While the city of Abbotsford is often referred to as the Bible Belt of British Columbia, it isn't always obvious that this descriptor means anything more than that there are a lot of churches there (over 100 in a city of 140,000, plus four Sikh temples).
A quartet of involved Abbotsford residents decided to test whether there was any value-added to the life and culture of the community from the presence of all these places of worship and its religious adherents. They approached a number of individuals to research and write chapters on a host of areas of life's endeavours, including social justice, the arts, politics, inter-faith relations, post-secondary education, business, and K-12 education (both public and independent). I was asked to write the latter two chapters, the first on the basis of my long career as a business professor, consultant, and practitioner, and the latter because of my 27 years as a public school trustee.
The chapter on local business practices required that I come up with some kind of framework for evaluating the way commerce is done in Abbotsford. I looked for something that incorporated many of the components of what I would consider faith-informed worldview thinking. I found excellent thinking from an article entitled "Catholic Social Thought and Business Ethics," written by Jim Wishloff and published in Review of Business, Vol. 25, No. 1, Winter 2004.
What follows is my section on business. It contains interviews with many businesspeople that the vast majority of readers of this blog don't know. But their comments are illustrative of what worldview thinking and practice could look like in economic life. I believe that you will find it instructive as we try to come to conclusions about consistent, integrated Christian living.
A. Introduction
I'm
gonna buy me two wings of silver
Yes Lord to fly me home
I'm gonna buy me two wings of silver
Yes Lord to fly me home
And when I get my silvery wings
Then an angel choir will sing
I'm gonna get me two wings of silver to get me home
He was a veteran
manager with a large Canadian transportation company. To his surprise, his son
(soon to become my student at Trinity Western University) informed him that he
had become a Christian. The father, no friend of religion, responded:
“Well, what you do with your life is your own affair.
But when you get into business, avoid dealing with people who call themselves
Christians. Get yourself a nice, clean atheist if possible. Then you will know
where you stand.”
The father’s
jaundiced view was not atypical of non-religious people. Such an assessment of
the reliability of businesspeople that professed a religious faith was common
among the Boomer generation and the eras that preceded it. While there were
examples of exemplary practice to the contrary, everyone had a story of how
they had been badly used by Christian businesspeople. Abbotsford was no
exception.
The marketplace
has not changed for the younger generations of businesspeople. It remains a
place where the potentially corrupting forces of money and power loom large.
Ethical dilemmas still present themselves in puzzling grayscale, rather than in
pure black and white. Opinion polls continue to place business relatively low
on the scale that measures respect for societal institutions.
What does this low
respect mean for the city we love where businesspeople that make their faith a
matter of public record abound?
B. Plus ça change,
plus c'est la même chose?
Loosely translated, is the newer
generation of Abbotsford businesspeople any different from the Baby Boomers, or
does “same old, same old” prevail? Is their professed faith bringing anything that could be construed
as value-added to their business practices and to the culture of the community?
To find out, I interviewed a
number of business owners from the broad spectrum of churches represented in
Abbotsford, all successful in their various economic pursuits, and mostly under
45 years old (well under in some cases). Their companies range in size from a six-person
operation to large organizations that distribute their products worldwide.
My conclusion: While
illustrations of the more disappointing and disillusioning behaviour will always
exist, there are inspiring and creative alternatives that many younger Christian
businesspeople are providing, from which much can be learned.
That is not
to say that these entrepreneurs wear their Christianity on their sleeves in
the same way as the eager young salesperson in the Hollywood movie The Big Kahuna (a ‘must see’ for all
Christian businesspeople). I asked one contributor what
it means to have a business that reflects one’s faith. He admitted that his
convictions are more implicit than explicit in his work. “There is no
separation between the sacred and the secular,” he said with a laugh, “but there
are no bible verses with the paycheques.” He added that his faith informs what
it means for him to be a human and a Christian, and shapes how he relates to his
team and his customers--a common view among the interviewees.
It is also true
that these younger businesspeople of faith are under no illusion that God will
necessarily prosper their businesses because of their desire to be faithful to
his principles, values, and objectives. As one participant affirmed, he doesn’t believe that God will automatically bless the business, but
always asks God for wisdom in making decisions.
What I found is that their faith-informed
worldview encompasses a range of priorities and practices, including strong
moral character; management by mission and values rather than strictly by what
the market dictates; treating employees as full-orbed people; showing respect
for creation; sharing their gains with the vulnerable and marginalized; and holding
to their values even when best business practice would suggest something
different.
C.
The
place to start—what would a more faithful, value-added approach to decision-making
and business practice look like?
This is the obvious first
question. What makes business activity “Christian”? So we begin with this
cautionary note regarding what Christian business practice is not.
Ken
Baerg is the economic development officer for the city of
Abbotsford. Ken brings the unique perspective of having been a provincial
director of the Christian Labour Association of Canada; then following this, he
was an advocate for employers in the construction industry; now, he is a public
servant responsible for promoting the economic interests of our community.
In all of these
contexts Ken has dealt with successful businesspeople, many of whom are also
active in church and related causes. Certainly
he was able to cite a number of examples of the faithful, value-added approach
I’ve been discussing. Regrettably, Ken has also encountered those who simply
equate their business success with God’s blessing; i.e., “I am prospering;
therefore, I must be in God’s favour.” Baerg believes that it is dangerous to
make this equation, as it typically has nothing to do with any unique business
practices.
Baerg’s succinct
observation about people who reduce their Christian business practice to an
equation defining blessing was, “They cheapen the Christian currency. Putting a
cross or a fish on your letterhead has nothing to do with living out one’s
faith.”
While supportive
of Baerg’s reservations, Patrick
Giesbrecht, president of the Abbotsford
Chamber of Commerce and a marketing consultant, expressed considerable optimism.
Patrick feels that the churches have improved their methods of challenging businesspeople
to “do it right”--that a more complete view is being taught compared with 20-50
years ago.
There is more congruency in the younger generation of
businesspeople that whatever one puts one’s hand to is done for the glory of
God; that is, the social mindset should be congruent with the business mindset.
This objective of ‘doing
things for the glory of God’ must be translated into meaningful principles,
attitudes, and practices that provide on-the-ground guidance to business
practitioners. Catholic Social Thought (CST) is very useful in this regard. In
response to the question, “What justifies an institution’s existence?” the
author articulates this response:
The human person…is and ought to be the principle, the
subject, and the end of all social institutions…The ruling purpose of the
economy is not power or profit, but human well-being in its totality…The
justification of enterprise is the contribution the enterprise makes to human
flourishing, the correspondence of the economic activity with God’s plan for [humanity].
(CST 3:1892, 3:2426)
Human flourishing. This principle can be
applied to one’s products and the way in which they are produced. It can also
be the modus operandi for how one
treats all humans who have a stake in business activities: customers,
employees, suppliers, and the broader community.
1. Products that contribute
to human flourishing…and that doesn’t exclude cow manure!
Certainly several
of the Christian businesspeople I interviewed were drawn to business because of
the nature of the products. John MacKenzie was never
interested in business per se. His
personal passion was ecological agriculture—how we grow food, how we use land, and
what we eat. He studied field-based science at Washington State University and planned
to teach high school.
However, with the encouragement of his
businessman/father Ken, John returned to Abbotsford and eventually purchased Anita’s Organic Mill, a certified producer
of organic flours, mixes, and hot cereals, located near Chilliwack. John
compares buying Anita’s to joining a cause. His relationship with the business
provides an emotional drive that moves well beyond merely an intellectual and
economic pursuit. “It’s my personal thing,” he went on to say about his
business practice, “but it emanates through the company.”
For instance, among his core values, John strives for personal
health; that is, he practises a lifestyle that
energizes his body. Consequently, he aims to get superior ingredients into
people’s hands.
Eventually, MacKenzie would like to further his education
in sustainable business and then finally pursue that academic career in order
to teach his principles of ecological stewardship and personal health. He is
already practising what he one day hopes to preach:
From sourcing grains solely from farms using sustainable, organic
agricultural practices to packaging with eco-friendly materials, caring for the
environment is a top priority. We are a member of Get Local BC, and purchase from local organic
farmers whenever possible. Anita's Organic also recently invested in new
milling equipment to reduce waste by 15 per cent, and decrease grain dust for a
better work environment. (http://anitasorganic.com/)
Bill Vanderkooi grew up in a dairy farm family and studied animal science at the graduate level, in his case Michigan State. He, too, is guided by certain core values, including
persistence, patience, and providence (God’s timely intervention).
But unlike MacKenzie, Bill was always interested in the family business; however, he has taken it in a whole new direction. He founded the Nutriva Group, which:
… focuses on developing and managing whole food value chains that begin with progressive, environmentally responsible farm practices and end with functional food products that embody natural nutrition innovation to improve the health and well-being of Canadians. (http://www.nutrivagroup.com/)
Nothing is overlooked in Vanderkooi’s relentless pursuit
of ecologically progressive methods, right
down to the cow manure. An anaerobic manure digester reduces ammonia and methane emissions,
separates phosphorus from the remaining effluent, and delivers methane fuel for
a generator that supplies electricity to the demonstration farm complex. This
digester is the first of its kind in Canada.
In an article featuring Nutriva in Toronto’s Globe & Mail (August 24, 2010, Farmer
rips page from corporate strategy handbook), much is made of Bill’s
pervading sense of mission:
A key underpinning of Nutriva Group’s early
success is Mr. Vanderkooi’s sense of mission, said Trevor Throness, owner of Strategic Corporate Resolutions Inc. in Abbotsford, a business strategy group,
and a business adviser to Mr. Vanderkooi.
“The
best entrepreneurs are not doing it for money, they’re about trying to fix a
problem, and are convinced they have a better solution,” Mr. Throness said.
“They don’t view money as something to spend on themselves, they see it as
capital to invest.”
I queried Bill
as to what this means in practical terms. His response was that profit is necessary to
achieve the goal of making a difference. He went on to detail that difference
in three ways:
· The need to educate people regarding nutrition.
. Compassion for the less fortunate.
· The need to impact federal
policy concerning nutrition and lifestyle choices.
That investment is already taking a significant
form:
We
focus out effort on partnering at various levels of our business (technology,
production, processing). A recent example is Science World’s commitment
to work with the Bakerview EcoDairy (one of Nutriva’s divisions) to complete, upgrade, and help with promotion
of our agri-tourism operation.
Science World is, of course, the well-known
science centre in Vancouver. The organization’s interests vary broadly, with
advances in nutrition being included among them.
A patriarch of agribusiness in Abbotsford is Vanderpol’s, founded sixty years ago by
Mike and Phil Vanderpol’s paternal grandfather
Willem. Typically associated with egg and dairy products, Vanderpol’s has
expanded into fruit, high-end pet food ingredients, and cold storage. Phil speaks
with excitement about the nature of their business:
We’re stewards. It’s
not really ours. One has an opportunity to contribute and eventually pass on.
Our job is to build a sustainable business in both the quality of the products
and the values of the company.
The brothers see the ability to feed people
nutritiously as a huge mandate. To that end they have invested heavily in
research and development. For example, Vanderpol’s is the only Canadian company
that produces milk protein concentrate, which they market to the Middle East,
Asia, South America, and Europe.
But food products are not the only commodities
that have the potential for the promotion of human flourishing. Shawn Neumann, president of Domain7, a web design company,
describes his approach as “putting real human needs at the heart of everything we do—we
call it ‘humanizing the web’.”
He notes that the web is a tablet
upon which many things can be written—pornography, violence, love, and
diversity. The great thing is that it can solve human problems.
Shawn outlines
three strong beliefs that underlie the company’s approach to customer and
employee well-being:
·
Every individual and
organization has the potential to be great—our team, and the customers we work
with.
·
The web is a powerful
transformational force—it levels the playing field, gives a voice to the
voiceless. The web will undermine and transform, and that can be good.
·
There doesn’t need to be
dissonance between technology and beauty. It’s hard to bring these together in
a web-design without one dominating the other, but when it happens it’s
glorious.
Neumann takes his
desire to make a difference for customers much further than many companies
would go. His values cause him to root for the underdog: “The web can level the
playing field for the smaller player.” To this end, not locking people in is
important to Shawn. Great business is built on trust, but also on choice.
Domain7 may not always be the best fit for all of its customers. Accordingly,
Domain7 developers set their customers’ sites up on an open platform that
allows clients to take their sites to another vendor who may, in the future, be
able to help them more.
2. Human well-being in its
totality
a) Employees
Management guru Peter Drucker added ‘developing people’ to
the classic four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and
measuring progress toward goal attainment), an addition championed by Japanese
businesses much more so than by their North American counterparts. Braden Douglas, a marketing consultant in
his early thirties, remarked, “Many professing Christian business owners have highly
unhealthy, toxic cultures. They see employees as resources rather than as
people.” Braden, who owns Relevention Marketing
Solutions, replaces such transactional relationships with mentoring
his employees--building his people up.
The Vanderpol brothers strongly agree with this approach. Their
role model is their grandfather who used to lend money to his employees to help
them with housing down payments. His son (Mike and Phil’s father) experimented
with Employee Share Ownership Plans but found that not all the employees were
comfortable with this arrangement. Consequently the company bought the
employees out and now utilizes profit sharing.
We
share the company’s financials so that employees know how the company is doing.
In addition, we meet with every employee quarterly, in a face-to-face open
forum, without any managers present.
This allows the employees to be totally open. This quarterly meeting has
evolved from a complaint session to a very productive exercise.
Recognizing that
employees spend the better part of their waking hours at work, John MacKenzie strives
to develop a culture of celebrating people and relationships: “We have
structure, although little hierarchy, but it’s a trusting structure.” His
recipe for employee relations: good honest work; come to work; work hard; go
home to your families; live a balanced life. He believes in paying competitive
wages and, like the Vanderpols, practises profit sharing.
Esther DeWolde, CEO of Phantom Screens, views her employees as
holistic human beings who
bring their hands, hearts and souls to work.
For this reason we brought on a corporate chaplain who
is available 24/7. He comes on site one day per week, walks the floor, talks to
everyone, providing advice and counseling. He doesn’t go into spiritual matters unless
invited. This chaplain is not on the payroll, neither is he part of management.
His interactions with my employees are totally confidential. 52% of employees
have a “critical conversation” with him per month, whereas the typical employee
assistance program has 4% usage.
Shawn Neumann also
treats his employees with respect, allowing them discretion in selecting
contracts. For example, if a conscientious objector (not
uncommon among the local Mennonite population) is uncomfortable dealing with a website
related to, say, the military, Shawn encourages that employee to pass the
contract to someone else.
These cases are not
presented here to suggest that there won’t be difficulties with employees.
Indeed, unwanted challenges exist even in the healthiest cultures. But, the
challenges are not insurmountable, and gratitude for one’s employees can exist
even when confronted with an ordeal. Ken
Giesbrecht owns Globe Printers,
the largest full service print shop in the Fraser Valley. He is grateful for
what his employees bring to the table:
Over the years, I’ve come to
realize that it’s people that drive Globe’s success and I’m grateful for a
fantastic team of employees that make it possible to serve the valuable clients
whose commitment and trust continue to make this whole venture possible.
Consequently, when an employee took time off
because his child had leukemia Ken paid his full wages until he returned.
Nevertheless, Giesbrecht
found that he had to let an employee go for performance and attitude reasons.
The man’s response at the time was, “Who am I to question the Almighty Ken?” Interestingly,
he came back to Ken some time later asking if he could be re-hired.
Lawyer Kevin Boonstra of Kuhn &
Company has found that an employer’s true character
fully surfaces when a termination situation
arises. His experience is that the vast majority of his Christian clients want
to do what is right and fair, rather than to take a hard negotiating line and
stick as closely as possible to the minimum that the law requires.
b) Partners in the
distribution channel
Most businesses work with a
variety of other organizations in getting their products and services to the
ultimate customer.
Ken Giesbrecht’s practice
is to treat suppliers with utmost dignity. “Typically in the printing
industry,” he says, “suppliers are pretty beat up and ground down.”
The Vanderpols utilize a distribution network that allows them to
reinforce the company values:
We employ a direct sales force
and develop strong customer relationships right down to the chef level. Direct
sales is the more expensive route to go but it allows us to be represented as
“we are.”
Perhaps
the most startling example of respect for partners comes from Esther DeWolde:
We were the subject of a class action suit by some of our
American distributors. We won but it cost $1.8 million to prove we were in the
right. I had to be on the stand for hours being harassed by their obnoxious
lawyer. I had to remind myself by the minute that God loved that lawyer too,
and I mustn’t lash out. Only the Holy Spirit kept me, as a scrappy farm girl,
from popping him. I had to keep reminding myself, “I may be the only church
half of these people ever see.”
c) The community
Many of the
business leaders presented above feel a strong obligation to give back to the
community in a manner consistent with company values. Ken Giesbrecht, as one
excellent representative example, donates $30,000 in free printing for
Abbotsford’s high profile Run for Water charity:
At Globe Printers, we’ve always upheld that we have a responsibility to
be more than just a provider of professional print services, but to also
contribute to the greater good of the communities we serve. So when my good
friends Ken Baerg and Peg Peters, two of the founders of Run for Water, approached
us for print support, we were all ears. And after hearing about their inspiring
efforts to provide a clean and sustainable water source for the people of
Ethiopia, we were in.
D.
"An ethical man is a Christian holding four aces." (Mark Twain)
One could say that the role
models above are simply following best practices as taught in the business
schools, recommended by consultants, and implemented by progressive managers. It
would be equally legitimate to say that all of these companies are presently
prospering, and that being high-minded is easy when all is well (as Mark Twain
cynically observes above).
Perhaps the best
indicator of consistent faith in action comes when its application is counterintuitive
to best practices. Esther DeWolde notes: “Understanding the implications of your own values is an evolutionary
process. It’s when you hit the gutter that you find out what is your commitment
to them.” In her case, she kept the company chaplain program intact even when
the recession halved Phantom’s revenue. Although some layoffs were unavoidable,
Phantom provided longer than typical notice, generous severance packages, and
assistance in looking for alternative employment.
Brad Brousson at Silver
Hills Bakery belongs to the Seventh-day
Adventist denomination, whose tenets including keeping Saturday as the Sabbath.
Consequently, when the company participates in weekend trade shows they shut
down on Saturdays even though it is the busiest day of the show. Neither do
they run newspaper advertisements or television commercials on their Sabbath.
Nevertheless they are the number one organic bread brand in western Canada,
growing at a double-digit rate in a shrinking market.
Doris Woodman-McMillan
runs Numbers Unlimited, a
bookkeeping services firm. Through a combination of inexperience with certain
tax-related issues, and missing information, Doris made a mistake over a
three-year period that the client’s outside accounting firm also missed.
Revenue Canada eventually ruled against the client and a major tax bill ensued.
Doris not only fixed the mistakes, but also (over her client’s objections)
refused payment for the next year of bookkeeping services. The outside
accounting firm, on the other hand, charged the client $5000 to alter the
relevant returns.
“I won’t lie, as some potential
clients have asked me to do with their accounting data,” Doris says, “and if I
make mistakes, I own them. My integrity is more important than any particular
client.”
E. Conclusion
I mentioned near the beginning that strong moral character
is of high importance to those whom I interviewed. Kevin Boonstra strongly
reinforced this view:
A
Christian businessperson is far more likely to fight a situation based on
principle (e.g., a human rights case), even when the cost to make it go away
would be relatively small. There is a reason for this: principle means something.
I believe that the participants in this study have
wonderfully demonstrated his observation. We have reason to be optimistic that
role models of strong moral character and faith-infused principles abound in
our business community.
1. Debra Fieguth, “Meet Some of
Canada’s Marketplace Missionaries,” Faith
Today, May/June 2012.
2. Laura L. Nash, “The Evangelical
CEO,” Across the Board, February
1994.
3. John R. Sutherland, “Justice: The
Key to Business Ethics and Goals,” CRUX, vol.
XXXI, no. 1, March 1995.
4. Jim Wishloff, “Catholic social thought and business ethics,” Review
of Business, Volume 25, Number 1, Winter 2004.
