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This question is sometimes asked by North American Kingdom business persons who own or manage businesses: “What can I offer as consultant, advisor, mentor or coach?”  It is a natural question for business persons living and working in a very different context from a business startup in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East. What is […]

In a recent survey, IBEC Ventures reported an important finding: 42% of the respondents said that they regretted not starting with a coach. One said, “If I had to do it over again, I would start with a coach.” In business, the importance of a coach cannot be overstated. It is true in most aspects

Gary patiently explained to me that coffee does not equal coffee does not equal coffee.  I had no idea that it matters where the coffee came from, or who grew and harvested and roasted it, and that the journey to my mug was really a work of art!  What? It turns out that there are

What is that supposed to mean?  I think of myself as a strategy guy so why is culture so threatening?  Peter Drucker made the statement so maybe I had better find out what he meant by it. It seems that business guru, Drucker, says that the culture of a company may be more important than

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