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- Mark Greene meets Norman Fraser, a businessman with a lot of interest – in others.

The General Motors Company used to believe that what was good for General Motors was good for America. It's a somewhat arrogant view of the role of business but nevertheless a country without strong companies is likely to be a poor country. And one way to alleviate poverty and contribute to society is by generating jobs and developing strong companies. And it's a route that some Christians have taken through the centuries. And indeed today. Nevertheless, most business people don't look at need. They look at opportunity.

Most business people who are thinking about investing overseas don't think first about the needs of the local population, they think first about the likelihood of a reasonable return on their investment.

Most business people look, quite reasonably you might argue, to their own interests.

But the Christian life, like the life of Christ, is not just about looking after our own interests. It's about looking 'to the interests of others'. (Phil 2:4)

And Norman Fraser isn't most business people.

Indeed, if Norman Fraser were a car he'd be custom-built.

On the outside, he'd look like a four-wheel Drive LandRover Defender - tough, go-anywhere, get through anything, quiet, not flashy but determined - but the engine wouldn't be 2.4 litres, it would be 4.6, and the tank wouldn't take 80 litres, it would take 160. There'd be bull bars on the front, but they wouldn't be there to fend off kiddies' balloons from suburban parties, they'd be there to fend off bulls, to deal with obstacles.

Around four years ago, Norman visited Moldova. Most people - and I'm one of them -wouldn't be able to tell you where that is. Most people who know where it is wouldn't want go there. And most people who live there want to leave.

Moldova is the size of Scotland, has a population of 4 million, and is the poorest country in Europe. On the Inglehart scale of value it is also the most miserable country. Norman went there, but very few Westerners go back. So when he did, Natalia, a student he'd met on his first visit, exclaimed, 'You came back!'

Norman went back precisely because Moldova is a very tough place. Where would Jesus go? To the easy places, to the sun-soaked beaches, to a place with easy pickings? Norman was inspired by Christ's example - choosing the way of the cross, rather than a path of ease. Furthermore, Moldova needed businesses. Since the collapse of communism, its economy had shrunk seventy percent. Unemployment was rife, twenty-five percent of working age people were living abroad, eighty percent of the population were living below the poverty line, corruption was endemic, and the country's infrastructure, starved of tax revenue from employed people, was crumbling. And then there was the small matter of the mafia.

Resuscitating an industry
Norman's own background was in IT. The software company he founded in 1993 had grown rapidly in the market boom of the mid-90s, but Norman had found that a great business wasn't enough for him. He was the richest man he knew but he was also burned out. He decided to spend a spell with UCCF, the student ministry. That took him to Moldova. Subsequently, God made it clear that he needed to do something for the economy of the country. In turn, it became clear that this would involve stepping out of the student ministry. That was a difficult decision to make. But it was a decision that he knew he had to make.

For a while, he tried to attract investors to a number of ideas but no one was interested. Then, in 2000, he went back to Moldova and, along with three Moldovans, founded Brains Direct, an IT software outsourcing company. They hired three staff. The IT business fitted with Moldova's erstwhile status as a regional IT center in the former Soviet Union.

However, by the late 1990s there was not a single software business left in Moldova. Norman didn't just start a business, he resuscitated an industry. Now Brains Direct have 50 staff and a number of world-class clients. They are also doing more than simply providing jobs for 50 people - they are doing what good business always does, contributing to the transformation of the country.

'Yes' to tax
First of all, Brains Direct decided to set up a PAYE scheme. In recent history, Moldovans have been as keen to pay tax as vegetarians are to chew raw beef. Nevertheless, around 700,000 Moldovans rely on Social Security. Brains Direct's 50 tax payers now contribute a significant percentage of the revenue. Furthermore, it was the success of the company that paved the way for the opening of the British Embassy. In turn, that opened up the possibility of more trade.

Don't Pay us too well
Brains Direct aim to pay fairly. They weren't just interested in giving people a job, they were interested in giving them a really good job. As such, Norman didn't just want to pay people what he could get away with, he wanted to pay not merely a good wage but a just wage, in line with the revenue people generated.

Nevertheless, it has not been easy going. The dot.com crash meant that the value of the shares in Norman's previous company plummeted. And that radically affected the amount of cash available to keep the business going forward. God has provided - just enough. Indeed, Norman has constantly acknowledged that it is not his own power or business acumen that have generated his wealth but God. Similarly, though he is working hard for the success of the company and for significant benefits to Moldova as a whole, he recognizes that he might lose everything and come away from Moldova with nothing to show for his efforts.

This takes him back to the cross, and specifically to the one who gave up everything for us. Again, there is an echo of Philippians 2 here:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing…

Are we prepared to give up everything, and to do so without regret?

It is not surprising perhaps that Philippians 2 is a passage of Scripture that has long gripped Norman - it was one of the passages read at his wedding and when I first mentioned that I caught echoes of Philippians 2 in his work, he told me that it was the passage he would like to have carved on his tombstone. The Philippians parallel is also apparent in Norman's comparison between Christ and 'smart' investors:

Christ sacrificed everything. 
	Smart investors limit their liabilities.

Christ loved the unloved. 
	Smart investors love those who deliver results.

Christ helped the helpless. 
	Smart investors help those with a track record.

Christ was prepared to lose everything.
	Smart investors are averse to high-risk projects.

In business terms, setting up in Moldova was a huge challenge. There are perhaps two major reasons for taking on a big challenge. One: you like challenges, testing yourself, and finding out how far you can go - the mountain is there, the moon is only 250,000 miles away, the river only 4000 miles long, and so on. Two: the goal is worth reaching, because it involves doing something significant for others - victory in Europe, a cure for polio, saving a people from starvation.

Christ's love compels
People ask Norman why he is involved in Moldova. Christ's love compels him. It is the same kind of love perhaps that compelled Cadbury to start a business so that the unemployed around his town could have jobs. And it is entirely consistent with other Christian initiatives through the centuries: when Christians saw the sick, they took the initiative to build hospitals; when they saw people who didn't have a chance of a basic education, they built schools; when they saw people dying from polluted water, they brewed low alcohol beer. This is the way of Christ - to alleviate suffering and work to create a context in which human beings can flourish. And, as in Norman's case, also use this as a platform for the evangelisation of a country.

Brains Direct is one initiative among many business initiatives round the world in which Christian business people are using their skills and their money to give others a chance to earn a living, to create flourishing communities, and build their countries. These range in scale from micro-loans for small cottage industries to the planting of factories in areas of chronic high unemployment. Indeed, a new group of British business people have recently formed the Transformational Business Network which works to 'plant Christian businesses' in the two thirds world, providing both business training, expertise and, as appropriate, capital investment for everything from a factory in China to a safari park in Southern Africa. All these initiatives, large and small, share a desire to see business pursued with high levels of financial integrity and product quality. They all share the desire to serve the communities in which they trade. And to see Christ's name glorified. As Archbishop William Temple put it back in the first half of the 20th century: "If we have to choose between making men Christina and making the social order more Christian, we must choose the former. But there is no such antithesis."

Initiatives like the Transformational Business Network and businesses like Norman Fraser's are a healthy reminder to us of the original purposes of work and business. Work can be defined as the stewardship of resources - human and material - to the glory of God and for the benefit of humankind. In Moldova, you can see how Brains Direct is contributing to the welfare of the broader community and you can see how they are bringing glory to God.

And you can also see how one person who is more concerned for others than their own comfort can make a huge difference - with God's help.

And maybe that will help each of us think about how we might make a difference where we are - with God's help.

Mark Greene