Engineering on the Frontlines: What Is It Really Like to Run a BAM Business?
What is it really like to run a BAM company, especially in the kind of challenging contexts that business as mission practitioners often find themselves? In this mini-series, we are sharing three short stories from the frontlines—a behind the scenes look at BAM company leadership.
Z Engineers – Construction Industry, South Asia
Z Engineers is one of the oldest BAM companies in the world, having been founded in the late 1960s by Christian expatriate engineers in a majority Muslim country in South Asia. Its current Managing Director, a national leader, has been in the position for 5 years. Here he shares some of his experiences and insights into what it is really like to run a BAM company.
What do you do and where?
Z Engineers serves the construction industry across a nation in South Asia, with a specific focus on remote rural areas where access to quality infrastructure is often a significant challenge. Our business model is built on providing comprehensive design, consultancy, and construction services with honesty and integrity. We take pride in our inclusive employment practices, hiring a diverse team of engineers, quantity surveyors, and architects from cross-cultural groups. Our work isn’t just about building structures; it’s about bringing high-quality standards to regions that have historically been underserved and have no hope.
Why do you do it?
Our foundational vision at Z Engineers is threefold: to build quality, build people, and build for God. This calling to the workplace is what sustains us. The strong focus and burden to introduce honest business practices and integrity to the construction sector, to provide job opportunities for the large unemployed segment keeps us moving forward. Beyond the construction side, my wife and I have also established E Services. This initiative is a direct response to the vulnerability of marginalized Christian groups. We focus on creating safe, dignified full-time and part-time employment for young women moving from rural areas to a major city, specifically to provide an alternative to the high risks of sexual exploitation they often face. Our BAM focus is to provide both physical infrastructure and social restoration
What has it really been like to run your business?
Running Z Engineers has been a journey of perseverance. The hardest challenge has been the financial strain of managing overheads during lean periods, coupled with the ethical struggle of the bidding process. We frequently face the reality of losing projects because we refuse to participate in the systemic corruption common in the industry. We are also navigating a significant ‘brain drain’ within the local Christian youth, as many seek to relocate abroad in search of financial prosperity. It is a constant challenge to offer tangible hope to these young people when the local environment provides so little to convince them to stay. Since taking over the company in 2021, these past five years have been a profound period of growth in the BAM space for me. The phrase ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ is no longer a metaphor; it describes the literal reality of my journey as I strive to stay faithful to the workplace.
On the other hand, there has been unexpected joy. We recently won a project in the Northern areas that has matured perfectly—a beautiful ‘repayment’ i.e. equivalent in terms of the value, for a previous project we lost because we refused to cut corners. We are also entering a ‘redemptive technology’ phase by pioneering non-fired bricks, which aligns our environmental stewardship with our construction goals. While our newer startup (E Services) is still in the foundational phase, we are learning to navigate the basics with hope and courage.
Looking back, what are one or two things you wish you knew before you started?
First, I wish I had understood the level of personal and familial sacrifice required. A BAM company operates differently than a secular business; the spiritual and ethical weight often falls heavily on the leadership, and navigating those challenges can place significant stress on family life and work-life balance.
Second, I wish I had been more prepared for the mental health toll. There is a constant, exhausting pressure to maintain a ‘successful’ outward image for clients and marketing purposes, even when the business is facing internal crises. Learning to manage that tension between professional optics and the reality of the struggle is something I am still learning to do.
Read two more short stories in next week’s post:
>> Read Part 2 here
Photo by Jeriden Villegas on Unsplash
