St. Lucia Simply Beautiful

Even though today Barbados is said to punch above its weight, there is something missing in terms of the drive to achieve this exponential growth. I reminded Professor Welch of the current activities of the E team which is a group of local and international volunteers with an interest in the development of Barbados.

Some interesting things are happening. HWTV, Channels 42 LIME and 78 Karibcable is releasing a number of local programmes that are geared to inform and educate. “Martin without Borders” at 8.30 pm on Tuesday and “Let’s Talk Business” at 8.00pm on Wednesday at 8.00pm. Other programmes on Lifestyle and Fashion will be introduced by the first week in February, 2011.

The Caribbean region’s economic crisis is usually blamed on a combination of adverse external events emanating from the global financial crisis. The solution is not to wait patiently for conditions to improve but to get up off our haunches, innovate and implement – easier said than done. Economists cannot do it alone. We need to mobilise technical talent (in a myriad of fields), business management resources and financiers. Entrepreneurial development is the answer.

Two interesting shows on Television this week:

I wish above all things that you will prosper and be in health – Happy New Year to all!

We must recognise the value of shepherding the enterprise to reduce the risk of business failure. We must leverage this concept where financial angels fear to tread and to mobilise access to finance from traditional financial organisations.The plan must come together and each enterprise must seek to be #1 in what they do.

The year 2010 will be remembered for a long time. Apart from the aftermath of the recession taking its toll, Hurricane Tomas could not have come at a worse time but the resilience of our people was demonstrated once again and things are gradually getting back to normal in many parts of the island that were seriously affected.

If we convert this Biblical Shepherding concept in the context of Bimventures we might end up with a first pass lyrical shift which goes something like this: “While shepherds and business advisers continually assist their enterprises in every aspect of their business, The blessings of the Lord will come down and the Mission targets will be systematically bowled over one after the other in a world of continual improvement guided by a beacon of excellence.”

Bimventures is currently shepherding 10 “DNA of an Elephant” projects in its Venture Capital programme and has another 60 entrepreneurs with scalable ideas, who have expressed interest in joining our programme, in the wings waiting for Venture Capital resources to be assembled before inviting them to be considered to become members of the Bimventures family.

I will be back to share with you some thoughts for 2011. In the meantime, I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas!