The Marketplace Magazine May/June 2016

May June 2016

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Howard Brenneman:

Leading with heart, doing the right thing

The secret life of business heroes How staff heard the call to serve From sol to soul in Nicaragua

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Roadside stand

There’s green...

And then there’s green. One means eco-friendly and the other means, you know, the green stuff. Both can benefit from cleaner workplace air, writes Kerry Freek in Corporate Knights. Owners know that green buildings pay off with a smaller carbon footprint, good publicity and eventual cost savings. Another ROI is productivity. Organizations like the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment suggest reducing indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide makes employees more productive. “People who work in well-ventilated offices with belowaverage levels of indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide have significantly higher cognitive functioning scores than those who work in offices with typical levels,” says Joseph Allen, director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings program. Better air quality leads to better employee decisions in crisis response, strategy and information

usage. Efforts are ongoing to improve monitoring and proving positive linkages.

Workplace blahs? Office disengagement costs the U.S. $550 billion a year, reports TIME magazine. One way to improve well-being and productivity, the experts say, is to simply accept the fact that work won’t always be great. Other ways to reduce stress on the job: • Do a quick favor, like fetching coffee for someone who’s having a bad day. Even a small favor can help you connect with others, which helps you recover from your own stress.

• Hide your cellphone. It’s hard to believe, but studies say just being able to see your cellphone impairs your ability to focus on difficult tasks. Other research also says “the mere presence of a phone also made people trust and like each other less than if it weren’t present.”

Digital marketing position

JMX Brands, a Mennonite-owned company, seeks a fulltime Digital Marketing Specialist to help create/distribute content (including blogs, email, social media, Web) and expand the firm’s digital footprint, awareness, leads and sales. This position will improve our search rank for key terms in all phases of our sales funnel. Responsibilities include: build and manage our social media profiles and presence, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Houzz, Polyvore and potentially additional channels; drive consistent, relevant traffic and leads from our social presence; explore new ways to engage and new social networks to reach our target buyers; coordinate other team members’ social media work; develop and implement a vision for the blog that creates a community and usable/shareable content; write or recruit others to produce blog articles on a wide range of topics; write captivating emails that inform customers about products and enhance their lives & MUCH MORE! Ideal candidate will have proven success in content distribution and/or public relations; understand SEO. Ecommerce experience and bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field preferred. Experience with photo editing a plus. Please email resume and cover letter to sandra@jmxbrands.com

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Palliser Furniture of Winnipeg was the lone Manitoba company named to Canada’s Best Managed Companies list for 2015. It was one of 50 companies across Canada to receive recognition for excellence in innovative management and business performance. The company traces its roots back to the 1940s when it was founded by Abram DeFehr, an early MEDA member.

Celebrating women. For the past two years MEDA’s “20 under 35: Young Professionals Changing the World” initiative has recognized 40 young people for their commitment to faith, service and entrepreneurship. To align with the 2016 convention theme of “Women Changing the World,” this fall’s initiative will be called “10 Young Women Changing the World.” Besides honoring the economic role of women around the world “we want to celebrate that here at home, too,” says Ethan Eshbach, MEDA’s coordinator of engagement activities. To make a nomination visit www.meda. org/10youngwomen WiFi worship. You’re sitting in church and the person in the next pew is hunched over a mobile device. You assume she is taking notes on the sermon, right? A new survey, reported in Christianity Today, shows that a quarter of churchgoers use gizmos to “connect with faith or inspiration” during the service, such as looking up Scriptures or songs.

Another quarter confess to using cell phones in church to text, post on social media or play games. — WK

Cover photo of Howard Brenneman by Joni Dusek Photography. Background by iStock.

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In this issue

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Leading with heart

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The secret life of business heroes

People in business don’t always get the credit they deserve for unsung good deeds or for going the second mile when they didn’t have to. Here are a few “moments of grace” from our archives.

A certified boost for Nicaraguan farmers. Page 20

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Beyond the outhouse

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Hearing the call

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From sol to soul

Departments 22 Roadside stand 24 Soul enterprise 22 Soundbites

Volume 46, Issue 3 May June 2016 The Marketplace (ISSN 321-330) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2016 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks

Want to be a great leader? For starters, look to the future, get things done and treat people with dignity, according to the former head of Hesston Corporation and MMA. By JB Miller

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org

It was a fine facility — a nifty multi-seat toilet guaranteed to provide efficient sanitation relief for African villagers. But someone hadn’t done their homework. By D. Merrill Ewert

Many international development workers want to scratch where the world feels an urgent itch.

At a recent planning retreat, three MEDA staff described how they heard their call to serve the poor.

A thriving company in Nicaragua is capturing the bounty of sun-dried organic fruit — bringing tasty, nutritious food to grocery store shelves and healthy profits to farmers. By Ethan Eshbach

For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-4106

Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026.

Web site www.meda.org

Visit our new online home at www.marketplacemagazine.org, where you can download past issues, read articles and discuss topics with others, all from your desktop or mobile device.

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Business & baseball When Ewing Kauffman launched the Kansas City Royals in 1969 he had enjoyed phenomenal success in the pharmaceutical industry and was determined to apply his expertise to the game of baseball. According to Royals alum Buck Martinez, Kauffman had “distilled his management philosophy down to three main points: Treat others as you want to be treated; share life’s rewards with those who make them possible; and give back to society. He took this philosophy with him into his new baseball venture.” — Former Royals catcher Buck Martinez in Change Up: How to Make the Great Game of Baseball Even Better

New skills in Myanmar Cavelle Dove is passionate about empowering impoverished women. As director of MEDA’s new project in Myanmar, she helps women seize new business opportunities in the country’s changing economic environment.

Even before working for MEDA she was active in similar pursuits in Yangon, Myanmar. She and a Canadian friend, Kelly MacDonald, opened the Bakehouse, a catering business that gives struggling women a foothold in the new economy.

Visit their kitchens in Yangon and you’ll see women measure and mix ingredients for baked goods or prepare vegetables for fresh salads and soups, while gaining marketable skills.

When the ruling military Cavelle Dove junta recently relaxed restrictions on such enterprises, Dove and MacDonald saw a double opportunity to provide healthy Western-style food that wasn’t widely available and at the same time equip disadvantaged women to embrace new opportunities. In 2012 they began the Bakehouse in MacDonald’s kitchen and expanded it a year later.

The 10-month apprenticeship program teaches skills ranging from kitchen food safety and hygiene to English. Seventy women have thus far completed the program, most finding better jobs paying an average of $45 U.S. a month, up to seven times what they earned before.

Apprentice Moe Moe Swe, for example, previously made $6 a month as a seamstress, not enough to support her young son. Thin Liang earned a pittance cleaning up stray bottles at a brewery. Now, she says, “I am really proud because I get the success and chances that I never dreamed of in my life.”

The Bakehouse provides catering services to several major companies in Yangon. A big new client is Coca Cola, which was allowed back into Myanmar after being banned for many years and needed food services in its new corporate headquarters.

“We provide their lunch program,” says Dove. “It’s quite exciting.”

Since starting her work with MEDA Dove has cut back her daily role with the business, though she is still on its board and spends a few hours a week on Bakehouse activity. To learn more about her call to empower women, see her meditation on page 19.

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Still good for Thee The bowl of porridge is still a healthy way to start the day, but Quaker it is not. Quaker Oats, that is. Despite the name, there reportedly is no religious connection beyond the company founder reading about Quakers in an encyclopedia more than a century ago.

Nor does Quaker State motor oil have religious roots other than being named for Pennsylvania, the state founded by Quaker leader William Penn.

Many commercial products, from rugs to hosiery to bathtubs to chamber pots were given Quaker names because marketers and consumers of the time associated Quaker with quality, says Christian History magazine in its recent issue on “The Surprising Quakers.”

Still, the Quaker influence on business was noteworthy. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Quaker-owned businesses set a moral tone for society by providing housing and benefits for their employees. Moreover, Quaker business and religious leaders played a key role in abolishing slavery.

The magazine notes that three iconic British chocolate companies — Cadbury, Fry and Rowntree — were founded by devout Quakers who were known to treat their workers with respect and provide good pay, health care and educational opportunities. None of the three companies are still in Quaker hands.

Two of Britain’s most esteemed financial institutions, Barclays and Lloyds, began as Quaker companies.

Closer to home, telegram giant Western Union was founded by Quaker educator and politician Ezra Cornell, who also co-founded Cornell University. “The company passed out of Quaker hands in 1881 and in 2006 discontinued the telegram service that had made it a communications empire,” says Christian History.

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Honoring the past Disney painter Jacob Wiens aboard his work of art.

If you take your kids to Disneyland and ride the narrow gauge railroad, check out the paint on the engine. You might detect a special sheen, thanks to Jacob Wiens of Reedley, Calif.

Wiens was part of the team that recently restored Disneyland’s steam locomotives, which had a special place in the heart of founder Walt Disney.

In an interview with the Christian Leader, the U.S. Mennonite Brethren magazine, Wiens talked about the perfection expected by the Disney folk, who want things “smooth like plastic.” What spiritual lessons could be gleaned from the trainloving community? “The older guys are always ready to help you learn,” said Wiens. “They want to pass down the knowledge to the next generation.

And people like my boss always refer back to what the previous generation have passed down to him.”

Guarding your tongue An unexpected productivity metric in Proverbs is that by taking care of our words, and not simply our farm management techniques, we nourish or feed many. We become productive to the extent that our lips or words nourish life. Proverbs 13:3 stresses how good words actually save us and not simply feed those around us — “Those who guard their lips save their lives.”

Think for a moment of the scope of relationships in your family business. You have family members, employees, suppliers, the professionals with whom you deal, your community. Each of these relationships has its own dynamics and potential pitfalls. Words rashly spoken or even gestures inappropriately given can set back relationships, and productivity, considerably.

And, as we all know, sometimes it is so very difficult to hold back those words or gestures.

Yet the Book of Proverbs emphasizes that what saves us in these situations is not our brilliant mind or our negotiating skill – what saves us is our care with words. Elsewhere Proverbs says: “Do you see the person who is rash with words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Prov. 29:20).

The fool is one who answers at once, without thinking through what she or he wants to say, while the wise person weighs or ponders a response. Take time to calibrate your words with as much care as you measure other things essential to you. You just may discover that your words will save your life. — Dr. Bill Long in Ag Progress Dispatch, used with permission

Overheard:

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“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” — Mark Twain

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Leading with heart Some qualities of leadership can’t be taught.

Howard Brenneman seems to have them all.

by JB Miller

H

oward Brenneman has been blessed with dual lifelong traits: looking to the future and getting things done. As a teenager in the 1950s, he’d leave his Kansas home in summers to pick fruit in Oregon and follow the grain harvest across the Plains. The long hours and hard work were in pursuit of gaining a college education. Reaching that goal was a mere first step to larger accomplishments over the following years.

Born in Edmonton, Alta., Brenneman spent his early years in Hesston, Kan., where his parents had moved to in 1942. His father farmed and later worked for the Hesston Corporation, a farm equipment company incorporated in 1947. Howard met Sharon King while they were students at Hesston Academy; they married in 1959.

That same year Brenneman enrolled in Hesston College and also worked in Hesston Corporation’s accounting department. Following graduation from Hesston College, he went on to earn a degree in economics and sociology from Bethel College in nearby Newton, Kan. He was then accepted into the MBA program at Stanford University; however, with the birth of his and Sharon’s son, Greg, the first of three sons, Brenneman took an accounting position at Hesston Corporation rather than enrol at Stanford.

“I wasn’t a good accountant,” Brenneman recalls with a chuckle.

“It was too routine and too confining. I always wanted to do the next thing and I was impatient.”

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Fortunately, that impatience was recognized as an asset by mentors, who encouraged him to gain broader management and leadership experience. Early in his career, one of Hesston Corporation’s manufacturing facilities in Italy experienced production and quality problems that no one seemed able to solve.

Brenneman was sent to assess the operations. He returned home with a plan that was adopted and proved successful; a long-term problem finally solved!

Soon after, Brenneman moved out of accounting and into long-range planning and marketing. In 1973 he was put in charge of all U.S. operations and one year later, at age 34, he was made president.

By then, Hesston Corporation was a publicly traded company, with some 3,000 employees and manufacturing units in North America, Europe and Australia. The strong Hesston brand was known throughout the farming world.

15,000 units to a few hundred units,” he recalls. “And at the same time the farm economy soured.”

Sales plunged and decisive action had to be taken. “Just a couple of years before I had been made president, and now we had to lay off a significant number of people, many who I went to church with,” Brenneman says. “It was by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, and the darkest time of my professional career, but it taught me a lot.

Not long after

Brenneman became president, the company faced a crisis. “In the mid-70s the round baler entered the market, which cut the size of the market for Hesston’s Stakhand hay baler from a projected

Leader in the making: Howard Brenneman in 1974 as the new CEO of Hesston Corporation.

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Photo by Joni Dusek

I learned that as a leader I had to listen to criticism, but I couldn’t let it paralyze me. I had to respond and I needed to lead.”

With a deepening farm crisis, Brenneman focused on saving as many jobs as possible but he knew outside resources were needed. “I like to say that it took about 25 minutes to borrow $25 million and about 25 years to pay it off,” he says.

In 1977 Fiat purchased an interest in the company and began importing tractors while the Hesston operations focused on manufacturing other farm equipment that was distributed worldwide. Brenneman served as president and CEO of the Hesston entity until 1986.

The Brennemans’ son Greg, in his recently published book Right

“I learned that as a leader I had to listen to criticism, but I couldn’t let it paralyze me.”

Away & All At Once, described his father during those difficult days: “Through it all, Dad refused to get angry. He did what he knew he had to do, while continuing to treat everyone in a dignified and respectful way. He handled the painful situation with incredible grace. Over and over he did the right thing.”

From 1986 to 1991 he worked as a consultant with no particular plans to return to corporate life. However, in 1991 he accepted the position of president and CEO of Mennonite Mutual Aid, (now Everence). “I had done some consulting for MMA, but I was not a health insurance expert,” he says. “However, I did know that the health insurance industry was facing a crisis. Premiums were rising and becoming unaffordable.”

While some people were recommending that MMA get out of the individual health insurance business, Brenneman knew many people de-

Enjoying grandparenting duties: Howard and Sharon Brenneman today.

pended on the health insurance that MMA provided. Exiting the business did not seem viable or compatible with mutual aid concepts, since it would have resulted in many people with pre-existing conditions being uninsurable. Instead Brenneman brought his crisis management and leadership experience to MMA. Through his visionary leadership MMA/Everence was able to provide individual health insurance until the introduction of the Affordable Care Act which provided coverage for persons regardless of pre-existing 7

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condition beginning in 2014.

One of the gifts Brenneman

brought to MMA was the ability to chart a vision for the company and look to the future. He was given a mandate by the board to diversify the company beyond its primary focus of health insurance. With his vision and leadership, the company was reshaped, moving from a primary focus of health insurance to a company focused on providing a full range of financial services undergirded with an emphasis on biblical stewardship.

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A key component was the development of a distribution system consisting of offices with financial advisors in key Anabaptist communities. New products were also developed including the introduction of the Praxis Mutual Funds and Everence Trust Company.

Transitioning from the for-profit corporate world to a church-related company was not always easy. “People in the corporate world are much more direct, and they get to the point quicker,” he says. “The church world is usually more passive-aggressive.

But working in a church-related environment provides for a much longer time horizon. In the corporate world there was so much emphasis on quarterly results, at MMA we could take a much longer approach, and that can be a benefit.”

Having experienced the pain of Hesston Corporation under financial stress, at MMA Brenneman was adamant about building and maintaining

When times were tough, son Greg recalls, “Dad refused to get angry. He did what he knew he had to do, while continuing to treat everyone in a dignified and respectful way.”

a strong financial foundation with reserves to ensure it would be able to weather economic downturns and crises. His visionary leadership proved invaluable during the recent recession. Steve Bowers who served as vice-president of marketing at Everence reflected on Brenneman’s time at MMA. “Howard is a gifted natural leader and visionary. He will challenge you to think about how to do things better or what comes next. There are certain qualities of leadership that can’t be taught, and Howard has them all.”

When asked what makes a good leader, Brenneman identified the following. A leader: 1. articulates a vision and sets a direction with clearly stated goals and objectives 2. identifies leaders and mentors them. Staff development is critical for a healthy organization Running a successful business is “indeed a work 3. identifies key of art,” Howard Brenneman said in his 1996 MEDA drivers for the success convention speech on “Keeping Your Organization of the organization in Tune.”

4. constantly monitors results — you can’t expect what you don’t inspect 5. delegates, don’t micromanage, leave the details to the operations people. They’re the ones who will get you to where you want to go 6. faces criticism head-on, listens carefully, and adjusts if necessary.

Don’t let it paralyze you. Learn from it and move forward.

7. gives people the freedom to fail. Not everything is going to work out as planned, but fear of failure by employees will stifle creativity that is the lifeblood of a vibrant organization.

“It’s also important for a leader to be surrounded by people who are motivational and provide spark to the workplace,” Brenneman notes.

“People who sap energy should be avoided.”

Those who know Brenneman

point to his keen insights and leadership. Bruce Harder, chair of MMA’s board during Brenneman’s tenure, observed that, “Howard is a strong, authoritative, wise leader who can produce results, but is in fullest essence a sensitive humble man with a true heart of compassion.”

While Brenneman retired in 2005, he continues to look to the future and leads a very active life.

In addition to grandparenting duties that he and Sharon thoroughly enjoy, he serves on numerous boards, many of them family businesses where he’s able to provide advice and counsel from his years of executive leadership.

“Sometimes a non-family board member can be more objective,” he observes.

Having had the benefits of strong mentors early in his career, Brenneman particularly enjoys the opportunity to mentor younger business leaders. “It’s one way I can give back,” he says, “and I’m grateful for the opportunities.” ◆

JB Miller recently retired to his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, after a 24-year career at Everence.

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The secret life of business heroes Moments of grace from the annals of The Marketplace People in business are used to criticism; it comes with the territory. They may be less accustomed to being acknowledged when they go the second mile.

Here are a few such glimpses from our archives.

“You may have already won...”

“I’m quitting my job; I’ve just won a million dollars.”

That could have been music to the ears of one Mennonite businessman who heads a large manufacturing firm. The employee was a marginal performer anyway, and with the recession in high gear this would mean one less person to “downsize.”

But the employee’s windfall had a suspicious odor. Further checking revealed that the million dollars was actually a mail scam of the “You may have already won” variety. Moreover, the employee, 63, was going through emotional difficulties that sometimes clouded his judgement.

“He would have been doing us a favor by leaving,” the CEO recalls, “but we knew we had to talk him out of it. We persuaded him to delay his decision until he actually received the check.”

Of course, the check never came.

The employee stayed on until retirement.

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About your invoice...

It was in the midst of a recession. A young businessman was asked to tell his Sunday school class how he was coping with the pressure of mounting debt. He laid it all out. He’d been caught short on several projects and sub-trades were impatiently waiting to be paid. He was burning the candle on both ends trying to keep it all together and his family was suffering from the stress he couldn’t seem to leave at the jobsite. He didn’t know how we was going to

pay all his debts.

At the back of the class one man was listening intently. He’d been through it himself, numerous times.

Not only that, one of his companies held the paper on a five-figure overdue invoice the young man had talked about.

When the class concluded, the older businessman walked quietly to the front and pushed a note into the young man’s hand. It said, “Your debt is forgiven.” ◆

Touched by an angel?

Bill, a successful property developer, was driving into Dallas when he came up behind a battered SUV pulling an overloaded trailer. He was intrigued by the Christian bumper stickers on the back of the trailer.

As he pulled alongside he saw that the vehicle was jammed with passengers. When it edged toward an exit lane, Bill impulsively followed to a service station where 11 people folded out of the vehicle. Bill chatted with them.

They were two unemployed minority families headed for Florida where a relative suggested they might find work. They were traveling non-stop to save motel money. The food they had packed was gone, but they were in good spirits and beThe Marketplace May June 2016

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lieved God would provide.

Bill offered to buy them dinner and put them up at the hotel where he was staying. They hesitated, but Bill insisted.

The hotel clerk wasn’t pleased.

His highbrow clientele wouldn’t appreciate “those kind of people.”

Bill persisted and promised to pay for their rooms and buy them appropriate clothing. He helped move their luggage because the bell-boys refused.

After buying them fresh clothing Bill took them to dinner and also bought them breakfast the next day.

Before they departed he gave them his business card and all the cash he had, which was several hundred dollars.

Days later, when he was back home in California, he received a phone call. Was this Bill, the man who had helped them? Yes it was, Bill said. “We had to check,” the caller said. “We didn’t think you were real. We thought we’d met an angel in Dallas.”

Bill assured the caller that he was not an angel. Just a real human being. ◆

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Leica’s “Freedom Train” neck as they emigrated, which they could sell for quick resettlement cash if needed.

The Leica Freedom Train ran regularly in the late 1930s, transporting Jewish refugees to the U.S. every few weeks until Germany

closed its borders. By then hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America.

The story remained untold for years. The Leitz family resisted publicity, insisting any decent person would have done the same thing. ◆

On Schindler’s list

In the 1930s and beyond, Leica’s compact 35 mm camera revolutionized photography and photojournalism. Less known was the company’s heroic effort to smuggle Jews out of Germany to escape the Holocaust.

Shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Ernst Leitz II, the son of Leica’s founder, began getting appeals from Jewish employees who saw handwriting on the wall. Leitz, a Protestant, quietly set up the “Leica Freedom Train” to help Jews leave.

He would “assign” employees and their families to new posts in sales offices in the United States, a major market. Other employees were given temporary support until they found jobs elsewhere. All were given a new Leica camera to wear around their

A movie sensation of 1993 was Schindler’s List, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The movie depicts real-life Oskar Schindler as a Nazi Party member and war-profiteer who secretly used his business influence to save 1,200 Polish Jewish refugees by employing them in his factories and keeping them out of death camps.

A few years ago Leon Leyson, now deceased, visited Winnipeg and spoke to 600 Mennonite high school students about his experience as a teenager being the youngest worker on Schindler’s famous list. He attributed his escape from a Nazi death camp to Schindler’s personal intervention. In his speech, and in subsequent interviews with The Marketplace, Leyson described Schindler as a man of great principle who risked his life to save others. Here are some highlights of what Leyson told the students: 11

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All that stood between our family and the death camps was Oskar Schindler.

Schindler had come to Poland as a war profiteer. He ran a factory that made kitchen goods. My father, a craftsman, was the first Jew he hired, and then he hired other Jews.

As a youngster I, too, worked for Schindler, first in a brush factory, making pushbrooms. Later I operated a lathe.

Schindler was kind to me. He’d call me to his office and give me an extra ration of food, which I would take back and share with my father and brother.

One day when things looked especially bleak Schindler came to my father, put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay.”

He had a spark of humanity. He used his clout to save Jews.

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from the death camps.

After the war my parents and I were sent to a displaced persons camp in Germany for three years.

Word finally reached relatives in the U.S. that we were still alive, and we moved to Los Angeles to start a new life.

People often ask, How accurate

cupants to a concentration camp, Schindler persuaded them to let him build a sub-camp adjacent to his factory, arguing that it was inefficient and bad business for them to be escorted back and forth from the concentration camp.

Schindler couldn’t save all his employees. In the brush factory where I worked, one after the other were taken. But Schindler managed to save many. My father and brother, and later my mother, were scheduled to be sent to the death camp, but Schindler intervened.

One day my father, brother and I were put on a list to go “somewhere.” When Schindler found out about it, he ordered us on the spot to move to the group that was staying.

The ones who left all perished.

He bribed to make sure all the women who were being sent to die were saved. One of those was my mother, who was taken out of a group that was going to be gassed.

This was 1944.

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was the movie, Schindler’s List. If anything, it understated the reality.

Schindler was a much better person in real life than he was shown in the movie.

He died a poor man. He spent his whole fortune saving Jews, simply because he thought it was the right thing to do. ◆

Not my enemy In the 1930s and 40s, C.A. DeFehr, a prominent businessman in Winnipeg and later one of the founders of MEDA, had an active business selling appliances across the Canadian prairies. One of his regular suppliers was a family in Germany, with whom he had formed a long friendship. In the summer of 1939 DeFehr placed an order for several carloads of cream separators. But by the time they arrived in Winnipeg, World War 2 had erupted and Canada and Germany were officially enemies.

DeFehr was notified by the Canadian government: “We have a shipment of cream separators in our possession. They come from Germany, our enemy, and we have seized them. They now belong to us, but we have no use for them so you have the first option to buy them from us.”

DeFehr still needed the merchandise. The government sold him the

entire shipment for a tiny fraction of its value.

When the war ended in 1945, DeFehr re-established contact with the German supplier and reported, “Those cream separators are still on our books.”

DeFehr had kept track of the debt during the war years. He had subtracted the nominal amount he paid the Canadian government, and reinvested the balance in his company. When the war ended he calculated the appreciated value of the investment.

“That money is now waiting for you,” he said.

For the family in Germany, the money was an unexpected windfall.

It helped them rebuild their lives.

For C.A. DeFehr, paying this debt, even when there was no legal obligation to do so, was simply part of what it meant to be a Christian in business. Acts of integrity, after all, transcend acts of war. ◆

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Beyond the outhouse It seemed simple enough: build a community toilet for African villagers. But someone didn’t do their homework.

by D. Merrill Ewert

I

stood uncertainly in front of an outhouse in West Africa, trying to figure out what was supposed to happen next.

A crowd of several hundred people waited expectantly behind me. I had just offered a prayer dedicating the facility and cut the ribbon across the entrance.

After a moment, I stepped inside but nobody followed. I stood there scratching my head. Was I supposed to inaugurate the outhouse, or simply admire it. I chose the latter.

Stepping back outside, I announced to the waiting audience that this new facility was indeed a fine piece of work. I moved aside as people crowded in to see it for themselves.

My colleague and I were guests of a community development agency that had arranged for us to help celebrate the completion of a local well and the dedication of the community outhouse. My colleague had made a short speech at the ceremony in honor of the new well and I had been asked to dedicate the outhouse.

Although somewhat dubious about a community toilet — having never seen one before in Africa — I assumed that project planners had done their homework.

That toilets contribute to

good sanitation is a well-established principle of community health.

When communities use them, it reduces the spread of intestinal parasites and certain infectious diseases.

The theory behind this toilet is quite simple. It is designed to be a

small square structure usually built with sticks, mud and grass — with a door and a roof (but no windows) — resting on a cement slab over a six-foot pit. A six-inch pipe running through the slab carries the smell from the pit and releases it into the air.

As the wind blows across the pipe (which is warmed by the sun), it creates a convection current flowing from the pit to the sky. When the outhouse is positioned so that the door faces in the direction of the prevailing winds, the air flows through the cracks into the structure, down the hole, and then up the pipe.

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generally fly in the direction of light.

Since the outhouse is dark, the flies attempt to escape up the pipe (aided by the current) to the only sunlight they can see. When they reach the top of the pipe, however, they are stopped by a wire mesh, quickly die in the heat, and fall back into the pit.

In this way, the outhouse instituted as a community health measure doubles as a fly trap.

The project’s staff had borrowed the basic design from a nearby university but decided to improve upon it. The one-person model, perceived as too small and inefficient, was replaced by a larger The Marketplace May June 2016

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structure with 12 holes. The unit was divided into two sections, one side for women and the other side for men. Each had six positions (holes), centered front-to-back. This meant that a dozen people (six men and six women) could use the outhouse at the same time, thereby reducing waiting. Not having to wait, it was assumed, people would be more likely to use it instead of relieving themselves behind the bushes. Combining a men’s toilet and a women’s toilet into the same structure also resulted in additional savings in labor and materials.

Windows provided light in place of the usually dark interiors and the structure was positioned to maximize the sunlight. For aesthetic reasons, the builders ran the pipe up the inside wall rather than the outside.

A less costly four-inch ventilation pipe was substituted for the recommended six-inch pipe.

These impressive new outhouses, perceived by project designers as a visual symbol of effective community health practice, were built in several dozen villages. Since they were much more expensive than traditional stick and mud structures, the agency provided some of the building materials to the communities without charge and assigned a team of construction workers to do much of the work for the people.

One year after this dedication,

a team of outside evaluators visited the project and learned several interesting facts.

First, people in these communities took turns using the toilets rather than taking advantage of their multi-person capacity. This reflected both the desire for privacy as well as a very practical concern. People would generally use the position nearest the entrance. The outhouses were so narrow that the knees of anyone squatting over a hole would extend forward making it impossible for anyone else to move past the person to the next stall. Since it is considered inappropriate to walk

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behind people relieving themselves, only one person would use the facility at a time. Although each side was designed to be used simultaneously by six people, this large new facility functionally served one at a time.

The windows brightened the room so the flies could move freely between the pit and the open air.

Instead of serving as a trap, the outhouse became a breeding ground for flies. The ventilation pipe running up the inside wall stayed cooler than it would have on the outside. This reduced the flow of air up the pipe and increased the smell, thereby attracting even more flies. It also reduced the ability of the flies to move up the pipe — not that they would want to — since they could already move freely in and out of the pit with the aid of light from the sun.

By facing the outhouse in the direction of the sun, the builders had inadvertently positioned it away from prevailing winds. This provided additional light for attracting flies and reduced the ventilation. It also increased the smell and made people less likely to use the facility

and more likely to relieve themselves behind the bushes.

In short, the outhouse project was a complete failure.

This story suggests several

important lessons for development workers: 1. Cultural sensitivity. Many development workers arrogantly assume they understand the problems and issues facing poor communities.

With little regard for local customs, they construct monuments to their own lack of cultural sensitivity.

Development workers who respect people begin by learning about the culture of their hosts. Outside interventions, however well-intentioned and innocuous, are almost always profoundly affected by cultural patterns that must be understood before desired changes can be successfully introduced.

2. Local participation. When people participate in designing and implementing programs that affect their own communities, it not only promotes local ownership over the process but reduces the number of

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white elephants created by outside experts. Development agencies that promote community participation can draw on indigenous knowledge and implement activities consistent with traditional cultural patterns.

Communities that make their own decisions have a vested interest in designing activities that conform to local conditions.

3. Sustainability. Funding pressures sometimes lead organizations to create visible symbols of human progress constructed with bricks and mortar. These often appear outwardly impressive. It is much more difficult, however, to document the process through which local communities slowly and quietly solve their own problems. Projects that mobilize people to initiate their own activities are much more sustainable than those that do things for people.

4. Learning. Development workers who value form over substance sometimes invest more energy in

building structures than in helping people learn new behavioral patterns. The world is full of unused toilets built by agencies with the goal of improving community health. That many of them remain unused is a testimony to the people’s lack of understanding of sanitation. Although outwardly impressive, this particular outhouse was under-utilized as a sanitation facility and was active in producing flies that spread disease throughout the community.

5. Humility. Activists seeking to remedy the world’s ills often fail to recognize that they know less about possible solutions than they do about the problems. Things are seldom that simple. Solutions that make sense on the surface often overlook hidden nuances that affect the impact of proposed changes designed to improve local conditions. More humility might encourage development workers to move more carefully before assuming they

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understand the answers to community problems.

It is unlikely that I will ever

dedicate another outhouse. If I do, it will probably be small, built of mud and sticks, and consistent with local customs. I hope that people will have built it themselves and understand how well-designed toilets can improve sanitation and hygiene, and reduce the number of flies in the community.

I also hope that someone will explain to me what I am supposed to do after I offer the prayer and cut the ribbon. ◆

D. Merrill Ewert is president emeritus of Fresno (Calif.) Pacific University. A development specialist, he earlier taught at University of Maryland, Wheaton College and Cornell University.

After retiring from FPU in 2012, he was an advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Education in Washington. He and his wife Priscilla live in Arizona where he writes and consults on higher education. His article first appeared in this magazine in 1994.

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How we hear our call MEDA staff weigh in on how they’ve sensed the urge to serve

A

noted preacher often asked: “What do you think God had in mind when creating you?”

Many of us do our daily work out of a sense of “call.” It may not be a dramatic nocturnal summons like young Samuel heard in the Old Testament, but it is still an urge that shapes our daily pursuits and makes us want to scratch where the world really feels an itch.

MEDA workers share a common call — to use business skills to serve the poor. For people of faith, this call resonates across history. It was alluded to by the prophet Isaiah: “...

If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always and will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land.... You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings” (Is. 58:10-12).

At a recent strategic planning session MEDA staff examined their

next three-year plan in the context of “call.” How did they hear this call — like a mighty wind, or an earthquake? Society seems to like a bombastic voice, but calls can come in other ways. Sometimes the voice of the Lord comes not as a mighty wind or an earthquake, but as a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13).

Staff were encouraged to be alert for subtle nudges and echoes — the voices of clients, each other, the groaning of the planet, the plaintive cries of those who feel marginalized.

At the closing worship service, three staff members shared how they heard the call to serve the poor.

Asking more of business

by Devon Krainer, Waterloo, Ont.

M

y childhood was like a familiar, long hike in the woods. At times it was tiring — we hiked rain or shine, but mostly it was a happy time. During our hikes, my family and I walked together; taking in spectacular hilltop views, each astounded by the wonders of mother nature. My childhood was one of security and love. We didn’t grow up following a particular religion.

Getting up at 6:30 a.m. every weekend to go outdoors was our way of worship.

My childhood was also very comfortable. I grew up in an upper middle class home in Vancouver. I was sheltered from tragedy, and most pains of the world. I did not know The Marketplace May June 2016

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the aching of not having enough for dinner. I did not know the hollowness of foster homes.

When it came time for me to go to university, I chose to take business. Business wasn’t based on any passion. I wasn’t even that good at it. I simply wanted to ensure that I’d be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle. My decision was based on fear of losing what I had enjoyed so much during my upbringing.

Upon joining business school, I was swept up into a fiercely competitive program. Every student was vying for a coveted internship with Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. It was Devon Krainer: Getting beyond old ideas and the status quo.

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in this intense environment that I heard the call.

In class, the students with the top jobs were also those most loyal to traditional business thinking. They were firm believers in restricting business’s involvement in helping society. Profits and shareholders were the only priority. It was during this competitive frenzy that I started to feel a twisting feeling in my stomach.

I came to realize that I could not share the views of my peers. I could not be inspired by smart people who only spoke of cost cutting strategies and market share tactics; who believed that business was self-serving.

We were the leaders of tomorrow. I expected us to show courage and in-

Amid the frenzied business-school preoccupation with profits and market share, she heard a call to a riskier path. novation, not sell out to old ideas.

And so I was called. I heard the call to rebel — to believe that business could be more. I became curious about new ideas and models.

I slowly gained confidence to use

my skills in ways I was not taught.

I completed a graduate diploma in social innovation. I lived in Ethiopia as a MEDA intern. I made my first impact investment. These experiences only reinforced the call I had first heard in the halls of business school.

My departure from the status quo took me on a journey I could never have anticipated, one that my childhood self would think as far too risky. Yet the mountain trail I have chosen has felt more like my childhood than any other path. It is the most love-filled and familiar place.

And it is what I call home. ◆ Devon Krainer, a program manager in monitoring and evaluation, measures the impacts of various MEDA projects.

Tugging at an invisible leash

by Intissar K. Rajabany, Libya

I

n 2006 I had been successfully working for over 10 years in a giant international oil and gas company in Libya and enjoying all the perks that come with it. It was a dream job for any Libyan! I reported directly to the general manager so the sky was the limit. I was well established, known and respected with a guaranteed career for life. However, there was what I could only describe as a scuffling feeling in my heart. I felt this could not be what I wanted to do for the rest of my life but I did not really know what I was looking for or how to get it.

Then I received a phone call from a wonderful mentor, the late Carl Reuter, then director of the British Council in Libya, who said, “Intissar, why have you not applied for the positions we have advertised? I have told you to do so since the summer.

You know that is what you want to do.” I had not even given a thought

Intissar Rajabany, top right, with a group of Libyan women upon completion of their course in business skills.

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was not completely to his suggestion prior satisfied and when to that day because MEDA approached me who would want to in 2012 with the Libya leave all my stability Women Economic for an unknown entity Project that they were and for a role I had planning to start from zero experience in, and scratch — I was ready! be expected to lead Now the voices I and manage develophear are the women ment projects in a who say things like country that has never this after attending our known such institunetworking and traintions. ing activities: The deadline for • “I felt encourwhat Carl was talking aged and inspired about was that day at [meeting with leading 3 p.m. and now it was women entrepreneurs].

2 p.m! When I looked I felt there was a team at the job description I can count on for supand studied the goals port and mentorship and deliverables that when I need it because we were supposed they are experiencing to work towards I the same obstacles that cannot say I heard a I am going through whisper or stentorian and yet continue to voice but only that I make an effort with saw how I wanted to such a positive energy. be there interacting Thank you for this opwith people and beportunity.” ing able to see results • “I’m enjoying it and make a change. so much I’m actually Somehow I managed not missing my kids to submit my applicaand my home.” tion on time while all • “I came here to these thoughts were prove to others that swirling through my At this spring’s staff retreat near Toronto, Intissar Rajabany gamely these kinds of workhead. One of the most strapped on skis despite being a newcomer to snow. shops are not as sucamazing periods of my on the people’s faces — I knew that cessful as they are made out to be. I life followed as the projects my team this was my calling. I finally heard was proven wrong!” and I carried out in climate change, • “MEDA staff took the time to women’s empowerment, arts, culture that little voice.

I left this NGO world in 2010 to call repeatedly to accommodate my rejoin corporate big business. I was schedule. Not many institutes take “When I saw the still tugging at an imaginary leash the time to do that.” somewhere inside and again I found • “Thanks to this training I’ve transformation on the myself in the senior management of learned how to say no.” a top private bank that was being These are the results that I wantwomen’s faces I knew launched in Libya where I had the ed to be part of. Carl had seen what amazing role of head of communicaI could help to achieve even before this was my calling.” tions (in pre-2011 Libya oil and bank- it had crystallized in my own head. ing were the best places to be). My Somehow he had channeled the call and education in the MENA region salary could get me a new car every for me, and I am no longer tugging at (Middle East and North Africa) and month if I wanted; my transport an invisible leash. ◆ in Libya were absolutely rewarding. allowance alone was the salary of a From the scorecard results and the university professor; and the health Intissar Rajabany directs the Libya Women Economic Empowerment project in Tripoli. firsthand accounts of transformation benefits were very generous. But I The Marketplace May June 2016

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Beyond bananas

by Cavelle Dove, Myanmar

I

grew up in the most eastern part of Canada, in Newfoundland. My early years were in a very small homogenous rural community, where the most exotic thing that ever happened was that once a month we would drive to a larger centre and buy bananas. Bananas! It was a luxury and a reminder of a larger world somewhere out there.

My family were staunch believers in education; my father was the first person in our community to ever receive a university degree. My four siblings have master’s degrees.

Education was a big deal. The other early influence in my life was the local church.

In my teen years I felt a call to international work but I really didn’t know what that was. My father had passed away and we moved to an urban centre and my exposure to international work was limited primarily to missionaries who came and went at my church. When I finished high school, I felt a conflict — I wanted to serve God and work internationally but the only model I knew was the missionary one. My family was conflicted. After much turmoil, I applied to Bible school and thought that

“I had found my biblical mission — seek justice, help the oppressed, fight for the rights of widows.” now my future direction was sealed.

I was relatively confident — I was one of those smartie pants in school, graduating first in my class; I was the church pianist; in the choir; leader of

Cavelle Dove, at work on the water: using skills and values to make a difference.

the youth group. A few months later, I got a letter rejecting my application.

I was only 16 when I graduated from high school and the minimum age for Bible school was 18. I was shocked and more than anything confused and upset. I was so sure that I had heard the call. Had I heard wrong?

My second choice was university and I struggled initially to find my way. I loved those years — the different people, views, cultures, opportunities. I studied social work and fell in love, not with a person but with the concept of social justice. The scripture from Isaiah — “learn to do good. Seek Justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of the orphans. Fight for the rights of widows” — resonated with me. I had found my mission.

My first international job was in Malawi then in South Africa, where I fell in love with the people and the Afri19

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can sunset. I came back to Canada and worked with the children’s aid society where I fell in love again (but this time with a boy!), then back to southeast Asia where I worked for 15 years with a focus on women and their empowerment. It’s a far cry from my childhood where eating a banana was the height of an international experience!

I’m grateful that I get to wake up every day and use my skills and my values to make a difference in the lives of others, and that I can model this as a legacy to my children.

Finally I’m grateful to work with MEDA, as we all “hear the call” together about how collectively we can have an impact on those who need it most. ◆ Cavelle Dove directs MEDA’s new project in Myanmar, which aims to help 25,000 women grasp new business opportunities in the country’s changing economic environment.

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From sol to soul Organic sun-dried fruit brings social benefits and healthy profits to Nicaraguan farmers

by Ethan Eshbach

Y

our regular excursion to the local grocery store probably doesn’t include an exhilarating experience worth writing home about. Carrying a scribbled list of must-haves, special ingredients and maybe a guilty pleasure (chocolate, of course) serves as a gentle reminder not to go overboard.

If you’re like an increasing number of North American shoppers, however, your experience is a little more complex. You spend time perusing labels, carefully selecting the healthiest and most nutritious products for you and your family.

Your cart includes something with the word “organic” on the label and you ask yourself, “Just where is this food coming from?”

In the midst of your serpentine journey up and down the aisles you’re probably not scouring the shelves searching for a MEDA link,

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but some exist. One such stems from the fruit farms of Nicaragua, and a successful business called Burke Agro de Nicaragua, S.A. (BASA), a beneficiary of MEDA’s Techno-Links project (2011-2014).

The unlikely story of the company began in 2006, when Will Burke, a teacher of English literature at an American school in Venezuela, decided to move to Nicaragua to launch a social enterprise. Driven by his passion for the fight against food waste in Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (second only to Haiti), and his love for natural, fresh and healthy eating, Burke set out to build a company that valued farmers first.

Burke Agro, which started by manufacturing organic dried fruit, has now added a production line of organic fruit purees. The purees, sold in packets to smoothie stores around North America, are often

made with dragon fruit. Dragon fruit (also known as pitaya/pitahaya), a primitive fruit growing in popularity, features “super-food” traits, including antioxidants and essential fatty acids. BASA’s organic dried food sells to stores around North America, including Whole Foods, under BASA’s retail brand, Sol Simple (sol is Spanish for sun).

“Burke Agro is different from other fruit manufacturers,” says Liz Brittle, who directs sales and marketing for the company. “We create more value for our farmers by cutting out the middleman. Where possible, we sell directly to our partners, meaning we can invest more in our farmers.”

BASA works with fruit growers by providing training and access to markets. They have developed pickup centers where fruit farmers can drop off their produce, saving farmers the cost to have their produce

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Employees, many of them single mothers from marginalized communities, prepare organic mangoes for processing.

transported to BASA’s fruit processing facility.

The organic certification for Burke Agro products is a large portion of their value proposition.

Becoming a certified organic fruit grower, however, comes with a cost.

“With MEDA’s partnership through Techno-Links, Burke Agro certified more than 100 fruit farmers in organic farming so they could move from subsistence to success, since they get a premium price for organic production and fair trade,” says MEDA president Allan Sauder.

In 2012, MEDA encouraged Burke Agro to hire an agronomist to train more farmers in organic production.

This development increased the number of organic farmers contributing to BASA’s success. They recently hired their fifth agronomist to meet production demands.

“We create more value for our farmers by involving them throughout the entire process of production,” says Brittle.

Burke Agro works with the farmers prior to the growing season to negotiate fixed prices for the upcoming year. The company upholds the

fixed price throughout the season no matter what, ensuring a reliable income stream.

On a recent trip to Nicaragua, MEDA board members witnessed the company’s impact and success for themselves. In recent years, BASA’s staff has grown from 30 to a couple hundred. A new fruit processing facility on the Burke Agro campus, built to meet market

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demands, is now bursting at the seams.

“What inspired me was their humble start, pursuing an opportunity no one else observed, and the positive growth of the company as they developed competencies,” says Tim Penner (Harper, Kan.), vicechair of MEDA’s board.

Burke Agro’s story of success speaks to the sustainable approach MEDA takes to alleviating poverty.

The company’s growth and development means an increasing number of farmers in rural Nicaragua are able to purchase more land, send their children to school and begin the climb out of poverty.

On your next trip to the grocery store, liven things up. Take some time to think like MEDA and ponder the positive power of business.

The food you buy may enable more people to exit the cycle of poverty.

Your purchase can support sustainable livelihoods. And this time, your guilty pleasure could be some organic Sol Simple dried fruit. ◆ Ethan Eshbach, coordinator of engagement initiatives, works out of MEDA’s office in Lancaster, Pa.

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Soundbites

Job One I believe that God put businesspeople on earth to create jobs, because He means for men and women to work.

Therefore, if someone can figure out how to create jobs, then he or she has made one of the highest forms of contribution possible on this earth, not only economically and socially but spiritually as well.

When human beings find themselves out of work, all kinds of bad things happen. They take devastating hits to their self-confidence, to their self-worth, and to their sense of purpose. But if a talented businessperson can create jobs and grow companies, then apathy and discouragement give way to energy, excitement, and fulfillment. The change is

simply amazing. — Greg Brenneman in Right Away & All At Once: Five Steps to Transform Your Business and Enrich Your Life

Bad news bearers Ethical CEOs are always looking for direct reports who tell them the truth, even when it is very uncomfortable to do so. They know that they will be able to ascertain the organization’s true status only if they reward managers for candidly delivering bad news. Delivering bad news does not come naturally to highly competitive individuals seeking to advance their careers. It is only by making a conscious effort to reward individuals who deliver bad news as it happens that a CEO can gain a realistic idea of what is going on in the organization.

— Mark Pastin, CEO of the Council of Ethical Organizations, in the Globe & Mail

Costly dishonesty Imagine how productive business would be if everyone acted with complete integrity, with their word as their bond, never doing anything they wouldn’t want exposed to the whole world.

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much less need for all the time and money spent on controls, contracts, litigation, and security, and the enormous drag of transaction costs would be greatly reduced. — Charles G. Koch in Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World’s Most Successful Companies

Just business?

I shudder when I hear some businessperson say, “It’s just business,” because that usually means something is being done that would not be done if that person were doing it in the name of himself or herself.

Always remember this: If we can commit an injustice in the name of business, we can commit an injustice in the name of anything. — James A. Autry in Life and Work: A Manager’s Search for Meaning

Who? Me?

I was 19 years old when I signed with the Phillies in 1967. I had never been on a plane, never been outside of California and there I was flying to Oregon to start training. I remember I met this older guy on the plane who was obviously a baseball player. We

Comments?

Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org

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Dotage means more than pills and cruises realized we were both going to the same place and he said to me that he had heard the team had just signed a new hotshot catcher. My stomach sank — I was thinking to myself that nobody was going to care about me or want to play me if they had this new superstar. I spent the rest of the flight worrying and was still worried the next day when I got to practice.

I started sussing out the group to figure out who the new hotshot was and it took me quite a while to realize that it was me. That was a lesson in confidence that I’ll never forget.

— Buck Martinez, Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster and former MLB catcher in Change Up: How to Make the Great Game of Baseball Even Better

Marketers might want to remember what the Bible says about the righteous: “In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap” (Ps. 92:14).

Meeting the needs and wants of today’s seniors can generate lively profits to those who grasp that “old folks” want more than cruise ships and rocking chairs, writes Dan Kedlic in TIME magazine.

Getting old can be good for business, he writes. Older people have “never before had so much spending power, staying power and ambition.”

Indeed, people past the age of 50 control 70 percent of all disposable income in the U.S. Longevity has become the latest

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economic megatrend, but entrepreneurs have barely scratched the surface of the new business opportunities, according to one expert on aging.

What do people do when they get older? They volunteer, they start a small business, they take enrichment classes. They also remodel their homes, buy designer labels that will conceal flab and visit restaurants offering bold flavors for faltering taste buds.

As they do all this they want to look and feel as good as they can ... and will spend to do so.

“The next generation of retirees expects to go out in fashion and with style,” according to Joseph Couglin, an expert in longevity studies. ◆

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