How do you measure success?
The Kingdom businessperson has a different mix of measures for success. Good people, who are not running a Kingdom business, are convinced that the primary responsibility of a business is to make a profit1. While profit is essential it is not totally defining of success for a Kingdom person. A good example is the flow of blood in the body. While it is essential for life to continue living is not exclusively defined as the flow of blood through the body. Living incorporates the things we do with our body and the experiences that we have. Likewise success for a Kingdom business could be the impact on society of wealth to build churches, orphanages, and hospitals as well as retain earnings2. Success could be the impact on individuals by giving them gainful employment, by keeping them out of unhealthy activities and by sharing the gospel with them3 as well as distribution of profits to owners. Kingdom businesspersons have a different perspective of financial management, with the primary goal of being productive for the King. Jesus tells a story about using wealth to the maximum so that God receives a maximum reward in Matthew 25:1430. The measure for success, albeit numerical, was not just quantitative because the servant who earned 2 talents was rewarded like the servant who earned 5 talents. Rather the emphasis is on the trying to improve the King’s position. One more thing there was no “earner of the month” plaque posted for the one who earned 5 talents. It was a team effort for God. If you are a Kingdom businessperson the focus of your success is measured by what you try to do for the entire Kingdom, not just in the financial gains that you personally achieve. A modern day example is ServiceMaster with their first stated goal as “To honor God in all we do” and fourth stated goal as “to grow profitably”. They “seek to honor God as an end goal and recognize that growing profitably is a means goal.” (Serving Two Masters, page 2) What is wealth should be discussed here because I use the word wealth differently than most, for the Kingdom businessperson wealth is what we steward that is of value4. Individuals or groups of people seeking to improve their status, sense of well being or social change can hold wealth. Wealth can be used by individuals or groups of people for improving the status or well being of others. More than once the Bible tells the Kingdom person that wealth is not for the individual’s use only but for other too. The Kingdom businessperson must wrestle with the decision of maximizing profit Vs optimizing profit. I have written a previous article “Profit and Value” that discusses this point. The position of optimizing instead of maximizing has come
D:\Docstoc\Working\pdf\7ca89462-abf0-4afb-b12c-78f1c396836d.doc
11/15/2008
under study as recently as 2007 in a study by Zhang, Raju and Cui, which indicated that a fair price in a transaction could actually lead to more profits for all5. Proverbs 30: 7-9 says, “I have made request to you for two things; do not keep them from me before my death: put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only enough food: for fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say, Who is the Lord? Or if I am poor, I may become a thief, using the name of my God wrongly.” But you may ask, “Is a Kingdom business economically sustainable?” Specifically, can a business that has a definition of success beyond financial, a stewardship view of wealth (that we discussed earlier) and a view to optimize instead of maximize profit be able to continue for years or even decades? The short answer is yes. I turn your attention to businesses like Service Master, R. W. Beckett, LeTourneau Technologies, United States Plastic Corporation and Chick-fil-A also read the book God is My CEO for examples. But that is only in America; does it work in the rest of the world? The short answer again is yes. Dr. Fredrich Hanssmann of the School of Business, University of Munich presented a paper in which he addresses three topics one of which is will adherence to Biblical values create “Sustainable Economic Success”. He cites two studies of worldwide business that conclude that Biblical values lead to sustainable economic success throughout the world. The example that stood out to me is the difference in economic growth between Ghana and South Korea. How they were economic equals in the sixties but today South Korea is a well-developed country and Ghana is still dependent on economic aid. He points out that the difference is the embrace of Christian values in society of South Korea.6 What is your time frame for success? In many businesses it is the monthly, quarterly report, or end of year report. Going back to our analogy of the body and blood flow there are short term measures, like blood pressure, to determine if you have immediate problems and other test for long term problems. The comparison to kingdom instructions that the Lord works in His own time frame that is outside of our comprehension of time. This is expressed in II Peter 3:8 where 1000 years is like one day to God and the opposite is true one day is like 1000 years. This may be difficult to comprehend in our linear thinking world but the point is that God is outside of our time frame of reference. This of course can cause trouble when trying to make plans and accountability. The reason is that like the young women waiting for the bride groom in the parable of the lamps we may be called to account when we are not prepared. The answer is to understand what is negotiable and what is not in planning, see James 4:13-17. It is also best to make sure that you have all the right priorities covered before you move on to the “bigger and better”, see Luke 12:15-21. These examples do not tell us not to plan but to plan for the right priorities, the fool in the story in Luke’s gospel thought of only financial wealth as the goal of his strategic
D:\Docstoc\Working\pdf\7ca89462-abf0-4afb-b12c-78f1c396836d.doc
11/15/2008
plan not realizing that accountability of how he used his wealth was imminent. To plan without assuming that you alone will set the schedule, the fool in James epistle does not even check with God to see if the plan is appropriate. Conclusions 1. Get rid of the “employee of the month” award and focus on developing the team to serve God… 2. …And hold everyone accountable for his or her actions. 3. View wealth as anything for which you are responsible that has value. 4. Work on optimizing profit not maximizing it. 5. Understand what is and is not negotiable with God in planning. 6. Find God’s time frame for success.
D:\Docstoc\Working\pdf\7ca89462-abf0-4afb-b12c-78f1c396836d.doc
11/15/2008
Footnotes:
1 For a good summary of how business people in different countries view their responsibility see “Stakeholder Capitalism, Corporate Governance and Firm Value” a paper. In the USA and the UK (and therefore their countries of influence) approximately 70% of all respondents to a survey said that shareholders interests should be given first priority in a company. 2 Two examples are Port Gamble, Washington and Pullman, Illinois where during the 1800’s these two towns were built by businesses to insure housing and wholesome activities for their employees. 3 Ken Eldred puts it this way “Kingdom business professionals see their mission as multi-fold: They seek to influence employees, partners, suppliers, customers and the local community for Christ. They use business itself to demonstrate biblical business principles and set values. They serve others through quality products and helpful services. They seek to provide a venue for people to use their gifts and earn a living. They desire to create a culture of light in and around the businesses that they develop through good, biblically based business principles and the love of Jesus Christ.” In God Is at Work Regal books 2005 4 I recognize that the Lausanne Occasional Paper No 59 from 2004 Business as Missions group defines wealth as a surplus, see page 8 but this definition is neither complete nor workable. Wealth could be intellectual knowledge of value for which the measurement of a surplus would be difficult. Could one have surplus knowledge of how Internet baking works? Therefore I have a more general definition that is anything that we are given from God; hence we are stewards that have value. 5 See Knowledger@wharton article called “In the Game of Business, Playing fair Can Actually Lead to Greater Profits” for the summary of the study. While I do not agree with the study’s conclusions and find that there are many unsubstantiated anti-biblical assumptions the concept that fair is better for a seller than maximizing, in spite of the anti-Biblical assumptions, indicates validity, outside of merely a Kingdom perspective, to the concept of optimizing instead of maximizing. Of course they are discussing price and I am discussion profit, which is where I believe that the Kingdom perspective takes a different course. 6 Even more powerful argument is made that the Chinese are studying Christianity as a basis for economic growth made in this same paper.
D:\Docstoc\Working\pdf\7ca89462-abf0-4afb-b12c-78f1c396836d.doc
11/15/2008