Merry Christmas, and Happy Vacation, almost!

Whew! Today has been one of those days... working on the Center's newsletter, and finishing it, but then finding all those little errors that need to be tweaked before the final publication. Technology! What a blessing, but it reminds me of a phrase a friend and colleague used to say all the time when we lived in Asia: I find these endless corrections and updates to be quite a "time-sucking black hole". ;)

Anyways, I think my brain is about empty after this long day staring at my computer. On to home, a little Christmas shopping, and back tomorrow where I'll give you a link for the newsletter.

Or hey, another thought: here's the link for the newsletter. (Sneak preview!) If you happen to read this today or early tomorrow, feel free to send me any edits you think are necessary! ;)

Happy almost Friday!
~skye

“Some people have said, ‘Theology and business don’t fit together,’ but really they do. It just seemed like such a practical, natural skill to have that will further enhance how I serve the church.” --Joe Reganato, 26, enrolled in a church management program and an MBA program.

This quote is from a December 15, 2007 NY Times article about new programs in Catholic universities which endeavor to help prepare students better for management within the church and other helping organizations, to "ensure that organizations and churches are managed well."

Why Coffee?

Many people asked me this question when I tell them about the company that I founded while completing my MBA at Regent University in 2006.

Coffee is a big industry. It is the second most traded commodity, oil being the first. Most of oil producers are wealthy and enjoying the benefits of their business. However, coffee is different, 75% of the coffee is produced by poor communities of developing countries. I want to created awareness of this unbalance.

There is not justice in the coffee industry. Of the $3 paid in average for a cup of gourmet coffee only 2 cents goes back to the grower. This is because of the huge gap between the coffee producer and the consumer. Ethnos Coffee works to close this gap. We are working with the Christian organization “Growers First” that actually does community development work among the producers, unlike many of the coffee certification agencies.

God gave us the dream to create Ethnos Coffee and also the responsibility to work on improving the lives of coffee producers. We actually are taking the first steps in extending our work to cocoa and tea producers. We want to work for what is fair for these coffee, cocoa and tea producers. Therefore we promote fair trade. Through Ethnos Coffee projects, we guarantee a Fair Wage to producers.

Another reason of why coffee is to empower disadvantaged communities by creating new markets for them, allowing them to stay in their context. I think we can make a contribution to massive emigration to the big cities or to other countries. God has given peoples of these coffee producing communities, unique talents. We want to help them discover their talents and to become self sustain.

If you are more interested in knowing more about fair trade or our projects, please visit our website at http://www.ethnoscoffee.com/ or post your question or comment on this blog.

Thanks,

Luis Vargas
Founder and CEO
Ethnos Coffee

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

I Thessalonians 5:18

I don't know about you, but as the year draws to a close and I reflect on God's goodness; all He has done on my behalf, who He is, all that He means to me, and where He has brought me from, I have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for life, His grace and mercy that kept me throughout the year, and in spite of all that is going on in the world; the threat of war, terrorism, sickness and even talks of global warming, He has protected me from premature death. Moreover, I am thankful for my wife and children, my local church, friends and finally, the fact that Jesus is Lord.

We are always to be thankful to our Lord no matter what our circumstances are because He gave us the greatest gift, the gift of salvation; a gift that never wears out. We ought to be thankful everyday, every hour, and every minute because without that gift we could not experience abundant life on earth and would be condemned to eternal punishment.

Moreover, we ought to be thankful for our clients and employees; without whom we would not be in business; our family and friends, for the joy and support they bring into our lives; the angels; those we have no relationship with but God uses to be a special blessing to us.

What are you thankful for? You may be as thankful as I am, or you may not feel as thankful because of the way your business is going, the way this year has been for you, or the issues that you are currently facing. Remember the scriptures instruct us to be thankful in all things for such is the will of God concerning us. Thankfulness is a condition of the heart, which manifests itself in appreciation towards someone.

We are usually thankful when someone does something kind to us but once that moment passes we forget their kindness. The reason we forget is because our thoughts of gratitude are conditional and our emotions fluctuate based on our circumstances. We recently received a generous contribution from one of our board members towards our Wall Builder and Legacy Partner Fundraiser. This gift created a level of gratitude in my heart towards God for using them; as a result, I was moved to demonstrate my gratefulness in words and in deeds. The question is, how long will this feeling of gratitude last?

In my pursuit to maintain a heart of gratitude my prayer is that the Holy Spirit continually brings them to my remembrance. Many people have a hard time being thankful in times of need, because they do not realize that in those times you should be most thankful.

What need do you have? What circumstances are you facing in your business that you need God's supernatural intervention in? Just begin to thank Him for who He is, what He has done, His promises, and what He will do. As you thank Him, have total confidence that He knows your need, and at the appropriate time, He will bring it to pass if you do not give up.

(Patrice Tsague)

A True KB Story from Nepal--Conclusion

Final Resolution
(See "A True KB Story from Nepal" for background, below.)

In case you are wondering what happened to the project or if Gita took everything. Hema after all this organized a meeting to bring together the church elders and Gita, which initially Gita refused to attend. Later, however, she was obliged to meet with them. Also, in the meeting a resolution was sought and it was decided that every asset of the company will be divided equally among Hema and Gita. Not a resolution we wanted but definitely something to be hopeful about.

Well, I was of the understanding that Hema learnt her lesson and she was going to start the company all over with proper papers and documentation. But after the incident, she left the country and does not ever want to start any business again. Of course she paid a month’s allowance as compensation to the employees but it was not something they were looking for. She now thinks that money was the evil thing and she should not involve herself with money matters ever again.

Gita wants to run the business on her own and I am not sure what is happening on that front at this point, as none of the employees wanted to work under her.

KB Story from Nepal; Observations

My personal Observations
Manika Baniya, Regent MBA
(See "A True KB Story from Nepal" for background, below.)


The answer as we see from the above scenario is ‘forgetting the obvious’ only because everyone and everything involved are Christians?

Maybe no check and balance – especially involving the local church at least in the board of the company and meeting once a week, etc.

I think the main issue is also trusting a single person completely and not taking time to check with others, or ignoring feedback. Gita was known to be harsh; in fact on one occasion when I visited the company, she thought I was there to join the company and was really asking me too many questions. But Hema chose to believe in her, blindly giving her all the control. There could have been a few more people responsible for the bank account rather than only Gita and Hema.

But the main important issue is not involving the main employees in the main business. Unless we do do that, a company could fail. If the employees were given the kind of confidence where they can openly share what they feel about the administrator, would the same thing have happened? One thing Hema forgot was that the company was not only hers even though she started it, it belonged to the locals and the employees and they should have been given a chance to voice their opinion from time to time. (But is that possible, or could it have created a chaotic working environment?)

Hema knew other local business people who were Christians and were in fact very successful in Nepal. But they were never told her plans and even consulted once during this whole period. They were veterans who had been running businesses for the past 20 years.

The Role of Partnership in Poverty Eradication: A Myth or Reality?

by Dr. Jeremiah Koshal
Research Fellow, Regent Center for Entrepreneurship

Studies have attempted to identify the correlates linked to poverty mobility. People move out of poverty because they have significantly better endowments in terms of land and livestock, more educated heads of household, and have better roads and better rainfall. In other words, those moving out of poverty tend to be able to rely on good endowments in terms of assets such as land and livestock, human capital, and infrastructure. While factors such as these allow people to move out of poverty, shocks and risk make and keep them poor (Narayan & Petesch, 2007).

Most poor countries do not attract a larger capital inflow because of perceived high risk of investment. One useful indicator of investor perceptions of risk is a survey done by the magazine Institutional Investor that scores the perceived risk for each country on a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being the maximum safety appropriate for investment while 1 is the least safety appropriate. Risk ratings such as this show up as significant in statistical explanations of private investment. Unsurprisingly, high risk discourages investment (Collier, 2007).

Social Venture Capital (SVC) is being used today to combat poverty because it does not operate like a typical ‘profit-minting machine’, where the risks have to be methodically calculated. Social enterprises are either for profit or non-profit social venture fund investing in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. They pursue financial, social, spiritual and environmental returns. Social enterprises do not require the same rate of financial return since they also look for social, spiritual and environmental returns, even though they also have to be profitable in order to remain sustainable.

A number of these social enterprises are faith-based and the experience is that faith-based investors are more likely to accept a lower financial return in exchange for higher social returns. They are more able to align their financial interest with their social responsibilities. A growing number of successful entrepreneurs with a philanthropic attitude are also allocating a small percentage of their total portfolio to this form of investment.

Case studies, where partnerships between social venture capitalists and local communities are bearing fruits are evident. In Kuzuko Game Reserve (http://www.tbnetwork.org/; http://www.kuzuko.com/), neighboring Kruger National Park in South Africa, the community has entered into a partnership with South Africa National Parks, Legacy Hotels, the Disability Employment Concern Trust, South African Development Bank and the World Bank in order to develop a 39,000 acre game reserve on community land. The game reserve will offer a safari experience to tourists in a 5-star lodge managed by Legacy Hotels, a leading hotel group in Southern Africa. When it opens, the game reserve will employ 100 people directly. This project combines conservation, job creation, social and spiritual transformation in a region of 70% adult unemployment. With partner support, new commercially-viable business opportunities are currently being assessed with the aim of creating further jobs in the area.

Brains Group (http://www.brainsdirect.com/), a software outsourcing business in Moldova, but with a marketing office in the UK, is employing 100 technical people. These 100 people learning new skills and how businesses are run. They are also taught issues of integrity.

Spot Taxis in Bangalore, India, is the largest taxi franchise in Bangalore with 230 taxis. Each driver is able to own their own vehicles with a structured loan over a 3-4 year period. They all have in-car radios and are directed by a control room using a computer system which tracks their location. Some enterprising drivers now own more than one vehicle.

Thus, the role of partnership between social enterprises and local communities should be encouraged, as remarkable things can happen at both the micro and macro levels. This is more critical since most social enterprises encourage a strong work ethic, a spirit of others-centered, where the needs of local communities are pursued a long side profit. In this case, profit becomes a by-product of the process instead of an end by itself.

References
Collier, P. (2007). The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are falling and what can be done about it. New York: Oxford.
Narayan, D., and Petesch, P. (Editors) (2007). Moving out of poverty: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on mobility. Washington, D.C.: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.
Tan, K. (2003, October). Enterprise against poverty: The case for social venture capital.

A True KB Story from Nepal (Parts I, II and III)

Happy Friday!

We've published 2 installments of this story on our blog at regententrepreneur.org, so I'll share that with you today. Thanks, Manika, for sharing your insight and experience with us!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a story in Nepal and I would like the rest of the details to be anonymous.

A very wonderful lady (lets assume her name to be Hema) started a kingdom business in order to share the love of the lord and also to provide employment to otherwise disadvantaged group of women who had no education and were suffering in their society and also in their personal and financial life. She was a foreigner with many years living experience in Nepal and a huge heart and passion for Nepali people.

The business grew and many deserving women got employment, their lives changed and their children were able to afford decent meals and go to good school. I had personally met with those women and they were very grateful for the opportunity they had to be work in a clean environment and also be able to get good income every month.

These women otherwise were often abused in their work environment and were never paid the said amount by their employer. Being Christians, they were often left without jobs and with added abusive family members. But thanks to Hema, their lives changed and one could see the changed color and happiness in their face and in their lives. They also learnt a lot about Lord in their work, conducted daily devotions, learned to give to the church and overall it seemed to be a very happy beginning for them.

Then Hema appointed Gita, a local educated Christian lady to be the Administrator of the business. The business grew to great measures, the products were amazing and they were able to find new markets every week. The products were popular even among the local users and their workplace became their selling point to many locals.

Gita was a very harsh women who never treated any of the workers with any respect. She was always rude and never took much interest in the scope of business and was always to herself. All the workers in the office greatly feared and disliked Gita because of her behavior to them. In fact some women told that Gita often mentioned to then that the company belonged to her and if they do not behave well, she will kick them out of the company. In fact, she was often heard passing very crude remarks like 'These women should be slaves, they should be given this kind of opportunity to work in peace'. the problem was bigger while paying them salary as Gita always thought the women were paid too high.

The women were paid a salary range of (Rs 4000 = Approx USD 60-70) which is a decent sum of money for unskilled women. In addition, the women got 2 days off to spend time with their family which was rare. they also got tea and snacks inside the office which was unheard of in Nepal.

On the other hand Gita was paid (Rs 15,000 = Approx USD 200) which was also unusually high for a semi-skilled worker in Nepal. Everyone in the office disliked Gita openly and even other women in the church and relatives knew about her nuisances.

But the only person who always praised Gita was Hema and was extremely please with her which no one else understood why. Her job was to manage the inventory and to keep the accounts which was not a huge and meticulous task looking at the business and also the involvement of Hema for the same.

So far things were normal. The company grew and time came to register under small industry. Hema without anyone’s consensus registered the company under Gita's name. As per the industry law, a foreigner was not allowed to own any small industry in Nepal and there was no other alternative than to register under some Nepali’s name.

The company grew everyday, in fact it became difficult for Hema to manage the company on her own and he often took help from her country’s people through short term trips. The demand for the product grew and as the company grew Hema became much more involved in the project and she made all decisions for the company with Gita.

Now the company kept on growing, there were many full time employees working full time and time came to register the company as an international business independently. Hema started the paperwork and was overjoyed that her company was been blessed to such extent.

She rented a huge new office space and kept on employing more people. The company had to show a balance of nearly USD 100,000 to make it international and Hema deposited the amount in the present company’s bank account (which is in Gita’s name if you remember).

But one day before Hema to submit the paperwork to the ministry, Gita decided to take control. She locked the office and took off Hema’s name from the bank account signatory. Next day when the employees came to work, the office was closed and Gita was not anywhere. When Hema inquired, she found out that Gita had decided to take control of the business and is not going to listen to anyone. In fact Gita’s husband came to the office and threatened the employees and Hema together.

Hema’s dream was shattered and she chose to withdraw herself from the company and any other issues. All the employees who were so happy and working for the best suddenly were jobless and without anything else to do.
So where did this company go wrong? Although this might not be the main cause, but I personally know a similar fate of many company and non-profit organizations after a while. Why is it otherwise difficult to see a company started by a missionary that has been operating for the past 100 years?

Just a beginning...

Greetings from Virginia Beach! Here at the Center for Entrepreneurship at Regent University, we want to be part of what God is doing around the world, transforming people and nations through kingdom business.

What is kingdom business? Well, in a nutshell, it's doing business God's way with specific goals for spiritual and societal transformation, along with the more common economic bottom lines.

You can find out more on our website, http://www.regententrepreneur.org/. We have a blog there as well, but right now it's a little bit scattered. I thought I'd pull over some of our posts and put them here as well, and see if we can get any more of a conversation going.

More to come...
Thanks for visiting!

~skye at rce