“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28
In the last two columns we have been on a new year roll about the importance of the concepts of balance and synergy. Firstly in the context of national sustainability where the partners in the process which must be in balance are government, the private sector, trade union, shepherd and financier; and, secondly, in the context of the systems of a business where the partnership is leader, team member, product/service, shepherd and client.
Today, we extend the balance and synergy concept to the mix of the primary economic growth sectors in the Caribbean which may be synthesized as tourism, culture, energy, ICT and food.
Our future lies in the effective implementation of creative initiatives in the social partnership to engage startup and existing entities by providing the incentives and mitigating investment risks in the myriad of synergistic combinations of these growth sectors.
As Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley stated last week, we must be creative in turning on the BB$9bn Barbados private sector savings tap to help dig the island out of its economic doldrums. Of course, I would advocate the “Shepherding as Collateral” concept and the shepherding tool (ManOBizTMmatrix) as supportive organizational instruments, on the basis that shepherding mitigates the risk of business failure and hence secures the seed, equity and working capital investment.
The Caribbean is a diverse multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-culinary, multi-genre (music or literature) and multi-lingual region officially made up of an archipelago of islands and selected mainland emerging territories nestled between North and South America, Central America in the West and the Atlantic Ocean in the East, in and bordering on the Caribbean Sea. It is about time that we work together in harmony towards our mutual benefit.
By extension, a similar strategy would be welcomed to mobilize part of the US$47bn private sector savings in the Caribbean Community for the benefit of economic growth in the Caribbean community.
We shall give some insight, in this column, as to what is included in the quintuplet “tourism, culture, energy, ICT and food” and, in subsequent columns, delineate the potential business opportunities that may arise by giving examples as to how the plethora of synergistic opportunities may be exploited.
The tourism industry includes leisure, hospitality, cruise, educational, sports, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), second home, wellness, health, eco, community and agriculture linkages.
The cultural industry includes film, carnival, graphics, design, audio/video, social media, public relations, advertising, sales, architecture, music, publishing, visual arts and crafts, higher education, intellectual property, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, financial services, consulting and entertainment.
The energy industry includes oil, gas, minerals, sun, wind, ocean, blue economy and space ports.
The ICT (information and communications technology) industry includes telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building management systems, audio visual processing and transmission systems, network-based control, monitoring and dashboard functions.
The food industries include agriculture and fisheries.
We are now poised at the beginning of the year with a vision in place, let us make it happen.
