Considerations for developing a Business as Mission strategy

I just received an email from David Skews of EDP in the UK describing an upcoming conference taking in the UK. The event is being coordinated by Pray4BaM both of which he described in his email -

Pray4BaM.org is part of a UK based charity that was set up to support Business as Mission in prayer, finance and marketing. We felt God calling us to organise a Prayer Conference for BaM. Rather than being a time of teaching about BaM, this is to be a Prayer Conference, supported by times of worship and testimony of what God is doing around the world through business.

Based on their description and from what I know of the group that’s involved, I am excited about what God is leading them to do. I think the conference will be a great opportunity for those who attend. As S.D. Gordon has said, “The greatest thing anyone can do for God or man is pray.”
Prayer is crucial to all endeavors whether they be overtly Christian or not.

I think this announcement is rather timely in light of my previous post regarding conferences for the rest of us. This is a great opportunity for the priesthood of believers who are called to global missions and business to engage in networking, learning/training, and self-promotion (for themselves or their organization) and the need for venues for this is great. And I’m glad that prayer is a top priority, I hope that this becomes the first of many such efforts and that BAM practitioners around the world can grow to rely of frequent prayer efforts on their behalf.

At the same time, I believe there is a greater need among the BAM movement. This conference is one of many new services being developed to address the needs of the BAM movement. But the market for BAM services is still relatively new. This new growth stage is characterized by the growth and maturing of customer groups within the BAM movement. As a result we’re seeing the development of “competition,” new offerings from existing groups or the emergence of new groups adding new services to the mix. The historic challenges of lack of conceptual clarity, fragmented and isolated effort, and philosophic differences which hindered BAM efforts in recent years are giving way to a new set of challenges arising from the diverse backgrounds and needs of the participants in the BAM market.

To date, very little empirical research exists in the field of Business as Mission. The majority of the focus is still on issues like the Biblical basis for BAM, and as long as there are Christians that need to be awakened to the fact that God wants their full service – Monday through Sunday, such discussion is needed. For those who are brave enough to venture beyond BAM principles and foray into practical BAM, conceptual contributions based on personal insight and experience dominates the discussion. As a result, very little data- and fact-based guidance exists for these service providers to draw on as they sift through the complexities of the Business as Mission landscape.

The some of implications of this on developing a BAM strategy are:

• You will most likely have to spend time educating your customers about Business as Mission which will influence your business development strategy. Make sure to incorporate stories into your efforts in order to help customers “experience” the power of what it is you do.
• There will be very little Business as Mission specific, market information to reference in your business planning efforts. Use bottom-up estimations when assessing the opportunity in your business plan. Your estimates will be more realistic and people will be more likely to trust your assessment.
• Market boundaries will be blurry and difficult to define; thus it may be difficult to both identify pockets of demand for you products/services and understand the underlying drivers. It will be important to invest in market intelligence activities in order to understand your competitive landscape and track customer demand. Client relationships will also be important as you must make sure you have a good understanding of your customers’ needs and challenges.
• Poorly established BAM business models will get lost somewhere between a traditional business model (pay for service) and a traditional mission model (give it away), making it hard to establish a perceived value from which to develop profitable pricing models. It is important to clearly define your business model, clarifying how you create value for customers both directly (through your offering) and indirectly (through how you operate).
• Very few individuals or groups have significant market history so  you will need to invest in establishing your brand establishment in the appropriate areas.
• The power of BAM is diluted by weak attempts at integrating faith with business. You need to be able to show how your Business as Mission strategy creates real impact. Offering “products plus prayer” will only take you so far.
• There is no common language or existing BAM standards which will make engaging others more difficult. Do not think that you need to have a standardized process for everything that you do; however, you do something in your business, you need to be working towards creating consistent and efficient processes, making it easier to bring others into your world and forming a basis for interacting with others.
• It will be difficult to do a good self-assessment, since there is no prototypical Business as Mission entrepreneur or organization to compare yourself or your organization to. Try and gain exposure to as many different working models from across multiple areas of business as well as other parallel fields, drawing from lateral examples of success and incorporating them into how you run your business.

On the bright side, the fact that BAM is not well established also means there is a lot of opportunity for those who are being lead into BAM. With the market as undefined as it is, there is a great opportunity for you to be the one who defines your own market or niche-market. And there is a lot of room for creativity and variety in how you get started, in fact I would say that creativity and variety is crucial at this stage of the the Business as Mission movement in order fuel true innovation. It is only through the kind of market innovation that BAM practitioners are working to create that we will be able to redefine “business as usual.” And it is only through redefining “business as usual” that we are going to show the world that there is a better Way.

So if you believe that BAM is in your future, now is the time to get started. Take stock of your capabilities and resources, research the opportunities that are within reach, and get started. I am not saying that BAM is for everyone and I am not endorsing reckless business ventures. But one of the great things about Kingdom strategy is that our successes are His successes and even our failures are still His successes. If you’re wondering where to get started, I think the Pary4BaM conference might be a good place. But I ask that you go into it having prepared in your heart that Christ might ask you to do a whole lot more in Business as Mission than just prayer.