St. Lucia Simply Beautiful

Returning to Barbados for the moment and, indeed, this is true for many states around the world, the system of governance that is practised does not permit the best brains in the country to exercise their full potential in contributing to the development of the country. This is because many of the best brains may not want to participate in the political system and there is no provision for them to make a sustained input in the future fortunes of the country.

At the national level, Britain’s Prince Edward affirmed Barbados as a “model small state” but advised its leaders they would need courage, creativity and common sense to overcome the economic challenges. He was addressing a Joint Sitting of Parliament in the Senate Chamber, held in commemoration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and further reaffirmed that Barbados had demonstrated its maturity and self-confidence and that it actively seeks to learn from the past.

The Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation (BEF) has embarked on a goal for Barbados to be the number one entrepreneurial hub in the world by 2020. A manifestation of this is to double, say, the GDP per capita of Barbados in 10 years. This can only be done through the sustainable success of many large, medium or small enterprises.

Looking at developments at home, citizens are being called upon to exercise patience as it is obvious, it is not going to be business as usual. New ideas, necessitating new approaches will be the order of the day. I like the consultative approach being practiced involving some of our best minds. I have always alluded to the benefits of such an approach. I will like to see the process broadened. Get contributions from the people; in the final analysis, it is the people who will be the beneficiaries of the outcomes. The bottom up approach is necessary in these times. I remember an economist in earlier days who spoke about planning from below. What it simply means is to involve the people in the planning process.

The major constraint arising from the pilot project is the continuing difficulty to access seed and venture capital funds from the available financial markets. The next phase of the project will, therefore, be focusing on targeting specific institutions to set up individual funds which would be managed by a CBET (Barbados) Fund Management company using the systems established during the pilot project.

“You don’t have to get it right; you just have to get it going”. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, you will not only learn from them, you will become keener and smarter. Sometimes there will be that feeling that you are going around in circles while walking on a straight road. That is just the way things are sometimes. The important thing is for you to know the difference between the two. Which way are you headed, in circles or heading straight ahead? You must be confident. Confidence will make the difference

I constantly refer, in this column, to the five functions of management: corporate governance; innovative marketing; operations; personnel; and financial investment. If we examine these functions against the sugarcane industry, we can immediately see that there is a gap between the potential for each function and the status quo.

The theory of Management of Business states that business is driven by the five functions: corporate governance, marketing, operations, leading and control; and that the elements of management (planning, organising, staffing, leading and monitoring), if well applied, mitigate the risk of business failure.

When I approached Chief Justice Gibson to greet him on the evening, I was absolutely honoured when he immediately referred to my weekly column and confirmed that he actually reads it. He immediately made reference to his exposure to spirituality and jurisprudence during his days at Oxford University and revealed his comfort that my column attempts to combine spirituality and business.

Dear Subscribers, My apology for not posting recent articles. Life got a bit hectic in the last few weeks and I must admit I couldn’t cope. I hope you have not been been too put off by the absence. Once again I am very sorry for the inconvenience. Do have a Happy Valentine! We are [...]