Page 206 - The Bible On Leadership

192 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

John Shields, the president of the Ohio division of Finast stores. When
people looked at downtown Cleveland in the 1980s, they could be
pardoned if they were reminded of the Old Testament lines, ‘‘Jerusalem
will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with
thickets.’’ (Mic. 3:12) Like many, Shields saw urban decay, but he also
saw economic opportunity and a chance to bring economic justice,
jobs, and good service to the people of the inner city, many of whom
had to take expensive, inconvenient trips to outlying areas to buy their
food.
Shields saw the inner city not just as a ‘‘mound overgrown with
thickets’’ but as an underserved market. There was an ‘‘outstanding
business reason’’ to build new, modern stores, but there was also the
opportunity to revitalize the area. Shields oversaw the construction of
six new state-of-the-art stores in the inner city. Not only were the
neighborhoods better served, but the stores were highly profitable.
Certainly there were some ‘‘extraordinary’’ expenses to set up stores
in the inner city, such as additional staff training expenses and the cost
of setting up an unobtrusive but effective iron fence around the store to
discourage theft. But the effort involved more than just accounting for
expenses and trying to make a profit, since it was also an exercise in
economic and social justice. The mayor of Cleveland stated that ‘‘a
good business decision was also the right thing to do for the community.
So you have the best of both worlds.’’
The ultimate testimony to Finast’s dedication to fairness and justice?
The comments of the residents of the affluent suburbs surrounding the
inner city, who were amazed to see better stores there than in upper-
class communities like Shaker Heights. ‘‘When they go down there,
they’re stunned,’’ notes Shields. ‘‘They say, ‘My gosh, this is a nicer
store than we have in our neighborhood.’ ’’ 21
New London, Connecticut, was another city in danger of becoming
‘‘a heap of rubble’’ in the 1990s. It had been declining for years due to
loss of jobs in the city’s primary industry, defense. The housing stock in
the city was deteriorating, and 61 percent of the schoolchildren quali-
fied for free or reduced lunches.
The initial force for reviving the city was biblically inspired. Claire