Welcome to Culture Footprint, featuring one of the people of God making a difference in the world today, aiming to be an inspiring presence and telling the story of Christ in the culture.
Jerry Marshall is a Cambridge economics graduate, a Chartered Marketer and a serial entrepreneur. He founded a consultancy, a social enterprise working with long term unemployed people, and a technology company that provides a unique customer feedback system to retailers and the public sector. In the mid 1990s he led a project developing small businesses in the Palestinian territories. In 2004 he joined Transformational Business Network (TBN). He now leads TBN work in Palestine and helps TBN members use business to alleviate poverty.
Welcome to Culture Footprint, featuring one of the people of God making a difference in the world today, aiming to be an inspiring presence and telling the story of Christ in the culture.
How did you get involved in business?
I'm an entrepreneur at heart and started businesses at school, selling rat food and then overprinted pens in competition with the school shop. The first real business came when I was made redundant. I set up a temporary business while applying for overseas work with TEAR Fund. We were recruited but the assignment fell through and the business is still going 21 years later.
Who has been the biggest influence in your work?
God. OK it sounds pious, but without His influence I would own more stuff yet be deeply unhappy and unfulfilled.
Who would you invite to your desert island?
My wife. We'd have fun losing our marbles together.
Where do you see the spirit of enterprise at work as a force for good?
Everywhere. It's creative and fun. It's the love of money that messes everything up.
The gospel is pretty revolutionary. Can you imagine a worldwide entrepreneurial revolution?
Thankfully not everyone is an entrepreneur, so no. But I pray that entrepreneurs will be let loose in the church: encouraged, supported and allowed to try and fail.
What one piece of advice would you give someone starting in business?
It’ll take longer and cost more than you think.
What makes you angry?
Lousy customer service and computers that have it in for me.
M.L. King Jr had a dream for society. What is yours?
For more people to discover that joy comes from relationships not money and therefore treat money as a servant not a god, defile it by giving it away and possess it without being possessed by it.
What is the main hindrance to living the dream?
Greed.
Which movie character do you most relate to?
Homer Simpson. I love his entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, as a family we pretty much mirror the Simpsons.
What are the best and worst things about being an entrepreneur?
Best: the feeling that you have created something from nothing.
Worst: working for a year on a start-up without pay and then discovering you’ve lost your life savings to boot.
What New Year’s Resolution do you intend to keep?
Do more sailing.
Which one will you probably drop in the first month?
Do more sailing.
Jesus didn’t say ‘blessed are the cautious’, so I ...
Do one audacious new thing each year.
I didn’t get where I am today without ...
Turning down a brilliant job when I was unemployed, because God said, ‘What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul’.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Not finding investors for a thoroughly researched and planned Israeli-Palestinian start up in Business Process Outsourcing, designed to create robust jobs in the Bethlehem area and service exports for the Palestinian economy.
What does ‘whole life stewardship’ mean to you?
Treating church planting, social enterprise and commercial business as equally valid aspects of Kingdom entrepreneurship; and being accountable to church leaders for all of them.
Which living person do you most admire?
Muhammad Yunus - founder of Grameen Bank and 25 further Grameen organisations; author of ‘Banker to the Poor’ and ‘Creating a World without Poverty’; and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
What would ‘shalom’ in business look like 10 years from now?
The objectives of a corporation would reflect that of an individual human, i.e. concern for the social, environmental and spiritual as well as the financial bottom line.
Tell us a joke
What do you call an entrepreneur's bank account?
Exhibit A.
Why did the entrepreneur cross the road?
I'm sure there was a good reason, but sadly my client's memory loss prevents him from answering at this time. Most of the last two decades, your honour, are a tragic blur.
What do you give to the entrepreneur who has everything? Ten years, with a non-parole of six.
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Culture Footprint: Phil Schluter Phil Schluter runs a family coffee business founded in 1858, which specialises in African coffees. The enterprise trades in a socially responsible and ethical manner. Phil grew up in Kenya, did most of his education in the UK, lived in Switzerland for 16 years, and has been in Liverpool since 2009. He is married to Helen, and they have four kids under the age of seven – Luc, Jasmine, Gabriel and Josselin.
Culture Footprint: Bridget Adams Bridget Adams started her working life as a physicist in university and government laboratories before moving into the high-tech business sector where she worked in sales, marketing, management, and consultancy. Bridget now works to help start, develop and network Christian-run businesses, and runs WorkPlace Inspired. Business as Mission is one of her passions.
Culture Footprint: Theresa Stone Theresa studied English Literature at Goldsmiths University in London, before doing a multi-media journalism masters at Bournemouth University. She has worked freelance at Premier Christian Radio, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Micah Challenge International. She is now the prayer & communications coordinator for 24-7 Prayer UK. Theresa has a passion for prayer, church unity, mission, justice, and telling God stories.
Culture Footprint: Steve Legg Steve is an evangelist from Littlehampton in West Sussex who has travelled the length and breadth of the UK and internationally for the last 25 years using a daft mix of comedy, trickery, mystery and escapology to communicate the gospel. He has also written 13 books and these days devotes a lot of time to running Sorted Magazine. Originally from Bournemouth, he became a Christian as a teenager at a Boys’ Brigade camp. Steve loves a good curry, never misses Eggheads on BBC2 and plays badminton every day.
Culture Footprint: Andy Silver Andy Silver is director of Pop Connection. A Welshman, born in Cardiff, he studied music at Cardiff University and then taught for a number of years. Andy gave up teaching to do a theology course which led him to work in a church as music director and youth/children's worker in Southampton. Next, he became director of training at Capernwray in the Lake District and then joined the staff at Elmwood Church Salford in 2000, where he started working in primary schools using music to create a long-term relationship between school and church. Pop Connection is a charity aiming to unite schools, churches and communities through the power of music.
Date Created: 05 December 2008
Last Modified: 05 January 2009
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