Business as Mission profile: Joseph Vijayim and Olive Technology

I came across an interesting profile of Joseph Vijayim, a business as mission practitioner, in the pages of Fritz Kling’s forthcoming book, “The Meeting of the Waters.” (Kling’s book will be out in the spring, but with permission I share the following.) Note: Vijayim leads an international group of IT specialists helping to “open source” the upcoming Lausanne III Gathering in Cape Town, October 2010. Check out Vijayim and the story of Olive Technology:

Joseph Vijayim is from Hyderabad, India, the only son in a prominent Indian Christian family. His grandfather, one of the first Anglican Bishops in India, was prominent and revered throughout the country. His father, a geology professor at India’s largest university, was named Scientist of the Year by India’s government – at the same time as he was starting and running a major parachurch ministry.

For most of his youth, Joseph’ surname constantly reminded him of a faith he did not share with his family. At home and with his friends, he was rebellious. Early on, though, he learned that strong academic performance earned him latitude in other areas of his life that were not so exemplary. At St. George’s Grammar School, Joseph was a top student and “chief prefect.” He always gravitated toward mathematics.

Right after high school, Joseph took his first computer course. Hyderabad, on the verge of becoming a leading global city in information technology (IT), only had four computer institutes at the time. Today there are thousands of them. Like many bright children of Indian leaders, Joseph went to the United States to pursue his education, and he decided to study computer science. Around that time, he also embraced his parents’ love of Christ, as his own.

I first met Joseph in 2001 in Hyderabad, and it seems that we have reconnected every few years since then – when he visited my office in Richmond, at a conference in Thailand, and then at his U.S. office in Colorado Springs. He has always struck me as thoughtful, purposeful, and gentle.

Joseph’s background is extremely traditional and so is his preppy wardrobe of khakis, button-down shirts, and loafers. His glasses are the kind that accountants wear, and not the hip, black-rimmed ones of marketing or media-types. He looks nothing like Debbie or James, but then theirs is not a one-size-fits-all generation.

It was during his undergraduate years at Biola University and subsequent MBA studies that Joseph began to experience the generational pull toward Mercy. For him, his evangelism-then dream was to combine technology, business and ministry in an emerging field called “business as mission” (BAM).

“I did not want to be like so many students from poorer countries who pursue higher education in the United States and end up staying for the money and comfort. I had always vowed that I would fly back to India on the very same day as I took my last MBA exam in the U.S., and that’s what I did, with my wife and our baby.” This was not just national loyalty, but Joseph’s lifelong commitment to a people and place – India.

That was more than a decade ago, and ever since Joseph has consistently placed a high value on community, relationships, and fellowship. One major commonality of all members of the Mercy Generation is their zeal for community. Joseph and his Christian peers are committed to acts of Mercy, and they believe that those acts flow most naturally and efficiently from strong communities.

Upon returning to Hyderabad, Joseph began Olive Technology in 1996. “My company,” he said, “is designed to be one hundred percent business and one hundred percent ministry. Our mission statement is a vivid example of BAM: Olive exists to provide human, technological, and financial resources to grow God’s Kingdom in India and worldwide.”

Olive now employs eighty people, and I asked Joseph how a profit-driven, competitive computer company could exemplify Mercy. The topic clearly energized Joseph, because I could barely write down his examples as quickly as he rattled them off.

“Most obviously,” he said, “Olive releases other employees and me to do Christian ministry in India and abroad. Olive pays for travel and other needs incurred by employees who travel for ministry purposes. One Olive employee has started a church specifically for technology people in Hyderabad.

“Olive launched two websites, www.mahalife.com for pre-evangelism of non-Christians and www.mahajesus.com for discipleship of Christians.

“At Olive we take every possible opportunity to bring people closer to truth. We have daily devotionals and, although about seventy five percent of Olive’s employees are non-Christians, several of them attend. We host programs on Republic Day, Independence Day, Christmas, Easter, and more. On Valentine’s Day, Olive invited other tech companies to a program called “Reality Check on Romantic Relationships,” and four hundred people attended. The invitation carries much more weight when coming from another tech company, and not a Christian ministry. Next year, we hope to have a thousand people at the event.

“We really try to support Christian ministries in Hyderabad and throughout India. We provide free web hosting for sixty Christian ministries. Olive invites about ten different ministry leaders to our annual Christmas party, and we make a financial gift to each of them.”

As it relentlessly takes risks, the Mercy Generation encounters many impediments: public disapproval, friends’ confusion, untested financial models, uncertain future paths, and even physical danger. Joseph acknowledged to me that Olive had to sacrifice higher profits by diverting money into ministry. “Olive hasn’t grown the way a typical IT company does, especially one that has been in business for twelve years. Most of those companies, if they’re still around, have gone through initial public offerings and have grown ten times, so there is a cost.” Debbie Walker continues to compromise her career trajectory by chasing her calling. James lives under the specter of harassment or detention by government security in his country, while facing skepticism among Christians about the effectiveness of his evangelistic-then efforts. Debbie, James, and Joseph have all counted the costs of innovation, of sharing the yoke with Jesus.

Joseph was also quick to point out to me that the Mercy Generation is not restricted to Christians. “After an earthquake in 1993 when 35,000 people died, India was reliant on foreign funding. When the tsunami hit in 2004, the Indian government told the world that we did not need funding from outside. Software companies and call centers raised eighteen million dollars within a couple of days. Almost the next day after the tsunami, twenty Olive employees asked for time off to go to the tsunami-affected areas with blankets, food and money. And this isn’t unique to Christian believers – it’s the younger generation around the world. In India, younger people are in workplaces where they interact with people from the United States, and they see your belief that all men are created equal. Then the upper-class IT Indians begin to treat the lower-caste Indians that way. Spreading values through commerce just happens naturally, which is one reason why BAM is so powerful.”

Three generation of Vijayim men portray the evolution of ministry in the marketplace. “My grandfather the Bishop and my father the professor shared a common approach,” Joseph noted, “separating business from the workplace ministry. My grandfather’s ministry was all in the church. My father’s ministry was also outside of his job, as he poured himself into parachurch organizations. But now, Olive Tech and hundreds of other “kingdom companies” around the world are the logical next step in this progression: the merging of business and ministry.”

Mercy: mercy in emancipating, mercy in mountaineering, mercy in the marketplace – and yes, mercy in ministry. The concept can be perplexing to Christians with dualistic visions of vocation and ministry as fundamentally separate. But the Mercy Generation leans away from either-or, and toward “both/and” solutions. Debbie, James, and Joseph have all taken innovative steps to reshape their worlds so that their passions merge: for Debbie it’s justice and law, for James it’s mountaineering and discipleship, and for Joseph it’s business and ministry.

By the way – I dig Fritz’s book. For years Fritz was a program officer for an East Coast-based family foundation that focused on Christian missions around the world. Program officers are among the most knowledgeable people I know, and I often wish they would share more of what they know with the rest of us. That, my friends, is this book. Many of Fritz’s global contacts that are described in this book came, or were nurtured, through his foundation work. As I mentioned, the book should be out in the spring. If I can, I’ll do one of those wetoku interviews with Kling.