by Henry Kaestner

So, a bit on the lighter side on this, one of the last weekends of Summer….Alpenhorn by great friend of FDE: Wilf Gasser!

by Chris Horst

as originally posted at Christianity Today

Brian Rants never thought his contribution to the world would be a $15 lamp. But for schoolchildren in Swaziland and earthquake survivors in Haiti, these solar lamps have made all the difference. Rants’s Denver-based company—Nokero, short for “no kerosene”—have allowed African students to read at night and increased safety for Haitian families living in tent cities. As vice president of marketing, Rants’s job is to get these lamps into the hands of millions of families in the developing world.

Since its founding in 2010, Nokero has sold over half a million solar lights and chargers in 120 countries, but Rants believes their work has just begun. With over a billion people worldwide still using kerosene as their primary fuel source, the need is vast. In a comprehensive study on the industry, The Economist lauded solar lights as the next big innovation for the world’s poor, noting that solar lighting is “falling in price, improving in quality and benefiting from new business models that make it more accessible and affordable to those at the bottom of the pyramid. And its spread is sustainable because it is being driven by market forces, not charity.”

Nokero’s lamps replace the need for kerosene lighting and eliminate the sweeping problems that accompany its use. Annually, over 1.5 million people die from complications arising from indoor air pollution. Over a million of these deaths are from kerosene fires. When individuals live with kerosene lamps, they experience the same health effects of smoking 40 cigarettes a day.

When Rants graduated from Grace College in 2001 with a Bible degree in hand, he didn’t want to “settle” by pursuing a business career. A decade later, Rants works at a for-profit company.

“I am very surprised to find myself in business,” Rants says. “Business seemed to be a backup plan to being a missionary. Or being a pastor like I thought I would be. It seemed like business people were just ‘extras’ in God’s story, rather than lead or even supporting actors.”

Over the past ten years, Rants worked for a number of nonprofits and churches. After going through graduate school, however, he began to discover the ways enterprise is improving the lives of the poor around the world. Rants excitedly joined Nokero, equipped with a restored vision of vocation. Through leveraging his knack for marketing, Rants fights poverty not just through his volunteerism and philanthropy, but inherently through his work in business.

“The world changes by people doing work—whatever that work might be—with all their heart and might,” he says. “That’s not God’s Plan B. That’s plan A. . . . I began to discover how God made me. And I realized I am not a creative, entrepreneurial person by accident, but by design.”

Alongside reimagining business vocationally, Rants also started reimagining the role of business itself. What he once viewed as an adversary to the war on poverty, he now sees as a vital ally. His perception early in his career was that big business, multinational corporations, and globalization worked against the poor.

“Once I actually studied this in graduate school, I was shocked,” Rants shared. “Not only is business not ‘the bad guy,’ it’s the primary reason poverty has decreased so substantially over the past 50 years. Nothing has undermined poverty, tyrannies, and injustice more than open and free markets. It is the only system proven to actually do that over the long-term.”

Yale University and The Brookings Institution released a staggering study bolstering Rants’s conviction. According to the study, in 1981, 52 percent of the world’s population was unable to provide for their basic needs like housing and food, living below the “extreme poverty line.” By the end of 2011, just 30 years later, the number had plummeted to 15 percent. The reasons they cited for the unprecedented drop in poverty are “the rise of globalization, the spread of capitalism and the improving quality of economic governance.” This, the researchers describe, is the “potent combination” behind the tumbling poverty levels.

Even activists who were once critical of business recant their old positions. Bono—the lead singer of U2 and vocal advocate for the poor—recently admitted this “humbling realization.”

“[I’m a] rock-star preaching capitalism. Wow. Sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it,” Bono shared last month at a technology conference. “Commerce is real . . . aid is just a stopgap. Commerce—entrepreneurial capitalism—takes more people out of poverty than aid.”

Nokero believes their for-profit approach is ultimately the most helpful for the families they serve. Research indicates those who buy a solar product take much better care of it than those who are given it for free. It’s also a smart long-term financial decision for these families to buy their products.

The average family off the electric grid spends 10% of their income on kerosene, with many spending up to 25%. When Nokero customers buy the $15 solar lamps, they recoup the purchase price in a few months—sometimes just weeks—from the fuel savings alone. Nokero joins an array of companies taking a new approach to the many needs and opportunities faced by poor families around the world.

D.Light Design, launched in 2007 by a group of five graduate students at Stanford University, is one such company, launched when designer Xianyi Wu created a solar light prototype designed for the developing world.

For Wu, the path to founding D.Light stalled many times. In December 2006, while attending the Urbana missions conference, Wu sensed God prodding him to persevere with his idea. He did. Five years later, D.Light has provided light to over ten million people around the world and created a market for companies like Nokero.

“Nonprofits that were in this industry this were either giving them away or highly subsidizing them because the design and business approach was so poorly done,” Wu says. “Handouts haven’t worked. Giving stuff away hasn’t changed anything. We asked: ‘What would happen if we leveraged capitalism and great design to reach more people?’ When we launched D.Light, we were able to prove that we could deliver a high-quality product at a very low price point.”

Some activists accuse companies like D.Light and Nokero of profiting off the poor, but these companies believe they’re profiting with the poor. These companies sell lights in places others are unable or unwilling to go. And Rants believes it actually gives their customers more power when they are buyers, not just receivers.

“When our customers buy a lamp from us, we become responsible to them,” Rants says. “They tell us what they like and don’t like, forcing us make our products better. If we want to stay in business, we have to respond and improve. Rightfully so, they have very high expectations from us.”

When Rants met Steve Katsaros, the inventor and CEO at Nokero, his growing conviction about commerce became real. Katsaros, a mechanical engineer with a penchant for competitive ski racing, began his colorful career by inventing several commercial products for the ski industry. In early 2010, he invented the hugely popular solar lamp, Nokero’s first product. Katsaros describes himself as an entrepreneur; Rants describes him as much more.

“He’s a remarkable poverty fighter,” Rants shared. “He designed a simple, affordable, market-based solution that addresses the needs of one-fifth of the world’s population living without reliable electricity.”

When David Livingstone, a renowned American missionary, returned from one of his trips to Africa in the 1850s, he suggested the two things the continent needed most were “Christianity and commerce.” Livingstone, a hero of the faith, believed all successful societies were built on these two pillars. For Rants, it’s taken him a few years to recognize how astute Livingstone’s suggestions truly are.

thanks to Seth Doyle and Unsplash for the cover photo

by Mike Sharrow

I grew up in Alaska, in a melting pot of transient people and cultures (there are only 17 of us genuine Alaskans).  I embarked on college then early career pursuits at a Fortune 50 company in Chicago where Christianity in the workplace was peculiar and I first wrestled with my own “sacred versus secular” frustrations.  Then, in 2006, I moved to Texas and was surprised to find out that “everybody [practically] is Christian here!” At least, I heard a lot of Christianese and there was even a Christian business chamber of commerce.  Blown away by this apparent oasis of fellow sojourners in business and the Kingdom, I began to ask every entrepreneur I could “So, what does it mean that you’re a Christ-follower running your business?”  With every answer my heart sank.

The top 5 answers I received representing scores of in person surveys:

1. I’m not afraid to say God Bless you or Merry Christmas!

2. We pay people fairly, treat people well and tell the truth (slow clap)

3. We do a good job and I give a fair bit of money away to a lot of good causes

4. Everybody knows I’m a member of Acme Really Christian Church and vote for the Bible believing political party (which I didn’t know that party existed)

5. Can’t you see the fish on my business card!?

I concluded too many people confuse being American or, in this case, Texan, with being citizens of the Kingdom of God operating as called and commission ambassadors stewarding business assets of our Father’s Holding Company for His purposes and His glory.

It wasn’t until I sat around a table of entrepreneurs at a country club in Austin, Texas in the summer of 2010 that I found humble, hungry and faithfully smart peers truly wrestling with how to follow Jesus in the very fabric of business.

What does it mean to you to be a “faith-driven entrepreneur”?  Is it about what you do with success achieved one day (philanthropy)? Is it about certain credos of conduct you abide by along the way (morality/virtue)? Is it a branding deal (icons)?  

A friend running a contracting business, Scott Barr, challenged me that there was a beautiful tension at the intersection of a Venn diagram – work as worship (business to the glory of God), business as ministry (eternal impact now), and a life in order (rightly ordered life in Christ).  That tension point is elusive and we tend to grab the circle of preference at the neglect of the other domains. The crucible of those 3 is actually the most powerful, formative discipleship experience I’ve ever experienced!

Being a faith-driven entrepreneur is not about quaint do’s and don’t, icons on materials or sacrificial gestures (so often about making ourselves feel good versus genuine worship like Zechariah charged our ancestors with).  Anchoring in the fullness of an identity in Christ, recognizing we’re just managers of God’s assets, appreciating the idea of eternal rewards and accountability for our stewardship, we must reimagine the entire “balanced scorecard” of our business and ask what does truly glorifying God in each domain, at each tactical dimension and strategic construct look like?  We use the 5 Point Alignment Matrix below as a visual paradigm to capture the breadth of this. For every dimension that may have its own dashboard, set of processes, rules and attributes – how is your faith expressed functionally?

That question catapults you into what will likely be years of discernment, experimentation and evolving mastery.  I would argue, it hijacks the common rat race of “success” into an endless adventure of faith, discovery, impact and eternal significance!

Friends, our work matters.  Results matter.  I get to serve a tribe of servant leaders across 95 metro areas, 35 states and 4 nations on 3 continents who are walking alongside over 2,100 leaders working out this same calling.  Culture matters, how we scale matters, creating a system of caring matters, and hearing from the Managing Partner daily matters.  I’ll close with some vignettes of leaders working this out imperfectly, differently and yet with great stories.

Preparing for the Unexpected & Seizing Moments for “Church” at Work

Rejecting the Greed Trap

White Collar, Administrative Mission Fields

Finding Balance & Remember “No Margin, No Mission”

An Immigrant Reaching Immigrants in Brooklyn

If I asked you what does being a “faith-driven entrepreneur” mean and look like, what would You say?

Editor’s note:  Mike is a great friend of FDE and the CEO of C12, one of the great workplace ministries in God’s Kingdom.  We’ve featured some of the stories of C12 companies before, like this one about Gary Archer.  You can learn more about Mike here, and C12 and other workplace ministries here.

Photo by Martin Shreder on Unsplash

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In the week’s episode Henry, Rusty, and William discuss how we can love on our team members through performance reviews.  As entrepreneurs, it’s highly likely that you are overseeing a team.  As Christ followers, how do we display Christ in the performance review?

Show Notes for Episode 18

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by Johnny Shiu

In the week’s episode Henry, Rusty, and William discuss how we can love on our team members through performance reviews.  As entrepreneurs, it’s highly likely that you are overseeing a team.  As Christ followers, how do we display Christ in the performance review?

To set the stage, our resident HR expert, Rusty, advises that performance reviews are designed to help people to become better.  With this motivation in mind, it’s important to not look backwards, but to look forward. 

The manager should set goals with the employee. Do not wait six months or twelve months to give feedback.  It’s important to give continuous feedback to team members.  Like a coach leading an athlete, continuous feedback is superior to just periodic encounters.  

Henry observed that different people seem to have different needs in this area.  Some crave feedback, while some do not crave it all that much. According to Rusty, we should remember that one size fits one, not one size fits all.  To display Christ during this process, Rusty would first make sure he understood the personal and professional dreams of each employee.  Because “to be unclear is to be unkind”,  (Dave Ramsey) being clear with team members as to performance expectations and goals is one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do for them, and for the company.

While some employees don’t care for continuous feedback, Rusty reminds us that they still want to know where they stand. The worst thing is for an employee to wonder and have to ask, “how am I doing?”  

A performance review is merely tool, of which there are many. Some companies are moving away from performance reviews, opting for a “continuous coaching” paradigm, while others use extensive 360 degree feedback tools.  All have pros/cons, but the aim is to grow people. Let’s tell them that we care. 

Rusty then introduces a potential new paradigm, one in which companies break pay increases from performance feedback.  Performance and pay do not always have to go together.   Performance is the baseline such as making sure the employee is doing her job. Next, is she exceeding her job?  Separately, pay is market-driven especially for in-demand jobs.  As a result, there’s room to divorce the two.  The market is the market.  And performance can be discussed separately. 

Ultimately, feedback is key.  Remember the golden rule, such a good one!  Treat others as you would want to be treated, can’t go too wrong 🙂

Last piece of advice, for entrepreneurs who do not really report to any one, Henry advises that they would do well to seek out counsel externally in order to get constructive feedback.  Boards and partners are great, but they have blindspots from being too close.