Christians show they mean business

When after 25 years of service in the printing sector, Joy Thomas quit his overseas job and started his own Trinity Printing Press in Mumbai, he had no clients. Now, a year after he attended his first meeting of the Christian business group, Dimensions, his client list has grown to include the likes of Lawrence and Mayo, reports Aarefa Johari.

When after 25 years of service in the printing sector, Joy Thomas quit his overseas job and started his own Trinity Printing Press in Mumbai, he had no clients. Now, a year after he attended his first meeting of the Christian business group, Dimensions, his client list has grown to include the likes of Lawrence and Mayo.

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Dimensions, a growing collective of entrepreneurs and professionals, was born four years ago to bust the myth that Christians in India don’t make good businessmen.

With over 600 informal members, it provides both successful and struggling entrepreneurs with a wide network of business contacts within the community.

“Though business has got no religion as such, comfort and trust levels tend to be much higher with people of the same community,” said Thomas, who was referred to Dimensions through a family friend.

“Our community has plenty of great businessmen and women, but the general perception that Christians make good employees, but not good employers, still persists,” said Freddy Mendonca, a logistics businessman and one of the main founders of Dimensions. Mendonca wanted to build a support system that would help his community prosper as a whole. He took his cue from “traditionally business oriented communities” like the Gujaratis, Marwaris, Sindhis and Parsis, who have strong community networks.