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Used With Permission Connecting with Culture Business Issues & Trends Spiritual alertness is a recurrent theme in the Psalms. The language often used is of being ‘awake’ to God. Even though David was hiding from King Saul in a cave, he wrote these rousing lyrics: ‘Awake, my soul! Awake harp and lyre! I will awaken […]

A couple of months ago, IBEC’s Managing Director, Bob Bush, designed a survey with the objective of identifying the current needs of the business owners we serve, so as to create increased value for our clients.  Eighteen responded. The survey had five questions designed to reveal business pain points. What are the greatest challenges you

I met Dave Kier some years ago when he joined the board of IBEC Ventures, a Business as Mission consulting group I founded in 2006.  I quickly learned of his amazingly successful career in the agribusiness world where he had grown a small animal feed business (DFS Feeds) into one of the largest in Iowa,

Some years ago, while leading a workshop at a conference in Arizona, a local business owner asked the question, “are there no failed startup enterprises in the BAM world?”  While I readily agreed, I was stimulated to think about the question in a more profound way.  There certainly are gigantic risk factors in starting and

I recently listened to Mike Baer’s interview of George Maru of Ambatana in Nairobi, Kenya.  George as an environmental engineer is connected to Empower Hope of Kenya and articulated a term which is important in creating understanding in the BAM world.  It is the “Forgotten Middle”. The term is well known in educational circles as

Most of us realize that our God is a Creator-God, and He even gave mankind the ability and responsibility to create. Deuteronomy 8:18, specifically states that God gives us the ability to create wealth. As creators in the image of God, we create all kinds of things – a colorful flower bouquet; a crab cake;

This is graduation time in North America.  My mind retreats some decades to when it was a privilege to give the commencement address at two different high schools.   Now this week I am attending my second grandson’s graduation from high school. My advice for him comes first from the scriptures: The book of Proverbs, with

“God did not call me to be a minister or a missionary; He called me to be a businessman – and I see no difference.” (Michael Cardone of Cardone Industries) I have recently been contracted to write a couple of courses for a Christian college in Canada.  One of the courses is to be entitled

Julie Colombino arrived in Haiti just days after the January 2010 devastating earthquake.  She had given up her two-week vacation to help since she was a trained disaster responder and had a keen interest in helping in that desperate time.  No one could be prepared for Haiti in those days, and there were no words

I have found IBEC Board member and businessperson, Dave Kier, to have extraordinary wisdom in life and business. Perhaps the following thoughts written by Dave a couple of months ago tells why. Larry W. Sharp, BAM Support Specialist, IBEC Ventures Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com Do you folks in business have favorite verses? There were Proverbs I kept a list