Hesed, a model business community dreaming of genuine local  community sustainability

기사입력 : 2018년 02월 23일

(This article has been translated with permission from an article that appeared on News Briefing Cambodia (NBC) on February 23, 2018 based on Insol Jung's interview with Hesed's Mr. Bong Rae Lee.)

It was a surprise to me that Mr. Bong Rae Lee, Founder of Hesed Cambodia, did not mention at all about "profit-making" during the one-hour interview, because he said that Hesed put "transformation in people" as the core value. Mr. Lee is also CEO of Joybells in Korea, which is the primary investor in Hesed Cambodia. Thus, Hesed Cambodia is considered a subsidiary of Joybells. Although Hesed Cambodia is a social enterprise, Mr. Lee is a businessman with years of experiences in investment banking. Interestingly, he did not sound or smell like a regular businessman or investment banker who normally talks about money. After the interview, his comments that he was interested in changes in people and in the Cambodian local community development to the extent of self-sustainability became credible. 

The Birth of Hesed Cambodia, a social enterprise

Mr. Lee, Founder and CEO of Joybells, had years of experiences in investment banking prior to establishing Joybells, a Kingdom impact investment company. Surprisingly, when I first met him, he did not look like a sophisticated and refined banker or businessman. He just looked like a regular guy whom you can run into in your neighborhood. He looked humble and frugal. 

Prior to setting up Hesed Cambodia, he was involved in supporting schools, building hospitals and sending emergency relief teams to disaster sites through Joybells which he established 13 year ago. In 2012, he came to realize that relief and aid were only temporary and not sustainable at all. He got to learn about business as mission (BAM) through which he could produce the lasting Kingdom impact directly in the mission fields. He has since become passionate about BAM. 

Through a series of research, Mr. Lee has come to conclusion that Cambodia was a nation that offered a lot of potentials and opportunities to starting up a new business. Thus, he set up Hesed Cambodia as a social enterprise in Phnom Penh in 2015.. 

Hesed has been in operation for less than three years. Nonetheless, Hesed shows a very low rate of employee turn over. To the company party held at the end of 2017, Hesed invited all family members of its employees, which was quite unusual in the Cambodian context. To many, hotel was their first experiences. Mr. Lee played with the young children of the employees and wanted to convey his intent to make Hesed their family in his rough Khmer, Cambodia's language. Probably, his heart was more apparent to the employees and their families  than his verbal expression. .  

Story of Kampongchhnang, a Palm Sugar Village that Transformed through Hesed

When Mr. Lee arrived in Cambodia, he thought that, in order for Cambodia to succeed, the country must upgrade the quality of its products and export them to the global market. In this regard, he was looking for the most appropriate product that presented the greatest potential. He concluded that it was palm sugar after a long research. 

Mr. Lee found that palm sugar was well proven to be the best sugar available in substitution for the regular refined sugar and Cambodian palm sugar to be one of the best in the world.  In general, Kampong Speu is known to be the place where palm sugar is produced most. But, Mr. Lee chose to work in Kampongchhnang in hopes to help develop a poorer community than Kampong Speu.  

At first, Hesed told the villagers in Kampongchhnang, "Hesed desired to develop Cambodian palm sugar into one of the best in the world. The palm sugar that was then  being produced in Kampongchhnang was of an excellent material, but it could hardly be exported because it had not been handled properly in the production process. The method that Hesed was proposing could be a bit cumbersome to you because you are unfamiliar with the new procedure. But, if you follow our method, we could export the final products. In compensation for your extra work, we promise to pay 25% more than the price that you have been paid."  Hesed showed them what the proper production procedures should be, including wearing a cap and gloves, washing their hands, managing the large woks etc. Nonetheless, many villagers were skeptical about a foreign company's proposal and did not join Hesed, but only seven families.  

It took a while until the villagers and Hesed came to trust each other. The farmers began to accept Hesed's intent to help them improve their economic life, not to exploit them to maximize the company's profit. This acceptance developed into trust that led them to work hard to comply with the conditions that Hesed established. The farmers witnessed that this trust-based relationship turned into a mutually helping community and their bond even further strengthened over time. Since Hesed began its involvement in the production process in the palm sugar village, the farmers formed a cooperative production site and they came to help each other even after their own work was completed. This spirit of helping each other presented an exemplary model for cooperative production. The healthy relationship among the farmers produced quality  palm sugar and Hesed started seeing its sales increase significantly, even exporting the Cambodian palm sugar products to Korea in 2017 for the first time.. 

The villagers who worked with Hesed saw a 60% increase in their income. Prior to Hesed's involvement, the average household income of the village was approximately $200. After one year, the average income of the families who followed the Hesed method jumped to approximately $320. Since the farmers eye-witnessed the increase in their income and were provided a cooperative production site, their self-interest diminished significantly. Furthermore, their higher income, compared to other villagers, motivated them to work even harder. The families who worked with Hesed were originally seven, but after one year, other families also wanted to join Hesed because they saw the changes taking place. The number of families grew from seven to 15. (Now as of February 2019, the number of families working with Hesed is 25.) 

Hesed is holding a party every quarter for the village farmers. In late 2017, Hesed showed the final products to the farmers and one of them wept in tears. It was joyous tear, getting impressed by the clean and attractive package made of the palm sugar that they produced and supplied. They never imagined that their palm sugar could be exported. Their joyous tear gave Hesed staff great encouragement for what they had been doing. 

Cooperation and Coexistence mean Sacrifice, Removing my Color

Mr. Lee drew a diagram immediately in response to my comment that cooperation and coexistence seem particularly difficult for Koreans. I expressed a concern gently about  his intent to work with Korean missionaries in promoting their agricultural products. .

"In Mathmatics, a common denominator represents something that two or more parties have in common. People tend to think of human relationship in this context. But, I think differently. No need to mention difficult concepts such as cooperation or coexistence, I think the common denominator of human relationship can be expressed in color. For example, let us consider Hesed's color yellow and another community's color blue, the common denominator produces a totally different color of green. This results from removing each party's own color and melting myself or my interest to produce a new color. Even with the new color, your own color still exists and I think it means coexistence." he explained.  

He added, "two organizations where coexistence is possible pull each other, thus expanding the common denominator. As a result, the new color or the common denominator will expand and two organizations will become only closer to each other naturally and structurally, resulting in seamless integration. On the other hand, if any  organization that refuses to melt its own color will push other organization away. They may meet for certain necessity, but will soon be detached when the necessity diminishes.  

Borisoth, a Business Community Connecting Producers and Consumers 

 ▲ Interior of Borisoth, meaning "pure" in Khmer

Borisoth is a division of Hesed, specializing in promoting and selling eco-friendly organic products. . It began with a clear mission to create a business community where all members enjoy happiness by connecting the producers and the consumers through fair trade. The mission sounded quite idealistic, but lacking realistic process. Surprisingly, however, Joybells where Mr. Lee serves as CEO has produced an average annual growth rate of 35% over 13 years based on an idealistic but eccentric principle that is equally applied to Borisoth:

“60% of profit is returned to the community or the society and the remaining 40% is retained for sustainable business operation and growth.”

  ▲ Cambodian staff Rotha, Kanika and Sambo working for Borisoth with trust in its corporate values (from the left) 

He added, "I would like to see both producers and consumers happy. For the producers, we hope to upgrade the quality of their products so that we may be able to buy them at higher prices. For the consumers, we would like to sell quality products at the lowest possible price with a minimal profit for Borisoth. In the process of working towards achieving this idealistic noble objective, I would hope that Hesed staff will feel happy unlike at any other work places."  

Mr. Lee will soon return to Korea after he spent three years to establish Hesed, an exemplary social enterprise in Cambodia. It is a model that he would like to duplicate else where. For now, he is thinking of Bangladesh where he would like to replicate the sustainable model that he demonstrated through Hesed.  

I had to nod at his comment on "melting your own color" that depicts the truthful statement where cooperation or coexistence cannot be achieved without sacrificial and selfless love. Everyone may know it, but it is virtually impossible to live it with perfection. People like him are changing Cambodia little by little, who continue to strive towards the noble goal with perseverance no matter how difficult it may be to get there - Article  written by Insol Jung and photos are the courtesy of Dream Studio.