Business Principles in Christian Publishing

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“Business is ministry, and ministry is business,” OMF Literature CEO Edgar Trono says. “Planning is a gift the Lord has given us.” Learn biblical business management principles and how to apply them in Christian publishing for a sustainable and growing ministry.

I’ve been CEO of OMF Literature since January 2023. When I started, I agreed with the Board and with the management that our theme for the next three to five years will be “Restart and rebuild, turn around and transform.” I came at a time when OMF Literature was losing money and had not had a positive net income for 10-12 years.We needed to transform it to be more resilient and to be more profitable.

In this webinar, I’ll talk about our ministry philosophy, the use of a strategic planning tool, and tracking progress or measuring results.

Ministry is business

The first thing I will say is that ministry is business. I hope you’re not surprised by that, but let me explain. The word business has had a negative connotation. People will say, “Isn’t business about profit, about greed?” No.

The philosophy that we are employing here at OMF Literature is about being effective and then being efficient—so that we increase value.

We do not want to destroy value. We do not want to waste the resources and the capacities that God has given us.

Why is that? Because God is the shareholder.

He owns the ministry. I always say that if there is an organization that is so effective and efficient, it has to be ministry. In other words, I say that ministry should be better run, more effective and more efficient than secular business.

We need to be effective and efficient and create value with the resources that God has given us. Ministry should be managed for our Master.

He owns the ministry. We have to be effective. We have to be efficient.

We have to be excellent.

What is the measure of ministry success? Some people say as long as you’re faithful, that’s okay. I don’t necessarily agree with that.

The measure of ministry success is faithfulness plus fruitfulness, good and honest effort plus results. I do not want to be spinning wheels and spending energy without results. There has to be results that will be pleasing to the Lord.

Some helpful business principles

Define your goals
- What are your broad goals?
- What specific goals do you have?
- What are your short-term goals?
- What are your long-term goals?
Know the industry
- Economic environment
- Demand and supply situation
- Regulations including what you can import
- Suppliers and printers
- Market risks you face
Know who your customers are
Engage private sector companies to be your market
Create products and services that will be helpful to your market
Promote your products or services
Know the principles of finance
Understand operational systems and processes
Build a qualified team
Use capital strategically

Strategic Planning Tool: Map the Strategy

Planning in the Bible

We had to come up with a strategy map. The term “strategic planning” is not in the Bible, but the need for planning and for being strategic is in the Bible. For instance, Proverbs 14:8 says, “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to the waste, but the folly of fools is deception.” “Giving thought to your waste is planning.”

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” There again, the word planning is there. Plans are established by seeking advice.

In some ways, being out there in the marketplace is waging war. There are many competitors. Other media, movies and things that take the time of people. I was a chess player when I was younger. You need strategy when you’re playing chess the same way when you are in the publishing ministry.

In the Bible, being strategic is to be wise in the way you act and make the most of every opportunity. That’s strategic planning, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.

Planning is giving careful and prayerful thought to how to accomplish something. To be strategic is to look for the best way to accomplish goals.

You have to have goals.

You have to know how best to accomplish it. Planning enables us to make optimal use of our time and resources to arrive at the best possible outcome.

Planning is both prudent and profitable, but we always need to be careful that our plan is not the all in all. We need to be careful because even if we have plans, let us always remember that it’s God’s purpose which will prevail (Proverbs 19:21). Remember, it is always God who will call the shots at the end of the day.

It’s prudent and profitable to plan, but we have to depend on God for the results.

What’s the importance of strategic planning?

Ensures the use of resources aligned with vision, mission and strategy
Provides clarity of direction, plans and purposes
Allows for unified and consistent action
Long-term versus short-term; transformational vs tactical

Planning is teamwork

Ideas will have to come from the rest of your team. Engage your team in planning. You also need to have directions from your Board. Planning is both bottom-up and top-down.

One of the better tools that I have experienced in my business career is the SWOT analysis.

Your strengths give you the competitive advantage over your competitors.
Your weaknesses are things that you need to improve in your operations and your people.
Opportunities are those where you will find opportunities for growth for your ministry.
Threats are things that could endanger the ministry.

The internal aspects of the SWOT analysis are the strengths and the weaknesses, and the external are the opportunities and the threats. The helpful things for you will be the strengths and the opportunities; the harmful things the weakness and the threats. You use the SWOT to identify strategic plans and objectives. This is what we did:

We got our teams together.

First, I had the departments just talk to one another and identify their SWOT.

We put the departments together, and then we came up with the ministry SWOT.

The management committee spent a day outside the office to come up with the final SWOT, and what our strategic objectives would be.

I engaged our Board of trustees. I said, “Let’s independently do a SWOT and see what we come out with.” It turns out that their SWOT analysis came out to be quite close to what the management came up with.

We agreed on the strategy map. When you’re working with a Board, you need to understand the priorities of the Board.

Strategy Map

It comes from the tool called the balance scorecard. This includes aspects of the ministry, the organization, the processes that you have, your internal processes, your finances, your market, your constituency, and impact—as well as perspectives guided by your vision, mission and core values.

Our strategic objectives included:

Organization – grow competent, committed, motivated, and adaptable professional ministry workers

Internal processes – improve key processes

Finance – achieve profitability and sustainability, because at that time, we were losing money

Market – expand reach to targeted sectors of the Filipino population, churches.

Kingdom Impact – contribute to the development of biblically literate and spiritually equipped disciples of Christ

Significant outcomes

Lowest loss in a decade
Booked more than sales to post a significant income
Team responsive to the changes
Salary increase of at least 50%
Established a credit facility
Sustained strategy execution

How do you respond to people who feel that focusing too much on strategic planning is “quelching the Holy Spirit”?

There should be no dichotomy.

When you are planning, you are depending on the Spirit. Whenever we do planning, we pray. Planning is a tool that the Lord has given us you have to be guided by the Spirit when you plan.

Do you ever publish a book by an unknown author that you know won’t sell well, but you believe it needs to be published because it is a quality resource?

It is only needed by the market if they will pay for it. if they’re not going to buy it, it’s not needed. Right. The measure of value is when people exchange value for that.

If you were to publish something that you knew needed to be published that wouldn’t sell well, what’s the minimum amount that it would need to sell in order to put it out?

Enough to pay for the cost of printing because there’s a minimum volume of copies that you need to, print, so it should at least cover that plus a little bit more.

Part of the planning and publishing, how does AI affect your planning and publishing processes?

I’ve not delved into the AI field yet, no, but I think I need to do that. We’ve been focused on executing our existing strategy. We’ve asked our team to come up with a digital strategy. AI will have to be part of that thinking process.

If someone is interested in starting a publishing house, and what’s the first thing they need to do to start?

You need to understand the market. I always start with the market. I do not start with my product.

We receive many manuscript submissions. How do we ensure that the theology is sound?

We have a theologian reviewing our stuff.

How do you handle surprises? If your planning is too rigid, do you miss that major opportunity?

When we have a plan, we stick to the plan—but as they say, “when the boots hit the ground, you better be ready to flex.” Don’t abandon a strategy that you have thought of for a long time just because of the sudden shift of the wind. Be very clear about when to do it and why you have to change.

How effective and efficient is social media for marketing for Christian publishing?

You cannot do without, but as to measuring the effectiveness, we have not formally done that.

Does OMF Philippines sell more smaller books or larger books? in Guatemala, smaller, easy-to-read books sell more. What is the situation like in the Philippines?

We do sell imported materials. We do have a market for the more expensive books, but the books, for instance, that we sell to the Department of Education—which goes to public schools—are less than $3 a piece, 150 pairs.

About Edgar Trono

Edgar is CEO of OMF Literature, which publishes and distributes Christ-centered, biblically sound, and culturally relevant resources for the equipping and spiritual growth of Filipinos. He also serves in men’s ministry with Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) and as a board member of several Christian organizations. Prior to his current role with OMF Literature, Edgar was a Director for Global Initiatives at the BSF headquarters in the US, a Trustee of Our Daily Bread in the Philippines, and a banker. He has more than 30 years of banking experience, including senior positions in public sector portfolio management.

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