Strategic segmentation is a process for developing strategies that appealing to specific customer groups, increasing you effectiveness in serving that group in a way that is both profitable and sustainable. The first two steps in the strategic segmentation process are to identify key audience characteristics that define subgroups and to understand the core motivations that influence how those subgroups will engage with your organization.

The next step in the strategic segmentation process is to identify any unmet needs that represent an opportunity (or a threat) for you to serve those customers. Unmet needs are important because they are the source of discontent (whether known or not) that will cause someone to want to change. If that person is already a customer, then unmet needs can be a threat because it may be their relationship with you that they change.

But the other side of the coin is that unmet needs are tremendous opportunities. Opportunities for you to serve your customer in a new way, strengthening and increasing the value of your relationship. Opportunities for you to meet that need and earn a new customer. While motivations shape a customers actions, unmet needs catalyze that action.

So how do you go about identifying unmet needs?

Identifying Unmet Needs

David Aaker suggests three methods for identifying unmet needs in his book Strategic Market Management (affliliate link):

1. Use Customers to Identify Unmet Needs
2. Imagine an Ideal Experience
3. Use Creative Thinking

Use Customers to Identify Unmet Needs

Customers can provide great insight into how well their needs are being met. The best tool for accessing customers is market research. Through individual or group interviews, you are able to explore aspects of the customers’ experience and begin to dig into what elements of the experience might not be fulfilling their needs. Good customer research will:

• capture the customer’s actual experience/usage;
• identify any problems or frustrations;
• identify places where the experience doesn’t live up to the customer’s expectations;
• identify ways which the experience falls short of experiences with other vendors;
• elicit feedback on ways the experience can be improved.

In addition to asking customers to share their experiences, there is tremendous value in observing customers as they engage with your products and services. Observing customers gives insight into product shortcomings and the other environmental factors that contribute to needs not being met.

Imagine an Ideal Experience

Customers’ self-identified needs are often influenced by the customers’ frame of mind toward their circumstances. Having users conceptualize their ideal experience is a great way to identify unmet needs that users value but might not identify as important.
The simple question “What would an ideal experience with us be like?” can help you understand what elements different customer groups value and then tailor your product or service to emphasize the positive aspects.

Use Creative Thinking

In addition to the potential for customers’ direct feedback to be biased by their worldview, self-identified needs (real and imagined) will often be constrained by convention. Often the best opportunities to add value to your customer groups come from thinking outside of the box.

In my previous post Creative Thinking for Dummies I laid out three principles to follow for effective creative thinking. They are:

1. Separate ideation from evaluation
2. Look at the situation from different angles
3. Create feedback loops for refining the best ideas

In addition, here are several techniques for inspiring creativity:

• Get multiple people to participate – the diversity in perspectives and backgrounds can inspire new ideas.
• Challenge obvious assumptions.
• Evaluate options based on the potential impact regardless of feasibility.
• Break the problem down into smaller parts or tasks.
• Use triggers (like a random word) to stimulate new lines of thought.

These techniques will help you to imagine potential new ways to meet unmet needs in your market.

Conclusion

Having identified customer sub-groups and explored their motivations and unmet needs, you’re now in a position design and develop new products and services to capture the opportunities that you’ve uncovered. It is important that your strategic planning process begin with this level of understanding about your market to maximize the effectiveness of your efforts.

If your organization needs help identifying your customers unmet needs, I offer a number of strategic customer research and analysis services that can help. Feel free to contact me here.

Question: What unmet needs exist in your church or business’s audience? What’s the strategic value to your organization for filling those needs?

Community Pages are a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community Pages let you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.

Amid the outcries against Facebook’s aggressive push to allow public access to all profile data (including personal private information), the introduction of Community Pages has not received much attention. However, this move by Facebook has significant implications for churches and their social media strategy.

Facebook’s Community Page strategy is aimed at creating more content and pages against which Facebook can serve advertisements. How Facebook does this is by automatically aggregating content on new Community Pages by scraping users status updates and importing content from existing Wikipedia pages and the result is a centralized page around a specific topic. As you can see for the new Unconventional Method Community Page (pictured above), statuses that contain the phrase “unconventional method” are being automatically displayed regardless of their relevance.

Community for bots

However, despite Facebook’s claim that these topical pages are “owned collectively by the community connected to it“, there is currently no way (as far as I can tell) for anyone outside of Facebook to influence or control what content is displayed on the page. In fact, individual Facebook users are often unaware that their private status updates are publicly visible on these Community Pages. A (hilarious) example of this is the “My Stupid Boss” Community Page which displays status updates that contain the words “my”, “stupid”, and “boss” in them. Now your private Facebook rants may be visible to everyone without your knowledge or consent.

What does this mean for churches?

What little control you have on Facebook is being further eroded.

Facebook has shown consistent disregard for privacy and control over information and is aggressively pushing forward with feature updates with the end goal of being the information currency system of the entire web. Will Facebook succeed and become the central hub for all personal activity online? Probably not, but it’s clear that because of Facebook’s popularity and its “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach Facebook will access and use information about you and your church for it’s own purposes, without your permission, and with little recourse available for what they do.

You have no control over your church’s Community Page

It appears that every aspect of the creation and updating of a Community Page is entirely automated by Facebook. Currently, neither your church nor your community of supporters has any ability to influence the page directly.

The way Facebook is creating these Community Pages can only be described as “sneaky“. Instead of having users initiate page creation, Facebook introduced a process by which users can inadvertently and unknowingly initiate a page’s creation.  Recently, logged-in users have been redirected to a page which asks them which pages they would like to link to their profile. The choices appear to be generated from the user’s profile information (e.g. employment and education) and are all selected when the page appears.

Facebook does state that linking to certain pages “may also create additional Pages“, but it is not immediately obvious what this means. I believe Facebook is hoping users will not pay much attention to what’s happening, resulting in the creation of more Community Pages. Since this confirmation page loads automatically, disrupting the user’s activities on the site, it is very likely that users will simply click “Save Changes” to return to what they were previously doing. Additionally, the options that are presented correspond with existing information that the user has provided, so a natural assumption is that linking will just confirm what is already in place.

Once created, Facebook is posting a message to visitors of each page which imply that some level of influence will given to Facebook users in the future. The message asks you to indicate your interest by signing up but no indication is given of when users will be invited to contribute nor the level of influence they will have.

Platform changes are frequent and unpredictable

Moves like this one and Facebook’s recent half-step that restricted the ability to set up custom landing tabs, show that Facebook’s drive for profitability has the company barreling forward with platform changes with little to no regard for organizations that rely on the social network. We can expect this to be the norm moving forward. The challenge becomes that just when you think you’ve got Facebook figured out and are starting to achieve real ministry impact and ROI, Facebook is likely to change the rules on you. Churches will need to be agile if they expect to keep up.

Should churches abandon Facebook?

I’ve argued in the past that Facebook is important because it is where people are. Does the fact that Facebook keeps changing the rules of the game mean that churches should abandon the platform entirely?

No. But churches need to have realistic expectations of how Facebook will work with them. Churches should not expect for Facebook to be aligned with their interests. Despite being the world’s largest “social” network, Facebook is and always be a business. We should not expect Facebook’s profit motive to ever be subordinate to our churches’ people-motives.

For that reason, a church should also never find ourselves in a position where it is completely reliant on Facebook for it’s social media strategy. Churches and ministries that are seeking to change lives and serve the common good must always be thinking “beyond web”. Because of it’s popularity and prevalence in our society, it is easy for churches to make Facebook the only platform for their web strategy. This is a short-sighted strategy and will ultimately leave churches at the mercy of Facebook’s business plan. An effective church social media strategy engages through diverse social media platforms.

How to best use Facebook

Understanding the true nature of the organization is Facebook will tp define the real opportunities for churches and will shape church social media strategies. In Part 2 I will dig into the implications of these changes for churches and point out some strategies for making sure taking advantage of new opportunities that are being created.

There are strategic thinkers who hold on very tightly to a preferred approach.

When these strategists are asked their opinion on what a business or church should do, they launch in with the same answer again and again. They are the ones who flood the Internet with tweets and articles chocked full of words like “every”, “should”, and “must”. The act as if their universal truths are the secret to unlocking the potential of the universe. Occasionally they will attempt to justify their approach, drawing weak conclusions from even weaker evidence.

Their confidence in their approach is not unfounded, they usually have experienced success with it in some situations. Of course their faith in their solution often leads them to downplay situations where it hasn’t work, attributing the cause of failure to some other factor that was outside of their influence.

And then there are the strategic thinkers that recognize that every situation is different.

They see the common elements between the current situation and previous experiences.  But they don’t assume that what was successful in previous situations will apply perfectly to the current one.

Instead they dig in to understand the unique objectives of those they’re trying to serve. They look for the extenuating circumstances that will influence any effort toward achieving those objectives. Only then do they begin to develop a solution.

When asked for their advice, their typical response is “It depends.”

If you haven’t guessed, I prefer the second kind.

We’ve covered how strategic segmentation can help you develop effective strategies for appealing to specific customer groups in a way that is both profitable and sustainable. At this point you’ve identified key audience characteristics that allow you to both classify subgroups of your audience and inform ways that you can relate to those groups with your products and services.

The next step in the strategic segmentation process is to understand the different motivations that lie behind their decisions and behaviors.

Understanding Customer Motivations

In Strategic Market Management (affliliate link), David Aaker suggests there are four basic steps for analyzing customer segments’ motivations:

1. Identify Motivations
2. Group Motivations
3. Assess Importance
4. Assign Strategic Roles

Identify Motivations

The first step is to think critically about the factors that influence a customer segment’s behaviors and decisions in relationship to your offering. You (and your co-leaders) can probably generate a pretty thorough list of customer motivations based on your experiences. However, it is better to engage customers directly through research to systematically identify their motivations.

The goal is to understand why a customer uses a product? What is their motivation? What determines a good or bad experience for them? Through the effort you should identify a whole gamut of motivations: strategic, tactical and in between.

Group Motivations

The process of identifying motivations will probably generate a long list of motivations. The next step is to group the motivations together in order to assess relationships between them. This process will help you to organize the motivations to see commonalities and linkages between motivations that might contribute to the importance of the different categories of motivations.

There are a number of way to categorize the customer motivations. A simple one is to write each motivation on a card and systematically go though assigning each one to a pile of similar motivations. After that the piles can be arranged in a way that shows their strategic relationship to each other.

Assess Importance

Once you’ve identified and categorized the customer’s motivations, the next step is determine the relative importance of each one to the customer. This exercise involves determining the prioritization of different motivations. You can do this on your own, drawing upon your own experiences and insight to make a determination. However, it is often more effective to ask the customers to assess the importance of motivations.

The process I employ when doing customer analysis incorporates three approaches:

• ask the customer directly to identify how important a motivation is;
• ask the customer trade off questions that force them to judge the relative importance;
• observing actual purchase decision to validate their actual behavior matches what they’ve identified as important.

The end result is knowledge of the strategic importance of the customer’s motivations.

Assign Strategic Roles

The final step in analyzing customer motivations is to identify which customer motivations should be incorporated into your business strategy. This steps will give you a complete picture of how to proceed given the different factors related to the strategically important motivations. It takes into account not only the strategic importance of different things that motivate your customers but also what the rest of your market is doing to capitalize on those things as well as your own ability to capitalize on them.

Conclusion

The result is of these steps is a comprehensive understanding of the different factors that motivate your customers, the level of influence that each has on your customers’ behavior, and a prioritization based on the value of and your ability to respond to each motivation.

The final step in the strategic segmentation process is to identify any unmet needs within your customer segments that represent an opportunity for your business. I will cover that in a future post.

If your organization needs help understanding your customers’ motivations, I offer a number of strategic customer research and analysis services that can help. Feel free to contact me here.

Question: Is your business or ministry oriented towards your audience and do you feel like you do a good job in understanding what motivates them? Why or why not?

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

–Winston Churchill

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

–Albert Einstein

What is Strategic Segmentation?

Segmentation is the strategic identification of different customer/audience groups.

The purpose of segmentation is to identify the best approach/offering for different customer segments by better understanding their behaviors, motivations, and needs.

The key to effective segmentation is to identify groups based on differences in how they respond to your offerings.

Let me explain that a bit… Typically when people think of segmentation they envision describing their audience in general characteristics and then grouping them based on these characteristics. But in order for segmentation to create strategic value, the groupings must reflect commonalities in how the groups members will relate to you. Thus you must look past specific characteristics (like age or gender) and ask “How does this characteristic affect the relationship I’m trying to create with this person through my products and services?”

I want to stress two things about this:

1. Segmentation is about relationships.

2. Segmentation is developed from the perspective of others, not your own.

Understood in this way, strategic segmentation is a kingdom principle.

Segmentation Helps Evaluate Strategic Value

In the context of strategy, segmentation is used to determine whether or not your organization can create a sustainable competitive advantage for the different segments of a market. Thus the goal of segmentation is to categorize and understand the different customer/audience groups in a market in order to develop and evaluate targeted offerings. Segmentation informs the decision to “go after” a customer/audience group by asking:

• Can we appeal to the target segment?
• Can we maintain that appeal (and our relationship) over time?
• Is the benefit of the relationship worth it?

Ultimately, effective segmentation will lead to the development of unique strategies for the specific segments that have shown to be valuable.

Segmentation for Businesses Versus Churches

Just a quick word on the difference in applying segmentation in a business versus applying it in a non-profit, ministry or church.

The technique is the same for them all and the value in better understanding the key characteristics of your “market” (i.e. the people that you are trying to establish relationships with) is the same. The difference comes in how you evaluate the value of targeting segments.

In a business, (generally) value is created through an exchange of products/services for money. Thus the value of a particular segment will largely be determined by the potential revenue from that segment, offset by the cost of going after and serving that segment.

In a church, value isn’t necessarily “exchanged” (though it can be). Value is created through sharing the Gospel, leading people in deeper relationship with God, and by serving others (Ephesians 4:12-13). And it should be done regardless of what the church receives in return. So in this context, the value of a particular segment (to the church) will largely be determined by… well, the value is infinite. There’s no way around it. We must always seek to serve EVERY segment.

But that doesn’t render strategic segmentation useless for churches. Segmentation tells us what about what a church offers (the Gospel, relationship with God, service) will appeal to a target segment. Equipped with this knowledge a church will be able to tailor their approach to highlight the aspects that are appealing to the segment, increasing the ability of the church to establish relationships with that segment.

BUT (strong word of warning), the church MUST be sure that once it has drawn people into relationship with the church that it provides more than just the things that are appealing. If God is working through churches to transform people through Jesus into be what HE wants them to be, then it is irresponsible to allow people to dictate (by their own preferences) what they will and won’t do as they grow in Christ.

Segmentation is a great way to increase your effectiveness in relating to those that you are trying to serve, whether it’s in business or in a church. It is an important tool for anyone who thinks strategically about advancing the kingdom of God.
What about you?

Do you strategically segment you market?

What benefits or challenges have you had with segmentation?

Despite the integrity and good intentions of most people who use tools like Twitter, the low cost of usage and anonymity offered inevitably result in these systems being abused by people of questionable ethical standards. These people have no qualms about abandoning etiquette, stretching the truth, and attempting to manipulate the people the people that social media these tools allow them to access. All for personal gain. And because this behavior has a negative impact on those whose intentions are more noble, the “good guys” have started speaking out.

The dissent started out in the form of people publicly questioning the qualifications of self-proclaimed and self-important “Social Media Experts/Gurus/Ninjas/Gods“.

Some of the comments have been quite funny. One of my favorite examples is:

“‘Social Media Expert’? What does that mean? You’re really good at making Facebook profiles?”

You can find other examples by searching Google for “Social Media Expert”. I also recommend you check out Social Media Han Solo, which brilliantly integrates a Star Wars theme into its social media expert bashing. It’s funny.

How far has the pendulum swung?

Recently, the volume of critiques of social media efforts seem to be increasing. This new wave of criticism seems to be focusing on how people neglect the “social” aspects for social media.

Jeremiah Owyang recently drove this point home on his blog saying that companies should have a ‘Customer Strategy’ not a ‘Twitter or Facebook Strategy’.

Similarly, Amber Naslundm, director of Community for Radian6, in her post “Social Media Is Not the Disease” points out that it isn’t social media that’s the problem, it’s the people using it.

When you’re looking at whether or not “social media” is a blessing or a curse, remember this. It’s just the amplifier. The mechanism for the word, idea, attitude or behavior to spread faster and farther, and with less discretion. I’ve been thinking a lot about this for months, but my friend Linsday Allen’s post about a check skipper at a Tweetup hit on it once again. While the situation was unfortunate, social media itself isn’t the “fail” here, the people are.

The Fundamental Flaw

As much as I agree with these and other analysis of the shortfalls of social media, they themselves also fall short… (do you see what I did there?)

Social media tools enable people to connect with people in ways that previously were not feasible. As the the use of these tools increase, systems or networks start to develop based on how and why the members of that system participate. As these systems evolve, they become more focused, clarifying the value of participation and establishing their own conventions for participation.

This phenomenon is not unique to social media. The same pattern can be seen in the development of societies, in the evolution of business and trade, even in the evolution of religion. The world has a tendency to organize itself into systems to allow the members of those systems to achieve greater things than they could as individuals. This is not a bad thing.

The problem occurs when you and I, as individuals, are changed by our involvement in the system. We see this when we begin to focus (in our thinking and behavior) more on the system than on the components of that system. When the “means” of the system start to become “ends”. The flaw is that our awareness of the system overwhelms our awareness of what they system does for us.

That’s what’s going on with social media right now. People care more about the tools and how they work than they do about what they tools can accomplish.

Systems thinking

According to Wikipedia,

“Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation.”

Systems thinking as a methodology became popular in science after discovery that the any act of measuring something changes that thing, thus making it impossible to know the true nature of that which you are studying. Thus, systems thinking focuses on the interrelationships of objects and seeks to define “systems” of objects by how they affect each other.

Systems thinking is a very useful strategy methodology as it provides a framework for anticipating the effects that strategic actions will create throughout an organization’s ecosystem. It is also very useful in problems solving as it can shine light on causes that otherwise might not have been obvious.

Systems thinking falls short when the relationships of objects within the system are overemphasized to the detriment of the objects themselves. The main way that this primarily happens is that the different aspects of a system are over-generalized and thought of as conceptual categories.

An example of systems thinking in my life.

I’ll give you an example. I do strategy work for a company in China that designs innovative and lean manufacturing processes primarily for glass products (ranging from decorative Tiffany-style lampshades to insulated drive-shaft sleeves for power tools). I relate the owner of this company in a number of ways but the primary two are as a service provider (vendor) and as an adviser.

As a service provider, I mentally describe this company and the owner with a number of general concepts that also inform how to engage with them: customer, overseas business, manufacturers, business owner… All of these descriptors apply with various degrees of accuracy.

As an adviser I tend to think of this relationship based on general descriptions of the owner himself: man, 60 year old, American, expat, Christian, leader, boss, mentor, friend.

But none of these, no matter how many labels I apply, will ever fully capture who Bill really is. There’s nothing wrong with objectifying Bill as I do, I would not be able to serve him if I did not.

But, in the busyness of the day-to-day or when trying to create consistent levels of excellent service to my customers, it is easy to forget that Bill is first and foremost a person. And when I lose touch with the “personal” Bill for the sake of my well-designed and well-defined system, I will always (without fail) marginalize him in some way.

You cannot operate a system that applies 100 percent of the time. There will always be outliers, exceptions to the rules. Someone somewhere will not “fit” the boundaries that we have defined. It’s inevitable.

“People strategies” miss the mark.

It’s encouraging to see a re-emphasis in our society on valuing the human- or people- aspect of how we act. Whether it’s the rise of “social” entrepreneurship or the emphasis on community among today’s churches. If Jesus teaches that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV emaphsis mine), it stands to reason that valuing others is extremely important to God (second only to loving God).

But, integrating “people” generally into our “systems” will always fall short. No matter which characteristics we use to define “people” there will always be a person that exists outside of our system.

Note that the object of Jesus’s command is not general, it’s personal. Jesus isn’t saying “love neighbors”, he is explicitly clarifying that I am to love my neighbor. The specificity of this command points to what is often lost, that the target of our love is a person. They are a person in the same way that I am a person. And that is the extent to which I am to love them, encompassing every single thing about them. I am to love them as an individual.

What is your “person” strategy?

I feel the need to say again (for the record) that I am pro-system thinking. I am also pro-”people” strategies and pro-”social” social media. I’m encouraged when humanity is valued in any context.

That being said, it is infinitely more valuable for you and me to truly love and serve one single person than anything else.

Above all else, our strategies must be “person” strategies. That means that as we devise create approaches for reaching the least and the lost we MUST NOT value the individual less than the corporate. As we build systems that increase our ministry reach, scale, and efficiency, our mechanisms MUST BE able to be adapted to the specific needs and opportunity of ONE PERSON. Our strategic vision and focus MUST NOT overlook the individual.

Given the choice of impacting the person we are with versus focusing our attention on impacting hundreds or thousands through our ministry or business, we must choose the individual.

It may feel counter-intuitive but Scripture drives this message home again and again:

• Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2 ESV)
• Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:7 ESV)
• What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? (Matthew 18:12 ESV)

What do you think? In your efforts to love and serve people, are you neglecting the person? How can we ensure that we don’t lose focus on individuals?

Creating Eternal Value through Strategic Management

Business as Mission Methodology – BAM Business Organization and Resource Coordination (part 2)

Impact of Company/Business Attributes on Business as Mission Objectives

Research suggests that links exist between respondents’ perceptions of how different attributes of an organization (development stage, size, and geographic focus) impact BAM goals (Exhibit 7). ^[1]
(Note: The colored bars on the scale reflects specific opinions pertaining to General Businesses (not explicitly BAM) [yellow], Missions Organizations [red], and Business as Mission Companies [blue], respectively.)

Key Insights:

Development stage (7.1-3)

• Respondents believe that start-up companies are more influential than established (95 percent agree start-up BAM companies are better; 87 percent agree start-up businesses are better). (7.1 and 7.2)
• The preference for start-up missions organizations is not as significant (only 64 percent agree). (7.3)
• Development stage is strongly linked to all Business as Mission objectives, with the greatest correlation with building the economy and blessing the nation.

Implication: the newness of an organization creates perceived benefits that are valued by the Business as Mission movement. Primary among these is the creation of new value in the form of products/service enhancements, additional wealth, and jobs in the economy. Start-up companies could also be assumed to be more dynamic and flexible which theoretically would make it easier for the company to incorporate BAM goals. Of course there is a trade off between the benefits of newness and the efficiencies and learning that a company gains as it develops. It makes sense that respondents seem to favor the benefits of maturity more for traditional missions organizations given that missions organizations do not create as much market value to offset early stage inefficiencies.

• The development stage of a missions organization is not correlated to profitability or the ability to provide access to locations. (7.3)
• The development stage of a company (both BAM and regular) is negatively linked with the ability to provide access to locations. (7.1 and 7.2)

Implication: the relationship between a company’s development stage and “Provides access to many locations” may result from closed-access countries valuing existing companies more than entrepreneurial efforts. The established size and structure of a mature business may lessen the government’s fear of exploitation.

Size (7.4-6)

• Respondents prefer large Business as Mission efforts to micro-enterprise.^[2] (7.4)
• In general, respondents favor large companies over small; however the preference is not as pronounced as it is for BAM companies. (7.5)
• Respondents prefer small missions organizations over large. (7.6)
• A focus on micro-enterprise is believed to limit the benefits that profit can create for the kingdom. Additionally, respondents associate micro-enterprise with the goal of providing access. (7.4)
• Larger companies are perceived to have a greater impact on building the local economy and blessing the nation. Larger companies are also perceived to have a negative impact on ability to evangelize and focus on developing nations. (7.5)
• Large companies are negatively correlated with providing access to many locations while large missions organizations are positively correlated. (7.5 and 7.6)

Implication: the preferences exhibited toward organization size highlight that size is proportional to perceived impact within a host country. However, the BAM movement strives to maintain a balance regarding size because of the perceived trade-off between size and ability to evangelize. The results suggest that there is a size at which it becomes more difficult for a BAM company to effectively evangelize. This belief (if validated) will greatly influence the goals set by the Business as Mission movement in terms of growth targets. Similarly, respondents may recognize that some developing nations or remote regions do not have the infrastructure needed to support larger companies, which tempers size preferences.

Geographic focus (7.7-9)

• Respondents overwhelmingly embrace the global focus of the Business as Mission movement. (7.7)
• Global presence is believed to impact all Business as Mission objectives. The biggest impact is believed to be on profitability and ability to build the local economy.
• Global presence is negatively correlated with providing access to many locations.

Implication: the results reinforce the central role that globalization plays in creating opportunities for Christians to further the kingdom through Business as Mission. The negative correlation between global focus and “Provides access to many locations” most likely is a consequence of reactions to the simplification of Business as Mission as a means for overcoming prohibitions against missionaries in closed countries.

The following is another excerpt from the BAM Survey 2007 Report. The BAM Survey 2007 Report is an in-depth assessment of the state of the Business as Mission movement based on survey responses from 497 people in 38 countries. You can purchase an electronic copy of the BAM Survey 2007 Report for $14.99 here.

Business as Mission Companies Create Eternal Value Through Strategic Management

Whereas evangelism, profit, and (to a lesser extent) mission to the developing world were the historic points of contention for the Business as Mission movement, BAM leaders have built a foundation on these elements and are now working to clarify the principles under which Business as Mission companies operate. This focus on clarification has become necessary as Business as Mission is one of many strategies in existence that mixes general business activities with evangelism and ministry efforts aimed at unreached people groups. Though similar in nature to strategies like tent-making, micro-enterprise, micro-development, and workplace ministry, there are important distinctions between each in terms of intentions, methods, means, and outcomes. Irresponsible mixing of terms and tenets has leads to confusion and distraction and ultimately hinders the Business as Mission movement from gaining further momentum.

Currently the Business as Mission movement does not have a systematic, integrated approach for defining, organizing, and analyzing methodologies, and metrics that drive kingdom impact. Through our research, we are able to draw on the collective experience of Business as Mission leaders and lay the foundation for the development of an applicable framework for transforming strategy into action.

Clarification of Objectives

Not all Business as Mission undertakings will or should have the same objectives; nor should BAM practitioners rule out the possibility that their operations will be used for some type of transformation that they did not plan for. This is important because integrating specific BAM objectives (whatever they should be) along with the business’s financial, creative, and productive goals requires clarity in order to maintain productivity towards accomplishing all goals.

Our research shows that, according to respondents “Very Familiar” with Business as Mission, the most agreed upon objective of BAM is to Build the local economy and bless the nation^[1] (Table D). The second most agreed upon objective is Providing access to many locations^[2]. Survey data also indicates that making a profit, evangelizing and targeting the developing world are key objectives of the movement.

These objectives highlight the perceived advantages Business as Mission adds to the goals of traditional, donor-driven mission efforts – a self-funded vehicle that provides creative access to evangelize and minister to unreached people groups. However, they also highlight the need for further refinement of how strategic Business as Mission objectives are formulated and set. Behind each objective identified in the survey lies an assortment of motivations, interpretations, and expectations for fulfillment. These factors further magnify the complexity of Business as Mission and can make it difficult to know how day-to-day activities and operations contribute to the strategic BAM objectives.

In talking about Business as Mission goals we must resist the tendency to become myopic in our orientation. Ultimately, we are not in control of whether or not we accomplish these goals. Thus, Business as Mission goals and objectives must be understood as guidelines that describe the potential for kingdom impact that BAM companies have. Our discussion of factors that contribute toward these goals is aimed at furthering the Business as Mission movement’s understanding of what experience has shown to be effective.