Marketplace & ENGAGE March April 2012

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1 The Marketplace March April 2012

Where Christian faithgets down to business

MarchApril2012

Canadas boomingchurch-by-franchise

In Costa Rica, cheesewith a Quaker avor

Inside this issue:MEDA ENGAGE!

Entrepreneurs:Unleashing a forceto shrink poverty


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2The Marketplace March April 2012

Roadside stand

Cover photo ofTajikistan entrepreneurby Carl Hiebert

An audible sigh rose from thepew when the church re-quested volunteers for a newministry project. Later: Ialready see my daily job as aministry. Its where I show theworld who I am as a followerof Jesus. Its where I try tocontend Christianly with theforces of competition, selsh-ness and hostility. Its where Itry to be salt and light. Insteadof dreaming up new missionaltasks for us to do after hours,why cant my church afrm

members in the ministry theyare already doing?

Good question.

Goodness guide. Want toknow if a product is virtuous?GoodGuide.com and its mobileapp enables shoppers to check140,000 consumer productsand get an instant read onwhether they are healthy, safe,green and produced ethically.Shoppers can create their ownlter of preferences, such as

whether a product is organicor its manufacturer has agood human-rights record.They then scan the items barcode with the camera in theirsmartphone. The app identiesthe product from its databaseand scores how it shapes up.If it rates poorly, the app willrecommend a higher-ratedalternative. The apps creatorshope such background checkswill become mainstream andencourage manufacturers to

produce better products. (TheEconomist)

Ethical stress. More U.S.workers feel pressure to violatecompany policy, accordingto a new survey by the Ethics

Resource Center in Virginia. In2011 13 percent of employeessensed pressure from manage-ment to break rules, up fromeight percent in 2009. (Globe& Mail)

Enough ministry during the week

room, particularly the soul ofnon-prot organizations.The book includes some 90meditations by writers whoaddress different moods orchallenges that boards face intheir daily work. An excerpt byformer MEDA president R. LeeDelp appears on page 18 ofthis issue.

Tsunami of loss. Michael Wil-son knows a few things abouteconomics; hes a formerCanadian nance minister and

a prominent corporate execu-tive. He also knows somethingabout mental illness, havinglost his severely-depressed sonto suicide. Now, he is conclud-ing a term with the GlobalBusiness and Economic Round-table on Addiction and MentalHealth, which has released areport calling on business tohelp nd cures for depressionand improve workplace mentalhealth. Calling mental healthissues a tsunami of economic

loss, the report claims that18-25 percent of Canadianworkers suffer from mentalhealth issues in chronically

stressful workplaces. It pegsthe annual economic toll inCanada alone at $51 bil-lion, or four percent of grossdomestic product, and $1.1trillion across North Americaand Europe. That includeslost workdays, missed wages,lower output plus the addednancial burden of healthcareand insurance. Beyond obviouscompassionate considerations,says one of the reports au-thors, employers need to alsocombat mental illness because

of its impact on the bottomline. The senior people,senior executive team havegot to recognize that this is anillness, says Wilson. Its anillness that affects a signicantpercentage of their employees.And I think people have torealize and accept that it is anillness, its a disease. Its not aweakness. (Globe & Mail)

Go gure. Nigeria, despitehaving a climate that is ideal

for growing rice, is the worldslargest rice importer, at a costof more than $6 million a day.(Guardian Weekly) WK

Pet peeves. What habitsbug co-workers? Not takingownership of their actions, said78 percent of 17,000 globalworkers surveyed by LinkedIn.Other high-ranking peeveswere: constant complainers,

dirty common areas; startingmeetings late or going long;people who dont respond toe-mails. (CLAC Guide)

If youre a Mennonite inbusiness, chances are goodyou have served on the boardof a non-prot agency. A newHerald Press book may helptrim your spiritual sails beforethat next board meeting. Itscalled Setting the Agenda:Meditations for the Organiza-

tions Soul, compiled by boardexperts Edgar Stoesz and RickM. Stiffney. We prepared itfor board members looking fornew sources of wisdom andpower, both in their privateand public service lives, theauthors say. Although spiri-tuality in the workplace hasreceived considerable interest,little attention has been givento spirituality in the board-


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Volume 42, Issue 2

March April 2012

The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130)is published bi-monthly by MennoniteEconomic Development Associates at532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS67114. Periodicals postage paid atNewton, KS 67114. Lithographed inU.S.A. Copyright 2012 by MEDA.

Editor: Wally KroekerDesign: Ray Dirks

Postmaster:Send address changes toThe Marketplace32C E Roseville RoadLancaster, PA 17601-3681

In this issue

Departments

2 Roadside stand4 Soul enterprise

19 Reviews20 Soundbites22 News

Change of address should be sentto Mennonite Economic DevelopmentAssociates, 32C E Roseville Road,Lancaster, PA 17601-3681.

To e-mail an address change,subscription request or anything else

relating to delivery of the magazine,please contact [email protected]

For editorial matters contact the editorat [email protected] or call (204)956-6436

Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.

Published by Mennonite Economic De-velopment Associates (MEDA), whosedual thrust is to encourage a Christianwitness in business and to operatebusiness-oriented programs of assist-ance to the poor. For more informationabout MEDA call 1-800-665-7026.Web site www.meda.org

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How do you say cheese in Costa Rica? Page 16

Small-businesstransformersWhats the best way to raise millions out ofpoverty? Empower local entrepreneurs. Given achance to compete, they can transform even thepoorest country. By Scott Gilmore

Mission on the moveA techno-style, offbeat pastor and robust busi-ness franchise model have grown The MeetingHouse into Canadas largest and fastest-growingAnabaptist church. By Mike Strathdee

MEDA ENGAGE!Here it is MEDAs annual newsletter of en-gagement. See how people are connecting withthe mission and programs of MEDA, around theworld and in their own communities.

Cheese Quaker-styleOn a mountaintop in Costa Rica, a band ofAmerican Quakers built a dairy plant that nowleads the countrys cheese market, creating jobs

and development along the way. By Thom Dixon

Failure need not be fatalWho could have predicted things would becomeso bad? Despite hard work, well-laid plans andclever strategy, they had failed. But, as with theapostle Peter, it wasnt fatal. By R. Lee Delp

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Blessing the joblessWith millions of discouraged workers out there,can the church be a special source of comfortand counsel?

The church has a unique and wonderfulrole to play, says Steve Murata, who leads aCareer Actions Ministry for Californias MenloPark Presbyterian Church. The church providesspirituality and emotional support that can cutthrough the depression and give people hope.

His comments are part of a larger Christian-

ity Todayarticle [Blessed are the Jobless byElissa Cooper, January, 2012] that says churcheshave an edge over secular agencies because theycan help people see their true worth in Christ,give them a new sense of purpose for their worklives, and re-energize them for the job searchprocess. By unpacking the spiritual dimensionof work, jobless people are equipped to expandtheir notion of the perfect job and rene their

job search accordingly.Ministries such as Menlo Parks also offer

practical events where people can network andimprove their resum writing skills.

Getting people out from their isolation,they have an opportunity to express their frustra-tions and concerns and depression, says Mu-rata. They nd sympathy and support from theother folks in the group.

An extra corporate mileHow can companies go the extra mile to bring good to others? Two ex-amples come from the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas.

A contractor decided to implement special procurement policies to pro-mote racial harmony. In each contract he undertook he hired ethnic minoritysubcontractors proportional to those ethnic groups in the area. So if the cityspopulation was 18 percent African American, he ensured that 18 percent ofhis subcontracts went to black-owned businesses.

A former CEO of a leading greeting card company created special cardsfor people whose loved ones were dying, even though he knew the linewould not carry itself. We couldnt sell enough of these cards to make aprot, he says. But we felt like it was the right thing to do to help peoplebe able to care for their loved ones during times like this. (Cited in KingdomCalling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman)

A match made at church

Matchmaking isnt usually part of an executives job descrip-tion, but then, you never know.

Roger [names have been changed], who runs a construc-tion rm in the midwest, hired Jack, a burly guy with a check-ered past that included some jail time. Jack was a solid workerwho was making strides toward fashioning a new life.

One day Jack complained that he was looking for a goodwoman but was coming up empty.

Where are you looking? Roger asked.Well, I go to bars, Jack said.Youre looking in the wrong place, Roger blurted out.

You should come to church.That night Roger regretted his outburst. It was such a

simplistic thing to say, he thought as he beat himself up forhaving spoken unwisely.

But next Sunday, Jack showed up at church. And guesswhat a woman he met there struck his fancy.

That night Jack called his boss. Do you think I could askher out for coffee? he asked.

Roger swallowed his earlier embarrassment and said,Well, why not. Youre both grown-ups.

Jack is now married to the womanand has adopted her two children.

They couldnt be happier, saysRoger.


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Overheard:

There is nothing so uselessas doing efciently that whichshould not be done at all. Management guru Peter Drucker

Proud to be a waitressDont be embarrassed to list menial jobs on a resum they might say something about your work ethic,according to Amy Astley, editor-in-chief of Teen Voguemagazine.

In a Corner Ofce interview in The New YorkTimes, she was asked about what she looks for in hiringstaff. I like to get a sense of their work ethic, she said.I really like hard workers. And Im looking for entre-

preneurial people. I have certain positions that are veryentrepreneurial, but I like everyone here to think in anentrepreneurial way. I like someone whos not afraid ofthe idea of new businesses.

And how does she discern an applicants work ethic?Ill see someone who was a waitress for many summersand Ill say, Well, tell me about that. In todays upwardly

mobile resum, you dont always seethat. You often see kids whove neverhad a job. But I love seeing someonewho scooped ice cream or was a wait-ress. To me, it means they had to makesome money and they had a job deal-ing with the public.... I respect all formsof work, and I dont see it on a lot ofresums anymore.

But are theycompetent?Recently I learned that a friend has a malignantbrain tumor. Right now, more than anythingelse, I want her doctor to be really goodat brainsurgery. Right now, I care more about that than

I do about whether he offers his services probono at the free clinic or if his management styleis hierarchical. Similarly, when Im driving over along bridge, I trust that the bridge inspector issomeone who takes her job very seriously, who ishighly competent and vigilant. I want the chem-ists and engineers at our regions nuclear powerplant to be diligent, careful experts in the safeoperation of the facility....The quiet, faithful,diligent pursuit of excellence in a vocation can beabsolutely vital. Amy L. Sherman in KingdomCalling: Vocational Stewardship for the CommonGood

Like chocolate?Maybe youve enjoyed Ferrero Rocher, those delectablehazelnut balls that come wrapped in gold foil. Youwouldnt be alone they are the worlds best-sellingboxed chocolate. They come from an Italian family busi-ness with deep religious roots and a longstanding reputa-tion for social and environmental responsibility, says theGuardian Weekly. By directly sourcing itsraw materials it can control quality andkeep tabs on working conditions in thesupply chain. Labor relations at its factoryin Alba, Italy are so solid that the com-pany has never had a strike.

Two years ago Ferrero was selectedas the worlds most reputable corpo-ration by the U.S.-based ReputationInstitute. That reputation, says the news-paper, is bound up with the fervent Ca-tholicism of its owner, Michele Ferrero.

The company the worlds fourth-largest confectionery producer issaid to utilize 15 of every 100 hazelnutsgrown on earth.


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6The Marketplace March April 2012 6The Marketplace March April 2012


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its local entrepreneurs. When they are given an opportuni-ty to compete, they can transform even the poorest country.

Donors have slowly arrived at a similar conclusion.While once the private sector was seen as a necessary evil,now it is recognized as the main means of sustainableeconomic growth. Increasingly, aid agencies are fundingmechanisms to make markets more efcient, to connect

local exporters to global buyers, and to provide nance tosmall and medium-sized businesses.

An important factor that supported this innovationwas the rejection of tied aid. Traditionally, govern-

ment donors requiredthat money for overseasassistance had to be spenton domestic rms. For ex-ample, when Canada gavefood to Ethiopia, it boughtit from Canadian farm-ers. It was an ineffectivemeans of subsidizing do-mestic farmers, it oodedAfrica with underpricedgrain and it inhibited the

development of an African agricultural market.Canada has led international donors on changing

this, for which CIDA (Canadian International Develop-ment Agency) and the Conservative government rarelyget credit. Canada announced that it would untie foodaid in 2008 and is set to untie all aid by 2013. This allowsCanada to procure its development assistance from localentrepreneurs and to spend its development dollar twice.For example, if CIDA spends $1 million building a school

in Afghanistan by using a local construction rm insteadof one from Montreal, it leaves behind not only a school,but also $1 million in wages and taxes.

Sooner than we realize, the future of aid will be noaid. Other than urgent humanitarian assistance, donorswill no longer be needed or wanted, as entrepreneurs insuch countries as Liberia and Haiti create what donorscannot: prosperity.

Scott Gilmore is founder and CEO of Peace Dividend Trust. Hisarticle appeared rst in the Globe & Mail.

by Scott Gilmore

Aid is ineffective. By some estimates, more than$2 trillion has been spent ghting poverty sincethe 1950s, with little direct impact. The storiesof failure are illustrated with hydro dams that

never worked, crops that never grew and roads that wentnowhere.

Entrepreneurs, however, are changing the world.Since 2005, an estimated half-billion people or more have

been raised out of poverty, mainly by small business, tradeliberalization and gains in productivity. In China, Pakistan,Indonesia and Nigeria, booming local economies, oblivi-ous to the latest schemes of aid programs, are creatingmillions of jobs.

The Brookings Institution recently predicted even moredramatic gains ahead: Between 2005 and 2015, India, Ban-gladesh, Vietnam and Ethiopia are each expected to growby at least 6.3 percent per year, and in the process, each islikely to see a quarter of its population lifted out of poverty.Entrepreneurs, not aid spending, are driving this growth.

The innovation that ledto this dramatic advance

in the ght against global poverty was the grudgingrealization by donors that aid planners do not create jobs small business does.

I personally saw this when I worked for the UnitedNations in East Timor. I was charged with creating aneconomic security policy and I failed, spectacularly.Although our aid budget was larger than the entireTimorese economy, unemployment was over 50 percentand poverty levels were the worst in Asia.

But I found hope in the front yard of my rentedhouse. There, day by day, my Timorese landlord, SenhorAntoni, patiently rebuilt a burned-out bus. He used my

rent cheques to buy parts and hire local boys as mechan-ics and drivers.

Senhor Antoni soon became the biggest employer inthe neighbourhood, and had a small eet providing trans-port services across the entire country. Meanwhile, ourmassive aid program continued to wallow ineffectively.

That experience taught me that the most powerfulforce for poverty reduction is not development assistance

Transformers:Small-scale entrepreneurs, not massive aid projects,

are the best force to shrink poverty

Given a chance,

local businesses

can revolutionize

even the poorest

country.

Nicaraguan taxi mogul Ramon Espinoza (left) started small one taxi purchased with the help of a MEDA loan. Today hehas a eet of 21 cabs, and plans to build an auto parts store.


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by Mike Strathdee

When you are one of Canadas most innova-tive congregations, you have to think bigand small at the same time, both embracingand being skeptical of the latest technology.

Nowhere is this more true, perhaps, than with theOakville, Ontario-based The Meeting House (TMH), whichis a Brethren in Christ congregation meeting in a dozendifferent locations, mostly rented movie theatres, scat-tered over hundreds of miles.

Each congregation has at least one on-site pastor, butthe morning message comes from the Oakville site, which isthe largest gathering and the only facility owned by TMH.

Some 5,000 people attend most Sundays, across allsites, and TMH has about 13,000 on its contact list. Thatmakes it probably Canadas largest Anabaptist-relatedchurch (though a Mennonite Brethren church in B.C. hasa similar attendance).

Nobody actually likes large churches, Paul Morris,site leadership pastor for TMH, told MEDA members at aseminar organized by the Waterloo, Ont., MEDA chapterlast spring. Its fun for a bit, then (people) miss the smallchurch feeling. For us as an organization, we have towork very hard at being a small church.

A small church perhaps, but also a ministry thatresembles a large business in many respects, with 52full-time and 25 part-time staff. Ensuring consistent pro-gramming across all its sites is not unlike a company withdispersed franchises.

To maintain community, TMH encourages people tojoin weekly small groups, which they call home churches.There are currently 150 such groups, ranging from 11 to20 people in each, meeting across the province.

Commitment is modeled and expected. The goal is to

develop disciples, not just having tire-kickers lling theirseats. People who start attending TMH are asked both to

join a home church and plug in, or nd another church toattend where they will want to be involved.

The anonymity of a large church has some benetsfor those asking spiritual questions but its not enoughover the long-term, said Morris. If someone comes to theMeeting House and we dont help them nd meaningfulrelationships, then the clock is ticking on their experience.

Home churches take material from the Sunday morn-ing sermon to discuss, but TMH also wants those groupsto be the primary place where people experience com-munity. Dedications, weddings, communion, outreachand service to the marginalized through volunteer workat community organizations and agencies all take place inthe home church setting.

One of our challenges is the larger we get, thesmaller we have to become, Morris said. We have hungour hat on what we call the home church experience,which is small groups, [but] we want our home churchesto be more than just study groups.

A lot of what is studied is based on the preach-

ing of teaching pastor Bruxy Cavey, a talented speakerand best-selling author of The End of Religion. Caveyssermons can be listened to online at the church web site,themeetinghouse.ca , or downloaded as MP3 les.

Those sermons have attracted a wide following acrossNorth America and around the world. A Meeting HouseFacebook group has a link to a Network Groups Direc-tory, a list of scores of contacts for unafliated groups ofpeople who either meet regularly with others to discussTMH sermons or are looking to do so. Recently the listincluded contacts on three continents.

Mission on the move

The franchise model is alive and well atCanadas fastest-growing Anabaptist church


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TMHs multi-site model, with sermons being for-warded from a central site to numerous distant locations,wouldnt have been possible 15 years ago. As the churchgrows, TMH staff are still grappling with what works andwhat doesnt.

Technology is a horrible thing and a wonderfulthing all at the same time, said Morris, who works with

leadership teams from all TMH sites. It has a dark sideto it if it isnt a strong solution, it will be a perpetualsource of frustration.

When the church launched its rst regional site inHamilton in 2002, the second service would start later,and a volunteer would drive with a tape of the morningssermon to the other church half an hour away, a less thanideal practice in difcult weather or trafc conditions. Afew heart attacks later, just as we were dealing with allthe pressure of avoiding speeding tickets we said thatscrazy, we cant do that. So we went to a week delay, sowhatever was happening in a regional site was a weekbehind Oakville.

The churchs multi-site vision developed earlyon, when they were still meeting in an Oakville school.When they outgrew their initial space, tech staff rana cable to an adjacent cafeteria to deal with overow.Pretty soon we had more people sitting in the cafeteriathan we did in the main room where the live teaching washappening.

TMH leaders expected that technology would even-tually allow sites to hear the same sermon on the sameday. A one-week delay didnt allow regional worshipers toparticipate like those in Oakville, who could text questionsto the speaker on stage.

In 2007, TMH went to live satellite-cast of the sermonsfrom Oakville. Thatgenerally went well, saidMorris, but site pastorsdidnt feel as good aboutlive satellite as the people

in the seats did. Everyweek you were holdingyour breath is thissolution going to work?

TMH developedbackup systems, had

DVDs ready to go, andother pastors ready toteach if the satellite

feed wouldnt co-operate. It felt like 50% of the time,you had the tech guy coming up to you and saying wedont have the signal, but we are working on it.

Eventually both volunteers and staff dreaded Sundays,and their prayer time became very focused, Morris re-called. Oh Lord, I hope the satellite is working.

In 2010 TMH reverted back to the week delay. Whentechnology improves and the cost comes down theyll

take another look at the live satellite model.Technology has also provided imperfect solutions for

the large team meetings held every two weeks. Ottawaand Parry Sound staff, who are too far away to drive in foran afternoon, connect via phone or Skype video-conferen-cing. But being unable to see body language or hear everycomment meant that dial-in pastors felt disconnected.

Working with distant teams has taught Morristhat TMH needs to devote tremendous effort to maintainconsistency across sites.

We have to have an environment that is what I callhyper-360 in communication.

That requires lots of feedback, even over-communica-tion, with staff and volunteers so everyone feels owner-ship of decisions.

If a new initiative is proposed, it will have to be rep-licated across 150 home churches. I cant just work ina siloI need to constantly think who needs to know

this? said Morris, adding that an

in-house joke is that Meeting Housecomes by its name honestly. Wehave meetings a lot.

Morris, 39, came to TMH in1999 as a volunteer and small groupleader. Like many who attend TMH,he had little previous experience inthe Mennonite/Anabaptist stream.An exciting part of the TMH journeyhas been learning about the Men-

nonite roots I never had.Although Morris, Cavey and a number of other TMH

leaders do not have Brethren in Christ (BIC) or Anabap-tist backgrounds, the church is strongly committed toAnabaptist distinctives and institutions. Cavey has donea series on non-resistance and the peace position, and in2008, TMH made a $2.5 million commitment over veyears to support and enhance Mennonite Central Com-mittee HIV and AIDS work in southern Africa.

The peace position, Morris said, is very much at thecore of how we interpret Scripture, so when were hiring,we put a lot of weight and value on that particular issue.

TMH has 1,300 volunteers across its sites, whichrequires a different management approach than dealing

with salaried staff. At the end of the day with staff, youcan still say I just need you to do it Volunteers, youcant say just do it. Youve got to take a lot more time incommunication, a lot more time in terms of motivation,helping them connect with what they are doing.

Distance requires getting the most distant sites, in Ot-tawa and Parry Sound, to be more independent from headofce in Oakville. The challenge there is retaining the DNAethos that makes the Meeting House, Morris said.

In future, TMH will seek to hire staff with entrepre-neurial leanings to achieve that balance between, they

Paul Morris

Maintaining

consistency across

multiple sites

requires a sturdy

business plan and

lots of feedback.


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nomination by making uphalf of BIC church attend-ance in Canada. We feelthat there is somethingvery important for us, asa large church, to have aposture of submission to-wards the denomination,Morris said. It keeps usgrounded.

The churchs $8.4million operating budgetis centrally administered,so regional sites have noidea how much moneythey take in. That unusualstance was taken becauseTMH didnt want to create

a sense of haves and have-nots amongst its regionalsites, given that Oakvilleis one of the wealthiestcommunities in Ontario.

Mike Strathdee occasion-ally does nancial literacy

seminars at Meeting Housesites across Ontario as partof his work with MennoniteFoundation of Canada.

can run with somethingwithout having to do alot of check-ins, but notrun so far that it becomestotally different. It has tobe somebody that has avery strong sense of what

we are trying to accom-plish, and is not afraid touse business terms. Thefranchise model capturessome of what we do.

TMH practicallydwarfs its parent de-

They look for

entrepreneurial

types to hire,

people not

afraid to use

business terms.

Laid back Bruxy Cavey:Freeing people up to

focus on strengths

For those not into church

While The Meeting House ispart of the Brethren In Christ(BIC) denomination, its loca-

tion, approach and development are

all rather untypical of the parent bodyshistorical approach.

BIC binational head ofce is in Lan-caster, Penn. Most traditional BIC church-es are in smaller, rural Ontario commun-ities, plus a couple in Saskatchewan.

By contrast, The Meeting House isbased in suburbia, the Greater Torontoarea and southern Ontario.

The Meeting House started in 1986as Upper Oaks Community in Oakville,planted by Craig and Laura Sider. Theywanted to create a church that would

resonate with people who werent intochurch, or had grown up in church but felt marginalized.

The Siders went door to door in Oakville to ask what the community needed. Morebeer stores, said the rst person they met. From that unlikely encounter, the man becamethe rst person to connect with the edgling church, was baptized, and is now on staff.

When Craig Sider moved on a decade later to work with the BIC denomination,the pastoral search team hired Bruxy Cavey. With long hippy-like hair, t-shirts, jeans andsandals, Cavey was the opposite of the sharp-dressed Sider. (A self-deprecating, plus-sizeCavey likes to tell audiences that he personies inter-faith dialogue, as he has the face ofJesus and the body of Buddha.)

Now in high demand as a speaker across North America, Caveys early days at TMHwerent easy, and the church shrank during his rst year.

Fortunately, Cavey had a strong sense of what he is good at and not good at. Amongthe latter: administration and managing the team. He wanted to focus on strengths.

He is a sharp teacher and good at vision, but we do not allow him to touch any-thing else, says site leadership pastor Paul Morris.

Caveys rst executive decision was to insist on a team approach to leadership at TheMeeting House. Many pastors have to perform multiple roles, regardless of their gifts.Not so at TMH. Weve tried to free people up in order to work according to their gift-ing, says Morris.

Whether it be structures or communications systems, what we do has to drivedown to the relational level. Otherwise people get lost in the crowd, can slip in and slipout, be anonymous.

As TMH outgrew the school it was worshipping in, it leased theatre space, thenpurchased and renovated a former auto parts manufacturing plant and warehouse in

Oakville. The Oakville TMH site uses 100,000 square feet of that facility and rents out30,000 square feet until it needs more space.Oakville, the largest meeting site, also houses head ofce, central production and

meeting space for resourcing. Other sites are located in: West Hamilton, East Hamilton,Burlington, Kitchener, Waterloo, uptown Toronto at Yorkdale Mall, downtown TorontoBrampton, Ottawa, Parry Sound and London. Except for the main Oakville site and ruralParry Sound, which meets in a school gym, all rent space in movie theatres.

The production facility, designed not to look churchy, is also rented out for eventslike school graduations and concerts. It is the largest seated theatre in the city of Oak-ville and also houses the BIC Canadian denominational ofces. Mike Strathdee


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ENGAGE!ENGAGE!Welcome toENGAGE!, a periodic report of how supporters can tie into

MEDAs mission and program. We hope you enjoy this glimpse of people

getting directly involved with our message and incorporating it into theirown lives. Please feel welcome to send us your own reports and sugges

tions. Howard Good, vice-president of Association Engagement

Greenhouse farmersembrace visitors

Waterloo chaptervisits Leamington

Every fall the Waterloo, Ontario MEDA chaptertries to organize an annual fall tour to learnmore about a particular industry/business. This

year it chose to visit Leamington and build connections with this emerging MEDA chapter, some of whosemembers have also attended Waterloo chapter events.

They also had two unique businesses that we

thought would interest our members, says JohnNeufeld, a member of the Waterloo chapters executive.

After lunch at a church with the Leamingtonchapter (5060 in total), the group toured HighlineMushrooms, Canadas largest mushroom producer(white button, brown button, portabella, king oyster,shiitake and enoki). The next visit was to Seacliff Energy, an environmental company that creates biogasfor heating from greenhouse byproducts.

In both tours we were able to see very progressive businesses and the challenges involved, saysNeufeld. It was a great day of learning and getting toknow each other.

Chapter members

jumped at the

chance to show

their farms and

talk about farming.

Ukraine visitors, Leamington hosts and MEDA staff relax after the rigors of greenhouse tours.

It was MEDA

Engagement at itsbest. Last summer members of

the MEDA chapter inLeamington, Ontario,opened their arms tofellow greenhousefarmers in Ukraine tohelp them modernize their productionand gain insights intohow to improve theirmarketing.

The 16 visitorswere from MEDAs Ukraine Horticultural DevelopmentProgram (UHDP), which is helping 5,000 farmersleapfrog to new prosperity.

Leamington was the ideal spot for the farmers tovisit. The region has more acres dedicated to greenhouses than the rest of the North American greenhouse industry combined. Ontarios producers alsohave the distinction of being the rst to regulate foodsafety in their industry.

Even before the visit, Leamington chapter members had shown a keen interest in the project, raising$20,000 to help farmers across the sea increase yields

and incomes. They jumped at the chance to personalize their engagement.

The itinerary was organized by the chapter executive: Roger and Laura (chair) Tiessen, Abe and Lisa

Fehr, David and CharleneEpp, Harry and JoanEnns, Rob and Lois Konrad, Neil and Tina Quiring, and Jonathan andSandra Dick. When theybegan asking around forpeople to participate ashosts, no one turned


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men, most of them in their early 20s. Their topic for

the day was the different types of loans available andhow to get them. Students eagerly took a break fromtheir 100HoursToSuccess curriculum to meet thevisitors and engage in a lively questionandanswerperiod.

For me personally this was the most interestingday of the trip, says Frank, whose business interestsinclude furniture manufacture and agribusiness. Ahighlight was to cross the Atlas range, a longtimedream of mine.

They also enjoyed the exotic city of Marrakech, aplace of snake charmers, spice markets and legendaryMoroccan cuisine.

After a stop at a small shop selling goodqualityEuropeanoriented housewares, Frank observed: Ind it interesting that in the hinterland of Morocco,you are able to purchase any product that is made inthe world.

them down. Everyone was eager to show their farms,talk about farming and share experiences.

The help and friendship they offered was greatlyappreciated by the visitors, who come from an area

that is 20 to 30 years behind Leamington in greenhouse technology and operating models.

The sites visited included enterprises connectedwith the chapter as well as organizations in whichchapter members participate. These included:

Seacliff Energy Ltd. (owned by Roger Tiessenand Dennis Dick), biogas producer for greenhouseheating.

Nature Fresh Farms (Peter Quiring), the largestbell pepper greenhouse in North America and an innovator in food traceability.

Highline Mushrooms (Harry Enns), the largest

grower of mushrooms in Canada and the third largest

Frank and Agnes DeFehrof Winnipeg are seasonedworld travelers, having visited more than 90 countries.

One might wonder what more isthere still to see?

That didnt stop them from joining a tour to Morocco last year ledby MEDA staff member Bob Kroekerand Audrey Voth Petkau of TourMagination. An important feature wasto experience MEDAs YouthInvestproject, which teaches nancialliteracy and job preparation to young people.

The DeFehrs were part of a group of 15 whoexplored the fabled ancient city of Casablanca beforeheading inland to the small city of Khenifra in theAtlas Mountains, where they dropped in on a MEDApartner organization that provides nancial servicesto women clients and has developed a loan productfor youth in partnership with MEDA.

The tour traveled to the desert city of Ouarzazatein Moroccos Atlas Mountainswhere another MEDA partner works in the communityof Agdz on the edge of theSahara Desert, providing edu

cation for outofschool youthand supporting agriculturalwork in nearby villages. Onestop included a YouthInvestclass of 26 women and six

in North America. Erieview Organic Farm (Rob Hansen), a leading

grower of tomatoes, bell peppers and mini and longcucumbers.

Enns Plant Farm (Ken and Steve Enns), a thirdgeneration operation producing six million pounds oftomatoes and three million cucumbers annually.

A&N Farms (Henry and Nancy Froese), whichgrows 13 acres of English cucumbers and an acre ofeggplants.

Two producer groups, Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers and SunParlour Greenhouse GrowersCooperative.

The chapter also hosted a benet dinner whichdrew 150 people, the majority of whom had family rootsin Ukraine. The visitors said they were deeply touched

by the outpouring of support from the local community.

Agnes and Frank DeFehr at an ancient fort near Marrakech, Morocco.

Embracing visitorsfrom page one

NGAGE!Exotic Morocco ulfllslong-time dream

At deserts

edge, animated

students happily

shared what

theyd learned

about loans.


13/24


Five years ago Kristin Moyer was watching Oprahwhen she frst heardabout microfnance.

The legendary televisionhost was talking about Kiva.org, a website that enabledviewers to make small loans toentrepreneurs around the worldwho were too poor to qualiy ortraditional bank loans.

I have always had a heartor people living in poverty,recalls Moyer, o Harleysville, Pa., and this idea o

microfnance instantly clicked with me. She promptly went to the Kiva website and began making smallloans to people who needed to buy items like cows,sewing machines, housing material, ood to resell, etc.

Bryce Bergey, a MEDA board member and longtime riend, learned about Moyers passion or microfnance and encouraged her to consider MEDA.MEDA does audit trips and they take volunteers,he told her. You should go and see frsthand whatMEDA is doing and see microfnance in action.

Bergey put her in contact with MEDA staerGlenda Meade, who works with audits. Ater severalbackandorth emails and some prayer, Moyer ar

ranged to use some vacation time rom her job withSanord Alderer Companies, where she is Operations Coordinator or the real estate auction team.In December, she headed to Managua, Nicaragua, tovolunteer or a week atMiCredito, MEDAs microfnance institution.

Her task was to assist a sta member on surprisevisits to clients to veriy their loans and get an idea ohow the loans had helped them. She had a list of questions to ask, including: How much was your loan?What was the purpose o your loan? What was yourcollateral? Were you provided receipts or your repayments? Are you happy withMiCreditos services?

One client was Maria who runs a clothing production business in a back room o her house.

Maria told me how her loans over the years havehelped her grow her businessrom a sole proprietorship toa business with eight employees, who at the moment wereworking on a bulk order o1,000 womens shirts. She toldme how she took out loans toexpand the production space,to buy sewingmachines, to buy

inventory, etc. To see a thriv

Power o microfnance: the thriving shop of client Maria (inset)

From Oprahto MiCredito

Consider

an audit with

MEDA, she

was told. See

microfnance in

action.

ing business and to learn how the loans have helped

along the way was a ullcircle moment or me.Moyer eels there is a great opportunity or MEDAto engage students to learn about microfnance andhelp others while simultaneously learning aboutgeography, other cultures and how business is donearound the world. She would love to see a crosscultural program created to have students undraise,make loans, and travel abroad to meet the borrowersto whom they loaned.

Moyer fnds powerul biblical encouragement toreach out to the poor, such as the great commandment to love God and to love your neighbor asyoursel (Mark 12:31). Through MEDA, says Moy

er, we are given the opportunity to put this in actionby providing opportunities or those less ortunate toimprove their lives and to ultimately empower themto succeed. Together we can make change happen.

E

ight students rom Ambrose University College in Calgary got an enriched exposure tomicrofnance through a collaboration with

MEDA and itsMiCredito program in Nicaragua.

Their visit was a ollowup to a course in International Microfnance taught by proessor Je Huebner,who attended MEDAs 2010 convention in Calgary.While there, Julie Redern, MEDAs vicepresidento fnancial services, introduced him toMiCreditoCEO Veronica Herrera. They arranged or students toconduct research and develop consulting reports or

MiCredito on a number o topics and operational issues. (A similar deal was struck with an organizationin Dominican Republic.)

Students traveled to Latin America with Hueb

Calgary students connectwith microfnance


14/24


ENGAGE!

Want to get engaged?To get more directly involved with MEDAsmission and programs contact Howard Good, vicepresident ofAssociation Engagement at (717) 5606546 or [email protected]

Visitors to last falls Business as a Callingconvention in Lancaster, Pa., had several

chances to experience social enterprisesthat blend business with social mission.

Social enterprises range from private businessesthat operate with a social impact goal to nonprot organizations that generate revenue to support their charitable purpose, notes Jessica King, president of ASSETSLancaster. All hold the common purpose of advancingsocial change through businessoriented solutions.

One regional tour option was a visit to Alex Hartzler and WCI Partners, Inc., in Harrisburg, the statecapital. Hartzler, a MEDA board member, secured $5million in private capital to leverage more than $13million to transform an urban neighborhood.

A decade ago, Olde Uptowns streets and Victorian rowhouses were blighted with gang activity, drugdealing, gun violence and poverty. In 2005, Hartzlergrasped an opportunity to acquire, restore and resellhistoric homes in the area. The ripple effect touchedoff a wave of investment in renovation and new construction covering four square blocks.

The success of this private venture depended onpatient capital, the leveraging of additional equity

I was happy they

came. We plan to

implement some of

their ideas.

ner and another professor to deliver their researchndings and visit some of the programs they hadworked on. They had a chance to interact with Mi-Credito staff, learn about eld operations, visit loanrecipients and their businesses to see how their liveswere being improved, conduct interview surveys withclients for an accounting audit, and meet with localchurch and development leaders to understand theeconomic, political and spiritual context.

Business student T.J. Smith called the trip agreat learning experience for me, both educationaland spiritual. I hope to never forget the lessons I havelearned from the trip and apply them to my dailylife. I do not want to live just an ordinary life, butinstead make an impact in the world.

Herrera says the visit was helpful to staff, whoappreciated fresh ideason delinquency management, client retention,

microinsurance servicesand cellphone banking.

I was happy thestudents came, she says.

Social enterprises alive and thriving

Research, learning, cultural exposure:Some of the Am-brose team atMiCreditos office in Managua.

We plan to implement some of their ideas.In September Huebner and Redfern made a joint

presentation at the Toronto International Micronance Summit, discussing the collaboration betweena university and a micronance institution to enhancemicronance education and research.

and public redevelopment funds. Hartzlers volunteertime complemented key paid staff on the project.The impact thus far: a 70% reduction in crime, $30million in created neighborhood value, more than 60highpaying construction jobs and 35 new permanentjobs in formerly vacant buildings, more than 200 newresidents to the area and increased local tax revenues

of $1.3 million.On the global scene, convention keynote speaker

Kim Tan described a social enterprise in South Africathat resulted from the social vision of the Britishbasedbiotech fund management company he founded. Kuzuko Lodge is a game park that focuses on conservation, job creation and social transformation in an area of endemic poverty and 70 percent unemployment. Besides creating 80 jobs, Kuzuko has modeled new localstandards in staff housing, wages, working conditions,insurance and employee ownership options.

Closer to home, and rooted in MEDAs historicsocial enterprise vision, was the latest venture of

ASSETS Lancaster, which was founded by MEDA in1993 to provide microenterprise training and supportto aspiring entrepreneurs. The agency has received agrant from the Lancaster County Community Foundation to study best practices for innovative, higherrisklocal microlending (including peer circles) to underserved entrepreneurs and social enterprises. ASSETSis also conducting research into expanding its longhistory of business planning and training to supportlocal social enterprise efforts. It has already engagedthe Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board asa client in a business plan to create transitional jobs

for the longterm unemployed.


15/24



16/24


by Thom Dixon

More than 60 years ago, inApril 1951, a small group ofQuakers from Alabama, Iowaand Ohio identied a remote

mountaintop in Costa Rica as the location

for their future community. They had left theU.S. seeking a new home in a peace-lovingnation that had disbanded its military forces.They sought to live out their principles in thiscommunity, which they called Monteverde.Quaker meeting for worship occurred twiceweekly just as it does to this day on themeetinghouse wall, a handwritten statementencouraged members to live simply, thatothers may simply live.

But a retreat from society was not theiraim. Instead, they learned Spanish, gracious-ly received visitors, and built a communityenterprise that produced Costa Ricas rstpasteurized cheese. Rapid growth in cheese sales createdmore demand for milk than the Quaker settlers could pro-vide, so local Costa Rican neighbors were invited to sendmilk. And in a farsighted step, the original Quaker familiesagreed to set aside a signicant acreage on the mountain-top to protect the watershed that sustained their homesand farms. The original 1,000 acres reserved became thekeystone for todays Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve,which now protects several thousand hectares of oraand fauna on both sides of the continental divide, whereit joins with the Childrens Eternal Rainforest and creates

the largest private reserve in Central America.

Since 1953, the dairy plant has been a mo-tor of local social and economic development, not onlyby buying the farmers milk, but also by contributing tolocal road work and bridge building, scholarships for areayouths, improvement of local health care, and limitedfarm extension services. The businesss growth requiredmore capital, and in 1970 the founding Quakers began tosell shares to other neighbors conditional on ownershipremaining local and no one owning more than 5% of the

company. In 1977 all milk producers and employees wereinvited to buy equity. Today, many of the companys 450owners choose to capitalize their dividends in order to en-

joy capital appreciation over time and an assured marketfor milk and labor.

The Monteverde namein Costa Rica has becomesynonymous with necheeses such as Gouda,Swiss, provolone andParmesan, and today it

leads the market in thesemi-aged and hard cheesesectors. It serves the needsof restaurants, hotels, foodservice companies, retailersand consumers throughoutthe country. In the 1990s itbegan to diversify into icecream and yogurt, followedby cured meat products.Through the recent pur-

Rooted in peace,

committed to businessQuaker-inspired rm faces globalization in Costa Rica

Monteverde products lead the Costa Rican market in the semi-aged and

hard cheese sectors

Besides a robust

market for

local milk, spin-

offs include

road work,

bridge building

and youth

scholarships.


17/24


to upgrade equipment and methods. To prepare for theimpact of globalization, Corporacin Monteverde, S.A.entered an important phase of new investment, new busi-ness activities, and sales growth in anticipation of increas-ingly competitive markets. Among other moves, it ac-

quired the company thatdistributed its products for

over 35 years. These stepsincreased its inuence inthe marketplace despitethe arrival of transnationalcompetitors in Costa Ricaand the growing presenceof global retailers likeWal-Mart.

Monteverdes inno-vations require money,

just at a time when itstraditional source of

capital the local farmers also faces higher on-farm

capital needs to comply with CAFTA and AACAEU whileremaining competitive. The company hopes this can comefrom outside investors both individual and institutional who seek an economic return while creating healthyproducts in a socially and environmentally sustainablemanner. It seeks up to $5 million in fresh equity for work-ing capital; new processing technology; a new distributioncenter that will lead to increased efciency and reducedcarbon footprint; and to invest in market research for newspecialty product options. The company has also consid-ered the possibility of a strategic alliance with an overseascompany that shares its vision and philosophy in develop-ing new markets and activities.

One of the reasons that Monte-verdes Quakers chose to make their livesin Costa Rica was the countrys choice,made in 1949, to budget for educationrather than a military. Today, this has paidoff: literacy levels are high (97%) andCosta Ricas life expectancy exceeds thatof the U.S.

And on a remote mountaintop, abold experiment in social entrepreneur-ship keeps paying off as well. Even as

Monteverde is increasingly linked to theworlds challenges, its residents continueto value a peaceful life, living simply in agood climate with good neighbors.

Thom Dixon, MEDAs Director, Business ofHealth, was the Monteverde Cheese Factorysbookkeeper in the mid-1970s, then plantmanager and nally general manager until1986. For more information visitwww.mon-teverde.net/en or write to [email protected]

chase of its distributor, Monteverde now markets anddelivers a growing range of refrigerated and frozen foodproducts to 3,000 clients in Costa Rica. It exports 5% ofits products to neighboring nations and aims to developadditional export markets for specialty cheeses. In addi-tion to the Monteverde cheese line, it produces the pre-mium LekkerLand brand cheeses; other businesses include

retail ice cream shops and a restaurant popular amongweekend vacationers.

Monteverde ensured secure supplies forits principal raw materials by integrating the dairy farm-ers who now own 47% of the company into itsownership structure. It has been a strong force in creating

jobs, and today has 390 employees who own 6% of thecompany. In addition to dividends, they receive fair wagesand benets like off-site training, a solidarity association,health insurance and pension, and an internal savings andcredit scheme. The third leg of Monteverdes ownershipstructure is private investors who support the company

emphasis on social and environmental benets, as well asprot.

Monteverde has won environmental prizes for effec-tive management of plant efuent and waste, includingefforts to reduce energy input. It took risks by signing onas a launch customer for an innovative line of biodegrad-able packaging materials.

New challenges are ahead as the Monteverdecheese plant nears its sixtieth birthday in 2013. CostaRicas recent ratication of the Central American FreeTrade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Association Agree-ment between Central America and the European Union(AACAEU) obliges the cheese plant and its dairy farmers

390 employees

enjoy fair wages,

health insurance

and an internal

savings and

credit scheme.

Cheese-in-process, serving restaurants, hotels, retailers and consumersthroughout the country.


18/24


by R. Lee Delp

But Peter said, Man, I do not know whatyou are talking about! At that moment,while he was still speaking, the cockcrowed. The Lord turned and looked at Pe-ter. Then Peter remembered the word of theLord, how he had said to him, Before thecock crows today, you will deny me threetimes. And he went out and wept bitterly.(Luke 22:60-62)

We laid out a plan to return toprotability. The plan had ninestraightforward steps, each as-signed to a management person

for action. Our hope was to save the companyfrom closing down.

The CEO set the plan into action: overtimeand salaries were cut, some employees werelaid off, inventories were reduced, productpricing was rened, supplier relationships wererenegotiated, and these actions were all commu-nicated to everyone involved. After a number ofsleepless nights, our plan was implemented and

the future lookedmore hopeful.

A review of our resultspresented to the nextboard meeting lookedpromising; the numberswere moving in the rightdirection, and employeeswere adjusting to a newreality. The crisis appearedto be over. Managementwas spending its time on

positive activities instead ofghting res and fendingoff a nervous bank.

Yet within just two months the market for buildingsupplies began to shrink even further. Housing starts weredown to pre-1950 levels, and foreclosures were on therise. Our market was collapsing around us. There was noway out: we had to sell or close. We had failed.

My rst reaction was to look for something or some-one to blame. After all, who could have predicted thatthings would become so bad? We had thought that our

plan was the ticket to contin-ued solvency. Even the bankagreed that our strategy wason target. Yet I had to ad-mit, the rest of the board hadto admit, and our CEO had toadmit we had failed.

This experience taughtme that what appears tobe failure can actually be

seen as paying tuition for alearning experience. Whatwe were so sure was rightturned out to be wrong,and the result was failure.

The apostle Peterfailed. His spirit must havebeen in the dregs when,after denying Jesus for thethird time, his eyes metJesus eyes, and Scripturetells us that he wept bit-

terly. He had failed miserably.But then Peter regained his footing. He was forgiven for

his failure and rose to play a critical role in building thechurch. I have a hunch that Peters bitter failure maturedhim in ways that nothing else could have done. Failuremay actually have been a necessary part of Peters latersuccess as a leader.

When your organization, whether for prot or non-prot, is on the edge income is down, needs and costsare increasing, leadership is discouraged, and directorsquestion the future then remember Peter. Be remindedthat failure need not be fatal. Gods light shines brightestin the darkness of our deepest despair.

As the evening twilight fades away,The sky is lled with stars, invisible by day.(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in Morituri Salutamus)

R. Lee Delp of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, a former president ofMEDA, is a boardroom veteran of both for-prot and non-protorganizations.

From Setting the Agenda: Meditations for the OrganizationsSoulby Edgar Stoesz and Rick M. Stiffney. Copyright 2011 byHerald Press, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Used by permission.

Failure need not be fatalWhen everything looks bleak, remember the apostle Peter

What appears

to be failure can

actually be seen

as paying tuition

for a learning

experience.


19/24


Fixing the Game: Bubbles,Crashes, and What Capital-

ism Can Learn from the NFL.By Roger L. Martin (Harvard,2011 251 pp. $24.95)

Football season may beover, but its lessonsendure especially for

business.For Roger Martin, one of

the western worlds leadingmanagement experts, the Na-tional Football League providesa metaphor for whats wrongwith business today.

Martin, who grew up in aMennonite family in Ontario, isdean of the Rotman School ofManagement at the Universityof Toronto. Many readers willremember him as a keynotespeaker at MEDAs 2007 con-vention.

He believes business hasgone corrosively awry byfocusing inward on maximizingshare value and prot-at-any-cost instead of concentratingon delighting the customer.

The NFL, meanwhile, hasconstantly sought to makethe game a dazzling customerexperience, and along the wayit has enriched everyone. Hisbasic point echoes the latePeter Drucker, perhaps the topmanagement brain of the pastcentury.

Martin holds particulardisdain for the expectationsmarket which in recent yearshas supplanted the real mar-ket in the corporate conscious-

ness. The real market, whichmost of us grew up with,concerned itself with produc-ing goods and services. Theexpectations market, however,is more about trading stocks,options and complex deriva-tives, thus slavishly speculatingon volatility and toxifying busi-ness as a result.

In short, a real-market ori-entation creates individual and

shareholdervalue. In other words, we mustturn our attention back to thereal market and away from theexpectations market. Insteadof shareholder value maximiza-tion, companies should place

customers at the center of therm and focus on delightingthem, while earning an accept-able return for shareholders.

He suggests taking a pagefrom the playbook of theNFL, which by his reckoninghas consistently put its focuson the fans, rather than theowners, and especially ratherthan the people who bet onthe games (footballs versionof the expectations market).Job number one has been

to put a product on the eldthat is maximally enjoyableand stimulating for its custom-ers, he says. Do the ownersdo poorly? Not by a long shot,Martin contends. Businesswould do well to likewisefocus on the real game, theone played on the eld, ratherthan the unhelpful entangle-ments of betting on that game the expectations market.

Reviews

Business and the NFL

Business has

gone astray by

xating on share

value. It should

take a page

from footballs

playbook

delight fans and

the prots will

follow.

societal good, Martin says,while an expectations orien-

tation creates a downwardspiral that threatens both in-dividual well-being and thehealth of our economy.

Too many executives,their lenses distorted byshort-term gain, focusmore on pleasing investorsand garnering incen-tive compensation thanon building sustainableenterprises, says Martin.As a result, they end upleading inauthentic

business lives, pander-ing to a stock marketthat they know theycannot please for long,even as they cut jobsand expenses to makethis quarters consensusearning numbers. Some thendisregard their moral compassentirely and engage in scandal-ous, illegal behavior.

Martin proposes stepsto heal American capital-ism. First: We must shift the

focus of companies back tothe customer and away from

As enticingas maximizing

shareholder valuemight be for some,Martin nds no clearevidence that it actu-ally succeeds over thelong term. Nonethe-less, it has becomethe prevailing theorythat governs ourcapital markets andbusiness community.

To some, the notionthat a business existsto serve customers and

the larger communitymay seem quaint. Notso to those who seevalues-based businessas having multiple bot-tom lines (like those, weexpect, who read thismagazine). The makersof Tylenol, for example,

who for a generation havebeen lauded as a textbookcase of exemplary ethics, area case in point. Their peckingorder, says Martin, is clear

and unambiguous: customerscome rst, employees are sec-ond, communities third, andshareholders absolutely last.And theyve done quite wellfor all concerned, thank-youvery much.

And they are not alone,Martin goes on to say. Manycompanies that have con-sciously put customers rsthave in fact outperformed, forexample, General Electric dur-ing the tenure of Jack Welch,

the legendary apostle of sharevalue maximization. Apple,for one, has managed quitenicely on the premise thatshareholders will do well if thecompany serves its customerswell. As these companies and the NFL have shown,says Martin, if you take careof customers, shareholders willbe drawn along for a very niceride. Wally Kroeker


20/24


Soundbites

Consumer Reports maga-zine recently compiled a

list of The best consumeradvice I ever got. Amongthe tips:

If you dont need it,dont buy it.

When shopping foranything over $100, wait24 hours before you buyit. Chances are the nextday youll decide youdont really need or want it.

Dont buy the extendedwarranty.

Never go grocery shop-

ping when youre hungry. An infomercial is an

oxymoron. If you are negotiating to

buy a car, you are not gettingthe best deal unless you feel sostressed you want to vomit.

Be friendly. Nobodys

going to do you any favors ifyoure ring off insults.

The potato is a perfectvegetable. Its easy to grow,nutritious, and can be cooked

and prepared in an innitevariety of ways.

Being somebody

Community is incrediblyimportant in our lives. At ourcore, we are all social creatures

who derive pleasure fromthe company, love, and

recognition of others.Mother Teresa once saidthat one of humanitysgreatest diseases was tobe nobody to anybody.We strive to make ourmark on the world andto feel that our lives areworthwhile. The work wedo is a critical component

of our legacy. If we believe thatour work has meaning andthat we are valued by othersfor what we do, we are en-

couraged and motivated. Wepersevere. Roger L. Martinin Fixing the Game: Bubbles,Crashes, and What CapitalismCan Learn from the NFL

Want to be happy?

I know a lot of people whostarted out to make them-selves happy, and they almostall failed. If they start out tomake themselves happy, theybecome self-centered and that

leads to failure. But peoplewho start out to make some-body else happy, they becomehappy. If you want success inmoney or success in anything,the way to do it is to try togive rather than try to get. Mutual fund legend Sir JohnMarks Templeton

Marketplace gift

Speaking truth to people honestly, sensitively and frankly

is a marketplace gift that Ithink is lacking in the church.The desire to be nice createsdistrust. Well say somethingto somebodys face becausewe want to feel nice, but itsactually not what we reallythink. We owe it to a personto say, Youre falling short inthis area. I need you to pickup your socks here. Im notpleased with this. Menno-

nite Brethren church plantingdirector Gord Fleming, for-

merly a restaurant executive, inthe Mennonite Brethren Herald

Left behind

A question that all directorsshould ask themselves at leastannually is this: What dowe want to see outlive ourinvolvement with this organi-zation? What legacy will weleave behind? Are we makingprogress toward that goal? Beryl Jantzi in Setting the

Agenda: Meditations for theOrganizations Soul, editedby Edgar Stoesz and Rick M.Stiffney

Tips for buying smart

Biblical retirement?

God spoke to Moses: Theseare your instructions regard-ing the Levites: At the ageof 25 they will join the work

force in the Tent of Meeting;at the age of 50 they mustretire from the work. Theycan assist their brothers in theTent of Meeting, but they arenot permitted to do the actualwork themselves. These arethe ground rules for the workof the Levites. Numbers8:23-26 from The Message,quoted by Freeman Miller inThe Mennonite


21/24


Letters

Have just read in the Nov/Decissue of The Marketplace the

article Maybe it can grow ontrees.

Im impressed! Very im-pressed! When I saw the 14words under the picture ofthe tree, Guess what. Youcan save the planet and makemoney at the same time Iknew I needed to pay atten-tion to this article. Quitefrankly, Im tired and fed up bythese environmentalists whoblame the problem of green-house gases on Daisy (the

cow) who, while having a feedof green grass, passes somegases and thereby upsetsthe carbon footprints safetyformula. I, personally, donthold Daisy responsible!

I would so much appreci-ate some common sense to

enter into the hot air, verbaldiarrhea conversation aboutclimate change. Your assess-ment of the book Climate Cap-italism by Lovins and Cohenhas enabled me to regain hopeand anticipation that one day,hopefully soon, common senserather than political sabre rat-tling will prevail and rule theday.

I do need to nd the bookand read same for my afrma-tion and encouragement.

Peter Peters, Winnipeg

A pastor speaks

I just put down the latest issueof Marketplace. As always, it is

a cover-to-cover read as soonas it arrives, and I felt a need

today to drop you a note andlet you know that Marketplaceis so helpful in my pastoralministry. I lead a congrega-tion of folks, who with theexception of Debbie and I, allcame to Anabaptism as adults.They have little if any frame ofreference with Mennonite orBrethren-in-Christ denomina-tional systems and ethos. Apost-denominational group,they are all over the map philo-sophically and theologically:

Business Owners, Local Pol-iticians, and Climate ChangeSkeptics worship side by sidewith Occupiers, Anarchists,and Urban Farmers. ReadingMarketplace gives me stories,

resources, and ideas as I pastorthis eclectic bunch. I dont

preach too many sermonsin a year that dont includesomething I gleaned fromMarketplace.

Thanks for an accessible,and usable resource for help-ing Christians live their faithon Monday morning. JeffWright, pastor, Madison StreetChurch, Riverside, Calif.

Dont blame Daisy

Comments?Would you like to

comment on anything inthis magazine, or on anyother matters relating tobusiness and faith? Feel freeto send your thoughts [email protected]


22/24


Kathy Marshall dips into a boxof leaves, lifts out a little greencaterpillar and lays it on hershoulder. To a visitor it may be

just a creep-crawly thing, butto Marshall it is a source oflife-giving work for a grow-ing number of rural Ethiopianhouseholds.

Marshall, of Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, runs Sabahar, a silkproduction and weaving busi-ness that trains and employswomen and men who spin,

weave, sew and dye ne fabrics.She has a long history

in development. In the late1980s she and her husband,Sam Vander Ende, were partof MEDAs Mbeya Oxeniza-tion Project in Tanzania. Shelater worked for Oxfam, andVander Ende has spent manyyears representing CanadianFoodgrains Bank in Ethiopia.Among the things she learnedwas that the key to last-ing change is to create jobs

through business.Marshall started her com-

pany in 2004, sitting around akitchen table with friends. Whynot, they reasoned, create anew means of employmentfor Ethiopians by capitalizingon their countrys rich historyof weaving? And why not uselocal eri silk along with tradi-tional cotton yarn to fashionbeautiful woven goods?

Thus was born Sabahar.Weaving is an ancient craft

in Ethiopia but silk is new introduced into the country inabout 2000 through the Min-istry of Agriculture. Marshallblends old technologies withnew bers and products, hon-oring tradition while adjustingto contemporary global tastes.

Silk is typically produced bysilk worms feeding on mulber-ry leaves. Sabahar is promotingthe production of the eri silk

worm that feeds on castorleaves, which grow abundantlyin Ethiopia.

Sabahar obtains raw mate-rial from rural farmers andmarginalized groups who growthe castor leaves, hatch theeggs and raise the worms.These worms, on their wayto becoming butteries, spincocoons which are collectedand brought to Sabahar. It cantake 300 worms to produceenough silk for one small scarf,

Marshall says.Women are trained to spin

the cocoons into ne threadwhich is then colored withnatural dyes from substancessuch as coffee, owers and in-sects. It is woven on traditionallooms by weavers workingon-site or in their homes orco-operatives. They produceunique scarves, shawls anddecorative household furnish-ings such as throws, tablelinens and wall hangings.

Sabahar produces morethan 15,000 items a year,

which are sold to shoppers in

its Addis Ababa store as wellas to international buyers inmore than 10 countries.

Some of the designs are theweavers own, while otherscome from fashion industrydesigners who help Sabaharwith new product lines.

Marshalls purpose in start-ing the company was to createsustainable and fair employ-ment and revenue for mar-ginalized households. On thatscore she has achieved consid-

erable success, with about 120people currently employed.

Introducing a new localindustry has not been easy.

Promoting this kind of silkhas been an uphill battle, saysMarshall. People arent usedto it.

She hopes to eventuallysource all eri silk from withinEthiopia, but for now shesupplements supplies with

MEDA alum uses silkto create jobs in Ethiopia

Kathy Marshall displayscaterpillars in a nest of cas-tor leaves to visitors in her

Addis Ababa shop.

A woman, one of more than 120 employed by Sabahar, spinsne thread which will be dyed and woven into fabric.

Indian imports.

Silk production is new inEthiopia, only about 10 yearsold, says Marshall. However,it is already clear that thereis huge potential to have animpact on poor households bydiversifying the crops they de-pend on for survival. Silk pro-duction often becomes part ofa diverse household economyas income that women earnand control. As such, it is morelikely than not to be allocatedto the health and education of

the children. We believe thatby promoting silk, we can havea positive impact on peopleand by creating beauty withthe silk, we can help preserve arich tradition.

Sabahar is a member of theWorld Fair Trade Organization(WFTO) and is getting moreinvolved in increasing aware-ness of fair employment andtrade practices.

News


23/24


Women in northern Ghana willsoon get help to bolster familyfood security, nutrition andincomes by growing soybeansand other crops under a majornew MEDA initiative.

The $20 million project, ofwhich $18 million will comefrom the Canadian Inter-national Development Agency(CIDA) and $2 million fromMEDA sources, is projected tobegin in April. It aims to assist20,000 women and their fam-

ilies over the next 6 years.Using a value chain ap-

proach, MEDA will helpwomen in the countrys upperwest and northern regions togrow soybeans, link them withmarkets, and provide trainingon farm management at themicro level as well as house-hold nutrition and managingfamily nances.

Ghana is politically stableand is experiencing positiveeconomic growth, but the

gains are not evenly dis-tributed, says Helen Loftin,MEDAs director of womenseconomic development inmarket linkages. There arestill pockets of food-insecurepopulations due to poorcrops,lack of nutritional awarenessand scant alternative livelihoodopportunities to purchasefood.

Soybeans are an ideal cropfor a number of reasons, shesays. For one, they are highly

nutritious. For another, theyare a restorative crop thatwill improve the soil. This isimportant because under localcultural practices women areoften allotted only marginalland. With the soil-nutrientqualities of soybeans, plus thewomens additional training,the project will ensure thatthis land becomes more ar-able.

Moreover, soybeans arentsubject to local cultural pro-hibitions. There are taboosaround certain foods, saysLoftin. Women are not al-lowed to have anything todo with main family grain,for example, and women andchildren in some communitiesare forbidden to eat eggs.These are the kinds of thingswe have to work around. Butsoybeans are relatively new toGhana and they dont have

these taboos attached tothem, so its feasible for thewomen to grow them.

Women will also be givenaccess to small kitchengardens to diversify theirnewfound expertise and growother foods to supplementfamily dietary needs.

The project design includesan array of coordinated initia-tives to alleviate the pain of

food insecurity, says Loftin.

A big part of food securityis coping with the ebb and

ow of cash, in and out of thehousehold, and how best tomanage those nances. Alsoimportant is understandinghow best to store and processgrain stock and inventory.And the skills we teach withsoybeans can transfer over to

other crops.Loftin is excited about

tackling the learning curveof nutrition in a region wherewomen are the lynchpin forfamily dietary intake but havelittle to work with.

One beauty of the projectis its length, she says. Many

New food project to help20,000 households in Ghana

MEDA projects are ve yearsor less, and having a longerperiod of time will enable usto teach skills and good habitsand ingrain them in the com-munity.

As in other projects, MEDAwill work with local partners toleverage community links andtrust, as well as to strengthenthese partners capacity andorientation towards sustain-able market-driven approachesthat can be deployed in future

work they undertake.The North America-based

manager for the project will beRachel Hess, who works out ofMEDAs ofce in Lancaster, Pa.,and just recently returned froma trip to Ghana to further buildMEDAs links and understand-ing of the country.


24/24

An Ethiopian weaver, part of a newMEDA project to help 2,000 textileworkers and 8,000 rice farmers increasetheir income by 50 percent throughvalue chain improvements and nancialliteracy. (Fiona MacKenzie photo)

We dont accomplish

anything in the world

alone, and whatever

happens is the result

of the whole tapestry

of ones life and all the

weavings of individual

threads from one to an-

other that creates

something.

Sandra Day OConnor

Documents

Marketplace & ENGAGE March April 2012