Building Trust, Changing Lives

Challenges or opportunities?

Last year, while traveling through an airport in Texas, a news story on the television caught my attention.  The story was covering a recent suicide of a manager in China who’s company was responsible for recalling over a million Mattel toys because of lead content in their products. This was hot on the heals of other reported safety violations surrounding food, tires and working conditions in China. Recently, a friend shared with me the particular challenges his own company is facing in dealing with unscrupulous and less than reliable partners in China.  One needs to look no further than these stories surrounding China to appreciate the challenges of outsourcing and running a global business. If problems like these exist in China, imagine how these issues could be compounded in regions like India, South Asia or Sub-Sahara Africa?

Yet the challenges that may make us shy away from going international now provide incredible opportunities, that are unparalleled in history for us Christians involved in business in the “global village”.  With a commitment to integrity, truth, justice and trust – what might a Kingdom-minded businessperson bring to the table?  Can an individual have an impact in discipling a nation and simultaneously fill an increasingly growing demand from western markets for products that meet standards and quality control? From my first-hand experience of one such individual, the answer is firmly yes!

A Kingdom entrepreneur

Earlier this year, my work took me to visit the businesses of Jan Brill, a Dutchman working in the never-dull country of India. I have known Jan for a few years now, enough to know that if you spend any time with him you can’t help but feel uncomfortably challenged and inspired. He has the simple habit of unswervingly and boldly believing the Word of God and acting on it in relation to everyday details in the business.  In his mind, the Kingdom goes before profit and every situation is an opportunity to wait and trust in the Lord.  Every frustration - and they do come often - is a chance to disciple and teach.  Jan is meeting a need in the West for quality on-time products, while making an impact for the Kingdom of God in his corner of the world.

Already a gifted Product Design Engineer in the Netherlands, Jan moved with his family to India five years ago to answer a call from God he received early on in life of working with the least reached and most in need in the world.  This journey brought him to a large industrial city in India and with an existing, adequate industrial infrastructure in place, Jan was ready to begin his work.

The premise for his business is profoundly basic, but powerful: To make quality products and give exceptional service in a way that maintains integrity and establishes trust.  His belief is that a product, in and of itself, can be a reflection of God’s glory if created with excellence.  His ethos is that all work should be glorifying to God and doesn’t have to necessarily carry a “nonprofit” or “humanitarian” label.  Working with excellence builds trust and credibility and brings influence. The concept is the same as that found in Proverbs 22:29 and it’s a proverb you’ll most likely hear Jan quote often if you spend time with him.  “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.”

Though they always strive to be profitable in their business, this is not the end goal.  The chief aim of the companies is to see the Kingdom of God established in the place the Lord has shown them.  Making quality products and serving the market is just one strand of this.

In the business…

After five years in India, Jan has created two companies.  One is manufacturing and selling decorative candles.  The other is involved in the industrial manufacturing of products involving wood, metal, and plastic.  Today, these two companies employ over fifteen individuals, and in addition are supporting approximately nine street orphans.  My estimation is that they have a direct positive impact on approximately fifty people and this does not include the wider influence on vendors or customers. 

Starting with a candle company in India must have seemed to some like an unorthodox move, but Jan and his wife saw it as obeying the Lord. Decorative candles were not a common home feature until recently in India and when an average Indian is asked about candles, they typically will imagine the plain white functional kind.  It has proved to be an interesting way to break into the Indian market! Jan hired his first employees in this business and has even taught them using the candles as symbols for communicating truth, likening the Word of God to the wick that has to be in the center if the candle is to work as the maker intends.

The work with candles has given some of the employees, mainly women from low-castes, an outlet for artistic expression and creativity that they may never have previously had in their lives.  It has also given them a very real sense of dignity – something else God intends for all people.

Jan’s second business is a design and industrial manufacturing company that is exporting to over three nations and has opportunities for future partnerships in other countries.  Their mottoes are “Quality products from Asia, on time, all the time” and “Exporting tons of trust”.  If Jan’s company cannot produce a product, he and his Indian partner are well networked in their city and can find a company that can.  This network has given them incredible opportunities to influence other company owners and employees on a very direct level.

One way this is communicated to customers, officials, and suppliers is that the company have a very strict no-bribe policy and they strive to maintain a high level of integrity and transparency in everything they do.  Trust is key, especially in dealing with customers in the West, who need to know they can trust the person they are dealing with.  Jan’s company creates a natural bridge that sets customers minds at ease. As a result of their policies and attitudes the practices of bribery have actually been changing in their circle of influence.

As international trade and outsourcing increases in the coming years, being a trustworthy company can pay huge dividends.  These dividends come in many forms.  Certainly they can come in the form of lucrative opportunity and financial gain.  However, there is no doubt that an individual who has a heart to see the Kingdom of God advanced in a developing region through good business will be met with opportunity after opportunity to bear eternal as well as earthly fruit.

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