with local clubs for developing the domestic market and developing the foster home network.
* Replication. Were told that former staff are preparing to move further west and hope to replicate this model (with some support of this facility).
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies, Practical Tips and Tools
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A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Textile Manufacturing
Sector: Manufacturing textiles for home furnishings.Market: Primarily manufacturing for high-end retailers in west; working on being the low-cost outsourced manufacturer for one of the largest names in the business. Five years ago tried to brand themselves and sell direct but did not succeed.
Structure: Wholly foreign owned enterprise with corporate headquarters and Board of Directors located in the USA. Structured as a for-profit manufacturing business which supports a connected but separate non-profit development company. Both have separate Boards, though the non-profit is a virtual entity.
In-country the for-profit rents and runs a manufacturing facility with 65 employees and 2 expat families and has contractual ties with 10-20 small workshops in rural areas (at their peak they provided employment for 300 people). The expats are provided with a salary but are also partially donor-supported. They also have a small office in their minority people county which they hope to expand into another manufacturing facility. The CEO is based in the US and so is the Board of Directors. The present CEO has had overseas experience in Africa and is the first ‘full-time’ CEO. The Board is primarily made up of people with business background.
In-country the non-profit partners with a minority people NGO (non-governmental organization) to run an English Language Center. The NGO takes care of registration, government relations, finances and recruiting minority students. The non-profit provides up to five native English speaking teachers (visas provided by the for-profit), curriculum and runs the program. They recruit native English speakers with college degrees and TEFL certification for 2-year commitments. All are donor-supported. The NGO Board is made up of pastoral staff from the eight fellowships who are supporting this effort.
In-country the non-profit partners with a minority people NGO (non-governmental organization) to run an English Language Center. The NGO takes care of registration, government relations, finances and recruiting minority students. The non-profit provides up to five native English speaking teachers (visas provided by the for-profit), curriculum and runs the program. They recruit native English speakers with college degrees and TEFL certification for 2-year commitments. All are donor-supported. The NGO Board is made up of pastoral staff from the eight fellowships who are supporting this effort.
Champion: Company founded by two brothers and two friends over 10 years ago. Last of the founders (true champion) left last year, present champion is standing in as the main factory GM but hopes to be the GM of the minority county remote manufacturing facility within 18 months. Present champion has science degree and work experience and linguistic ability. Has been in-country for 10-years and done extensive traveling among these minority peoples. Has a passion for the people and for seeing churches planted among them. He has been working at this facility for 7 years in roles ranging from HR to Sales/Marketing.
Business formation: Do not know story of original champions other than their desire to live in this relatively remote place and gain access to these minority people. They set up a business that tied directly into the cultural values of these people – an indigenous art/textile that is uniquely to these peoples and has been a trade commodity for centuries – and yet an art that is not bound by the design, rather by its construction. Thus this commodity can be adapted to meet western market tastes without losing its identity. The raw materials must be obtained through another minority people group who control the market – and the two minority people groups have a history of animosity between them. They have established a manufacturing facility inside the largest raw material supplying company for product development and quality control. They have their own designers. They also have extensively used small rural workshops for production.
Vision: To bless the lives of these minority people through job and wealth creation, and place passionate expats and local believers among them to share the Good News and raise up a plurality of elders among these people. The manufacturing facility provides jobs and the work culture promotes values and expat and local believers intentionally seek to incarnate Christ in the workplace. The contracting production out to rural workshops gains an audience in the target area. The long-term vision to place a manufacturing facility in the minority area would potentially become the number one employer in that area (very high unemployment). The for-profit enterprise then facilitates other ministry opportunities through the non-profit programs of teaching English and showing compassion. Because the English training is partnered with a minority NGO, almost all the students are of the desired minority people. The English program provides natural means to interact, develop relationships and share lives and Truth. The program also subsidizes manufacturing staff to take classes.
Story: Started by two brothers and two friends. All shared a vision. After one ‘friend’ embezzled a significant amount of their starting capital, they were able to settle down and get the business going. They were the first wholly foreign registered business in this relatively remote area. With the departure of the last founder (one of the brothers) after 25 years in-country, the present team realized that the original vision had never been put in writing. Over the past months they have been working through the process to articulate and agree upon vision, theology and direction, both in the field and with the US-based Board and CEO. The GM and CEO positions have undergone significant turnover over the years. Present champion/GM desires to move on to lead the smaller manufacturing presence in the rural minority county area. Present VGM has been the VGM for 5-years, is getting his Business degree on-line and will then step in as the GM.
Lessons learned:
1) Importance of networking. One of the founders developed networks as he worked his way to this region. Managed to connect to a like-minded local network and several years ago this church network sent three highly qualified national staff to work at the manufacturing facility for 2-years. Great boost to operations and witness!
2) Importance of western-style HR. Wish they’d implemented this from the start. Too much relativism and deal making going on.
3) Importance of market pull, not push. Started by doing own designs and trying to sell on their own in the west. Even paid a consultant to help re-design their marketing approach and create a brand name – but lacked the marketing/sales resources. Had a season of being highly subsidized by a like-minded business that sold their product, purchasing most of their inventory for slightly over cost. However, this benevolent client passed away last year and no other sustainable marketing plan had been developed. The result was almost a total loss of sales, piling up of unsellable inventory, drastic reduction in output and loss of business for their small workshops. They presently now have one solid retail client and are in negotiations with one of the top three high-end retailers of their product who is looking to move their base of manufacturing due to political instability and cost issues. They are making product to meet the client’s specified design.
2) Importance of western-style HR. Wish they’d implemented this from the start. Too much relativism and deal making going on.
3) Importance of market pull, not push. Started by doing own designs and trying to sell on their own in the west. Even paid a consultant to help re-design their marketing approach and create a brand name – but lacked the marketing/sales resources. Had a season of being highly subsidized by a like-minded business that sold their product, purchasing most of their inventory for slightly over cost. However, this benevolent client passed away last year and no other sustainable marketing plan had been developed. The result was almost a total loss of sales, piling up of unsellable inventory, drastic reduction in output and loss of business for their small workshops. They presently now have one solid retail client and are in negotiations with one of the top three high-end retailers of their product who is looking to move their base of manufacturing due to political instability and cost issues. They are making product to meet the client’s specified design.
Future plans: Develop a sound, sustainable and profitable marketing plan. Hoping a key part of it will be to become the manufacturer for this major supplier of their product. Required to move their manufacturing facility to a new business park and take on a major capital cost. Hoping within 18 months to have enough stable business to move a team to the rural minority county area to set up a smaller scale (up to 25 employees) manufacturing facility – in the key area for this minority people group. Hoping to also replicate the non-profit partnership in that area.
Results: Long-term relationships with people in this least-reached minority people group in business relations (workshops, officials, employees) as students in the English program Clearly identified and known as a business that champions this people group. A sustainer of their long-term culture through developing and marketing their traditional commodity item. Long-term presence in a remote area. Ten years and counting. Provides visas for 5-10 expats and eventually for 2-5 more in a very remote area. Partnering with the minority people NGO results in 75+% of their English students being from this minority people group. Providing an excellent English language program means they have a good reputation that draws students from four different provinces Potential to place a manufacturing facility and expats in a very remote position and in the central location of this minority people group. Have seen two minority men make professions, invest time in discipleship but appear to not stay faithful
Observations: Potentially great BAM model. Product that ties right into the culture of the people and most of these people have the skills to do it. Product already does have an international market, once they solve the quality and marketing connection issues. Model potentially allows them to touch the community in multiple ways – through employment, contracting small workshops, teaching English and showing compassion. Non-profit partnership with minority NGO allows them to openly be a champion of a minority people.
Original champion(s) seem to have done a reasonable job with government relations, vision and recruiting. However, not putting the vision into writing and making sure the vision and values were engaged by all and passed down means these core issues all have to be revisited.
Present champion is passionate and articulate about the vision and the people group. However, his best fit is not GM of the for-profit business. He is being worn out by governmental pressures, staff meetings and the details of making the business work. These perhaps are critical for his future role as GM in the rural area, but appear to be draining him now and perhaps slowing the business down.
Some problematic issues with the CEO and Board being based in the US while all the operations go on in-country. Encouraged that the new CEO has spent a lot of time in-country and is planning to invest more. Sounds like in the past there have been many disconnects between the CEO/Board and the team on the ground.
Still face challenges reaching out to a minority people in the capital city. Their people group concentration is almost 500 miles away from the capital city where they are based! Minority people get out-competed for jobs by the majority people in the city. Even for the rural workshops, they are not even 50% of the people with whom they desire to work!
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Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
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A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Case Study #4 - Home Furnishings
Just like those three wise men so long ago, we seek to discern the times and follow His leading for the future! The purpose of this note is to share observations, reflections and lessons learned as we visit and interact with different BAM practitioners. We hope this sharing will spark your imagination, intercession and action to grow in wisdom and understanding and love and good deeds.Sector: Home furnishings
Market: Export B2B market. Source home furnishings to service a niche market in the U.S. Sell only to qualified retailers and wholesalers of home furnishings by the container.
Structure: Wholly foreign owned enterprise with corporate headquarters located in-country. Presently staffed with four expats in two locations and national salesmen/collectors strategically located in remote, unreached parts of the country. All expats are in-country for heart reasons, many of whom have no formal business education or background. National employees are on the payroll and carry out administrative, sales/product collection, warehouse management or participate in small-scale manufacturing processes. Present overall structure includes corporate office that coordinates all activities, three workshops located in different provinces (two which are partnerships with independent ventures) and a large warehouse in a major city. Product is sourced from remote areas by trained nationals who use the product sourcing as their primary contact to unreached communities. Company has one part-time sales person in the U.S, however, sales orders are placed via web, where the entire inventory is available for viewing.
Champion: Cross-cultural worker with love for remote areas for ministry reasons. No formal business education. Received some formal language study in-country. Self-learned salesman and has become an ‘expert’ in this niche home furnishings market through seven years of effort. Initially came to this country more than 15-years ago as an English teacher. Started this home furnishings company after a number of different business failures but perceived potential of sales of artifacts and handicrafts from remote areas. His role is the chief executive officer, sales representative/manager and sole owner.
Business formation: Champion gained in-country business experience as a broker of raw materials, and later a sales agent of jewelry. Passion of the champion is to facilitate in the mobilization of people to remote unreached areas to for ministry. In his testing and trying he discovered a niche market in the home furnishings industry. He used personal credit for the initial start-up capital. The champion then sourced home furnishings, prepared them for export, and personally invested time in developing the sales and marketing relationships in this niche market. Company has now been in existence for 7 years.
Vision: Facilitation of expats to live in-community in various remote and unreached places in this country and others in the 10-40 window to be used to catalyze church planting movements. Business model is the interconnecting of many small workshops in a loose network with the champion providing the marketing/sales connection for the product. In reality it is a trading company. Business provides a legitimate business visa and presence without many work obligations thus freeing up the expat(s) to focus on ministry efforts. Use the workshop also as a venue, in partnership with local like-minded networks, to train like-minded nationals to effectively share the Message. Facilitate mobilizing like-minded nationals and expats to remote areas as part of business expansion.
Story: Started by exporting jewelry through unorthodox means. After several years of sales experience in the U.S. home furnishings industry, the champion saw an opportunity to source home furnishings to service a niche market. Formation catalyzed after season of prayer through a providential meeting with a national pastor with carpentry and business background. Together they pulled together the concept. Using personal credit, he sourced home furnishings from remote areas. Champion created the business, local partner brought the carpentry know-how and connection to a local, like-minded network. Initially established a B2B and B2C hybrid company. Transitioned into solely a B2C company. Currently export 1-2 containers a month.
Lessons learned: Trial and error. Originally, the champion traveled back and forth between the U.S. and this country to manage all company sales. Developed a need for a sales and marketing agent State-side, but quickly realized a need for the company to generate revenue to support a sales and marketing agent’s salary. Difficulty in balancing focus on business activities and heart activities. Intentionally siding on emphasizing ministry activities, decisions are often counterintuitive to sound business strategies. Currently, problems with cash flow are affecting business activities.
Future plans: The champion does not wish to increase the scope of the business because it would take away from ministry emphasis, since an increase in scope and size requires an increase of inputs to operate the business. Wishes to source related products that fit within the vision of facilitating placing workers in remote areas in the 10-40 window. Unsure if the particular niche market they are servicing is sustainable in the long-term. Already considering creating new home furnishing products using the same raw materials. Future vision includes trading beads, jewelry, semi-precious stones, rugs, gifts/handicraft items and raw materials/commodities all to put thousands of 2-10 person low-tech workshops all over the 10-40 window.
Results:
Market: Export B2B market. Source home furnishings to service a niche market in the U.S. Sell only to qualified retailers and wholesalers of home furnishings by the container.
Structure: Wholly foreign owned enterprise with corporate headquarters located in-country. Presently staffed with four expats in two locations and national salesmen/collectors strategically located in remote, unreached parts of the country. All expats are in-country for heart reasons, many of whom have no formal business education or background. National employees are on the payroll and carry out administrative, sales/product collection, warehouse management or participate in small-scale manufacturing processes. Present overall structure includes corporate office that coordinates all activities, three workshops located in different provinces (two which are partnerships with independent ventures) and a large warehouse in a major city. Product is sourced from remote areas by trained nationals who use the product sourcing as their primary contact to unreached communities. Company has one part-time sales person in the U.S, however, sales orders are placed via web, where the entire inventory is available for viewing.
Champion: Cross-cultural worker with love for remote areas for ministry reasons. No formal business education. Received some formal language study in-country. Self-learned salesman and has become an ‘expert’ in this niche home furnishings market through seven years of effort. Initially came to this country more than 15-years ago as an English teacher. Started this home furnishings company after a number of different business failures but perceived potential of sales of artifacts and handicrafts from remote areas. His role is the chief executive officer, sales representative/manager and sole owner.
Business formation: Champion gained in-country business experience as a broker of raw materials, and later a sales agent of jewelry. Passion of the champion is to facilitate in the mobilization of people to remote unreached areas to for ministry. In his testing and trying he discovered a niche market in the home furnishings industry. He used personal credit for the initial start-up capital. The champion then sourced home furnishings, prepared them for export, and personally invested time in developing the sales and marketing relationships in this niche market. Company has now been in existence for 7 years.
Vision: Facilitation of expats to live in-community in various remote and unreached places in this country and others in the 10-40 window to be used to catalyze church planting movements. Business model is the interconnecting of many small workshops in a loose network with the champion providing the marketing/sales connection for the product. In reality it is a trading company. Business provides a legitimate business visa and presence without many work obligations thus freeing up the expat(s) to focus on ministry efforts. Use the workshop also as a venue, in partnership with local like-minded networks, to train like-minded nationals to effectively share the Message. Facilitate mobilizing like-minded nationals and expats to remote areas as part of business expansion.
Story: Started by exporting jewelry through unorthodox means. After several years of sales experience in the U.S. home furnishings industry, the champion saw an opportunity to source home furnishings to service a niche market. Formation catalyzed after season of prayer through a providential meeting with a national pastor with carpentry and business background. Together they pulled together the concept. Using personal credit, he sourced home furnishings from remote areas. Champion created the business, local partner brought the carpentry know-how and connection to a local, like-minded network. Initially established a B2B and B2C hybrid company. Transitioned into solely a B2C company. Currently export 1-2 containers a month.
Lessons learned: Trial and error. Originally, the champion traveled back and forth between the U.S. and this country to manage all company sales. Developed a need for a sales and marketing agent State-side, but quickly realized a need for the company to generate revenue to support a sales and marketing agent’s salary. Difficulty in balancing focus on business activities and heart activities. Intentionally siding on emphasizing ministry activities, decisions are often counterintuitive to sound business strategies. Currently, problems with cash flow are affecting business activities.
Future plans: The champion does not wish to increase the scope of the business because it would take away from ministry emphasis, since an increase in scope and size requires an increase of inputs to operate the business. Wishes to source related products that fit within the vision of facilitating placing workers in remote areas in the 10-40 window. Unsure if the particular niche market they are servicing is sustainable in the long-term. Already considering creating new home furnishing products using the same raw materials. Future vision includes trading beads, jewelry, semi-precious stones, rugs, gifts/handicraft items and raw materials/commodities all to put thousands of 2-10 person low-tech workshops all over the 10-40 window.
Results:
- Accomplishing his goal of facilitation
- Providing visas for two other families and one single (expat)
- Workshop has facilitated cross-cultural training school for local workers
- Has trained and placed three local families in remote areas as sales/product collectors
- Market connections has led to partnerships with two other workshops (independent) who produce product while also running training schools
Seems to have a sustainable volume of business with a product ‘release-valve’ (source which he can access at will to generate more product) so that each workshop area and salesman does not have significant market/production pressure
Observations:
- Champion seems to have hit on the key issue for sustaining small businesses in remote areas – market. The concept of him taking ownership and making sure there is a market for the product allows the small business idea to be feasible.
- Champion has set up essentially a non-profit for-profit business. The driving force is not profit but ministry. His stated goal is break-even or just a little profit. He consistently is asking people (both expat and national) ‘is this (meaning business activity) taking too much time?’
- Champion seems to view the business primarily as a placement vehicle instead of a means for ministry (tentmaking). While the workshops have simultaneous ministry impact (training schools) they use the business more as a cover than as an integral part of the ministry. As noted above, all workers are encouraged to minimize their business-related responsibilities and activities. Even in his vision for creating opportunities for other remote areas, the emphasis is small businesses that facilitate an expat visa, but are small enough to not require a lot of the expat’s time to manage.
- Champion feels that in-country expat staff should not be supported by the business, only the local staff should be paid by the business revenue. However, on the US side, he realizes you must pay a competitive salary.
- Champion is a strong advocate for not getting into manufacturing and/or creating your own product (market push). Rather to find existing crafts that only require minor adjustments (quality, style) to become marketable and work with existing small workshops so that employment, cash flow, inventory, etc are not your worry.
- When asked about his vision and values, the champion could not clearly articulate it. When asking the other expat workers their visions for the future, they shared a wide range of ministry visions – all unrelated to the present core business.
- Since the profit motive is discouraged, there is no driving motive to produce. However, the company is able to source home furnishings from sources (release valve) to meet demand or make-up for lower outputs.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
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A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Outsourcing IT
The purpose of this note is to share observations, reflections and lessons learned as we visit and interact with different BAM practitioners. We hope this sharing will spark your imagination, intercession and action to grow in wisdom and understanding and love and good deeds!Sector: Outsourcing IT services for re-sale of household products for consumption Market: Primary – Western online consumers Structure: Foreign representative office of a foreign registered for–profit organization. Presently are three representative offices in-country. As rep offices they are not allowed to make money. This particular office employs two local staff; one full-time and one half-time employee. The corporate office provides financial subsidy for 1 ½ staff and office rent at this location. Three rep offices do all the IT work (data entry, repricing) for the business. Corporate office in the US and includes general manager, storage warehouses and shipping resources. They receive and sort donated products, provide overall administration and business direction and also shipping services. Supported by approximately 20 employees who volunteer 10-20 hours per week.
Champion: Corporate founder is a pastor/cross-cultural worker with small amount of business background. Came to country in 2000 and during second year of language study developed this concept. Makes decisions for 3 rep offices and home office location. Facilitates home office, retail site and 3 rep sites as GM. This rep office champion is a cross-cultural worker with seminary training and pastoral experience. Grew up interacting with small food service business. Has passion and vision to see indigenous churches planted among this least-reached people group.
Business formation: Founder looked for a legitimate reason to be in a community. Successfully opened the first branch in 2003, hired one staff, got it up and running but as business grew, he was forced to move back to the US to facilitate and manage the business growth. Business concept was to encourage churches to donate product and then resell them on the internet. Response was greater than anticipated! Goal now is to provide others with platform to work in business at other locations. This branch was the second rep office to open and began in 2005. Because the business was not yet generating sufficient funds, the first year of this rep office was without corporate subsidy – so the branch manager raised the funds. This branch was set up specifically to complement a church planting effort among a minority people in a least-reached area. Manager found office space close to their community and their first employee was from the minority people group. However, present employees are from the majority people. Third rep office opened in 2007.
Vision: Corporate vision is to facilitate placing cross-cultural workers in least-reached communities through creating a viable platform that subsidizes the creation and sustaining of representative offices. This branch office vision is to bless the community through competitive pricing, product research and cultural exchange. Initial idea was to bless and be part of transformation through employing some minority people. However, this is not always feasible due to the minority people being out-competed by the majority. The office gives them a presence in the community and allows them to be involved in their least-reached community by facilitating and funding cultural exchange programs. These programs give them more contacts in the communities. Since the rep office manager was already living in-community before establishing this rep office, they do not need the office to be a catalyst for more relationships, so the primary purpose of the office right now is to give the manager a reason to be in-community and do heart work. Corporate office manages IT work-load (divided between rep offices), sets work standard for visa provided expat workers (rep office managers) at 27 hours/week and sets overall vision and direction. Rep office managers have freedom to use educational platform to create other business and outreach opportunities.
Story: Each rep office has its own story. Original rep office started by founder emphasized training and equipping local pastors. This rep office is primarily to establish presence in the community but also has successfully done educational initiatives with a local minority school – including sponsoring a summer English camp. The third office is also working with a minority people and seeking to leverage the educational emphasis to work with libraries and schools among the minority people group.
Lessons learned: Rep office manager shared the challenges of cultural bookkeeping and contract issues (including salary issues with donor support), the difficulty in employing minority people in a majority world (and the relational fall-out that happens when staff leave), operational inconsistencies with internet/software and the present challenge of local like-minded staff being on the same page theologically as the Rep Office manager. Results: Successfully received two expat work visas and a legitimate reason for living and working in- community.
Their long-term presence in community has facilitated a lot of relationship building and outreach. Rep office has successfully sponsored two summer English camps that have blessed a community school and opened up many ministry opportunities. Presently provides jobs (1-1/2) for local believers (majority people). Have done small amount of training of employees and integrating transformational issues. Provides flexible work schedule for rep office manager to allow him to stay active in ministry efforts
Observations: Verbally stated profit motive of founder is to make 1 cent profit. Along with needing to specify a minimum weekly work amount indicate a more non-profit work culture. Seems to be some accountability as to how much IT work each rep office does and some accounting as to what income each office generates. However, other overall impression is that this is all about platform and flexibility to do things outside the office.
Challenge at the rep office level is that the IT work is mind-numbing – data entry. Low skill level and training required, but an office of one staff and a manager is its own unique management challenge.
Market is more competitive than originally imagined. Even with donated product, volunteer staff on both sides of the ocean and low cost IT labor, platform unable to financially subsidize the third office. Not sure how sustainable it will be if the model does not seek out other market areas. Limited work has been done to train current staff and help inspire them to work with minority people group (possible opportunity).
Rep office manager had little training or experience in the business sector at hand or in running an office. At this particular rep office location, there does not seem to be much push to use this platform to create more contacts and bless the local community (already have wide web of relationships)
The consensus among those on this BAM Journey is to not refer to this initiative as a BAM company. This is due to the lack of integration of business and ministry on the job, and goals that didn’t include employment of its people and profit-making goals. It is better described as a tentmaking venture that facilitates presence for church planting in these communities. This categorization does not aim to undermine its strategy or ability to do kingdom work, but to clarify the definition of a BAM company.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
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A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Case Studies, Round Two
The Business as Mission journey continues! We just returned from a week-long trip to another region where we got a much more in-depth interaction with two very different BAM strategies.But, it's also come to my attention that there is confusion as to how you, as a recipient of this note, can interact with what we're sharing. So, wanted to briefly give some ideas here before we send out any more of our case study write-ups. As we said, the purpose of this note is to share observations, reflections and lessons learned as I and others journey in our learning and application of BAM. It is hoped that this sharing will spark your imagination, intercession and action to grow in wisdom and understanding and love and good deeds.
Case Study Background
For many of these BAM businesses we are allowed to interact and/or interview, our view of them is far from complete. We try our best to do research before we meet with people and ask a wide range of questions. But, for some, we are unable to obtain answers to all we ask. And, our time is limited, so our understanding of the breadth of their operations is limited to what we hear and observe. So, what we present to you here is our understanding of what we have seen and heard - presented in such a way as to not compromise any security concerns.
Interacting
Some of you have posted some questions on the case study and also asking just how you can interact with these notes. First, we'd love to have you ask questions and put in your two cents! However, our role in visiting these different people and operations is not as consultants - rather as learners. After our visits, we try to sift through all the information to provide a relatively objective look at the effort, and then among ourselves ask more subjective questions. In this area we welcome your input and ideas - realizing it is more for our internal dialogue than 'consulting' for these practitioners. If you want more specifics about a certain issue, we will gladly share. If we get a lot of feedback, we will try to share it as a follow-up to a given case study - keeping consistent with our desire that this exercise of sharing stirs up many more BAM efforts! If you have ideas on other questions and/or topics to enquire about, please let us know!
Future opportunity
David and Diane have been having a fantastic time here! They both have said how critical the timing of this year has been for them. (They both just graduated in May with undergraduate business degrees) They have been diligent in their language studies, and the weekly interaction with BAM issues and practitioners has been a practical way to work through what they've learned in school. Both feel that the language, culture and business interaction is a win-win for wherever they might go in the future.
So... with their recommendation, I'm encouraging them to spread the word to their schools and colleagues that we will do this BAM internship again next year! It's a one-year (with an option to come earlier and participate in a summer program) program that will run from late August '08 to July '09. Full-time language and culture study with a weekly (sometimes twice per week) time together to discuss Biblical foundations, core BAM principles and issues and then visit BAM practitioners to see how these foundations and principles are being worked out. If you are interested, please contact Liz Miller liz@imi.org and start the application process!
Security Issues
We seek to learn from others, but not to compromise their situation. So you will notice that we aspire to use careful wording in what we write. We ask you to do the same when you write to us. We are not ashamed of BAM but seek to avoid certain words that have other negative baggage associated with them. Thank you for your sensitivity in this matter.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
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A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Case Study #1
We've started! We've been meeting weekly, have already met with two different companies and next week will interact with three more! Now we'll seek to capture what we feel are some key elements of one of these places to share with you.As we said, the purpose of this note is to share observations, reflections and lessons learned as I and others journey in our learning and application of Business as Mission. It is hoped that this sharing will spark your imagination, intercession and action to grow in wisdom and understanding and love and good deeds. Domestic market case study (case study #1)
Sector: Resources for infrastructure
Market: Primary - Domestic public works agencies; Secondary - export of product and sourcing for manufacturing of small quantities of small tools for corporate office
Structure: Wholly foreign-owned enterprise, working independently but supporting the corporate headquarters. Business registered in 1996, now has 50 employees with 3 expats.
Champion: Mechanical Engineering background, 10-years work experience, came to the region for heart reasons, 2-years language learning, 4-years working for trading company. Informal (on-the-job) business training. Role is company General Manager (GM).
Business formation: Prayer/desire of champion, providential meeting with like-minded corporate leaders of North American company. Initial concept to use processing equipment that was to be scrapped and import product from South American to open the market and establish business relationship network. Ultimate goal was to be on the front edge of the wave in manufacturing and selling corporate products.
Vision: Create an environment that encourages and develops long-term relationships. Primary goal is not to reach the workers, rather to develop relationships with them that allow access to their relationship and family networks and seek to influence these networks with the Gospel. Company culture encourages caring for people and their family's needs.
Story: Quickly learned the importance of marketing and sales. Domestic market very difficult to penetrate. Original business plan had to be adjusted multiple times. Actual plan turned out to be manufacturing (not importing) the product and selling it domestically. By the time the infrastructure environment shifted, the market for the corporate products was already lost. Through developing sales agents and demonstration projects, they have turned a profit almost every year. They now export 10-15% of their product.
Lessons learned: Sales are the most important thing. Business plans must change with changing environments. Deal with ethical conundrums of kick-back environment in domestic sales through sales agents and bonus' for sales staff with guidance but not micro-management. Importance of modeling what you want to get things started and then finding capable managers as things grow.
Observations: Perseverance, rolling with the changes, hard work, long hours, sticking to the vision, being a jack-of-all trades have all allowed this GM to keep this company going. Appears to be commercially successful and sustainable and poised to keep growing which is amazing considering this is in the domestic market. However, unclear on how successful the heart vision has been. At least one staff has come to faith and the champion (GM) has brought in another expat (of another nationality) who is gifted in evangelism - however, unsure if the vision is know by or held by any others at the factory besides these two.
Future plans: (and how you can get your two-cents in!) We have plans to interact with 8-10 other BAM enterprises over the next couple of months! We are exciting about these opportunities to observe, ask questions, see and interact with courageous entrepreneurs. And, we welcome your input! Please feel free to provide your ideas, input, questions, etc simply by hitting 'comment' on the site. If you have ideas on what types of questions we should ask, how we might create a standard 'template' on information gathering and sharing, other books we ought to read or even contact info for people we should interact with - please let us know!
Want to get Involved? This is a one-year (with an option to come earlier and participate in a summer program) program that will run from late August '08 to July '09. Full-time language and culture study with a weekly (sometimes twice per week) time together to discuss Biblical foundations, core BAM principles and issues and then visit BAM practitioners to see how these foundations and principles are being worked out. If you are interested, please contact Liz Miller liz@imi.org and start the application process!
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
Continue reading 'A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Case Study #1'
A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey
A few months ago I had the opportunity to cross paths with David, a passionate twenty something looking to get involved in Business as Mission. Several weeks ago David packed up everything to trek to the far corners of the world to observe, understand and engage with business as mission leaders in hopes of setting out some day on his own to build a business that combines business and ministry.Over the next few months we'll be sharing David's story and what he's learning. Out of respect the local governments where David will be visiting, we will be leaving some of the locations out. Even without listing a geographic location, I'm confident that you will be inspired (as I have) when reading his observations. Here's the first edition:
"Hello friends, Greetings! I hope this email finds all of you well and anxious for what the Father has and will continue to do in and through your work in the world of business. As many of you know, this next year in addition to my full-time language study, I am continuing to pursue my interest in BAM (“Business as M”: a term we also are all still working on the definition of). I personally believe and have heard testimony of the many ways that the Father is working through believers in BAM-focused companies today. I feel blessed to be part of the business world for such a time as this and am excited about dialoging with you during my first-hand exposure overseas this year.
Along with another recent college graduate and a veteran to the business world in the region (Chris), we are embarking from September 2007 to August 2008 on a “BAM Journey”. This encompasses several things:
Theory: Reading and discussing papers/books written about BAM
Exposure: Visiting BAM sites to evaluate businesses for ourselves
Reporting: Reflecting and writing case study evaluations of our visits to BAM businesses (in the form of “BAM Journey” updates)
I wanted to write this email as an introduction, to let you know you about our plans and what you can expect to read in the near future. We also invite your thoughts and questions into what we are doing and how to get the most of our time!"
Want to get Involved? This is a one-year (with an option to come earlier and participate in a summer program) program that will run from late August '08 to July '09. Full-time language and culture study with a weekly (sometimes twice per week) time together to discuss Biblical foundations, core BAM principles and issues and then visit BAM practitioners to see how these foundations and principles are being worked out. If you are interested, please contact Liz Miller liz@imi.org and start the application process!
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
Continue reading 'A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey'