Academik

Friday is the final day and reserved for clients to present their
impressions of the venture and how they’ve changed their
perspective. Each client walked through their top 3p’s (ours were
planning, process, and people). I’m working to include the
presentation here as soon as I can.

The stories were really inspiring and I realized overall how
impressive our clients were: the oldest interior design/architecture
firm in Jakarta (they do multi-million dollar mansions), the largest
private Internet provider in Indonesia, the leading marine supply
vessel provider in Indonesia… and yet one of the most powerful
stories came from a small husband and wife team who were in real
estate. The company was struggling and their relationship was
struggling as well. During the venture they realized God was calling
them to a different market segment, concentrating on higher end
properties, and they worried what their two silent partners would
think of this new shift in direction.

During the first week of the venture they prayed for a solution…

Without any instigation (apart from their prayer) the silent partners
called a meeting during the first weekend. They wanted out of the
company, and were willing to be bought out for 2/3 of what they bought
in for! The couple couldn’t believe it - this was exactly what they
wanted, gift wrapped and presented to them with a bow on top : )

For Wintermar, Martin and Kiki presented their insights over the past
two weeks to an audience that included their managing director, Kiki’s
direct supervisor, 3 Christians who had asked to attend, and 2 members
of Martin’s family. The essential part of the talk was the creation
of employees with competence and character to address corruption and
communications within the company. While it didn’t feel like an “a-
ha!” moment for me or them, I realized that the change had really been
planted within them and the Wintermar employees who had come to watch
the presentations.

The change which had taken place in the MD’s heart, was not being
communicated effectively to the entire staff, for fear that the
religiousness of the message would scare or offend them. We had just
equipped him with two more people to champion God’s management of
Wintermar. Sometimes a venture is drastic, other times it is
subtle. Sometimes it encompases the beginning, middle, and completion
of change, othertimes simply the beginning. I think in Wintermar’s
case it is simply the beginning. For Kiki, I think it was the
beginning of something completely new. For Martin, well, I’m not sure
about Martin, but he’s recommended his sister and brother both
participate in the next venture in October (our 7th in Jakarta) so I’m
assuming it was impactful for him (he was quite bashful about speaking
much of the time - I’m assuming for fear he might say something amiss
in English).

After all the presentations we gathered together and went to Harum
Manis for a group dinner (local + foreign consultants + clients) and a
final wrap-up by the leaders about what we’d done during the trip. I
finally got to meet Steve and Phillips, Kiki’s son and husband
respectively. Steve was hilarious and used my presence as a good
excuse to practice his very good English (he’s only 5!). During the
middle of dinner Andre, a local who had heard my talk at Jakarta
International Christian Fellowship on Sunday, arrived to talk about my
story and how he could look at his work as glorifying to God.

His parents were successful product distributors, and had invited him
into the business many times. When he was in between jobs he would go
to work for them, but every time he did they became angry with him
when he would not doctor receipts for clients. He explained how it
went against his principles, but they told him that if he wouldn’t
manipulate client receipts, that they would simply go to someone who
did. So he quit and began work at an international real estate
development firm as a financial assistant. The job isn’t fulfilling,
but he worked with numbers and could do so with integrity. His parents
offered to fund a new business, but he refused to be under their
thumb….

He was really frustrated with how he could be involved in the business
world, do his work well and with integrity and make a profit…
something we think that goes hand in hand in the states was actually
viewed as a detriment in Indonesia. I didn’t have many answers for
him, but I really felt that the success of his parents business and
their offer to help him start a new company was a huge blessing. I
told him that perhaps the change needs to come in his parents spirits
before it can come in their business. It’s a topic we’re often
hesitant to broach with strangers and loved ones alike, but often it’s
the topic that gives us the most insight - what is our spirit like?
Are we fulfilled? What’s our purpose here? Are we making a
difference? These simple questions lead to remarkable discussions and
deep revelations about character and thought. This challenge
resonated with him.

He’s another one I’m looking forward to checking in on over the coming
months… and I’m looking forward to finding out similar answers to my
own questions.