“But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” — Deuteronomy 8:18
Small states keep hearing the same refrain: “Our economies need to grow faster.” What we hear far less often is how.
For years, Barbados and similar nations have relied on the familiar mix of tourism, basic services and steady domestic business. While that has delivered successive quarters of steady growth, it has not moved the needle for Barbadians living paycheck to paycheck.
Real relief at the pump, in the grocery store and in people’s bank accounts requires a new approach: generating export-ready businesses quickly.
That is where the High Impact Growth Strategy (HIGS) workshop comes in.
The HIGS program is a structured, field-tested method that can take business ideas from a blank sheet of paper to vetted concepts in two days. It brings together about 60 diverse participants — entrepreneurs, youth, public officers and diaspora talent — with expert facilitators. The result is a pipeline of practical, export-focused ideas ready to become enterprises.
The process cuts through groupthink, harnesses local knowledge and turns it into actionable opportunities.
For small states, the need is urgent. Global supply chains are fracturing, input costs remain volatile and geopolitical shifts threaten to disrupt economies. Waiting for foreign investment or hoping traditional sectors will suddenly scale is not a strategy.
Instead, Barbados and other Caribbean nations must build their own export enterprise pipelines from the ground up.
The model is straightforward: Establish a national framework to run a series of HIGS workshops each year. Facilitators guide participants through the process, producing the seeds of Export Enterprise Builder projects — businesses designed from day one to sell overseas, create jobs and earn foreign exchange.
More export enterprises mean more jobs, higher wages and reduced import dependence. That creates tangible relief for households even when the global environment becomes hostile.
I have tested this approach in several Caribbean countries, and it works. We do not need to invent a new system. We need to adopt it, adapt it and implement it at scale. The HIGS workshop is not a talk shop; it is a production line for growth-oriented ideas.
The question is not whether we can afford to do this. It is whether we can afford not to.
Dr. Basil Springer GCM is a corporate governance adviser. He can be reached at basilgf@marketplaceexcellence.com. His columns appear at www.nothingbeatsbusiness.com.