7 Things We Have Learned About Evaluating Kingdom Impact: Transformational SME

by the TSME Team

Transformation SME (TSME) is a global community investing through an evergreen fund for holistic kingdom impact in the world’s toughest markets. Over the past two decades, the TSME has wrestled with the questions like, “What is kingdom impact and how is it evaluated?” and “How can company leaders faithfully maintain kingdom centeredness over the long-term.”  Read Part 1 for an introduction.

Through years of investing in kingdom companies in our target region, TSME has built a body of knowledge that we have turned into key principles. These principles have become a lens through which we evaluate companies, a criteria for partnership, and a tool for ongoing growth.

Learnings and Principles

1. Context matters

“Impact” is not homogeneous, it varies based on the Purpose (The Why) of a company in a particular local context. The resulting principle is that there is no prescriptive solution or ‘one-size-fits-all’ impact plan. What matters to us is the reasoning and the spiritual indicators that compel the owners to this purpose in their context.

2. Perspective matters

Kingdom impact is holistic. While categorizing impact across multiple bottom lines and their intended impacts can help add rigor in planning and assessment, the borders between the different bottom lines are frequently blurred. The best way we have come to understand this is that God’s redemptive work is holistic in nature as we partner with him to see his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

3. Leadership matters

Leadership defines the horizon of a company’s kingdom impact. The character, competence, perseverance and teachability of leadership teams shapes the dynamic growth of the kingdom impact within a company

4. Intentionality matters

Kingdom impact doesn’t happen by accident. Kingdom Impact plans should be approached with the same rigor applied to business operations, including the inclusion of measurable strategies & goals.

5. Faithfulness over long time horizons matters

“Faithfulness” over a long period of time yields “fruitfulness”. TSME operates in difficult, risky environments, and it is quite typical for a long time horizon to be necessary to realize the holistic impact our portfolio companies seek.

6. The seasons of a company life-cycle matter

The early-stage company may have a more limited sphere of influence for holistic kingdom impact, whereas the established company may have a well-earned trusted role in the community, providing a different degree of opportunity. The goal is not to create a ‘perfect’ kingdom impact approach that becomes a fixed document. Static is not realistic. Nor is it helpful. Rather, living documents that are regularly reviewed and prayerfully allow company leadership to be in sync with the dynamic work of God as the needs of the local church and the leading of the Spirit change over time.

7. Community matters

From founders working in leadership teams, to multitudes of advisors, and to Boards and engagement with local churches, community is an essential ingredient to perseverance over long time frames. God invites us to join His story through relationships of mutuality; TSME mentors from diverse backgrounds (professional, perspectives, ethnicities) help companies stay faithful and focused to their stated impact objectives through healthy accountability.

Kingdom Impact Approach

The learnings delineated above have helped shape the creation of our TSME assessment framework. This Kingdom Impact Approach (KIA) can be applied to the types of diverse companies described above because the framework focuses on kingdom purposes, strategy and plans articulated by each company. This means that the framework can be contextualized for each business but still able to highlight areas where a company can improve and grow in its impact.

This approach encourages a company to have a clearly articulated purpose and a deliberate strategy with observable outcomes (over time) that have economic, environmental, social and spiritual significance. TSME believes that this intentional approach is as crucial to success as developing a viable commercial business plan.  Our ‘secret sauce’ in all this is that TSME pairs companies with a dedicated mentor team to holistically support the company across business operations and kingdom impact.

The centerpiece of the Kingdom Impact Approach (KIA) process is an annual review call with the leadership of our portfolio companies and their mentors.  During the call we take the time to review and discuss all aspects of the company’s overall approach to understand how God is at work in the business. This includes understanding the multi-pronged strategies, discussing the effectiveness of these approaches, and listening to stories of God’s work in and through the communities represented in the companies.

Here are a few encouraging stories we have heard during recent KIA calls, from three different companies:

• Daily Prayers: For one month, each morning the entire staff received a text including one of the company’s core values, a story of how it was lived out and an invitation to prayer. At the end of the month the majority of the nearly 200 staff requested that this practice continue regularly. What a tangible invitation to the entire staff to consider that the God of the universe hears our prayers and is actively at work.

• The Persistent Applicant: This portfolio company prioritizes the hiring of marginalized women as part of their impact approach. A single mother living in a slum applied for a job at the company three separate times. The first two times, she was not hired because, despite her situation, other applicants were deemed to be in more urgent need. She graciously accepted the decision each time. On her third attempt, she was hired. The company taught her their manufacturing process, and she excelled, eventually becoming a team supervisor. Through her stable employment and access to company benefits like school scholarships and health allowances, her life and her ability to care for her daughter were transformed.

• An Unexpected Healing: A volunteer team from a Christian organization was visiting a portfolio company and offered to pray for staff during their breaks. The company leadership team agreed, but perhaps didn’t expect much to come of it. A staff member came in with a bandaged leg wound and asked for prayer. The team prayed for her, and she said it felt a little better. And so they said, “Well, let’s… let’s pray again then.” So they prayed again, and she said, “Wow, that feels a lot better.” And then she took off her bandage and she was completely healed! The woman walked out of the room with the bandage in her hand, which prompted a flood of other employees to come for prayer. That day, three people made a decision for Christ.

These are just a few of numerous examples, perhaps small but powerful, that we have heard on recent calls of how God is at work through our portfolio companies. Our portfolio companies weave a rich tapestry of stories in far flung corners of the earth where the living God is actively at work.

 

 

Learn more about our Platinum Sponsor TSME

 

Connect at: transformationalsme.org

 

 

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash