One of the foundations of business as mission is that the company must be profitable and sustainable – otherwise how can it be a business long-term? We know that making sales, maintaining cash-flow and reaching profitability are a non-negotiables for BAM company health. Commercial success is critical. But what else besides commercial success is vital […]
by Jo Plummer First published as an Advance Paper for the Lausanne Global Workplace Forum. Bottom-line thinking It is becoming more common for companies to plan for positive impact on ‘multiple bottom lines’. Rather than only measuring success as a positive number on the profit and loss statement—ie, the ‘financial bottom line’—businesses around the world […]
by Jo Plummer First published as an Advance Paper for the Lausanne Global Workplace Forum. Introduction Dallas Willard once said that, ‘Business is a primary moving force of the love of God in human history.’[1] Business, done well, is glorifying to God and has enormous potential to do good. Business has an innate God-given power […]
When we asked veteran BAM leaders to identify some of the pressing issues that are facing the business as mission movement in the next decade, among the issues they identified were several areas that could broadly be categorized as ‘resource gaps for BAM companies’. These described a lack of the kinds of resources and inputs […]
by Jo Plummer & Mats Tunehag This post is the third in a series of three that share the BAM Global Big Hairy Audacious Goals – our ‘BHAGs’ for the global business as mission movement. BAM Global is one of the founding partners of this website and aims to be a catalyst for connection and […]
by Jo Plummer & Mats Tunehag This post is the second in a series of three that share the BAM Global Big Hairy Audacious Goals – our ‘BHAGs’ for the global business as mission movement. BAM Global is one of the founding partners of this website and aims to be a catalyst for connection and […]
by Jo Plummer & Mats Tunehag This post is the first in a series of three that share the BAM Global Big Hairy Audacious Goals – our ‘BHAGs’ for the global business as mission movement. BAM Global is one of the founding partners of this website and aims to be a catalyst for connection and […]
by Jo Plummer This year marks around 20 years since the term ‘Business as Mission’ was first used and discussed amongst a growing group of like-minded people around the world. At the very end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, there was a burst of activity around BAM: Consultations, Conferences, Books, Articles, the first […]
by Jo Plummer This year marks around 20 years since the term ‘Business as Mission’ was first used and discussed amongst a growing group of like-minded people around the world. Of course, there were pioneer BAM models before that time, not to mention the fact that business and mission have been integrated in many different ways […]
We asked some (otherwise very successful) BAM Practitioners that we know to share some of the errors, disasters and unfortunate events that they have experienced in their business as mission journeys. Here nine BAMers share eleven stories about their mistakes and misadventures: They Didn’t Come… In our first years we did not have enough focus […]
by Jo Plummer December 2018 marks four full years of the new Business as Mission website and the launch of The BAM Review blog and today marks the 100th Edition of The BAM Review email, that has been going out to our subscriber list twice a month since January 2015! With these milestones to celebrate […]
by Jo Plummer December 2018 marks four full years of the new Business as Mission website and the launch of The BAM Review blog. We have now been posting one or two BAM blogs weekly for almost 208 weeks, and with the addition of a few posts from our old website catalogue, we have now […]
Six years ago, as part of the work of the BAM Think Tank and the lead in to the 2013 BAM Global Congress, we surveyed 200 people engaged with business as mission in some way and asked them the question: ‘What is the hottest topic in the BAM movement today?’ Or in other words, what is […]
A defining characteristic of a BAM company is that it intentionally integrates mission with business. But what does that look like in practice? What are some creative ways that practitioners work out their goals for spiritual impact, alongside their commercial, social and environmental goals? We asked a small group of practitioners to share what they […]
The sacred-secular divide is an unbiblical way of thinking about the world that pervades the modern church globally. It deeply affects the way we think about business and work and is one of the most frequently mentioned barriers to understanding and engagement in business as mission. In the coming weeks we will hear stories and […]
We asked 25 BAM Practitioners one simple question: What have been the most important HR issues in your BAM business experience? Here are the Top 10 issues that they mentioned the most: 1. Finding the complete package Recruiting and hiring people with the right mix of business skills, character formation and mission-motivation. The biggest issue […]
We asked 15 business people leading Kingdom-building companies around the world what prayer habits, practices or experiences they have found helpful in their business life. We identified 7 reoccurring themes: Prayer habits for effective business people! 1. Weave prayer throughout company life Prayer is something to be ‘threaded’ through the fabric of the business, not […]
We talked to Jennifer Roemhildt Tunehag about the Freedom Business Alliance initiative and the upcoming Freedom Business Forum. We are hearing the term Freedom Business being used more and more, what is a ‘Freedom Business’? It’s a business that exists to fight human trafficking. There are several types of business that fit into this category: businesses that […]
To round out our ‘Learning from BAM Failure’ series, we circle back around to what helps you succeed. We asked the same BAM practitioners who shared failure stories to also share what kept their businesses from going under completely. We asked: If you had to give the top two or three reasons for your overall […]
We asked some (otherwise very successful) BAM Practitioners that we know to share some of the errors, disasters and unfortunate events that they have experienced in their business as mission journeys. Here nine BAMers share eleven stories about their mistakes and misadventures: They Didn’t Come… In our first years we did not have enough focus […]
Dan Wiebe grew up in a farming family and started his own poultry business in 1970. With decades of experience behind him, he has more recently connected with the business as mission community and become a mentor to others. We asked him to share a little about his story and some of his advice for those […]
In the first half of 2017, we are looking at BAM companies in different industries. We are currently focused on business as mission in the agriculture industry, sharing insights and stories from experienced company owners. We asked BAMers involved in agriculture: What advice would you give to someone starting out BAM and wanting to run […]
In the first half of 2017, we are looking at BAM companies in different industries. We continue with business as mission in the agriculture industry, sharing insights and stories from experienced company owners. We asked BAMers involved in agriculture: What are the advantages of being in the agriculture industry when it comes to doing BAM? […]
Stories can be a powerful way to engage clients and bring more of a personal connection between your customers and your staff or products. We asked 6 professionals and company owners engaged in business as mission to share how they have used stories to connect with customers, build their brand and sell products, here’s what […]
We asked 5 professionals and company owners engaged in business as mission to share how they have experienced stories being used to build company culture: We often use stories of our past experiences to show empathy and encourage our staff. When we feel they are having a hard time on a project or feel […]
The Beginnings Like many small business stories, the story of Turbocam India involves the spark of opportunity, mixed in with a great deal of perseverance and one or two major breakthroughs that have set the course of the company. But perhaps the most important ingredient of all has been a firmly held belief from its […]
Josh consults with BAM companies in the Food and Beverage (F&B) Industry in both the USA and Asia, helping them be more effective in their operations. As part of our hospitality industry series, we asked him to share with us some of his expertise in café and restaurant management. You are obviously very passionate about […]
In the first half of 2017, we will periodically run short series looking at BAM companies in different industries. We start with business as mission in the hospitality industry, sharing insights and stories from experienced company owners. We asked BAM owners in the hospitality industry: What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting […]
In the first half of 2017, we will periodically run short series looking at BAM companies in different industries. We start with business as mission in the hospitality industry, sharing insights and stories from experienced company owners. We asked BAM owners in the hospitality industry: What are the advantages of being in the hospitality industry when […]
We asked company leaders to share how their goals as a BAM company fit with their goals for their people, and how that influenced their business planning and development. Three BAM practitioners share from very different industries on how their strategy for their staff connects with their overall strategy to be a Kingdom-focused company. IT […]