St. Lucia Simply Beautiful

As James and many others have experienced over the years, the one scourge in the 5M start-up business construct is quick access to appropriate sources of finance. So critical is this that I find myself advising clients to seek funds from “friends and family”, who believe in them and their Models, and more recently through crowdfunding platforms, rather than to wait for the public and private sectors to wake up. Of course, start-up entrepreneurs should spare no effort, where practicable, in generating early profits in the business. There is no better source of investment finance and it does wonders for your credit rating.

As a first step towards sustainable success, the social partner leaders should examine themselves to determine at which level of Maxwell’s Five Levels of Leadership they are performing and try to improve themselves.

“According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS): over 50% of businesses experiencing high growth had under 10 employees; between 1992 and 2013, 41.8% of employment change came from small businesses; toward the end of September 2013, small businesses were responsible for a net increase of 174,000 out of 386,000 jobs; and in the third quarter of 2013, 30% of net growth came from firms with 1-49 employees.”

On Tuesday this week in Trinidad, the Global Business Innovation Corporation launches the Caribbean Food Business Innovation Revolution initiative. This initiative promotes the growing of the Caribbean economies through increased agricultural, agri-business and food and beverage exports. The GBIC team believes that the Caribbean can inspire the world by leveraging food as a business example and is proposing a year-round export thrust to complement the gains already achieved through participation at trade shows.

As I reflect on the positives of the past year and take action now on a life renewal process for 2015, I am reminded of the following quote from the famous “I Have a Dream” speech by the late Martin Luther King Jr.: “Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Since 1969, Eric Hassell & Son Limited (founded by Captain Eric Hassell) has been a vital conduit linking Barbados with the region and the wider world. Both Eric’s father and grandfather were seafaring men, and in 1926, when Eric was a mere 11 years old, at the insistence of his father, he was signed aboard a 65-foot trading schooner to learn the ropes from the bottom. In 1936, after serving his apprenticeship, Eric assumed captaincy of the vessel Edward VII. He also captained the Comrade Manuata and Lucille Smith before taking over the motor vessel Zipper in 1959.

(3) Profitability is a necessary condition for a sustainable business. Profitability is rooted in revenue generation. Revenue generation is a derivative from aggressive and persistent sales activity. A late colleague of mine used to say: “Give me a business with revenue and leave it to me to generate profits – give me a business with no revenue and I shall not be able to perform magic.” All of the businesses to which I have been assigned as a shepherd have nice thick well dressed business plans because that is the culture.

(3) “The WICB knew something was brewing, but instead of being proactive in quieting concerns they defaulted into arrogant aloof positions of old. I believe the two Jamaicans in question conspired on an exclusive mutually beneficial deal without the full knowledge of many of the players on the Indian tour. That alone is scandalous. The West Indies captain is equally to blame for his immature approach to the situation. If he didn’t agree with the terms and conditions, he still should have completed the tour because apart from West Indian fans, potentially 1 billion Indian fans had an interest in the series.

(2) Caribbean governments which try to execute business programmes within a ministry. These programmes should be more appropriately executed on their behalf by a private sector trust. The role of government is to perform regulatory and service functions and the civil service rules, inherited from our colonial past, are well designed to support this role.

As the country grows older and we look down the winding staircase, yes, the country covers the ground covered before but unfortunately at the same level. The action is repetitious but not progressive since we have few places where we were but no longer are. In some cases we have regressed. We go around spending much energy and resources but remain stagnant. The result is disappointing rates of economic growth if any at all.