Day 1 - All Morning Sessions

How can you lead the effort in your company to develop a game-changing strategy that would make all the difference? Do you care about your organization's success? You and your company and your colleagues, you made it through the pandemic, but as you look to the future, you see that you could accomplish so much more than just more survival, more emergencies, more firefighting. And more fear, you could actually carve out the future that you want for you and the people that you care the most about. I'm hoping that's why you're here, because this is the Caribbean Strategy Conference, and my name is Francis Wade, and I am the co-host along with my wife and colleague Dale Pilgrim Wade. She's listening in on the background, and I welcome you to the morning Second day actually of our conference and I can already see some emojis happening. And if you have never used our emoji, you know, been here to your meet, you can click on that smiley circle at the bottom and pick an emoji that you want and just kind of put up some picture. Oh, okay, everybody found that. But I also want to make sure, I think you're hearing me, but let's make sure, let's get your fingers working and put some, give me a hello. Are you hearing me clearly? Let's drop some notes and start talking because this is going to be a day of full interactivity and I want to make sure you're hearing me. Hi Sharon, let's see who we have. Kelly McIntosh, great to have you. Hi Vanessa. And Kelly says looking forward. Great, we have a vocal group here this morning. I can see Derek, you made it. Good. Buenos días. So Derek is one of our presenters. Hi, Ami. Ami is a presenter also. We have a really a packed day of activity to look forward to. The fact is we're here to empower you to lead. Now, you may not be the CEO, but we are positioning everyone who comes to this conference as someone who will take their company into the idea or lead their company to the idea of creating a disruption in their industry. Now, we know that's not easy, and we are here in the Caribbean, we tend to think of, look what Netflix did, oh, look what Apple did, oh, look what Fujifilm did, all these disruptive companies all around the world. But we often don't focus on what we have here in the region, because we have examples of disruptions. And during the course of the next couple of days, you will hear about local disruptions like Digicel in the telecom market, Grace Kennedy in financial services, and you'll also hear about probably Tribe, Tribe Carnival for those of you who are from Trinidad and you know about Tribe. That's a disruptive company that's disrupted the carnival space across the region. I can say that having played in Tribe myself. So I want to take a moment to introduce you to Lisa Maria Alexander. So I'm going to hand Lisa the mic so she can come join me on the stage. So Lisa Maria Alexander is a marketeer, organizational strategist, behavioral coach, and an experienced facilitator and public speaker. She's been a C-suite executive for more than 15 years and has expertise in strategy development, strategy implementation, customer experience management, market planning, relationship marketing, internal branding, and performance management.

Good morning! Are you hearing me? Yes, give me a thumbs up if you're hearing me.

You're being heard, but you're at the bottom of your screen. Can you move your camera so that you can— we can see more of you?

Okay, all right. Is that good? Is that good?

That's great.

Well, good morning. You didn't say Caribbean woman. I need to put that at the top of my bio, that I am the quintessential— I consider myself Caribbean woman. So, you know, I'm so excited to join you today, and welcome to everybody. I know we have persons not just from the Caribbean but from across the globe, but Caribbean strategy, that conversation, it's one that we needed to have, Francis Wade.

It sure is.

It's one we needed to have.

Back to the way things were going, and all the conversations I've had, there are a lot of people who want to be here. They want to believe that they don't need to be firefighting, and they're right now in an office fighting off some demons that are attempting to shut their businesses down, right?

The whirlwind.

That's correct, the whirlwind of crisis after crisis.

Absolutely. The last 2 and a half years have just been one awful drama after another, and many have not had a chance to step away from the hurricane, to even think about the long term and the big picture. They've just totally been caught up. So, Lisa, it's been a bit of a journey for you. Can you share a little bit with our audience what it's been like ever since the first time I called you and said, hey, what's it been like to get here to be a host for the first morning of Caribbean Strategy Conference?

Well, you know, Francis called me and I said, he said Caribbean Strategy, and I said yes, because it's actually one of those things that It's— I call it a pet peeve. We talk about that whirlwind where you get caught up in business, and I understand a lot of executives, um, they fail to plan. So, you know, they say if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Or we have great strategies, we do all— we spend the 2 days, we document it, and then what happens after? Crickets. Because we get really busy. So I really am hoping— and I've looked at the agenda, it's very exciting. We have exciting interviews coming up, um, with, with Douglas O'Reid, I don't want to preempt it, but from Grace Kennedy, that's going to be an awesome interview because we have organizations that have been able to do it successfully where they are building strategy, but they're executing on strategy. I think the killer of strategy is lack of execution. So, you know, I've seen that we have some awesome panels in different industries. So, you know, financial services, but we have energy, tourism, you know, many different, um, areas where the audience can benefit from, from getting the insight. So I think this conference is— it's the first. Is it the first of its kind? Um, it is the first of its kind. And you know, I— one of the things that I was talking about over the last few days is, is the Caribbean special? And I, I want to— I would love to see if the audience believes. I would love to see that in the chat. Is the Caribbean essence different? Are we the same as, you know, a North American company or European or whatnot? What really makes us different? And I know that over the next two days that's going to come out because that's an essential part of strategy. I mean, you've heard culture eats strategy for breakfast, right? That's Peter Drucker said it, not Lisa Maria. And the culture of the Caribbean is both our— it's our advantage, and it can also, you know, take us down if we don't manage it appropriately. So I, I know that we're gonna have a great session this morning, right? We have somebody says yes, the essence. I love it, Kelly.

Yes. Yeah, we, we, you know, chat with CEOs and other board members and people who sit in strategic planning retreats, you know, they told us that they're just waiting. Some told us they're just waiting for this to pass. We call it the hurricane mentality, that, that what's happened in the last 2 and a half years is more like a hurricane than anything else, in that the hurricane comes and then it goes and then you mop up afterwards, and in a couple weeks things go back to the way they were. And then we have another hurricane, and then we have another hurricane, but we kind of, okay, we last to the next one. But this is a permanent— this is a permanent shift, isn't it? This is not This is not like— I noticed in myself, my own behaviors have changed during COVID I am acting differently, I am using products differently, services differently. Some things I'm doing online, and I'll never— I may never go back to doing them in the real world ever again. And that's just the nature of the beast. And companies have to now adjust to this brand new world. But it's more than just barely adjusting, isn't it?

Yes, and you know, it's interesting that you say that because a lot of organizations were waiting for things to go back to normal, right? And not understanding that normal has gone. There is a new normal, to use an overused cliché. But at the end of the day, I said to a manager recently, um, she said, you know, when we had this crisis happening, this is a frontline, right? So in a frontline capacity, you feel like you can't do work from home, you have to be there. And she says, oh my God, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I say, well, pretend that there's another crisis coming and start— because we saw some very innovative thinking, and now that things are sort of stabilizing, we want to go back. And I said, no, literally, that thinking that you used in the crisis, approach every day with that same sort of thinking. And that's where innovation happens, when you think, you know, you're thinking a crisis is happening.

Right, and that's exactly the mindset we want to promote because, you know, our big mission for having this conference is to have every single Caribbean company start 2023 with a disruptive, game-changing strategy already written and having everyone committed to it. And let me tell you something, that's a heck of a thing to bring about.

But I did hear you say you talked about a blueprint, so tell us about that. You something that's gonna help. So tell us a little bit about the blueprint, right?

So those of you who have full tickets— and by the way, we're gonna do a giveaway of a full ticket just now— those of you who have full tickets already have access to the blueprint, but it's also on sale. But the blueprint is a step-by-step guide for the next 6 months. So it's what do you do from July to December. We have a timeline in there and details of what you do at each step of the way and details of what you do in the all-important retreat. And it delivers a breakthrough strategy with everyone behind it in January. But it's not a static document. It's a document that you also can edit and change and customize.

And so, Francis, I have a thought for you. I feel like you need to do a workshop just on the blueprint. I feel like that's coming. I feel like people will want the—

don't we want that? I feel like we'll want the step-by-step, you know, get—

you see, look, somebody says, yes, I think you're gonna have to start planning for your Blueprint Day where you take persons through how to get, how to complete, just, just to start. I'm just saying, you know, you did ask me here.

I like that, just saying.

I'm just saying, right?

But it's okay.

Yes, and I think, of course, yes, and I believe, of course, it's important to have the blueprint, and that's awesome. Uh, what I have found though, that, you know, your interpretation and mine is going to be two different things. And I, I find it— and this is for strategy— an important level setting of, you know, it's common purpose. A strategy is formed and formulated on common purpose, and in order to get that common purpose, leaders have to come together. So whether it's in your company or whether it's of course in a forum like this. But that common purpose is critical so that we understand the same thing, right?

There's a bunch of CEOs who believe that they can write their strategy and just tell everybody what to do.

That's the point. There you go. And that's a no.

You have worked in the past when everything was nice and stable and you didn't need all hands on deck, but today you do. So guys, let's do our first giveaway. So I mentioned before that the blueprint is part of the full ticket. I imagine— I actually see people here who have already gotten the full ticket and some who have gotten here via the free pass. But let's do a giveaway of a full ticket. So the full ticket allows you to review all the conference videos, including the one that we're making at this moment, and all the downloads. And you get the blueprint, and you get the innovator interviews we'll talk about later today. And, and, and, and, okay, so here's the question for the giveaway. The first person who names two of our non-Caribbean speakers from yesterday will receive a full ticket. The first person to drop that in the chat will receive a full ticket. I'm gonna go ahead and go on because just to make sure that we're moving ahead. But first person, somebody's looking something up, somebody's trying to remember something because we're going to go into the schedule for today. I see fingers moving, I see heads moving. Okay, so we're gonna Fox and Moira. Oh, Dale says Roxy, not you. Dale, you can explain your reasoning why not Roxy, but you just type it in the chat there. Okay, I'll leave Dale to sort that out, but let's take a look at the The virtual conference scheduled for today. Oh, sorry, this is not today's schedule. I think I'm in the wrong place. Excuse me, colleagues.

Live, we're live.

Today is Friday, isn't it?

Right, right.

Okay, so here we go. We have a full schedule for you here today on Friday. Coming up next At 9 AM is an interview with Douglas Sorin by Lisa Marie Alexander. He's going to be describing the steps he took to create the GK 2020 strategy back in 1995. If you do calculations, you'll see that was a 25-year strategy, unheard of in the Caribbean at the time, and it's the reason there is a Grace Kennedy today and all of its brands. And, um, after Douglas Sorin, we'll go into the digital transformation panel moderated by Chris Record. Then we'll go into the tourism panel moderated by Anne Frick, Dr. Anne Frick. Then I'll introduce you to, um, Danielle Terrellon, and she and Lisa will be doing kind of a relay handoff just before we go on to lunch. We'll say goodbye to Lisa as a host, I will say hello to Danielle as the new host, and then we'll come back after lunch at 1 o'clock, and Daniel will take us through the financial services panel. With Wendy Del Mar, and then the energy panel with Dr. Dax Driver as the moderator. So these are some fine Caribbean minds, folks. We've also brought in a bunch of people from the outside the region, a bunch of experts, especially our feature speaker at 4 PM Jamaica time, Dr. Richard Roman. So he wrote Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, which I just finished reading, and he has a new book The Crux, which is just coming out. He's calling all the way in from California. He's a former professor at UCLA and an expert, bona fide expert, uh, coming to give us a perspective on that. Basically, the idea you'll be describing is there's this key part of every strategy, of every company's problems, and he calls it the crux. And if your strategy doesn't address the crux you don't have a strategy. It's deep, and it's extremely powerful, and it's the antidote to just kind of creating strategy as high-level something. So, uh, we'll close out the evening, Daniel and I, um, we'll have a couple of conversations, but we're going to have a very important networking session after we've closed out the evening, and that networking session is your opportunity to meet and talk with other folks here at the conference, you shouldn't leave each day of the conference without having met at least 2 people, at least 2 people who you don't know. That's the bare minimum. Okay, so Lisa, what do you make of our whole day of activity?

Well, I, I think it's quite an exciting one, and I, and I particularly like the, the different industries because, you know, sometimes we, we focus in one particular area, but as a Caribbean, tourism is very important to us, as financial sector, as energy, You know, those are some of the key areas, and of course there are others that, that really matter. So it's, it's a great lineup. I know some of the hosts or the facilitators, so I know it's gonna be awesome. And you know, I hope persons can stay on and just kind of be part of the conversation. I think that's the— that's my message today, that yes, you can watch it. I know that, you know, circumstances, you may be able to watch it, but while we're here, be part of the conversation. I think that's going to be very, very important, that sharing.

Great. Also to mention that we have sponsors who— they're the only reason that we can have a full free pass. So Crestcom and Arbinger are two awesome training companies that offer training for— whoops, there's something happening on their own here.

Yes.

Offer training to executives, up-and-coming managers. You'll hear more about them tomorrow in their sponsored session. We also have Bahamas Financial Services Board, another sponsor, and you'll hear about caribbeanjobs.com, another one, and Helmsley Fraser, which is our final sponsor. And again, This would not be free, full free passes would not be available without them. And also those of you who bought full tickets, you know, thank you for your support. And once again, your support is helping us to offer free passes to all the, you know, we have hundreds of people, 700 people registered by the way. So we have a lot of people who are interested in the topic, and you'll see them in and out today. So thanks to our sponsors. Um, but let me ask you guys, I'm gonna show you the, the map that you've probably seen. So you know that we have downloads available today, and it's a shorter list than yesterday, but this is the list that's available, available 24 hours. But as you probably know, our conference is made up of 3 venues. Currently you're in the bottom left-hand quadrant, which is we're in a live session on Airmeet. You can also of course go to those pre-recorded content videos and listen in and watch and learn. And we also have a chat that's going on right now on Volley. That's our conference chat, 24 hours a day. When the sessions aren't in, you know, aren't live, we're not either networking or listening to our presentation, We'll be contacting each other in Bali, and they've already— presenters have already started talking to participants, which is kind of the— what I really, really want to have happen in Bali. And finally, we have a conference store where I gave you the link a while ago, where we have items from our speakers, and that includes the blueprint, which is also available. But tell me in the chat, based on all that you've heard, What's one thing you want to get from— let's just say today. What's one thing you want to get from today? Kareem is making a comment about the different sectors. Yeah, the reason we're having different sectors is because if you read the Blue Ocean Strategy book, they say that some of the best ideas don't come from your sector.

Absolutely.

They come from other sectors, and these other sectors are the ones where you have these ahas that change everything, that make a difference.

And Francis Wade, you know, that's how creativity is actually defined. It's not necessarily a new thing, it's the repurposing of an existing thing. That's creativity. You know, there's hardly anything that's brand new, but it's the ability to take it and repurpose it in a different way that makes it creative and innovative. And I definitely agree that, you know, there are things that you can exchange across industries that could be very useful.

Right, absolutely. And that's— we're banking on that serendipity happening. So Charmaine says that she's interested in hearing how to see ahead for 25 years. If it worked for Grace, yeah. Oh wow, you're about to hear how well it worked for Grace from the man who led the charge. Um, so thanks, Charmaine. Who else? What else are you hoping to accomplish or take away from today? And there we have Douglas already dropping a, dropping a comment right there in the chat.

He's so ready.

Roxine says, one thing on my list of things that she said take away Again, forecasting and how, how, how Douglas did that. How did GK do that? Because there were many people who said, who still say, it can't be done. You know, we have these conversations with, with prospective clients all the time who tell us they want to do 5-year strategies. And our word to them is a 5-year strategy is basically the same strategy you've always followed, just add a couple of, couple of percentage points different. That's not game-changing, and it won't give you a breakthrough. Careeds, uh, Vanessa says how to become a strategist. Excellent. How to think strategically and how to bring that to a team, because every executive team that we've worked, some people are strategic thinkers and some people aren't. Always a mix, right? Right, Lisa?

There's some who just— absolutely, they just They're just not able to, to think like that. And that doesn't— that's not a bad thing, um, because I would say you need your tactical, you need your, you need your persons who have to stay in the moment. But at the end of the day, at the leadership, you definitely need the vision.

Absolutely. And sometimes I've been in sessions where the CEO is not visionary.

Yeah, yeah.

He or she, they're really smart people Yeah, and they've been able to bring, bring out an innovation that got some competitive advantage. But ask them to think ahead. I actually had a conversation with a fellow in France who's a CEO about 2 weeks ago, and ask them to think ahead 25 years and get everyone to be thinking ahead. And sometimes CEOs have a really hard time because they are more innovation innovators in the moment than they are strategists. Correct. Sometimes that leads them to bring on a whole new CEO.

So that sometimes happens, right? Well, we're gonna have that in the conversation with Douglas as well. That is definitely that short-term orientation versus the long-term vision. He is definitely going to tackle that for us this morning.

Great. And, uh, Kareem says she's looking forward to to be empowered. And I'm also hoping that that's what happens out of our conference, is that some heck of inspiration kicks in for people who are still beaten up a little bit by the pandemic and the supply chain problems and the recession and the inflation and the war, and they're just kind of tired and exhausted and they're barely going through and they just, they, they're still kind of hoping it'll go back to the way it was. Yeah, and it probably won't, but the inspiration we want to give people is about moving forward, right, right, Lisa?

Absolutely. It's, it's really about how do I— it's, it's about the vision, but it's also about— and Douglas is going to speak to it— it's making the vision a reality because You know, vision without execution, or that ability to translate the vision to others, that's one— that's another pitfall of strategy. It's a great vision, but how do we make it editable and biteable for everybody in the organization? And Douglas is going to talk about that as well, from the, from the ground up. Everyone is, is aware of what the strategy is, and we're all working towards it. So that's, that's important.

And let's take one more comment. Lisa, you want to take that one?

Sure. More clarity on how to become a strategic thinker. Ah, being, being able to conceive in the mind, map out, communicate, and communicate it in a way that is understandable to others. She wants to hear from the experience of variety of industries. That's a great one, Cheryl, but you've got it right there. You see that piece about communicating? That's something that, you know, uh, sometimes executives forget. So the, the strategy lives in the boardroom, but it, but it doesn't make it out to the persons who are executing it or who are responsible for doing it. So that ability to communicate is actually a very, um key success factor for any good strategy. So you're already there. Yeah, you want to become a strategic thinker? Well, you know, you're on the right path, um, Cheryl, right? Because—

and part of that is also, Lisa said, it's the language. It's learning, learning how to speak the language of strategy. And folks, when you land in your first strategic planning retreat and the heat is on, so that everybody is watching, and they're interacting with you. And if you're not prepared to speak that language of strategy, you really could find yourself at odds, wondering what to say and hoping that you don't say the right thing. So it's something Dale and I see oftentimes in retreats, kind of the hoping that you don't say the wrong thing. And by the time the fear goes away, You're into the last 2 hours of the retreat, so the retreat is over, and now you're feeling comfortable, and now you start talking, and it's too late.

At least so because I was actually gonna add the behavior strategy, because if your lips are saying it but nothing that you are communicating is consistent with what you are saying with your mouth, like, I believe we can do this, but everything says that you do not believe— understand that your nonverbals, which is why communication is such an important part, Cheryl. Understand that in the business of strategy, your nonverbals and the behavior of the leadership has to model the strategy as well, because that's another pitfall, that your behavior does not model what it is you say that you want, right? Right. Don't stop me. Those are all my pet peeves, all the things that get me going.

You could, you could query them of Douglas. And Lisa, it's about that time to introduce Douglas, so why don't you—

yes, and I'm sure he's on and ready to go—

and just introduce Douglas and I'll bring him up all at the same time. So go ahead.

Right, are you gonna bring— you're gonna introduce him? I was gonna say it's the honorable Douglas O'Reid, um, just to clarify. Hello! And he of course is the former CEO and the former executive chairman of Grace Kennedy. Um, it's Grace Kennedy International Foods. I know he will clarify for me, but it is an awesome pleasure. And I've been just talking to Douglas over the last few days, and I know that he's gonna give us 45 minutes, but believe me, he can give us days of wisdom. So good morning, Douglas.

Good morning. Okay, I'm not—

all we're saying is you're a fan at the moment.

Okay, I'm waiting, I'm waiting for my video camera to come up. Can you see me?

Not yet, we're just seeing the fan in your room. So it's up, but you may need to pull it down.

Yes, okay, there you go. I know the reason why.

Okay, a little higher up now, higher up now.

Okay, coming up with the right camera.

It's okay, we definitely understand. Okay, we're seeing the camera in your room.

Yeah, I know, I have two cameras, so I need to change cameras. Okay, uh, let's see. Okay, um, I might check.

We're not seeing your face yet.

Yeah, I know, that's because I have a, another camera using Will you keep lift—

lift— just lower the cam— raise the camera just a little, right? More, more, more. A little bit. Yes, we're almost there. Okay, perfect.

No, but it's— that's not the camera I want to use, so I want—

I need to change it.

I need to change cameras.

Okay, he wants us— audience, okay, the, the Honorable Douglas Arraide wants us to get the best shot of him. I want to tell him that, um, it almost doesn't matter what he looks like because there's so many persons on here who are just excited to hear you speak, that, that you're in good order this morning. So, um, and, and of course, while we get him going, um I just want to remind you that you can— there is a Q&A section or the chat, so if you have questions that you want to throw at him, by all means. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to get to all, but certainly I would love to have the questions for the conversation. And there we are. You could raise it up and raise it up.

Oh, it's Okay, I've got my shorts on. All right, I'm going to—

I'm going to—

listen, I'm going— I'm abandoning the other camera.

Yes, it's fine, you're good, you're absolutely good. You can have a seat, right?

And you will know I always do it standing up. All right, I'm going to— I'm going to turn off the fan behind me.

Yes. Okay, you know, one of the joys of life live webinars, of course, you know, it's all— there we are, perfect.

Yes, we can see you.

Are you hearing me?

Okay, great, Lisa Maria, wonderful. I'm going to speak very quickly to make up this 5 minutes.

No, no, no, no, take your time.

All right, but here's a joke now. I went out and bought a new set of headphones because last time, 2 days ago, Francis Wade said he heard an echo. Are you hearing an echo?

No, you are fabulous and you are fine.

All right, the second one, the second one is, as a chairman and CEO, I have completely prepared myself for the 21st century. I haven't worn a suit in 2 and a half years, and I do all of my my online calls in shorts and a nice short-sleeved shirt. You probably got a 2-second glimpse of my shorts. Listen, global warming is here in the Caribbean, so get used to it as a leader.

Well, it's a fantastic way to start, and I would say that you're also in the Caribbean, so, you know, the shorts and the shirt is appropriate for, for a Caribbean strategy conference. Absolutely. So Douglas, let's just jump right in. And I know that everyone is very interested in hearing about, you know, your, your time at Grace Kennedy. But let us start with, you know, that whole idea of disruption. And, uh, when you started with your 2020 vision in 25 years ago, it was, oh my God, unheard of. To do planning for that long. Could you share for us the context before you even get to the vision? Could you share in 1996 what was the prevailing condition that made you or led you into a 25-year strategy?

Okay, well, for those who are watching, very similar to today. So there are a lot of lessons to learn. We had high inflation, increasing uncertainty, all kinds of possible external disruption. So let me describe how we felt at the time. Jamaica in 1995-96, we at Grace Kennedy, all of our people working together, felt like we were running up and down escalator. What do I mean by that? Take 2 steps up and 4 steps back. Why? Because we would give salary increases of 20% at beginning of the year, which looked wonderful, but by the end of the year inflation was 40%. So we're worse off, and this kept happening year over year. We're in a low productivity, high inflation environment. So we said to ourselves, we can't continue living this way. The aspirations of our Grace Kennedy people are much greater than the economy of Jamaica. So let us develop a 2020 vision which is a play on words, so that 25 years later, um, in 2020, we would have become a global consumer group which would allow our people in our company to fully manifest all of their capabilities and create wealth for themselves and, and effective careers. And that's what we did. So January 1996, I launched 2020 Vision to 300 people at the conference center in Jamaica. Um, our board of directors, we all agreed to put this forward. And what was in the 2020 vision? Well, as I said, the most important thing was to improve the standard of living of our people, because the people are absolutely key to this. Well, how would we do that? We recognize we had a distinctive competence business, um, that we had a special close relationship with our consumers, not only in Jamaica but overseas. And we said we want to become a global consumer group in food globally and regionally in financial services. I'll come back later to why the difference. How would we get there? One of the first things we said is we want to double the productivity of every single person in Grace Kennedy in 5 years by the year 2000. And we had a slogan for it: double the productivity from Raph to Rupert. Who was Raph? He was the chairman at the time. I was a group CEO. Who was Rupert? He was a messenger. So we said we wanted to take— people said, dog, you're crazy, it can't be done, you don't know people, lazy. I said nonsense, we're going to do it. And We did it in 4 years rather than 5.

I want to stick a pin there because that's fantastic, from Raph to Rupert. So, um, that's like— that's another key segue in terms of— we were talking earlier about the importance of communicating the strategy and that, you know, getting everybody involved. So talk to us, tell us a little bit about that Raph to Rupert and how were you able to, um, How were you able to engage all the team and, and really get everybody fired up about the strategy? And how did that impact the strategy?

You answered it 15 minutes ago when somebody said they want to learn how to communicate. Here's it, here is it, here's the acid test for all of you are watching. When you communicate a strategy successfully, anyone you ask in the company to say what is the strategy whether it is a telephone receptionist, whether it is one of your managers, whether it's one of your salespeople, whether it is a janitor, they'll be able to tell you in 3 sentences what the company strategy is. So that's a test that I suggest all of you use. How did we do it? Communicate, communicate, communicate. I learned a painful lesson in the 1990s. I thought I was communicating because I was having these meetings with 200 people in different subsidiaries at a time. And a trade unionist came to me afterwards who represented the workers and said, 'Dog, you think you're communicating?' I said, 'Yes, don't you see me doing that?' He said, 'No, you're not. What you're doing is informing. It's a one-way conversation you're having. You're telling us what you're going to do, but you need to listen.' So I said, okay, and I've never forgot the advice that he gave me. So, um, that helped tremendously. And in fact, one of the things you had asked me about is, um, listen to our most critical workers. Who are they? They're usually not at the top of the organization. They're the key people. If they don't do their work effectively, um, clogs up everything else. So in our company, it would be the salespeople out on the road It would be the truck drivers in the factories. It would be the batch mixers who mix the key ingredients for each batch, because if any one of them doesn't get it right, everything else stops, including the work of the chairman and CEO.

All right. And I actually said that you were the original undercover boss, you know, going out. So tell us a little bit about, you know, how— because I love that you listened. So it's not— it's two-way. So some insights, it's two-way communication, it's listening. And also, you know, you said that you, you went out and you, you were looking at— you were working with people at different, different roles around the organization. So tell us a little bit about how that works.

That's right. So I, I— in Grace Kennedy, our mantra is Grace, We Care, um, and that is about everyone, but particularly our customers. So we have a obsession with customer service. I'd go out and visit customers with the salespeople. I spent a whole day doing that. In addition to that, I would jump on a truck and drive around for the day with our delivery people, or I'd go into the factories and spend time with people on the shop floor to see how they're working. And that gave me a real sense of what their lives were like and helped me to be able to help them in order to manifest what their dreams are or were at the time. And so that's the other thing is in the, in the Caribbean, we live in a low trust society. So people are very wary and distrustful of people in senior positions or in positions of authority. We need to find a way to overcome that and we need to be genuine about it because I can tell you this. Um, people can smell sincerity, they can smell insincerity. So don't, don't do it because I said so. Do it because in your heart you want to help the people. Love your neighbors, you love yourself. But let's get back to strategy.

It's an important part, it's an important part, that trust. We did that trust building. Um, other than you're communicating, uh, you spoke to the union, you told me you did the drive about Are there any other specific things you did to build trust in the team?

Well, first of all, I always saw myself as what is now called a servant leader. At the time, that term had not been invented, but I recognize now why. So in other words, I was there to serve everybody in the organization. And so I had a big advantage in my early 30s I actually did the acquisition of HI-LO in Jamaica and was the first general manager of HI-LO Food Stores. So I learned how important it is to work with our people, particularly when we get customer complaints, to solve them and then to move forward. You know, they have a saying that if you do things well, 5 people will tell their friends. If you do it badly, they'll tell 11 people. So make sure you— but here's the advantage: if they do it badly, tell 11 people, and you go back to them as a CEO and you fix it, they go and tell 15 people. I said, my goodness, I can't believe this, that Douglas O'Rean, CEO of Grace Kennedy, called me and said, I'm sorry, we're going to do it better, keep the feedback coming. And here's one of the things for the people watching, you know, criticism is a disguised form of compliment because our customers have a choice. They could remain silent and you'd never know until of course they're buying from the competition.

That is correct. A complaint is a gift.

Absolutely.

A complaint is a gift. You know, one of the things I wanted, as you talk about the people, is such an important area. But I have heard it said, and I know it's said, that CEOs, oh, we're very busy. Yes, we would love to do that, but we are busy. We are being held to short-term profits. So could you give us a little comment from a strategic standpoint of how Grace was able to— and even in your own experience, that dichotomy, that balance between short-term profitability and I guess what we call the crisis of management or the crisis of leadership, versus that long-term vision. If you can give the audience a little bit on, on how, how you've been able to balance those two.

Okay, sure, I'll be happy to do that. Well, let me start, um, back up to the, the, the theme for this session. Um, right, I'm going to rephrase it. What we were doing was to disrupt— we were disrupting this status quo within Grace Kennedy and in the markets that we were participating in, and at the same time preventing external misfortunes from disrupting us. And of course, one of the things that can distract you is if you're investing for the future and your quarterly profits are down and people say, well, what's wrong? You should cut back on that. And, um, so we can see, um, a bigger short-term gain. Um, the way to handle that is to explain very carefully to your investors, if you're publicly listed, to all your shareholders on the stock exchange, what exactly what you're doing. So let me, let me give you an example. By the way, I have listed out 5 external obstacles that we faced, which all have lessons for managers and leaders today. All right, the first one, in this 1990s, when we developed the 2020 Vision. Jamaica was a low-productivity home country that we are operating in, as you can see from the rate of inflation and all the other issues that we faced at that time. So what we did was massive investments in transforming, but starting with our manufacturing businesses and also our technological support in the back office. It costs a huge amount Obviously, it had a temporary effect on profitability, but we explained it to our shareholders and most importantly to our people internally, because one of the things you want is for your own employees to be the messengers of what we're doing and to be engaged. And it worked. As I said, we doubled productivity in 5 years. There are some other issues that are important. I'll mention one other one at this point in time, which is that in the Caribbean, traditional companies— we have all grown up in protected markets, and the tendency that happens is that the organization becomes very stratified in a pyramid structure. Once the markets are opened up, which there were in the 1990s and continues to this day, one is exposed to competition of a different kind. So you must go for a flatter organization that's more nimble. And we— I would say typically Caribbean organizations have been very slow to react to that. Perhaps I saw it differently. I never saw Grace Kennedy as a big company. I said, this is a tiny company in a big world, and so we need to prepare ourselves. So what we did was spend time explaining why we streamlined the organizational structure, uh, which we did a lot of different things in terms of, um, the way the organization ran internally, um, making people much more self-managing. But I want to stick up—

yeah, I want to— sorry, finish.

Okay.

One of the things people ask me about it all the time, they said, Doug, how did you all manage to reduce the size of your board of directors from 24 to 12. Um, and I said the reason is we all realized that we needed to function differently in this new era, and that is where the genesis of our development of good corporate governance to get to a global standard came from in that regard.

Yeah, and that's the thing I wanted to stick, that at the end of the day, structure Strategy drives structure. So if you have a strategy and you don't have the structure to help deliver it, it's not going to happen. So if your strategy is to be nimble and whatever, you can't carry 12, you know, 12 directors and, and are very top-heavy. Because I think that's one of the Caribbean sort of mantras. We sort of, you know, we top, we top-load or we front-load on leadership. We have a big enough where a lot of the costs are, that's where a lot of the, the bottleneck is. And, um, and I think it's important to just highlight that for the, for the audience, that at the end of the day, structure is driven by strategy. So if your strategy is— and your structure don't match, you're good. If there's a mismatch, you're going to have absolutely have a difficulty.

So Lisa Marie, there's a corollary to that. No, um, of one of the what I call the external obstacles. What is it?

Right.

It's what I call extinction risk. And when I was a young man in Grace Kennedy in my 30s, I just joined the late chairman Carlton Alexander. He get a group of us young people together and he'd reel off the names of 8 or 10 companies and he said, you recognize any of them? Most of us said no. The only one I recognized was Bryden and Evelyn. He said, when I joined Grace Kennedy as a young man, in the 1930s, all of them were bigger than Grace Kennedy, and today they no longer exist. What's the reason for that? Because one has to adapt for the changing world around us. And that's one of the things that I believe we internalize in Grace Kennedy. Also, remember, we are very aware of this. We're not a monopoly in any market we function in. Um, there are low entries to barriers— sorry, low barriers to entry, particularly in the food business, also in the financial services, especially with globalization. So therefore, are constantly finding new entrants in to compete, and we have to be— to determine what is our distinctive competence and turn it to competitive advantage.

Yes, stick one pin again in that this— where of course we're talking about the Grace Kennedy experience, but it's applicable for the region, right? That finding, whether you're in St. Lucia or Antigua or Trinidad and Tobago, wherever you are, the conditions are, are very similar at this point in time. And also there's the opportunity to— that competitive advantage, and, and Grace Kennedy sort of found that. So, so, you know, talk to us about it.

Okay, so there's one other— well, I think I've covered 3 out of the 5.

I saw you jump in, but it's okay, I'll just recap at the end.

All right, so one of the things I'd say to, um, all those watching, if you're going to communicate, make sure you make notes the night before so that you don't get distracted by whoever is the interviewer. You know, I'm being candid. But you're— so the other thing that we were very aware of is what we call black swan events. What are black swan events? Events that you can't predict, you never thought would ever happen. We never thought there could be a 2008 financial crisis. We never thought that the government of Jamaica could default 3 times on its national debt. We never— but today, look at where we are. We never thought we'd have COVID. We never thought we'd have supply chain disruption. We never thought that Russia would have invaded Ukraine. So yes, these are— how do you prepare for it? What we did, we adopted scenario planning very early. What do I mean by that? We would develop a series of scenarios, and the first one we did was 3 scenarios. The world in the pits, that speaks for itself. Really bad news, business as usual. And then what we call the digital world. And we said, if we are in any of those three in the future over the next 25 years, how will we thrive? And we developed a strategy for each one. Guess what the remarkable finding was? They are basically the same strategy. In other words, it was based on developing our internal competencies, employee engagement, listening to customers, developing ideas, experimenting at, at the edges of the organization, protecting our core business. And it has worked. The question to ask each of you: when last did you do scenario planning in your organization? Actually, we got a lot of resistance early when we started doing scenario planning. People said, but you're being negative, you're thinking about all the worst things that can happen. I said yes, because if they do, we'll be ready for it. And here we are in that regard. And since we want to get questions from the people watching, the fifth one that I will speak about that helped us to build out. There was— when we decided we wanted to become a global consumer group, um, and we scanned the world, we recognized we needed a solid intellectual property platform that covered the entire globe. What do I mean by that? We needed to make sure we had all intellectual property rights to all our brands, not only in Jamaica but the entire world, all the countries that we operated in or were going to enter. And it's something that, you know, to my— to our participants, make sure you check out your intellectual property to make sure you have the appropriate ownership. You don't want to build something on something you thought you owned only to find out that you really didn't own it. So that one really worked exceedingly well for us and provided the foundation for our globalization.

Fantastic.

So I've completed my 5 external events. So over to Lisa Maria again.

No, no, no, no, I want you to recap them. They went pretty quickly. Give us just the top line of the 5. I won't interrupt, just give us the 5 again.

Okay, well, the ones are— well, they— I'll go through them. The first one was, um, we were in a low productivity home country. What, what did we do? We doubled productivity in 5 years for each and every employee. Um, the second one is we had incomplete intellectual property, uh, in terms of globalization. We made sure that we acquired whatever brands we needed to around the world in order that we are building on, uh, intellectual property that we owned in terms of our trademarks, etc. The third one was that, uh, we flattened the organization because we recognized that we are competing not only in Jamaica or the Caribbean in protected markets, but in the entire world. I would give my— in the factories, for example, we had a meeting in the '90s with our factory that produced ketchup, and I said, how many competitors do you think we have in Jamaica? And they said, hmm, uh, 6, 7, 8. I said, the answer is 15. I said, how many do you think, now that the markets have opened up and the import barriers, trade licensing have come down, how many are there just in the Western Hemisphere alone that produce ketchup? And they said, maybe 20, 30, 40. The answer is 6,000. So therefore, it's a different world, and we need to recognize that, um, early in order to prepare. Okay, the fourth one is preparing for black swan events. And what we did was scenario planning, so we are prepared for any unforeseen event as best as we could. And then the fifth one is what I call extinction risk, which is don't be complacent because you think you're a big company, um, or that you have been around for a long time, because the world does not owe any of us a living. And so what do you do? You make sure that you continue to sustain your core business. You continue to experiment on the edges, um, that— so that if you experiment and fail, it doesn't bring down the whole organization. But you will have successes that will cause you to keep building. Um, have a set of values where people trust you. Um, that's why in Grace Kennedy we repeat Honesty, integrity, and trust are our values. And finally, make, make sure you have effective succession planning and implement it. The reason why, if you don't, then when you decide to make a change or you're forced to make a change, you won't be ready for it. And I think that's one of the things we, um, internalize very early, and I'm thankful to who went before, who grew me. And I'm now thankful to Don Webby, my successor, who is executing tremendous—

fantastic.

I can tell you some of the results, um, before the end of this session to show that it does work.

I, I'm, I'm so happy to hear that. There's a question I want to take from, um, AC Cecile Watson. Just wondering who drove the heavy lifting for your strategy building. Was it the board? Was it management or was it the employee group?

Uh, all of the above, but ultimately, um, I would say that it came from a very small group of us, um, who said, look, we can't continue this way. Um, and, uh, I, I believe that— let me put it this way— I believe the CEO has to lead it. There's no other way. Out of it. And so I recognized a lot of these trends. And so I said, if we didn't do it, Carlton Alexander's words would come true. He, he was a visionary in his own way to say, I recognize this and kept on saying, we've got to change, we've got to change, always saying that. And he was right. So it's something we continued and continue on a continuous basis today. Um, one of the things I would say though is that whatever you come up with, you need to own it. You have to say, this is my strategy, this is my plan, and then implement accordingly. By the way, you, you had asked me a question yesterday, so I'll answer it in this regard, which is name 3 things that you would share with the our viewers about what you have learned about executing on strategy. And I said it's simple, it's 3 words: listen, think, and act. Why do I say that? You know, yeah, why do I say in a Caribbean context? Um, well, first of all, I don't know about the listening part, um, but we're, we're very good at thinking and talking about issues and problems and going around, I'll be candid with you, in circles a lot of the time on that part of it. And then we don't act effectively. So we need to do each. And if there's one important issue, the first step, listen very carefully to our consumers, the complaints, to our own employees. And it's the third one, act. What gets measured gets done. And we're not good at that in the Caribbean. Um, we're not good at holding people accountable. But here's the good news: you can do it in your own organization. You don't have to wait for other people and say, you know, I'm surrounded by inefficient people. One of the things— or inefficient organizations. One of the things that I said to people when they said, yeah, but we're in a low productivity environment, I said, that's fine, but we will become a high productivity company, uh, and we will make sure we're globally competitive in that regard with global standards in the products or services or corporate governance. But in addition to that, we will seek suppliers and providers of services who are themselves doing the same thing. So even if you're surrounded by mediocrity, that doesn't mean you have to be mediocre too.

That's a very important point.

Get on, get on with it and measure, measure, measure. The reason why we doubled productivity in 5 years, we came up with a very simple measure, which is profit in US dollars per employee per year. And that's what we measured because it's so easy to understand. No, I know a lot of Individuals say, yeah, but it's, you know, it's, uh, you know, it's not a unique enough measure for every single person. I said, I know that, but you want something that's easily understandable from— by everyone, from Ralph to Rupert.

That's right.

And everybody understood it, and you could measure it because, uh, you— we, we were a publicly traded company. Every quarter you could see our results and measure it yourself.

Yes, I want to just give you some comments from the chat because I'm not sure if you can see them, but there's somebody from— Kelly McIntosh, she's actually validating. She said that as a former Grace team member, top leadership owned and communicated the strategy. So kudos there, that means that, you know, she's validating what you've said. And she said it was always clear what the vision was, it was always clear what my— our role was. And this is a function of leadership, visible sponsorship from the very top. So, you know, somebody's validating what you have said. And of course, I love that though. Listen, think, act. We can call that, you know, LACT, listen, think, act. But that's also very, very important. Um, I, you know, there you, you preempted me on the questions, but there was one that I had, one left Um, as we have other comments come in, Grace Kennedy is now a global brand serving the Caribbean diaspora. Talk to the Caribbean about what is the Caribbean essence, um, that they should leverage. And you talked about how in, in, you know, in one of the publications that, you know, you went to the— to what you knew, which was the Caribbean diaspora, you know, the taste, you know, their interest and you use that to the competitive advantage for Grace Kennedy, you and the team, of course. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Okay, so I can only speak for ourselves. Every other company in the Caribbean, you need to determine what is your distinctive competence, which I don't know what it is, and turn it to your competitive advantage. But we knew what our distinctive competence was. We understood our customers and consumers in the food business, not only in Jamaica but in the diaspora. Um, I spent a lot of time walking around Brooklyn and in Brixton and in Birmingham just to get a sense for what was happening. So we knew there was a huge unmet need for Jamaican and Caribbean food that was not being met, and we knew that from in the 1980s. In fact, long before we developed the 2020 Vision. But in addition to that, we knew there was an unmet demand for people who said, we want to bring or send our money back home. One of our directors went to Central Florida and met with some cane cutters there from Jamaica, and he said— his name was Joe Lee, bless his soul. And I said, you know, Mr. Lee, well, I want to send my money back to Jamaica, you know, but when we send it in the post, them thief it out. And if I send it with a friend on the plane, no, no, no, if my baby mother go and get it, she only go and get half. So I said, oh, there's an opportunity, huge opportunity, huge for remittances. And we, we were well prepared for it. So when the opportunity came, that Western Union said, we're looking for an agent. We said yes, and we moved with it right away. I know it's grown into one of our largest businesses, the partnership with them. We represent them in 12 countries around the Caribbean. So, um, what, what are the lessons from that? Determine what your customers recognize as a distinctive competence that only you offer.. And we knew what that was in our case, and we built on it. By the way, that's why at the beginning I said we have a distinctive competence globally in ethnic foods. Our distinctive competence in financial services is regional in the Caribbean because we understand the Caribbean region, we understand our Caribbean people. But yeah, that's not We're not going to say we want to go and establish financial businesses in Southeast Asia because it's a part of the world that's growing faster than anywhere else. So one has to understand what you're good at and where you're good at it.

Yeah, and actually it underscores something that I'm very passionate about, which is know your customer. It seems like, you know, sometimes it gets overlooked. It's so simple that, you know, as you said, you walk Brixton, you walk Brooklyn, you know, you know who your customer is, you know what their needs are, and you know what their unmet needs are. And I think, you know, that, that all good. Well, so that's actually a great point. I see another question here for you. Um, what do you think are the top 3 challenges facing Jamaica and the private sector performance over the next 5 to 10? So I'm gonna— I'm— because this is a Caribbean strategy conference, I know you can speak about Jamaica, but make it as broad as possible for those, you know, in terms of just how the, the challenges you see facing Jamaica and perhaps the Caribbean, if you can.

Okay, well, um, that one is coming out of left field, but there's one that is, I think, top of mind for everyone, and we don't speak about it—

corruption.

Ah, uh, corruption is number one. Um, I would say it's number one, two, and three. So why do I say that? Because it's so corrosive to whatever is happening in our society and our economy, and it affects every individual. And one of the things that people don't realize, it affects the poorest more than anyone else. And if we want a society which creates equality, then we need to get rid of corruption. Here is something very practical that we did. McKinsey did a study, um, in the early 2000s, um, where they surveyed, uh, investors, um, both on stock exchanges and privately, and said, um, what's the relationship between, um, good governance, good corporate governance, and what you would pay for shares in a company? What the survey showed is that companies that had really good corporate governance traded at a premium of 20% and up, um, compared with those that didn't. But here's the other finding: the more corrupt the country that the company operated in that had excellent corporate governance, the bigger the premium investors who are willing to pay, pay, invest in that company or with that company. So there's a practical advantage to good corporate governance.

It's not—

yes, you know, it's a great philosophical route to go, but there's a practical business reason for doing it. Yeah, as I tell people, just think of it this way: if you have really great corporate governance, um, and you're in a corrupt society, about foreign investors coming from overseas, who do you think he wants to do business with? He'll ask around and say, who can I trust? He's like, check out your website, check out your news releases, check out your, um, succession planning, and say, ah, here's a company I can trust, I want business with them. So that— so I don't get caught up with problems. So So, okay, so we have a corrupt society. There are lots of other things that we need to do in as citizens in our own right in order to reduce that and remove it. But in our businesses, there's something we can do immediately about it in terms of governance.

And that's an excellent point. In terms of the— you, you talk— you spoke earlier about trust, but it's not just trust internally but also trust externally that benefits the organization. So I think, I mean, Lennox asked that question and I think there's a lot of feedback about talk the thing, Douglas. So, you know, it wasn't so far out of left field, right?

Francis Wade, we have 2 and a half minutes left and there's a question that I know you want to ask me, Lisa Maria Wade.

Go ahead.

Has the 2020 vision worked? In other words, 1996, 2020, what's the result? Okay, here are the results, folks. If you have a pen on you, okay. All right, in 1995, Grace Kennedy's revenues were $303 million US. 2021, $862 million US dollars. Uh, 1996 profit $10.5 million US. 2021, $55 million US profits. Um, PE ratio, price earnings ratio, 1995 3.4, 2021 12. Um, we had set a goal to earn half of our profits from outside of Jamaica by the year 2020. 2021, what was that figure? 45%. So I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who succeeded me, Don Webby and his team, for continuing this work. Because remember, you know, the 2020— I retired in 2011, so there was another 9 years to go for others to carry this on. And that's why cross-generational engagement is so important. But here is a lesson I'd leave you with: having a vision is aspirational. Most of these objectives we have exceeded, but some we haven't. So for example, um, we are— we haven't reached 50% in terms of profits from outside of Jamaica, but we're on the way to get there. And Donna set an objective, we're going to surpass that, where they have developed a 2030 vision. In addition to that, the valuation of our company, yes, we're at a PE ratio of 12. But, um, in the developed world, a company like ours, if you're on the New York Stock Exchange or the London Stock Exchange, you'll be trading at a PE ratio of probably 25, double. So that's a work in progress for us as well in that regard. So the fact you don't meet it on the exact year doesn't matter so long as you keep it ahead of you. That you said, that's, that's the mountain I'm going to climb and I'm going to reach the summit.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for that. And I mean, as we round up, there was some really, really fantastic nuggets in there. Um, the, the, the corruption versus corporate governance and really investing in that, that was a key takeaway for me because it it didn't come up before, and that cross-generational succession and employee engagement, those are also very strong points. And of course, you gave your top 5, your, you know, how you move from low productivity, flatten the organization, preparing for black swans— I think I've got it— intellectual property, the core values, and of course the extinction risk. So, um, Douglas has been really great. I know Francis Wade is going to drop in very soon. Um, do you wanna— and you, and you've just given us some, um, what we call fiscal reports. So it's all under the backdrop— the proof is in the pudding, as they say, you know. Even if every single thing wasn't achieved, there was such a tremendous growth of the organization. So thank you for that. I know persons are on standby. I— if it's Grace, it's got to be good. Yes. So I really want to thank Douglas this morning, and thank you, audience, Um, we— next up we have the digital panel that is Digital Disruption. Ah, there he is, he's coming up already. Ah, there they are. So I'm gonna step down for a minute while they— and I'm handing over to you, um, I'm handing over to you, Christopher Moya and Moira and Kevin.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Everybody hearing me?

I can hear you, Chris.

Morning to you.

Morning, Kevin. Morning, Maura.

Good morning, everyone. Hearing you loud and clear.

Right, Dale, Francis Wade, do we just jump in and get started? Or do we wait a few minutes or anything like that? Because we're ready to go. All right, folks, thank you very much. Okay, so good morning, ladies and gentlemen, all across the Caribbean. Uh, welcome to this year's staging of the Caribbean Strategy Conference. Uh, had a great session a while ago listening to the Honorable Douglas Arraine. Talk about how, you know, Grace Kennedy moved from their challenges, you know, 25 years ago to executing on its vision that it had at the time. And all the various, I guess, potholes, things to look for. And I took a few notes here because, you know, that listen, think, act that Douglas mentioned a while ago is is very, very important to— as we talk about digital transformation. So this panel that has been organized by, um, by our friends Francis Wade and Dale is a very interesting and balanced panel because we have experienced, experienced management consultants turned politicians we have still practicing management consultants advising small, medium-sized businesses of, you know, across the Americas. And of course, we also have persons supporting, I guess I'll call it, public sector. So quick high-level introduction. Well, I'll ask each person just to kind of give their own introduction, their little one, one-line introduction. Not too long introduction though. For all the folks online, um, and I see about 50 people online, please ensure that just go to the webpage and everyone's more, more, everyone's detailed bio will be there. My name is Christopher Record. I am the Chief Executive Officer for an organization in Jamaica by the name of T-TEC, and T-TEC provides cybersecurity services and IT management services. Uh, simply, we tell people, you do not need to go and hire an IT department. We will become your IT IT department.

If we have—

if we already have an IT department, we'll help that IT department deliver higher and better value for the organization. That's simply what we do at IT Outsourcing. So that's what my organization does. So hand it over. Moira, go ahead, intro.

Sure. Good morning. Hello, everyone. I'm Moira Edwards. I've been collecting technology insights for about 30 years from consulting, from aviation, and from the nonprofit sectors. And in places as diverse as Ireland and America, and I'm thrilled to be here.

Fantastic.

Kevon?

Hi, good morning, everyone. My name is Kevon Swift. I've been working on digital public policy and global digital issues for about roughly 14 years. Firstly, from the perspective of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, and now with LACNIC. I'm the head of public safety affairs at LACNIC. LACNIC is the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry System. We are the guys that distribute IP numbers and ASN numbers. We provide training for the technicians at your ISPs to do proper networking. But in addition to which, we find ourselves in the heart of a lot of internet governance and digital policy debates.

Okay, thank you. I'm Julian Robinson. I've been a member of parliament in Jamaica from 2011. I'm currently the opposition spokesman on finance. I served as a Minister of State in the Ministry of Technology from 2012 to 2016, and prior to politics, I had a career in management consulting and investment promotion.

Thank you very, very much. So, ladies and gentlemen, what we're going to do here today is speak at a very high level, and maybe we'll drive down into a little bit of detail around digital transformation. But because we are at a Caribbean Strategy Conference, it has to be tied to strategy. What has changed in strategy? What are we doing differently in strategic planning? What are some of the things that we need to throw out? What are the things that we need to introduce around this whole digital transformation? You know, question that I asked, you know, our panelists when we had our pre-meeting is, you know, is there a difference between this whole digitization, digitalization, digital transformation? You know, is digital transformation a meaningless marketing word that's just bantered around? Or is it really and truly something meaningful and a strategy that an organization must consider in these times? The whole pandemic for a lot of us has changed a lot of things around digital. One of the things in my world that I found, we got a lot of calls in March, April, May of 2020, when people actually realized that this thing was real. Was, you know, helping people go remote. Um, you know, the organization had no laptops, they needed laptops. I don't sell equipment, I made references to lots of people, um, you know, for them to go equipment. You know, we had to come in and help a lot of people secure their environment because cybersecurity is a massively important thing, um, going into any sort of, you know, digital, digital transformation. The other thing that happened with a lot of folks is that they looked around at some of their competitors and the competitors who took digital seriously earlier was way ahead than them. And, you know, so some organizations were able to sell their products and services online and others weren't. And the ones that weren't able to sell online, that was a problem. So the whole— what we want to explore here this morning is just around, okay, we are here right now, 2 years later, and believe it or not, we have thousands of organizations across the Caribbean that have— they have not started a digital transformation journey yet. They have not put up a word to it, uh, you know, and not just companies but even governments and government agencies. So I'm very, very happy that Julian is here with us, um, as a former technology, um, minister, uh, you know, we had worked together with some sort of digital transformation around education, and I'm sure he will, you know, perhaps share some of those, uh, observations. But the fact of the matter is that, ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot to happen in the Caribbean public sector, private sector on digital transformation. So to kick things off, I am just going to invite each of our team members to give an opening, you know, set of thoughts around some of the things that we talk, talk about so that we can tee up, um, around, you know, the questions. Because we want this to be engaging, ladies and gentlemen. Any questions you guys have about your own digital, digital strategy, what needs to be changed, you know, in, in the thinking in the organization, what makes a digital transformation make a project successful, you know, why some fail and all that. So those are some of the things that each of our speakers will share some of their experiences on. So I'm gonna kick things off by asking Kevin to go first and kind of give us his overview. Now he may have some slides, so Kevin, I hope you see right below that little, um, up arrow button to share your slides. Um, and I know we haven't practiced some of these things, but guess what, it's technology, guys, you know. It may work, it may not work. Let's keep our hands on it. Kevin, go ahead.

Okay, I hope it does work. If not, absolutely no problem.

Francis Wade will help us and jump in.

And right, good. Figuring out the technology. Oh, the technology says there seems to be an issue with permissions, and that may hold us up a bit.

So I'm just gonna say, or Francis Wade, if you could just give, uh, all our team members permission to share anything, just in case that they have a great idea that they want to share.

It's okay. I would have liked the visual to accompany what I'm saying, but I'm just going to speak about this. And I want to go back to that very point you have made. What exactly is digitization, digitalization, digital transformation? Are these things synonyms? Are they marketing buzzwords, as you referred to earlier, they are not that at all. So for the first, in the first instance, when we talk about digitization, really talking about converting something into a digital format, and that refers to encoding data and documents. So that really focuses on information. It may be as simple as scanning a document and keeping an electronic version of that document stored in some computer system or on a cloud-based solution. We have digitalization, which means to convert business processes over to use digital technologies instead of analog and offline systems. So digitization focuses on information, digitalization focuses on processes. And it's really that conversion of a process to not have it offline or analog. And then we come to digital transformation. And here's the kicker. A lot of times when we say digital transformation, we think that, oh, this is only about technology. The fact of the matter is that digital transformation doesn't really deal with technology. Yes, it includes technology, obviously. But digital transformation is typically an integration of digital technology in all areas of the business, or an institution, or territory, or government for a purpose. So it's not just a willy-nilly decision. Digital transformation seeks to fundamentally, fundamentally and radically change how we operate and deliver value. And this is the key message I want to say here. For everyone to take on board. Digital transformation involves a cultural change, a paradigm shift that is focused on people. And this is where you have a lot of the sticking points. Organizations need to be able to break from or upend old processes, old ways of doing things, and challenge the status quo in order to fully embrace digital transformation. Transformation. So 3 different concepts, they are interrelated, one focusing on information, the other one on processes, and then looking at the bigger picture with people in mind, digital transformation. And digital transformation, it could be linked to some old business frameworks we are aware of, the PPT model, people, process, technology, that's been around since the '60s, has been around for quite a while. But more so when it comes to the digital era, focusing on the people element has become even more critical and can even be the make or break for certain firms in this whole new digital dispensation. And I want to move on quickly. And Christopher, you can always check me on the time here because I can just speak despite my croaky voice. This is a segue here. I found out I have a regular cough and I was elated after 2 years of paranoia and several tests. I was elated to find out I have a regular cough. It's at the tail end, but we can deal with that. You know, I think it adds a bit more character to my delivery voice right now. So coming from a recent OECD report, there's a 2021 OECD report on the digital transformation of SMEs. It had a couple of highlights that I wanted to share with you. One is one that is very obvious to us. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a game changer. By that I mean that up to 70% of SMEs across the globe have been using or have intensified their use of digital technologies. Anecdotally, here in the Caribbean, we are aware that there are a lot of small businesses that have moved a lot of their marketing activities and comms activities to social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. But here's the issue there, there's a bit of nuance in that. Despite there being this uptick or this intense use of digital technologies, what we do find that it was done because of the constraints of social distancing and lockdown, and it may not have been as strategic as you may want it to have been. The term you've heard a lot over the last 2 years has been digital pivoting, which is really about survival. And you did have some cases of what would have been accelerated digital transformation plans. But the key issue here for us to consider digital transformation really deals with maturity, digital maturity, which is a strategic concept alluding to an organization's ability to create maximum value through the, through digital investments. So digital maturity distinguishes us from just adopting digital technologies, adopting digital technologies for survival, and adopting digital technologies in a strategic way for it to be truly considered digital transformation. And so from a strategic standpoint, it's not just adoption of digital technologies and digital tools, you must have the right set of protections and security measures. Christopher alluded to that in the preamble to this panel, and I will come back later on to talk about security because that's one of my key focus areas at LACNIC where I work.

Uh, so we're gonna just move over to Maura right, right now. Do you have one more point? Just want to finish?

That's one last point. Okay, last point. Going back to the question of people, your digital transformation has to consider what you will call a customer feedback loop that is strategically integrated into how you treat with your product offering and how you do product improvement. And it must focus on upskilling, retraining, and redesign of jobs. So people, people, people, people is at the heart of digital transformation. So, all right, that's the last point for now.

Thanks, Kevan. Fantastic. Lots of fantastic points right there. Moira, over to you.

And so perfect. And the one thing I know is that Christopher is going to keep tight control of us. So that's great. So, you know, Kevan comes at this from this, like this big systems, this global perspective. And I know that Julian will come at this as well from a global and a national perspective. But in our work, we work with nonprofits, with membership organizations, and really their focus is on the members. So it's very much— I think if there's one thing I would like you to take away today is to remind you that your digital strategy has to be personal, like exactly what Kevan is saying about it's a cultural change, it's about the people. Digital transformation has technology elements But ultimately it's about your team and your staff and your employees becoming very comfortable with digital tools and your customers being served in new ways because of all that digital capacity. Now with all of this amazing kind of world of resources available to you, of all the digital tools you could use, how do you figure out what to do for digital transformation to serve your customers and your members better. And so my goal for you today, when you think about your strategic planning, is to really get to know your customers, to use the data in your systems about who they are and where they live and what they're buying and what they're doing so that you know who they are, and then reach out to them with things like a survey. So that's a little bit of a distance, call them up. Like, call them up and say, how are you using this product? How are you using our service? What can we do better? Have focus groups. And some of the most eye-opening things I ever did was to go and do site visits for people who are using software that we had developed. And to see, you know, it was eye-opening to see them trying to use a software on this ancient brick of a PC, right? So, When you do that, when you really get to know your customer, then you can plan your digital transformation, your strategy, your digital strategy to be in line with where they are and where you want them to go. So those are my starting words of wisdom, Christopher.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Sometimes I have to make sure that I can find the unmute button quickly.

Julian, over to you. Thank you. I want to first look at digital transformation within the context of what has happened over the last 2 years with COVID and how it has changed the world and how it has impacted the Caribbean. So it has changed the world in many profound ways that I don't think we will go back to. It has demonstrated that someone can stay in one country and work in another, that remote work is a viable means of doing work and being productive and delivering for your organization. It has also forced companies— and there have been a lot of reluctant companies— to move into a digital environment. So for example, you know, when we went through the periods of lockdown, you couldn't go to a bank, or if you did, it was very difficult to get into. So you were forced to do transactions online. Similarly, with utility companies. So it has put more pressure on individuals, companies, and countries to be prepared digitally. So I want to look at it from the perspective, the public policy perspective. What, what should a government do in an environment like this? It means that, for example, your telecommunications infrastructure and back— and backbone has to be world-class. So from the perspective of policy, and that's where I believe government should play, government has to put in place policy and legislation that facilitates competition so that you have a robust telecoms infrastructure which is affordable. Why is that important? Because for 2 years schools could not have face-to-face classes. Kids had to be, um, logging on online, and as such you had to have kids in rural areas accessing school remotely. So it has forced that, which I believe is a good thing because that infrastructure can be used for other things. Secondly, it has also shown up that there's a divide, and there are some of the divisions which existed before have been amplified. Amplified in the sense that those who have access to devices, access to technology, internet, have made that transition to a great extent than those who don't. And those who don't have to some extent been left behind. So there is more of an impetus on the part of governments and public policy to ensure that those who don't have access are brought into the net. And there are specific things that government can do, and the Jamaican government has embarked on some of those things in terms of providing equipment, etc., to students, but also the rollout of our NIDS, our National Identification Card. Now, why is that important? During COVID we had to deliver welfare to hundreds and thousands of, of citizens. Many of them had no formal identification. It made it difficult. It made it had to be done physically. Now, moving forward, you want to be able to deliver goods and services in a way that is seamless and that is remote. So again, you know, governments have to put in place what I would call the enabling infrastructure, and by doing so, I believe it, it brings more citizens online, and it will force companies, even those who are reluctant adopters, to get on board this process of digital transformation. I don't think we're going to go back to banks having large physical branch networks, utility companies doing that, no. But within that, because we're doing so many things online, we have to ensure that our cybersecurity and all those other considerations are paramount and that we have the skills necessary to take good care of the infrastructure. So Chris, I'd leave it there for my, my opening remarks.

Fantastic. Thank you very, very, very much, folks. Um, so with all of this, again, you know, just a reminder, you know, we are in fact here at a strategy conference, and we have heard a lot of great points around, um, you know, digitization, digital transformation, the differences, uh, how it benefits the public overall, and also small, medium companies, nonprofits. Um, Folks, I'm going to ask if, if there's, uh, any experience that you could share over the last, uh, from over the last 2 and a half years around, let's call it, a winning strategy for implementing any sort of digital change. Do you have a sort of recommendation for a roadmap? Um, Mara, I'm going to put you up first, uh, simply because you've had, I, I think based upon our previous discussions, you, you've been on the ground helping a lot of people people doing stuff. So is there any sort of a roadmap, high-level recommendation you give to the Caribbean, uh, you know, businesses here as to how to get started and, and how to make it successful? Because the next question I'm going to tee up after this, um, after everyone gives their thoughts on, on changing for strategy, is why have so many of these projects failed? So that's the next thing that we're going to talk about afterwards.

Mara, you're So, you know, a good crisis should never go to waste. And in many ways, you know, the pandemic helped an awful lot of organizations move to having laptops and having the infrastructure in place to do remote work. And I think when it came then to improving their digital offerings and to offering, you know, moving all of their conferences online, those that were willing to experiment made the greatest leaps ahead. So I think that was probably some of the biggest kind of roadmap. Suddenly their customers, their members were willing to try digital experiences that they would never have done before. They would never have done an online conference. They would always have gone in person. So now these organizations that were willing within 3 weeks to turn it around and try and offer it virtually, those experimenters sometimes had difficulty, but most of the time they learned what worked and they got this huge response from their customers and their members. So, you know, when we think about something like design thinking, which is about designing things for your customers, that starts with empathy, but then it goes into experimentation. Just, you know, try it, put something up, fail fast, do the next thing. And I think that was a really good learning lesson for many organizations in the last 2 and a half years.

Kevon, you have any thoughts around some sort of a high-level roadmap based upon what you have seen from, from your end?

Yes, hi Christopher. Yes, I totally agree what Moriah said, it's really about experimenting and understanding understanding the new parameters in which you operate. So one of the things that we have learned at LACNIC, we are responsible for convening 2 times a year these large conferences for all ISPs, Internet Exchange Providers, universities, and banks to attend to advise us on how they would like to see IP numbers administered. But we had to shift all of that to an online disposition, and we had to have a couple of just basic learnings with moving to the online environment. One is the security authentication factor, being able to have people register, move into a space, and say who they are, and being able to track their participation in that space. That is something that's very, very important because One of the things that we hadn't seen, or we hadn't— not that we hadn't seen, but one of the things we probably hadn't acknowledged as much in the first couple of years of online conferences is that you had an increasing amount of attacks to the conferences, of invasions happening at those conferences. So your authentication is something that's critical. The second bit is that because of this increase access the information and this online life. We had to restructure how we did things, meaning that we couldn't have gone along with a 5-day, 8-hour-a-day format for what would have been a digital experience. You had to look at how you can truncate the different elements of the actual events you're doing and be able to continue to deliver value, but in a system that's a lot more digestible, a lot more, uh, uh, it'll be a bit more receptive for who our core stakeholders are. And then, uh, finally, uh, I want to switch a bit from just what LACNIC had done as an institution to, uh, something that we have been doing across Latin America and the Caribbean. We have a program called Lideres, uh, which is intended to capture Digital policy, digital transformation experiences across Latin America and the Caribbean. Lideres is a grants and mentorship program for internet governance issues. But within that, we had a thrust called Internet and Productivity, whereby folks from across the region applied for this grant, and they had to develop this short study in 3 months. One of the most salient reports I want to guide you to is one that was done on the judiciary in Trinidad and Tobago and how they developed e-justice during the pandemic. So e-justice had been a project that was on the burner for quite a while. The pandemic actually brought a benefit or an advantage to conducting this e-justice project. The project was expected to take up until 2027. And according to this report, to date, uh, 95% of the project had been delivered in the first quarter of 2022. So that's a significant amount of savings. Inside of there, there are lots of practices that I think Caribbean institutions can identify with as to how you go about with your experimenting, your, um, your proof of concepts, your rejecting when something goes wrong and how you go about testing to get something that is usable for the long term. So I'll stop there.

Julian, I'm going to show a few slides here. I think the technology is not working. Share screen, I hope this button works. I'm going to share screen 1, share, and do let me know, folks, if you're actually seeing my screen at all.

Um, yeah, yes, yes, we're seeing it now.

Yeah, so, so, so I did a presentation for the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica. They had a conference with about 1,000 people attending recently, and one of the things that they asked me to do was just to talk about this whole digital transformation. So, so, uh, you know, Kevon, based upon something you said a while ago, and of course, you know, Mara also made a contribution similar, and Julian is something that he spoke about, you know, the pre- COVID versus now is that— and it's a slide that I used, and I actually got feedback from my team. No, Chris, don't use a slide. People don't like to be compared to monkeys. I said, no, it's not about the monkey. Let's focus on the words. And all I was saying here is what didn't happen in 3 years happened in 3 months, right? And, you know, just a quick move, especially for those folks who are ready to even sell online or call it money online. Um, there's a discussion about change management that popped up Everyone likes ideas change as long as it has nothing to do with them, right? And that's also something that I think we have to have a little discussion around, change management. And I think I did see a comment in the chat around change and change management. And of course, you know, we have said various versions of this, what the transformation is, involves use of technology to radically improve the performance or reach of business. And there's a fair amount of people that, you know, for them, digital transformation is just having online meetings. But hey, you know, that's a start, right? Um, and in terms of roadmap, one of the things that I've, I've— in the discussions with folks who have failed small business and things work, um, I guess the same foundation, uh, same foundational components required for good solid strategy, uh, it is the same for any digital transformation framework. Crystal clear objectives, integrated approach, buy-in from leaders, adaptability, skills focus. And the skills focus part, I know it's— and, you know, Kevin repeated over and over again, you know, again, the people, the people, the people, the people. For those who were on earlier with Douglas Orange, um, discussion, you know, buying from leaders, integrated approach, and crystal clear objectives. He spoke, you know, the whole concept of from Raph to Rupert. I mean, as someone who sits down, uh, in one of the GraceKennedy buildings— Grace is one of my bigger customers— I've heard the story repeated over and over. And even when I ask advice from from Doug. It's one of the things he, he, he, you know, reminds me of. Chris, make sure that everyone understands the objectives crystal clear. So one of the things that we help people with, we come in and we do some sort of an assessment as to where their maturity— so there's a maturity model, high level. You know, there are some folks struggle to support their IT. Oh yes, the IT organization can support the business, moves all the way up to the IT organization helps to optimize the business. The IT organization expands the business, and then of course there's the transformation is at the top level. Um, and so there's a whole process that we can go through and help people understand where we're on this platform there. By the way, the last survey we did, majority of the organizations in Jamaica, medium, large, and small, are all between the trusted operator and firefighter. That's where most people are. Very, very few are in the top two, two sections at all, right? Um, so Where I was getting towards this specific situation where I just sat down, scratched my head, spoke to a few people, and just came up with this very high-level digital transformation roadmap: realization, digitization, transformation. And the realization is just, you know, oh my, we need to do something now, and having that buy-in from everyone. But it's the figuring out what do you do, you know, why are we doing it, what's the strategy around doing it, how we're going to get it done, is there any specific focus, um, the money part, and of course the people, the people, the people, the people, right? And you know, as an example, you know, Kevin gave a very nice breakdown in this, the digitize, digital transform earlier. And this is an example I, I gave out to the folks, and you know, President of PSOJ Keith Duncan used it over and over in our talk afterwards. I just said, guys, is your HR department still filling out forms, um, paper forms? Digitize that. Do you have internal approval processes requiring somebody to print something and a manager to sign something? Digitize that. Are you still issuing paper invoices? Digitize that. You know, how are your customers engaging with your organization? Digitize that, right? Do all your systems generate data? Are they integrated with each other? Digitize that. So there's a fair amount to be done to move, whether it's, uh, you know, public organizations, private organizations, to the next level. And then of course the transformation at the end of it there has to be some— something has to change. We have to do something differently. Sadly, some people are digitizing processes, and the processes practically remain exact same, and it just happens faster, right? And we're like, well, hold on, this thing's supposed to change the experience with me and the organization. I gave a little bit, um, I, you know, the situation, and I was reading one of the comments. I don't think it's a conference The technology needs to catch up with our needs. Fantastic comment there from Chris Fox. I, um, my wife sent me out to buy a laptop for my daughter and I was in Florida and, you know, she had told me that, you know, look Chris, just go to the Apple Store, they have this new thing called Apple Pay, just, you know, I tried applying for Apple Pay online in Jamaica, didn't work, right? I don't know what the reason was, maybe I'd put in some wrong information So I'm in the store, you know, got the laptop ready to go, and then I turn to the lady, hold on there, um, can I apply for Apple Pay from here? She said, do you have an iPhone? I said, sure. She said, let me the phone. Say, I want it on it. Wallet on it? Yes. Press the button for the wallet. Okay, fill in information. I'm standing there, fill information, took a few minutes, enter. And then I'm like, lady, last time I tried this— and before I could finish the sentence, approved. And all of a sudden I have 12 payments for this laptop for the next 12 months, zero interest, um, and I walk out the door not paying a thing because I, I did come prepared to use my credit card, but also Apple is now facilitating me. I know in my mind I just sat there and said, this is digital transformation, right? And several times I'm in, I'm in organizations and I challenge them, how can you give me an experience like that with your company? So I will, I will stop my sharing right there, and, um, I will now just ask our team, you know, based upon what you understand and learn from just, you know, experiences around the Caribbean, why has some, or why, why has many not worked? Why have many of these projects not worked? We've heard about this, uh, over and over again. These guys are working on something. I mean, one organization came to me and he said to me, Chris, 3 years I'm into this digital transformation thing. No, it's not happening.

So, um, Julian, yeah, I share. I think I, I want to look at it from 3 perspectives. First, what does this mean for your customers? Are you— if you're in the business of delivering physical goods or if you're delivering services, what, what has changed in the last 2 years with COVID How can you make it seamless for your customers to access either the goods or services that you have? Are your customers in a position to access these things digitally? Because across the Caribbean we have a divide— some people will have access, some don't. So the first thing I think you have to understand is who your customers are and whether— and in determining the strategy, it has to be about making it easier for your customers. The second thing I think you have to look at is who are your employees. The people who are actually going to create either the physical goods or the services, how have they been impacted over the 2 years? You may have had a big office with a lot of space. You still need that? Maybe not. Can your team work from home? Yes. If they can work from home, what are the implications of that? You spoke about getting laptops, but what about security? What about networking? What are the protocols that you put in place to ensure that the physical environment that you had is replicated when people are working remotely. And then the third thing you have to look at is, how am I going to still create value to my customer that I can extract a payment for it in this environment? Because that's ultimately what the final thing is about. You are, you're running a business, you have to earn revenues. What is it that I'm going to do to make this interaction— you gave the Apple example. Unfortunately, you only could do it when you went abroad, but you'd want to do it here, and you would— you should be in a position where you could do it here and get the laptop delivered to you here via FedEx or whatever to your house, obviously for a fee, versus jumping on a plane to Miami. So the question is, and we have seen that, for example, with Amazon and and how Jamaicans have used that during the pandemic. So for me, you have to look at the three elements: your customers, the employees, and the value that you're hoping to continue to create, and how the transformation enables those three things in a way that it is positive for all three. Because your customers have to be happy, your employees have to be happy, and you have to recognize We are in an environment where some employees will never come back into an office. Are you okay with that as a business if the employee still delivers value? So those are considerations I believe that should guide whatever that transformation strategy is. And I think we get bogged down too much, I think, in the technology and trying to fix the technology without defining the strategic parameters before we start to deal with the technology.

Thank you very, very, very much, Julian. Maira or Kevin, anyone can jump in with any additional comments here.

Okay, I was just waiting to see if Maira wanted to intervene, but I'll just come in here. Yes, I just wanted to dovetail on what Julian was about and add some comments, but from a more macroeconomic level. So the same OECD report I referred to earlier had spoken about these gaps, and the infrastructure gap is one of the long-term structural barriers that we see. We know, for instance, in telecoms regulation across the Caribbean, there's this thing called universal service funds whereby where you have not economically feasible areas, underserved areas. This fund is a levy from the telcos that should be redirected to be able to provide high-speed broadband to these underserved areas. And the efficiency of that fund across the region works in various ways. But what I wanted to add is that in addition to that, you do have very clear opportunities to build something called community networks. And community networks from global organizations such as the Internet Society take you from zero to a level of connectivity in a short space of time, even among unskilled people, people who are not familiar with networking, people who are not familiar with equipment. There are programs whereby you can have access the equipment and training to provide internet connectivity and meaningful internet connectivity in these unserved and underserved areas across Latin America, the Caribbean. So the infrastructure gap is one that we have to always contend with, and we always have to raise our voices when it comes to that. The two other comments I want to, uh, allude to, refer to these myths that we tell ourselves in the Caribbean, which are not true. There are these myths that exist. One deals with the shortage of talent or shortage of skills. The Caribbean isn't short of talent or skills or creative ideas. Within organizations, there are a significant amount of creative ideas that need to be tapped into. So It should be really a question as to how do you discover the existing talent and skills outside of organizations. One of the lesser spoken sources is the actual talent pool that we have, not only among Caribbean nationals here in the region, but across the diaspora. And if we're talking digital, you're no longer thinking of coming into an office and sitting down for 8 hours. You're talking about being able to tap into strategic services by a Caribbean national who can remote— remotely to either provide some, um, a business— to provide a business support service or any other thing across your value chain. Um, and the third comment I want to talk about is this myth about there being no financing. If you look at the volume of finances that come across the region There's so much. It's not a question of there not being financing. It's a question of understanding how do we redirect the savings and the dividends from existing— well, not existing— from the actual adoption we have already done with digital technologies and continue putting that into upscaling and looking at more sophisticated investment in digital technologies. If you have a company that has embraced email technology, you already have a savings versus a company that goes via traditional post. If you have a company that has email technologies and has embraced a solution such as SharePoint filing, you have economic savings there. And quite often isn't spoken about enough that these savings shouldn't necessarily mean that they go into the wild. It's where you would have traditionally put something that's labor-intensive, and you're now saving money because of your adoption of additional tools or additional technologies, how do you continue reinvesting that into something like cloud support services or even adopting digital platforms? The benefits of adopting digital platforms besides using it for marcoms and other business functions is that all of these have intertwined in them business intelligence and business analytics and data analytics, which would have come at a significant cost if you were to look at it from a labor-intensive focus. So the finance question is that there is finance, is a question as to how do we tap into that finance, how do we redirect savings from existing digital adoption and put it back into what would upskilled and sophisticated digital transformation.

Thank you, everybody.

Moira?

And Chris, I just wanted to add on to this whole idea of access. And I, you know, I just came back from spending 6 weeks in Ireland, and access to internet can be quite spotty over there as well. But in my mother's house, somebody important lives out the road. So we had great Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi, right? So, but in the US, in general, you know, certainly in the metro areas, access is pretty good. But what we now see as well is a recognition of, you know, access for those with disabilities. So when you think about digital transformation, you actually begin to think about wider issues of access as beyond the physical infrastructure. Through to things like closed captioning, through to, you know, like ways that we, you know, and a recognition that going into the office is about access as well. If you have like, if you are immunocompromised and you've got to get in a bus or you've got to get in a metro train, you know, and you don't have a car, like, you're like, there's a lot of ways in which I think this whole last 2 years raised issues about giving people access and being at home if you have the Wi-Fi really is a huge accessibility bonus for many people who don't have to physically manage to get into the office.

I had to, Maura, you know, that last part about the Wi-Fi, the quality of the Wi-Fi hit home with me at the beginning of the pandemic because of course my board meetings had to move online And I remember one of the first meetings that I had, luckily it was a committee meeting before the board meeting, and my connection dropped. I'm in the middle of a presentation to my board and I had to run out. And so at home right now, I have in Jamaica here, I have both Digicel and Flow coming into my house and I have to jump between them occasionally. So this morning I made sure that I did a speed test. I made sure that I was connected connected to the fastest one this morning. I won't tell you which one it is, um, but I had to make sure that— and there have been several times when in the middle of a presentation I have to switch, as happened with us when we had our pre-meeting earlier this week. So, so that specific access to broadband is a massive concern for some. But let's try to bring things— you know, we have about 20 minutes left, and what I want to make sure is that we cover some I mean, let's call it some practical things that some folks can do around, you know, how they think about digital transformation. So one of the things I'd mentioned about, you know, why some of these projects fail, I'll give you a little example. I was doing my 5:30 morning walk this morning, brought up the fact that I'm doing this presentation, and someone gave me an example. He's the head of IT for— he's an executive with several responsibilities. IT falls under his purview. And he said to me, one of the biggest challenges we're having here is the war— I'll use that word, that was his words— or the tension between the business and IT. Because what happens is that, for example, you know, just listening to Kevin explain some of the things he was explaining a while ago, I'm sure there are a few people sitting on there like, man, he's using some big words, I don't really understand some of those big words. You understand? But the fact of the matter is that in the organization, the leadership just turns to the IT guy and they're, they're, they're watching him for his face to genuflect. Or guess what? These discussions are taking place and the IT guy is not in the room, right? So when— if the IT person is not in the room and there's talk from external advisors and consultants about technology, then there's a divide. Here's another scenario that was brought up this morning. Chris, sometimes the IT guy is in the room, and he grabs this thing with two hands like it's his project. And it's not his project. Digital transformation is not an IT project. Let's repeat that. Digital transformation is not an IT project. It's a business project that everybody involved, and IT technology is a tiny, tiny component. It's about change management. It's about people, capacity, capabilities,. And, and one of the main reasons why this thing fails sometimes in some organizations is that sadly too many of the business folks leave it to the IT folks, and then also the IT folks take over. This is your fiefdom. And look, I'm an IT guy. I started life as an IT guy, as a technician. I'm throwing myself under the bus here. Sometimes we use language to keep everyone else at bay. Sometimes we use language to kind of sort of make sure that our seat at the table is always there. And then sadly, it turns back and slap us in the face because we were not being inclusive. In a recent case study that, um, Harvard Business Review, uh, posted in their December 2020 issue, talks about Apple and how it innovates. And one of the things— two main things to talk about— I talk about leader experts leading experts, got a whole idea and concept, and it's something that that comes up in strategy all the time. Do you hire an expert in this area, or do you hire a leader and then teach them the technology? And of course, you know, there's many different consulting thoughts around that. And what, what they thought is, look, let me get the best person for this technology, we can teach them management and leadership after that. So for them, it's experts leading experts. But the other massively important thing was around collaboration. They said the leaders must collaborate. No one can own this. No one can be throwing all these other people under the bus for everything. We must work together to make this innovation occur. And I mentioned the word innovation, so that's another thing that I also want to throw to the audience here, uh, this whole topic of innovation versus digital transformation. Is it the same thing? Is it, is it different? Um, so, so yeah, so those are a few points I kind of want for us to kind of think on as we move towards the last 20 minutes in the discussion. While I'm doing that, I'll read a concern. It's not much a question, a concern that Kareen Wilson raised when I gave the whole Apple Pay example. She's a content creator and she finds it extremely difficult, and she extremely was in block capitals, collect funds that persons donate via PayPal, Payoneer, etc., because of Jamaica's restrictions. This has come up in so many of these forums as we talk about this transformation and digital payments and all of that. It's one of the things that I have kind of thrown out to our folks at the Ministry in terms of the— you know, there's this continuous talk of Jamaica as a digital society. And there's, there are several underpinning components of this. Of course, one of them Julian mentioned several times is the national identification system, or digitized identification, which is one of the three major components. The other major component is exactly what you brought up, Karine, it's digital payments. How do, how do we, um, how does that work? And then using the Estonia model, the, the key thing, the other key, um, foundational component, but there are three digital IDs, digital payments. And the other component is data exchange or data interchange within the country and within government, private sector, and back and forth, and intergovernment organizations. Where is that master database of the information that needs to be shared? Uh, how is it shared? Do we have access to it? So that is what will give the foundation for moving Jamaica as a digital society. So I threw in about 3 or 4 or 5 topics in there that we're going to try to squeeze through in the next few minutes. Um, okay, Dale has put up another question. Digital transformation and work from home is here to stay, especially with younger professionals and younger digital customer base. Where are we in our mindset in the Caribbean? Lennox from PCCM Club in Toronto. Another part of the discussion. You are so correct. Um, you're so current Linux. So, uh, with the— with, with those 4 or 5 topics that I threw up in the air a while ago, uh, where do we land around some of these? Who wants to go?

All right, looking at the question Dale put up, I think where employers are going to be forced to adjust, because I think the balance of power to some extent has shifted to employees, and particularly employees who are highly skilled, who are mobile, and who can stay in one location and work in another. And I think, you know, the concept that somebody has to come in at 8:30 and clock out at 5 and be at a physical desk is, is something— is anachronistic. You know, we in an environment where people can deliver value from their home, depending obviously on the nature of the job. So I think employers will have to adjust if they want to keep the kind of talent that can transform and constantly innovate in their businesses. The issue of, um, the question about payments and receiving payments has been a sore point from— I was in government from 2012 to 2016, and I know we still haven't resolved it. I would say that part of the challenge we have as a country, you know, we have a lot of good things, but we also have some negative And I think part of the challenge we have with this area is that, you know, the people who use their innovation in a negative way to scam people, to find ways of bringing money in, have put such a limelight on the country that many of the people who we have to interact with are very cautious about enabling the receipt of payments via these digital means. And it has made it very, very difficult for legitimate customers who want to— whether it is to do remittances or basic transfers— to do it because it is being used as a means of, um, of scamming people. So I'm not saying that's the sole reason, but it certainly is a contributor, I believe, to why Jamaica has such a challenge, um, getting these payments via these, the, the online media. Go ahead, Kevon.

Thanks, Chris. Um, a lot of ideas there. I wanted to, uh, leverage some of the things you said and reiterate a couple of points we had before. So one of the things that I have observed over the years is that you have have these different camps. So for instance, engineers and lawyers don't live in the same house, or they don't like to live in the same house. Neither do IT people and policymakers. And yet we are expected to all face digital transformation together. You're quite right, we have to undo this mindset that transformation is the IT manager's problem. And we have to to find a way of structuring more cross-fertilization. I think this conference is a good example of there being cross-fertilization between people with one set of competencies and skills and having people with other sets of competencies come in and start to share information and co-construct. That happens in the ambit of this conference. What could be done at a policy maker's perspective. So government's responsibility, and this is where all of us as conference attendees could do this, we need to insist on there being multi-stakeholder approaches to developing digital policy. Because it is unreasonable to think that someone who is steeped in security, who works in the private sector, uh, to see that that information is reflected in any sort of public policy or legislation that comes out of the government if there's no way of them actually communicating. And when I say communicating, multi-stakeholder approach to governance doesn't just mean that government does an online request for comments and then shuts itself off. It means that they listen. You are in a space where each one is able to express themselves on equal footing, listen to the other, and come up with an outcome that is richer than if it were just a one-sided affair. Um, and I say so because one of the things we have to realize with going digital is that the horse has already left the stable. And I'll go back to a point I made earlier, it ties back to the whole question of maturity models and our digital maturity. We open up ourselves to risks if we are not strategic about how we do digital transformation if we are just picking at, cherry-picking and choosing what we want to do in a digital space. One of the biggest risks that have happened over the pandemic is something called ransomware. And ransomware is a thing I've been tracking across the Caribbean. I like when I see journalists pick up on it and they write a short story, and then it just disappears. Because we tend to see, or we tend to have this idea, well, as an organization, if it happens to me, I don't want anyone to speak about it. So it's a hush-hush affair. You're really trying not to have journalists talk about these things, and then there's a stick your head in the sand approach. The fact of the matter is that from the minute that we do go online, we set up web presences, we set up or we put our business processes online, we have to contend with how we treat the security questions. And security is a thing that you want to have to reassess and redefine what exactly is your risk profile so that you could come up with what would be new barriers of acceptable risk, meaning that you have done all that you can do in terms of security measures, and beyond that, it will be something out of the blue. So security is the— one of the biggest priorities that all of our organizations have to contend with, to be able to face and address things like ransomware. Organizations can also look at something called Computer Security Incident Response Teams, or CSIRTs. And what this means is that when something happens, before it happens, there are defined policies and protocols as to what an organization does in those instances. And it steers us away from the stick your head in the sand approach. It tells us, okay, this is what happens on a communication level to our external stakeholders. This is what the leadership needs to do. This is what the IT person needs to do to be able to capture, to either stop, stymie, or capture evidence of this incident that is threatening the organization. And then how do we liaise with law enforcement to find some sort of redress for what has occurred to us. So there's so many other points I can speak about, but I'm going to stick a pin in there. And I really wanted to talk about that security factor. So maturity means that we take front when it comes to security. That's the message there I want to stop here with.

Fantastic. Moira, do you have a comment to add here?

I do. And actually, one thing I'm going to do, I'm going to post in the chat as a Christopher, that you sent to us from the Harvard Business Review of democratizing transformation. And what I really liked about that article was this sense of IT and the business units working together because the business units need the data to really understand what's going on to make good business decisions. And so you can't have these two areas separated. It's even a while ago now where I was working on a program and the IT people said, well, we're going to change how credit cards are processed. And I'm like, I'm not sure that's a great idea. Offer the system. And they were like, you make business decisions and we'll make IT decisions. And about 2 months later, the chief financial officer called up and said, why do we have so much bad debt? And I said, because IT made the technical decision, which was not— but it had a business impact, a huge business impact. So, you know, what we see in those organizations that really are embracing digital transformation is, like Julian saying, like, you know, people have more power. You know, those employees have more power to say, no, no, these are the tools I need, this is the data I need, because the business goals are, you know, are not subject to the king of no in IT who just can kind of, you know. Though your point about security, you know, Kevon, is just spot on. And that's where IT probably has that realm of like whether if it's operating systems and security patches, You know, that's where IT still has probably that realm of the final say. But once you get into service and innovation, then you really have to be working together.

I love that comment, the king of no. I have never heard that one before. But you're right. You got the IT guys, no, can't be done, no, because it wasn't their idea or whatever. I'm going to share again one more time, just very quickly. Kevon, I have been on the— I've been talking to everyone who would listen about cybersecurity for the last maybe 3.5, 4 years. And I have modified my slides in various ways. I've tried to explain to people why is it critical right now. And I have different versions of this depending on the target audience that I'm talking to. I tried to talk about the the global situation. And of course, I also, uh, talk about the, the local situation and the ones close to us. And I do have a newer slide that, that brings in the JMMB, uh, $40 million plus, uh, situation just week before last. Um, and some people sadly just keep on believing that this has nothing to do with me. I mean, nobody's coming after me. And I'm like, no, Ransomware, let's talk about Kevin a while ago. It's, it's a scattershot approach. It's just the systems are out there just throwing, uh, throwing phishing out there. As I just said, it's phishing. It's whoever will hook. And once you get hooked and your data is compromised, then it's, it's, it's goodbye. Um, and why we don't hear about it, it's not newsworthy. It's getting to be newsworthy a little bit, but not, you know, it's embarrassing to admit, horrible PR. You know, legal ramifications around it. But one of the things that we're having in Jamaica right now, and I know a few other Caribbean islands do have it, is, um, there is gonna— there's a legal requirement. So we do have Office of Information Commissioner in place, um, and she's ramping up her capabilities right now. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, by law you have to report that if, if you're processing private information for whether it's your staff or your customers, and it gets compromised, you have to let the Commissioner know. Right. And so there's a requirement for technical measures. And then there's a requirement for organizational measures to ensure that you keep people's data private. And so this is something that for us in the IT IT security, cybersecurity industry, we've been kind of asking for, for a while. Now it's here. Um, yes, Dale, cybercriminals do have PhDs. Um, and that is also one of the challenges— the attacks are getting more sophisticated and they're getting more complicated, right? So we do have some legal requirements right now. Um, so at the end of the day, we have some We have some leg to stand on when we go into organizations and they say, look, I'm here to, you know, help you audit your situation just to give you some sort of a report, maturity level, some sort of a feel as to what's your standing in terms of protection, what capabilities do you actually have, and give them some sort of a roadmap. Sadly, we're still pushing that rock uphill because not everyone is is just jumping, jumping at the bits to do that. So in our last 10 minutes, folks, our last 8 minutes, to be exact, what I'm going to do is ask each of my panelists to, if there's any final takeaways or final thoughts that they have that they definitely don't want to leave here without saying, if we could do a round robin around it. Let me just run through some of the comments that have been here because they've been a lot of comments. Thanks for the engagement, folks. I saw one that was, I thought, pretty interesting. Kelly McIntosh mentioned her approach with respect to, you know, as a non-IT person, she have used to automate, you know, improve processes to invite the IT person into the room, paint the picture of the pain points, and, um, and, and work on the relationship that way. And in the end, I think further down, she says, guess what, But the more I interacted and collaborated with IT, the more tech savvy she became, and the more commercial business savvy the IT person became. So that I think is a great example of collaboration. She got a lot of thumbs up right there. So that's something that I want to highlight. Collaboration is massively important across the board for this thing to work. It's not going to work otherwise. Tricia, I think organizations keeping secret their challenges with security is a way to somewhat maintain some amount of confidence. Sadly, yes, but in more advanced countries, there are laws requiring, you know, requiring disclosure. Lisa Marie Alexander, question on the screen: How do you ensure digital strategy transformation is part of the strategic agenda? Great, great, great question, and I think it's a good perhaps closeout question. Uh, Moira, uh, Kevon, Julian, how do we answer that, that one right there? How do we ensure it's part of strategic agenda? Um, Julian, I'm also going to ask you, um, um, throw in a secondary question. Uh, as someone who has been a volunteer in a fair amount of things that, you know, trying to make sure that Jamaica gets towards the digital Digital society, I have come across a plethora of studies. And Kevon, I don't know, you know, your organization probably helped with some of these studies, but one of the things that I realized that, you know, almost every multinational does some sort of a study and there's all of these reports. And, you know, what I've asked your counterpart in the administration, why do we need any more studies? We are, we're studied out the wazoo, you know. UNDP does one, um, World Bank does one, IDB has another one, and everyone has recommended something else that they're going to bring somebody else to do. Julian, help us.

Well, well, let me tell you, part of the problem is when you ask for multilateral help, whether it is grant, whether it is loan funding, it starts with some form of study or consultancy to determine the problem, make recommendations, which will then lead to a project. And so generally you end up with all these studies because as any, uh, small developing country, you're seeking assistance to get things done. And generally the study is done as a grant or the consultancy, but then the implementation is generally a loan, right? So, and, and I was in government, we had that experience, and I It's the same here. I think, you know, if we had our own resources to take on some of these things, we could move more quickly to implementation, but we don't. But the other challenge is we also have an implementation deficit as, as a region, as a country. The skills that we're talking about are in very high demand. The public sector can't necessarily retain these individuals for long periods of time. They come in, they get the experience, and then they got jobs that pay them 4 or 5 times what they would earn in the public sector. So that is also a challenge in terms of having the kind of expertise that you need to ensure that you can successfully implement. To come back to the question that Lisa Marie put up, Maria put up, I would say digital transformation has to start at the top. It has to be led by the CEO who understands what it means for the his, his or her business. It is not an IT problem. IT is enabling what you want to transform. If you don't see it that way, you're going to fail because the owners of the project are going to be too low down the totem pole to get the transformation in people, in processes, etc. So for me, the CEO, the C-level person has to own it. And has to drive it. And I believe if you have that, you have a greater chance of succeeding than if people just leave it to the IT man to do something and ensure that we're online, so to speak.

Thank you very, very much, Julian. Last words, Kevon, and then we end the work.

So, lady, thanks very much, Chris. And yes, exactly as Julian has said, we have a saying here I'm sure it's probably across the Caribbean, and we say that fish rots from the head. Your transformation process needs to be done by strong leadership, strong leadership, which is able to give you enabling infrastructure within your organization, the tools, the requisite tools and skills that you need, the ability of building skills has to be a clear focus from the leadership, and also the ability to inspire. They must be able to inspire. And they must be able to be visionary as to what sort of transformation they want to see, and not put the cart before the horse in interpreting digital transformation as a technology issue. Technology comes last. There's a last set of three— of Ps that I want to leave you with. I've said people so many times, but I'm going to say it again. People who are adequately equipped and empowered, they can help chart the way. So again, it ties back to leadership, being able to adequately equip and educate people so that they can be empowered to chart the way. There are policies, policies on infrastructure, policies that need to be enabling. In order to be able to transform. Again, leadership needs to be responsible for setting those policies, not in a vacuum, not all on its, on its own, but setting policies through an open process that will help lead the way and ensure that you have enough enabling infrastructure within the organization to lead the organization forward. And last but not least, something that it hurts us culturally. Persistence, having the confidence and the boldness and the faith to make an energized way forward. When you fail, you simply find out a way of something that will not work, but you need to persist. Too often we look at failure as the be-all and end-all to anything, and we revert to the risk-averse nature within us. But what I'm saying is that in going the digitally, doing anything digital, that horse has left the stable and you are in what you call, uh, it's, it's a situation where there's no stopping. It's either do or die at that point. So you really need to focus on being persistent and understanding what is trial and error, what is failure, how you learn from failure, and how you continue innovating your process. So 3 Ps: people, policy, and consistence, all coming from strong leadership on what digital transformation means.

Thanks, Yvonne. Moira, you have the last word.

It's really short. Like, we work on a lot of organizations that have a board, and like, yes, absolutely, the executive director, the CEO might be very, you know, convinced of the need for digital transformation, but there's a board to be convinced. And the word there is fear, right? You make them afraid of what will happen if they don't, whether it's information about security issues that will be faced or how their members won't be served or what, you know, or it could be a good quote, it can be data. But, um, that's a way to make sure, Lisa Maria, that, that, that technology gets a seat at the strategy table.

Thank you.

Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. Well, let me just thank my panel. Thanks, uh, thanks Moira, thanks Kevin, and thanks Julian for all contribution. Thanks to the audience who was highly engaged. Lisa, let me just leave with my 4 takeaways here. I had 3 until Moira dropped that last one a while ago. And it was not about technology, people. It's people, people, people. And of course, it's about people collaboration. And then I will translate something that Moira said, because when I was trained in sales by IBM about 35 years ago, and my training was actually down in Trinidad, at the time, we learned this whole concept of FUD— fear, uncertainty, and doubt. FUD them, keep FUDing them, right? Keep FUDing the leadership. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt, right? And, and, and it has to be at the board level. If you don't do this, here's what's going to happen. So I agree with you, Marlon, it has to be at the board level. Um, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And, and, and just let them know, if you don't do this, you're going to miss out. And Douglas O gave us some of that whole, some of that concept, the whole black swan and extinction, um, this discussion earlier this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. And Lisa Marie, over to you and over to the country.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Christopher and Julian and Kevin and Moira. Thank you, team. What an awesome discussion. And, you know, we— I'm not going to rephrase or paraphrase again, it's been said. But the importance of people in a transformation of any kind. And for me, the, the takeaway— this is a— this is, if you're just joining us, this is the Caribbean Strategy Conference. So we're talking about how do we, how do we do it, how do we execute it, how do we, how are we successful at it. I think for the Caribbean, the important takeaway there was that there's an implementation deficit. So for organizations in order to focus on implementation. I think what we heard from this panel is that we're focusing on people. And next up, they should be jumping on screen. We actually are moving into our tourism panel, and it's actually one of those industries that it's very pervasive. Of course, in the Caribbean, some islands are more focused on tourism than others, but we all benefit from it, and we're all impacted by it. It in many, many different ways. So I see the— this—

hello, hello.

Hi Christine, we're hearing you. Christine from Cabo San Lucas. Hi Dr. Craig.

Hi Anne. Hi.

Anne is a former colleague and I'm very, very happy to, you know, share this conversation with you or this panel with you. I'm handing right over for you to introduce yourself speakers this morning.

Okay.

Are you hearing me well, Lisa? Everybody hearing me? Okay.

Yes.

Okay. You are wonderful.

All right.

Let me let you see me. It is my pleasure to be here with this, this great panel. I have met them before and I'm looking forward to their insights. As Lisa Marie just said, tourism is our lifeblood in the region. And, you know, one of the things I shared with the panel is that when we had the tourism cease, it was something that none of us could ever have imagined could happen even for a minute. And yet it happened, and yet we are still standing. But we really want to understand what do we do with this? How do we go forward? What are some of the strategies that we need to undertake, and what are some of the risks that we need to think about. So let me tell you a bit about myself briefly, and then about the panel. So I am Ann Crick, and I am a senior lecturer at UWI— University of the West Indies, I'm sorry— Mona, and I have a background in hospitality and tourism, and then before I jumped over to academia for reasons that I still am trying to figure out. All right, then we have another female on the panel, Christine Thompson, who is the CEO of Carbot St. Lucia. And I see TT because I see you were working with Sunshine Snacks at TT, so you, you like me, you cross fields, right? And, um, we— she has expertise, great international expertise in Toronto, New York, Buenos Aires. So she's been around the block, so she's going to bring to us lots of great insights. Then we have to the right on my screen, at least, um, Prof. Dave Roberts of Cornell. So if you know anything, Cornell is crème de la crème in, uh, when it comes to hospitality and tourism. You know, we used to say their name with reverence. He went to Cornell. So, Dave is there, but before that, he was with Marriott, and for 22 years, I think you said, and then in 2020, like me, and maybe you have your reasons, he jumped into academia, and he is now at Cornell, and his focus is on business strategy and revenue strategy, and certainly that something that we really want to talk about. How do we make money? And, you know, what are some of the changes we need to think about? And then we have Con— Cone, sorry— down the road from me in Jamaica, because I'm speaking to you from Jamaica. And he is also a Marriott person, Marriott times two, right? Because he opened two of our Marriotts in Jamaica, and he's currently with with one of them. And he's an awardee winner, Mustang awardee winner, and in 2015, and also a Mustang EDGE winner. So he is clearly top of his field and thinking through what are the things that we can do to differentiate ourselves in a crowded marketplace. So that is the panel that you have in front of you. And what we decided to to do, we'll have each of them make a few remarks, 5 to 7 minutes, and then after they've made their opening remarks, and we want you to be chatting. I was sitting in on the last panel, and I see that you are very interactive, so I'm going to believe that if IT can get that energy, so can tourism. So please keep interacting with us. So I'll be taking your questions, and I have a couple I have a couple of my own that I will post to you as well. So, Prof. Dave, over to you, your remarks.

Great. Well, thank you, Ann, and it's a great honor to be on the panel with Koen and Christine, and thank you to the attendees for joining today. I did catch the tail end of the last panel also, and it was neat to see everybody so actively engaged. So we're talking about tourism and strategy, and these are turbulent times for tourism. The conference is about strategy, and this session is going to be about the application of strategy to address some of these challenges that we're facing. So I thought, I thought I would start and just set the context a little bit for, for some of the turbulence that we're facing. There's a lot of challenges. In travel and tourism right now. Just to touch on a couple of them, there are cost increases. A lot of that's driven by inflation. There's significant margin pressure. There are labor challenges, labor challenges way beyond the cost issue. We can think of that in terms of human capital. There are demand challenges, obviously driven by COVID, but now we're focused on a, a post or with COVID recovery, they're increasing customer expectations and it puts some pressure on our ability to deliver on those expectations. And then there is the challenge of technology that the last panel just talked about, and it's expensive and we need to drive adoption of that technology. But also to get the value of that technology. So that was— I just want to set the stage for some of the challenges that tourism is facing. So the question is, how do we develop a strategy? I'll go off on a little bit of a tangent here, if I may, Anne. In my view, strategy, the word, is the most overused word in business. When I'm talking about strategy, I don't mean a mission statement or some sort of a lofty vision. I think of strategy as the allocation of resources, and I'm going to pause for a second to let that sink in. The allocation of resources. We have limited time and money, and so a strategy is what am I going to do, and then also what am I not going to do. And there are trade-offs, and those are difficult decisions. I spent 3 years of my life in the travel business. I worked on airline strategy, I worked on individual hotel strategy, sets of hotels, and in fact the global portfolio of hotels strategy. Here's one thing that I've learned about strategy: if you cannot name something worthwhile, some worthwhile activity that you have chosen not to pursue, then you haven't made the tough trade-off decisions and you do not have a strategy. It's very easy to say I have a strategy and spell out what you're going to do. But if you can't name things that you're not doing, you haven't made those difficult decisions. So that's— I would say that's the most important thing I've learned about business strategy in, in 3 decades. In the industry. So there's a lot of challenges that we talked about, um, just to touch on them again: the demand, the recovery of demand. If you think about application of strategy to that, I think in terms of defining segments and source markets. So let's say you're running a hotel, think about the segments of business that you're going to go after, and it has to be not all of them. And think about specific source markets that you're going to target, and again, it can't be all of them. And think about channel distribution partners that you're going to work with, and it, again, it can't be all of them. We can talk much more about that topic later. And then in terms of cost pressure, margin pressure, are there areas where you can reduce costs without a significant impact to the guest experience? One example that that's talked about a lot in the industry now is housekeeping. And some people value daily housekeeping and they should be able to get it. Some guests, in fact, some significant number do not value daily housekeeping. In fact, they don't want it. Well, that's an area that you could figure out how to reduce costs there. And then the labor issue is enormous. And again, it's beyond costs. We're talking about acquisition of talent, development of talent, Human beings are meant to be cherished, and that's the same with associates that you work with. I'm going to cut that one short. I know Cone has a lot of ideas on that, and we can talk much more about that later. My point in all of this is that these are daunting challenges for hospitality, but all of them are addressable with the application of strategy. And I'll stop there.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. So, um, it is— I think it's Stephen Covey who says that, you know, we have to think what are we saying no to, or what— because you have to, you have to make the choice. And you're correct. So I have often seen companies with, you know, strategic document, 8,000 things, and of course a lot of them are not going to happen. So we have to carefully think about that. And no time like the present when, um, you know, thank you for that definition about resources. Resources are always scarce. How are we going to use the scarce resources coming out of a lean time in tourism? So, um, you know, people are trying to recover their money, but how best should you go about doing that? Okay, so great. Let's, let's go to you. Your name was mentioned, Mr. Cohen, so you go ahead and live up to your our expectations. No pressure.

Good morning all, and Dave, you really made me think even more after our last conversation about, you know, strategizing what are we doing onwards. But, you know, when you talk about strategy, also, you know, KPIs come to mind. How do we monitor? How do we assess, how do we evaluate, you know, our strategies? Because we're coming out of these 2 years where we literally every month thought we could re-strategize and then to be pushed back again. So, so coming into this year where you really feel, you know, a new chapter is upon us, you know, we, we can start thinking more long-term strategy. And with long-term strategy also obviously come, you know, how do we measure what we do and how do we assess success or not? And what you say, you know, when it comes to segmentation, so powerful because, you know, and I'll talk a bit about this, but as a business, you know, we are a brand. And if we decide in our efforts to recover and look at so many different channels to make market fund or diversify our product to the extent that, you know, our guests will not be able to recognize our core brand or our culture, you know, we are making the wrong direction in terms of strategy. So we always have to align ourselves to who are we in essence, and that's the conversation that, you know, post-pandemic needs to be had. There needs to be this reset and, you know, where businesses revisit their brands. What was our brand in essence and how can we rebuild that? And yes, you know, we can venture into new directions because the world is not the same as it was 2 years ago. You know, people have different ideas about how they travel, how they conduct business, the length of their stays. You know, there's so much more diversification in a simple journey. So as a business, we have to respond to that. So brand becomes and remains critical, but how do we serve? How do we align our projects with the— sorry, products and our services with this new demand or these new expectations? And that requires strategic thinking. And then the other part which you mentioned, Dave, and it's critical, but it's the human capital. You know, you see in the last 2 years people have adopted different specialisms, they have adopted different, you know, goals in life. And where, for example, young students would look at hospitality for, you know, their first journey into a profession, they are starting to look at maybe more online, more entrepreneurial, you know, directions. So how does How does hospitality engage human capital? And, you know, deep recruitment always was, you know, in a sense, a topic where, you know, we would go and engage universities, where we would engage in internship programs. But we have to go further. Where we identify customer journey, we now also have to identify our associate journey, because it's no longer about businesses picking you know, their future employees. It's about employees selecting the company they will be wanting to work for. So recruitment becomes more and more this, you know, two-way street. If we have people interviewing for positions in this hotel, we have to be punctual, we have to create an arrival experience, we have to make a presentation where people feel compelled to say, 'Wow, this is really a place where I could see myself work.' And if we do less than that, you know, we're selling the business short and we're not attracting the right talent. And that's just a tip of the iceberg. You're talking about, you know, a package of compensation, primary, secondary, you know, what are we doing to create a future for, you know, our future assets. Because as a business, I think our core goals right now is, you know, redeeming the value that we had and that we saw before the pandemic, getting back there. You know, we need to sell to the value of the business, and for that you need engaged workforce. An engaged workforce can only be there if they feel engaged to the mission, engaged to the culture, and they're adequately rewarded, you know, for being there. So, you know, I think strategy comes in so many, many, many, many ways. And, you know, we have to redefine our KPIs, redefine, you know, turnover ratio in staff, development opportunities. And as you say, how do we align, you know, with the brand that we are? And I keep it to that, Anne, because I know we just have an hour. I think Dave and I I would be talking for days if you'd let us.

Yes, and we— and there is at least one more person to speak, and we have all questions coming in. Thank you very much for that. So what you have introduced, Fulsome, into the conversation is the human capital, and that is huge because without paying attention to our human capital in our strategy, then we we have no opportunity to do very well. And that's often the element that's left out of strategic planning. You know, we figure out what markets we want and so on, and then afterwards we say, okay, now how are we going to do it? And what I hear you— and I love the term, is it a Marriott term, the idea of journeys? When you talk about journeys.

We in our group, we talk about the journey for a customer and it's, you know, everything is a journey at the end of the day. So I think a journey when we talk to our new team members, you know, everybody is on a journey regardless of it being professional, being personal, and I think it becomes relatable when you, you know, you're trying to create that perspective for them.

Right, so I love that, that it's not just the customer journey but it's also the internal customer journey that we will think about. I'm going to let Christine jump in and have her say, and then I see the questions mounting and we'll get to those. Go ahead, Christine.

Hi everyone, and thank you so much, and hello to fellow panelists and all of you listening in. Really interesting discussion. I think we are at a slightly different stage in that we are in development mode, so we're not operating yet, which actually creates the opportunity to— for a whole lot of strategic decisions because you're actually at that stage where you can. Um, and so perhaps I could talk a bit about some of our thinking in terms of hospitality, um, operation in the region and, and, and some of the things that we thought were important to our success. One is that we had more concerns about investing in plant, in other words, capital-intensive, large-ticket item buildings. And so, and sort of getting a— expecting an acceptable return off of that alone. Alone. So we are going, um, the route that you would have seen like the Four Seasons and some of those sort of higher-end brands go, where there's a significant real estate component coupled with the hospitality operation. And what that allows— so, so Carbet was— is building a golf resort but a real estate community around that. And I think what seen interestingly, um, and, and the, the relevance to Caribbean hospitality is becoming more and more blurred, but we've seen a real explosion of real— of Caribbean real estate values, um, in the law, you know, throughout the pandemic, as people realize that they can sort of operate off the grid and spend more time outside of urban centers. And that is sort of for us being quite a sort of merger of the whole hospitality concept. So when you can sell real estate at, you know, at attractive prices, that allows you to fund and operate a hospitality operation in, in a slightly different way. So that's been an important part of our strategy.

Um, the—

on the golf side, we are destination golf. So people will travel from all over the world to play golf, as opposed to being a resort with a golf course. And that was a very important distinction for us, and it allows us to sort of differentiate from other offerings. Um, another trend that I'm seeing a lot of, uh, I think there's been a whole rise in social issues, environmental issues, and we are very conscious of being much more integrated with community than perhaps we would have been before. And I think that's really important part of talent acquisition as well. So what is your responsibility to the environment, to the heritage, to the culture, to, um, socially, etc.? It allows you, I think, to also develop purpose that is is very much a part of talent acquisition. So young people want to work somewhere where there's a sense of purpose and values as opposed to just another job, right? Um, the— also the, um, diversity and inclusion piece. For example, you know, one of the things we're looking at is, you know, the introduction of women in golf, for example. So can you, you know, which for golf diehards is a really difficult conversation because it's been a very male-dominated sport and activity. Um, but all of a sudden now you have many families and couples where both, um, members of the family are working, the men and the women. And all of a sudden, you know, when it comes to paying dues and club fees and HOA fees, they're like, well, whoa, um, you know, I'm not willing to put my, you know, my income into something where I feel that women are treated differently or are given a different level of service. So that now becomes very much front and center of the product offering. Um, and of course, that is again another another sort of cause that appeals very much to your workforce if you're trying to hire. In terms of marketing, we very much— Dave, you mentioned channels— we very much made the decision to do all direct. So we don't really work through third-party channels. That's helped a lot on the cost side. I mean, it is a much sort of niche, you know, high net worth market. But we've found a lot more success on strategic PR, you know, pieces, you know, hosting media trips, having journalists from Financial Times and the New York Times and, you know, Global Mansion and all these places come down, Architectural Digest, and write about the development. Even, you you know, a year before it's open. And that creates a whole lot of awareness, not only for the project but for the country as well, which works for the stakeholders like the government, like the tourist boards, etc. Um, strategically also, I think we're seeing the increased need to do better data mining to understand who the customers are. How many times have they come? What do they like to drink? What do they like to eat? What do their kids like to do? And sort of really developing a far more, far deeper and more real understanding of the consumer that goes beyond demographics. And really using that, um, in referrals. For example, tell us, you know, a few of your friends that you'd like to refer. And that is a a far more— we find, um, a better way to target our, our, you know, our prime segment than just sort of a scattershot approach. Um, also looking into, you know, more loyalty programs, etc. And then I can't underestimate the importance of, of course, You know, you'd ask the question, and about taking it up a notch, we've definitely gone more upmarket. Why? Because that segment is less affected by economic shocks. Um, you know, they made a lot of money during the pandemic. They also lost a lot of money in the last 2 months, haven't we all, on the stock market. Um, but you know, there is a certain amount of resilience C and so on, and a buffer there that you don't have these, you know, volatile rise and falls as severe in that level of the market. And then the last thing I would say in terms of trends we're seeing is a greater focus on authenticity, authenticity of experience. So, you know, we operating in St. Lucia, yes, I wanna, you know, have a great F&B experience, but I also wanted to be infused with local flavors, local ingredients. I want to go and see an authentic music festival. I don't want to really go and see a band playing hot, hot, hot with people, you know, kind of— we know the conga lines around these hotels. Like, you want to be able to go outside the property and experience authentic. But let me be clear, not totally authentic like we as Caribbean people necessarily know. So it has to be some sort of hybrid that is still comfortable but gives a glimpse of authentic, but it's not too, too raw, if that makes sense. Yeah, so it's sort of finding that right balance, and I think that's what people are looking for in the Caribbean, and we tend to be we, I think, sometimes apologetic as Caribbean people, like we try and sort of protect them from the gritty, you know, and I think we need to be really proud in what we uniquely offer in the Caribbean and be able to package that and present that in a way that is not too uncomfortable or people feel threatened from a safety point of view, but allows them to get closer to what, who we are and what we represent than maybe they have been before in this sort of very packaged entertainment that they might, you know, experience in an all-inclusive, for example.

All right, thank you. And, um, I love this panel because what we have done so far, we have kind of done a wonderful map of everything, because what you brought to that, to the discussion, is the whole environmental issue. That, that is huge. And, you know, of course, one of the things we always say about golf courses is the amount of water that they use, you know, and how detrimental that can be. So, you know, when you're setting up a golf resort, you take that in mind and you, you do the things that allow you to be sustainable. You also brought but in the whole issue of diversity and inclusion. And we know that people are making choices based upon that. So, you know, that is something that as companies we have to put our values out there. But we don't just put out values and, you know, mission statement on the wall and we value people, but you don't treat your people well because, you know, that will eventually leak out in this very transparent world. I think that that is very, very important. And the other thing that you mentioned, well, authenticity is always— that's my passion. I could talk about that forever. But the whole issue of data mining, and it is an open secret in the Caribbean that we don't do a great job of capturing data about this number one industry. It's really hard for you to find out how many people are directly employed, indirectly employed, how much money we are getting off of things, what are the preferences, and so on. So that is one of the things I believe will really undermine us when we come to strategy. So thank you everybody for those initial thoughts. And, you know, we have people agreeing— I'm just running straight to the chat— and they're agreeing with the idea that it it's difficult to do everything and serve everyone. So you, you were very clear, Christine, when you're talking about, um, this is who we are. We are upmarket and we are dealing with people who are, um, coming— I guess your, your stay is pretty long when people come on the golf vacation. So your company— people don't just come to the place that happens to have a golf club, um, golf course. They're coming for So I think that is part of it. And then Lisa Marie says, who we are, who are we is a critical question for strategic success. Many organizations are losing their way. And I want to agree with that and maybe invite you, Koen, to speak a little bit about branding. You touched on it a little bit, but I want you to maybe go a bit deeper into that.

Well, I think as a brand, right, and And you can, I mean, Marriott, and they will attest, you know, is a very big hospitality organization with over 30 different brands. And you see as a business, and this can be, you know, a Marriott, but also a privately held hotel, you know, in any location, it is just very important that you establish what you are, what are your products, what are your services, how is your culture built, because a lot of it comes from, you know, from the people at the end of the day, the people will live and breathe your culture, you know, the extent to which you empower, you know, your frontline will define the success of your business. And that represents, you know, a brand. So I'll take AC Hotel as an example. In essence, AC Hotel is a Mediterranean brand founded by Antonio Catalan. It is a lifestyle brand, so it also speaks to, you know, in a sense, a multi-sensory being. It's just not something you, you know, it's not the scent, it is not the sound, it is really how people feel when into an environment, you know, like that. And, you know, as a brand, for example, we boast a lot of art, we boast, there's even a brand scent. So I think what brands do is kind of have a product according to a set of, let's say circumstances where people can identify with. So for us, you know, we attract people that, you know, obviously come for business in this city of Kingston, but that also have interest in art, that have interest in meeting or doing business in the hotel or socially mingling. So this brand really attracts to people who have certain expectations or purposes of of visiting. And if I compare that to the Courtyard Hotel that I opened in the same city 5, 6 years ago, the Courtyard is really more focused as a brand on providing a, you know, stable base for people to work from. So you would see persons coming there for business, yes, but they would leave in the morning and come back in the evening. And if you would compare you know, for example, the food and beverage in both of these areas. At the Courtyard, you would see persons having dinner and opposite them would be an iPad where they would have either a movie on, a documentary, or home, right? And if you go to our AC Hotels food and beverage establishment, you see people talking, people meeting others, having a drink socially. Or even having work meetings. So the dynamic is just very, very different. And I think the big challenge is in terms of how do we recover as a business, because every business has suffered over the last year. So the first response will be like, you know what, we need to try everything to get as many people in this building as possible. So you could diversify and say, okay, no, let's also start selling sushi, let's start doing, you know, Italian themes, or let's do this, or let's do that. But I think the first question always has to be, how does this connect to our core brand delivery and our promise?

Yeah, Dave, do you want to jump in? I see you nodding.

Yeah, Koen, those are excellent points. I would just add one, one thought about the importance of branding. The younger generation in particular, but every generation is increasingly tuned into authenticity of branding. And unfortunately, there are too many examples of, well, not just hotels, but since we're talking about hotels, that have a stated brand purpose that don't deliver on it. And it becomes painfully obvious. And there's a lot of, unfortunately, a lot of that around sustainability and green efforts, just to use one example, where hotels will talk about their green efforts and their focus on sustainability, and then a customer will look out the back and see the loading dock full of trash and food thrown away and lights left on and leaking water. And so what the hotel says they stand for is very clearly what they're not doing. That causes a problem with branding. So it's— and research has borne out that that's, like a lot of things, driven by the younger generation, but more and more picked up by older generations as well. This focus on authenticity, like if you say it, you got to do it.

Yeah, that's a really important point. So we're expanding on the definition of— or the thinking around authenticity. So we did say that visitors come and to the Caribbean or globally, they're looking for authenticity. They want street food. They want to eat what we eat and so on, safely, of course, as you said, Christine. But then they're also looking for, you know, are people well treated? As you said, the garbage, and are you recycling your water? Are you recycling your towels? I want to go one step further to say they're also looking at it you know, are you doing this to save you money or are you doing it as part of the brand, you know. So we really have to clearly, as we said, define our brand and, and live that brand. Now somebody is talking in the chat about the whole issue of the people, and they say very important points in the NACD corporate 2022 Corporate Governance Outlook, directors cited increased competition for talent as a top trend that will have the greatest impact on business in the year ahead. So, um, Christine, perhaps as you're in the recruitment stage— are you recruiting for talent? So, um, in terms of strategic recruitment, tell us maybe a little bit about that.

Well, We— I mean, our goal is to be the most, um, sought-after workplace in St. Lucia. So, um, I don't think that that necessarily means that you need to pay top dollar necessarily. I don't think those two, um, are necessarily linked. You, you need to be competitive, but I think it— there's so much more to it than that. It's about a vision that people align to. It's about, um, that as someone said, your frontline is the most critical part of the whole business. So, um, you know, what opportunities are there for people to move up? What opportunities are for training and development? We've— and, and you'll hear things like, um, well, the labor pool is thin here. Well, okay, then it's our responsibility responsibility to partner with the training institute. So we, um, just, well, a few months ago launched this Cabot Cares program, which is really a CSR initiative. But what we've done is partner with the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute to basically give scholarships and funding to increase the pool of talent that's coming into those businesses, to those institutes, and then also on a non-financial way, contribute training expertise. So bring down chefs, bring down, you know, operations managers, and, you know, contribute from our own talent pool in training and actually creating the talent pool, as opposed to saying, you know, oh, we don't have the talent pool. And I think that once you are really involved in those institutes almost from the womb. And, you know, you give internship experiences to people that are part of the, of the program. You know, you can pick the best that you've seen actually function on the job in terms of attitudes and everything. Um, and then I think you have first dibs on our talent later on. Plus, you're really, as I say, expanding the pool of the country's capacity and the pool that you can actually, you know, tap into. Um, and then I think, you know, just things like, you know, supporting families, single women, whether it's, um, daycare or is it a fund that we can support. They— I mean, let's face it, people are really in this sector working to support children primarily. It's not, it's not an industry that's giving you a massive amount of saving at the lowest level. So they're doing it to support children. And, and if you sort of had a fund that could sponsor scholarships for children, that is what is going to give the employee the greatest amount of satisfaction, you know. So it's really supporting them, their objectives and having them sort of aligned to purpose that they really believe in. And it becomes much more of an emotional connection to the company than just a financial one. That's what we really aim to do.

Uh, thank you for that. In, in the chat, people are talking about the, um, some, some companies that do benchmarking, for example, Great Places to Work. Lisa Marie is mentioning that, and we're both familiar with that from another setting, where that is a way of not just getting the temperature of your organization but also being able to compare to other organizations in the, in the same field. And, um, this is near and dear to my heart because I have been for the past— supposed to be 10 months, it's running into a year and a half now— being involved in an audit of HR within the, within the Caribbean, HR practices within the Caribbean. And, you know, as I look across, so it's no criticism of any particular country or company, I, I see a failure or a lack of what you're talking about, Christine, of using strategy to shape the environment. So as you said, a constant complaint is that, oh, we can't find the talent that we want. It's not out there. What I hear you saying is that part of the strategy is how do we help to shape or to make that talent? So I guess what we're saying is that when we're thinking about strategy, it's not just within four walls. It may mean going out there. It may mean doing things that you mightn't want to, you mightn't have thought about. So one of the things we're looking at in that audit, for example, is, is gender equity. And women, of course, are very overrepresented in a lot of the lower-paying fields like housekeeping. And they also, when the pandemic hit, when you close down, you might keep your accountants, but you're definitely getting rid of your, your housekeeping staff. So they were more badly hit and so on. So what are we thinking about in terms of strategy as we reopen? Open. So we do have to think through our strategy, as I said, beyond the four walls of our organization and reach out.

And, and if I could just add, you know, something we don't do well as Caribbean organizations, and, you know, who knows what the roots are, but, um, we have a sort of very autocratic approach to management where, you know, you were treated hell from your boss, so when you become a boss, you treat people like hell. Um, and I think the whole concept of just simply listening, you know, constant communication frameworks, whether it's town hall meetings, but constant engagement with the workforce where you're listening to their issues, you're listening to things that could be done better, 360-degree feedback, so that somebody is not penalized by a manager that's unreasonable, let's say. Um, and sort of, I think the simple task of listening and where people can be heard and feel like they have a voice is, um, you know, I think can have— I mean, the good news in the Caribbean is that when you do that, which is—

seems—

I'm sure, Dia, for you that's like pretty much motherhood and apple pie, but In this region, you do it and you can have such, such greater impact because it's actually not done frequently.

No, no, it is not. And I see somebody saying that that is a great point, and they're adding to the benefits that you mentioned, the whole work from home. So it's very interesting how, you know, where we thought about the pandemic, is this an opportunity to rethink Is it a reset or is it just a pause? And I think as I see some companies, it's really just a pause and they're like, okay, let's rush back to the way things are. And for some companies, it's really a chance to reset. So we know that if you're a housekeeper, you have to come into work. But does the financial controller have to be on the ground? What about the marketing person and so on? And as we go forward, you know, I think we're going to have have to include that in the strategy, the fact that people have— I forget who said it, I think it was you, Koon, that people are different now. And I've said to people before, the people who went into the pandemic are not the same people who are coming out of it. And I think that's why we're having this labour shortage, because people are saying, you mean that I don't have to work 6 days a week? You mean I don't have to work every Sunday and every public holiday? Or whatever, and they're rethinking. And as they rethink, are we rethinking? You look like you wanted to say something, Koen.

Yeah, you know, this just makes up for, I mean, this topic, right? There's two things coming from this. You know, we talk about culture, right? In this day and this age with this generation, I think also company cultures need to be aligned means more from the top down. And this is often what the problem is. But from the top down, there's two keywords: respect and humility. I believe in letting your work speak for itself. I will never be the one raising my hand saying, look at what I did. And I teach that downwards. I preach that downwards to my management team. It's the same thing. Their success will be reflected on their ability to grow within their ranks. So if they grow, there needs to be someone growing with them. But these are all— this has to be adapted and immersed into a culture. So this also means that in this age, to work with this generation, if you're here as a leader, you know, being arrogant, showing how great you are, how you establish this business, people are not impressed People do not stay for that. People stay when they look and see a mentor, see someone that can help them shape into a, a professional or teach them values of how to be a professional and how to grow into a role with respect and humility. Because in the end of the day, you can pick up someone who only talks about what they do, but if you look further You know, you see a whole lot of difference, and there are 3 factors. It is how you do your work, how do you manage peer relationships, and how others, you know, perceive you as a professional. And those 3 you can't control, right? And it's a balance of those 3 because you can be the hardest worker in the room, but if you do not manage peer relationships, you'll not be successful. You can be fantastic in managing peer relationships, but if you are not a hardworking professional or you make many technical errors, you will not get there. So, you know, those three factors that I mentioned have to be so important, have to be taught from the top down. And the second part is, you know, when you talk about an industry, it's so important that there's openness within companies to share critical information. I, in this location that I'm in, you know, the Star Report is an incredible, valuable tool for industry, but because we have a lot of private-run organizations, hospitality, hotels in Kingston, that report is not being subscribed to. So, you know, as a destination, you're not helping yourself, you know, establishing what is our value, what should our value be, and how can we learn from each other. So I think those two points are very critical towards, you know, how we strategize., you know, both for value of business and, you know, how do we manage culture.

Absolutely. Oh no, you spoke about culture and great point. So in the chat, Cecile Watson is saying, um, culture eats strategy for breakfast. I'm sure— I think that's Peter Drucker, um, who's made that point. So I'd love, you know, members of the panel to respond to that. What is the intersection? Does it really eat it, or how do they work work together. Anyone can jump in.

I'll offer a thought on that. I do agree with that. Culture is more important than strategy. To be successful, you kind of need both, but you can't even have a strategy without a culture. And as both Koen and Christine have said, it comes down to leadership. And I'll share one of my favorite quotes about leadership. When I'm in the presence of a senior executive, I get the impression that that person is very important. When I'm in the presence of a leader, I get the impression that I am really important. And that supersedes a lot. In fact, there's, there's research that shows that if you're happy in your job, you're less likely to be upset with your compensation. So it turns out that when people are unhappy and they complain about their compensation, there's something else that triggered it that's not compensation. It's leadership. And I don't think there's any business leader out there that would look back on their recent past and say, you know what, I spent a bit too much time focused on the culture of this organization. I don't think anybody would say that.

Absolutely. Anyone else? Christine?

I think that you can't execute strategy without culture because you rely on— as, as Dave says, you're, you're a leader shaping strategy with, say, a couple of, you know, senior executives and hopefully some input from the rest of the organization. But then you rely on thousands of people to do their job to the best of their ability to be able to execute that. And especially in the hospitality institute where you are dependent on a friendly smile and a can-do problem-solving approach to resolving and, you know, surprising and delighting guests. I mean, if you have a disgruntled, unhappy employee, what's their motivation to go beyond, you know, the basics? Much less, you know. And then their need to— if they do it, they're faking it. As we said, that's not authentic. So I think it is critical in any organization, and far more so here.

Absolutely, absolutely. So there's a lot of passion around this one. I saw the hearts and the thumbs up as we spoke about culture, because it, it is really very, very important for companies to think about. As we move towards, you know, pulling us together. I wanted to mention that we speak about— we've been through a crisis, an unprecedented crisis, but there's a thought that crisis is danger and opportunity. So I wanted you to think about, to speak about what are some of the dangers. We're thinking strategically now. What are some of the dangers and what are some of the opportunities that that we have as we, you know, I hesitate to say we come out of the pandemic because it seems like it will never end, but as we begin to see, you manage it better then, let me put it that way. So what are some of the dangers and what are some of the opportunities that we can leverage?

Let me say something very short. I think a crisis is a crisis as long as the perspective hasn't been placed yet. Right? So we are in crisis because we're seeking answers, but I think a crisis changes into a new normal once, you know, understanding has been created, new information comes to the scene, and you know, that moment allows us to reset our strategy. And the danger is that we use a crisis to remove our long-term planning, our long-term strategic vision, and we replace that with short-term and, and, you know, lose sight of that long-term vision. I think that's, in my opinion, the biggest danger there is. I think crisis is a platform that only exists, you know, if you're not, you're not adding new perspectives, and those new perspectives have to be recognized, you know, as soon as possible so that you can revert back to your strategic planning.

So that, that's pretty powerful. It's in the framing of it. I, I think I hear you saying, so instead of, you know, running for the hills screaming, it's how do you, you frame it and, and transmit that, um, throughout your organization.

Great.

I'll tell you with a very simple example. The first case of of COVID in Jamaica, everybody went running to the supermarket. Crisis, right? Yes. There's probably another 300 cases of COVID today, and no, it's a Friday, so yes, the supermarkets will be busy.

End of month too.

Yes, but we'll not be stocking up on toilet paper. So what is the difference between then and what is the difference between now? It's information and perspective.

Yes, absolutely. Yes, thank you.

Dave?

Yeah, I like, I like that answer, Coen, about putting it, putting things in their proper perspective. Um, I'll say a challenge, to answer your question, Anne, a challenge in my view is an overreliance on the immediate past. And what I mean by that is It's human nature to look at the very recent past and project that into the near and long-term future. Like, that's kind of how humans are wired. This is how we roll. We think what happened yesterday is what's going to happen every single day for the rest of my life. And that poses some business problems as well as other problems. But one of the business problems is that decisions need to be made on a forecast. And a projection of the future. And that projection of the future, it ought to be made without emotion. It should be a logical projection of the future. And I like collecting quotes, so I'll share another one.

Sure.

All knowledge is about the past. All decisions are about the future. And what connects those two is a forecast. And if you can take the emotion out of that that, you will make much better decisions going forward. An opportunity that I see, it's sort of related to that, and I'll be very, very tactical here. I think an opportunity is pricing power. And having gone through a pandemic and having all sorts of shocks and all sorts of craziness in the world, it's easy to lose confidence. And if you lose confidence, you're not going to take advantage of some opportunities that are right in front of you, including pricing power. And many of the markets in Caribbean, in the Caribbean at least, have pockets of strong demand where you can raise prices well before a sellout occurs. And so there is pricing opportunity across different segments at different points in time, and it just takes a level of confidence to go after it.

Absolutely. On the pricing, and where I think we're finding that people— if you give people what they want, they will pay for it. I, I find that to be very interesting. But, but you have to align, and I guess that's part of the strategy and the, the data gathering that somebody spoke about earlier, that you have to understand who your people are, what is it that they want, and you have to segment your market very carefully.

Christine, I see some challenges, you know, later on this year in particular. I think that what we're seeing on fuel prices, on inflation, on interest rates, on food, on supply chain, I think, I think we could have a situation where, you know, the capacity to travel of the average global citizen is reduced. Reduced by some real economic, you know, pressures. So that is a challenge that I see. The, the opportunity there, I think, is that, you know, the airlines seem to have put most of the equipment into leisure travel with the reduction in business travel, so that hopefully that revenge travel, you know, trend going on now continues because people really, you know, I think realized how much they miss getting on a plane. And the other opportunity I would say is that, you know, I think it's survival of the fittest. And for— I mean, first of all, if there's any industry that could weather a storm, it's this one. So I think that the industry as a whole has built a whole lot of resilience. And then I would say that for the ones that stick to the basic principles, protect their brand, do a great job execution— executing— then I think you're gonna get some failure of the lower-performing competitors. And I think that it's sort of kind of is an industry shakeout that works really well for the ones that are doing it right. Um, so maybe the market shrinks, um, but you get a larger piece of the pie, and you sort of continue now to have, you know, dominance as a brand over, you know, these strategic markets. So I think that for, as I say, for those that are really doing well, um, there's a bigger prize there.

Yes, thank you very much. Um, Lennox is making a point that history has proven repeatedly that crisis creates opportunities for value change and for those open-minded people and leaders. So I think I would agree with that comment, that as we, we think through, um, being leaders, that we have to to really be open-minded, and that can definitely be a challenge, not to repeat things the way that we have always done them. And I wanted to— we have, what is it, 14 more minutes, so we're going to use them very well. I wanted to ask a little bit about relationships and partnerships, because as I said, strategy is not just about what happens with us but what are some of the partnerships that we need to be thinking through? You know, Caribbean is— you pretty much have to sail here or fly here. So we are very dependent on airlift. And as I plan to travel in the summer, I'm getting a bit panicked at, you know, what is happening in all these airports with cancellations, with luggage piling up and so on. That's a partnership that that is not working very well for us. But what are some of the other partnerships we should be thinking of and leveraging strategically? And in the meantime, everyone, keep your questions coming. I will get to them once I see them. Dave, you had said you had wanted to talk maybe a little bit about the agents and also Kohn, how you kind of use that as an opportunity with travel agents. So maybe you could go ahead. But before you do, Cecilia's practical advice and a word to the wise: everybody buy flight insurance. It's true, buy flight insurance unless you want to be sleeping on the airport floor. Go ahead, Dave.

Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. So yes, I've been thinking quite a bit about channel partners and channel distribution. In fact, I built just a course on that, a new course here at Cornell on that exact topic. And it, it involves strategic partnerships and having other companies and organizations help sell what you're selling. And in my view, for hotels specifically, I, I think it may be the most significant challenge facing hotels. And the reason I say that is that hotels are paying more and more to get their revenue. And, you know, to use a very simplistic example, if you're paying a 20% commission, which is probably low, and you're paying that on half of the volume of guests that come in, you've just cut your revenue by 10% off the top. That's before you've spent anything on sales and marketing or advertising or channel plays, before you've done anything on, you know, bringing partners to visit, before you've done anything on operations, it's an enormous hit. And what's challenging is that that figure, the percent of revenue that you have to pay to bring that revenue in, is actually ticking up slightly every year. And I've worked on this and I've included this in the course, but the goals that a lot of hotels set on things like channel cost, like I would have a goal, a KPI to reduce my channel cost or to reduce my third-party mix. I think those miss the point. Those are important metrics, but they kind of miss the crux of it. And in my view, strategic approach to these kind of partnerships is to think of any third-party partner not really as a booking channel or a booking engine, but as an acquisition play. So if you can work with a customer who's bringing in— sorry, if you can work with a channel who's bringing in customers who you haven't seen before and you would not have access to, to you, that's a lot more important even than the cost of the commission. And I think in a lot of cases our metrics don't quite reflect that, right? It's a daunting challenge. I could go on and on on this one, but it's a fascinating topic.

I think so.

Yeah, so go ahead, Koen.

I think when you're really looking at hotels, OTAs, the OTAs are a very powerful segment.

And translate that for everybody else, the online travel agents talking Expedia, Booking.com.

With the current reality, a lot of businesses do not directly go to a specific organization's website, like Marriott.com would not be used. Businesses send their travelers to an OTA with an assignment saying, you know, probably an X amount of dollars can be spent on travel. So OTAs are used for, for, you know, initial travel into the market where, you know, businesses have comparisons straight on to see, you know, what is the best value deal for their travel to, for example, Kingston. And I think in that sense, OTAs are an extremely important segment to manage and, you know, to maintain as well, because yes, you know, we want to identify those travelers once they reach property. And hotels do a lot now just to see and identify them, because coming through an OTA, you wouldn't immediately recognize them. But you can put things in play at property level, and it goes as far to walking into the lobby and looking at logos on t-shirts, but engaging those travelers on properties and then negotiating a, you know, preferred rate for for businesses, but it's critically important for businesses to look at it that way because, you know, you might see it as a disadvantage, but it does bring the people and it does bring the business.

I think that's so important. And, you know, what I'm hearing from both of you, and I'll invite Christine to speak in a minute, is that we really have to maybe reframe our challenges. So I think in many instances, a lot of energy is spent in either badmouthing these middlemen like the Expedia and etc., or trying to, you know, push them down. And I have been a customer of these companies because that's kind of the way I book. And sometimes you are told, oh, because you booked that way, you can't get this. So like, I'm not a real customer, which is, you know, not making me feel valued. Good. So maybe there are certain things you can't do, but how do we, you know, it's something we need to probably train our staff to do. So in the same, to manage that conversation so that it doesn't make the person feel less than. And I think we don't spend enough time really strategizing on the fact is that Koen and Christine, you're in your offices, you interact with your staff of course, but who is interacting with the— I'm sorry, with your customers, but who is interacting with them every day and every hour? It's your frontline. And we're not seeing them as maybe marketers, people who can— chief selling agents, etc., which is what I heard you say, Cole, that you work— you can turn them in. You know, you see this logo, you hear this conversation, what can you do? And we're not recognizing them. Christine, did you want to—

yeah, I think, um, you know, where I guess for our business, the media is a very, very important strategic partner. Yes. Um, because I think that they— and I think I would go even further to say it's even souped up even greater if, if it can be in partnership with the country as well. Uh, but I think that, you know, getting the brand and recognition and the communication, even brand awareness out there. Um, and, and, and PR is quite inexpensive versus other forms of marketing if you get the right channels. And then I would say also ambassadors that go into segments where we're not typically represented. For, so for example, for us, most of, most of the, um, a lot of travel into St. Lucia would be US. US and Canada. So we have relationships now in the UK, in Europe, in, you know, and sort of, um, you know, ambassadors or agents or whatever you want to call them that are actually working in markets where they have, you know, geographic expertise and know the players and can sort of help, you know, spread the word there. So I think media marketing would be top on my list.

Okay, thank you. All right, so we have about 6 minutes, so I would invite you to do your closing comments, anything you want to leave us with in terms of strategy for this industry as we go forward. Dave, I'll start with you.

Sure, I'll just say as a closing, one of the pitfalls in business leadership is clarity of communication. And it's so easy, and I've seen this over my 30 years in the business, uh, it's so easy to have a conversation with somebody about goals of your organization and you speak with crystal clarity and they understand with crystal clarity, but they don't understand what you said and you think they did. And it's incredibly common, and that just adds to the challenge. So I would say probably the most important first step of a strategy is to spell it out and articulate it and make sure that everybody that you interact with, especially within your same company and organization, that they understand precisely what that means and what their role is in delivering that. And I'll leave it at that.

I think that is is so important because in the bad old days when I worked in the industry, we used to say front of the house and back of the house. Now we have— I hear people say heart of the house, you know, because back of the house is like, oh, the people in the laundry, you know, and the guy who does the dishes. But, but you're right, everybody has that role to play. And helping the dishwasher to understand what his/her role is in part of the overall strategy, that comes only from you. Thank you.

Christine? Yeah, and just to add to that, it's, you know, it's sort of, okay, if you're a housekeeper, my role isn't to make up beds. My role is contributing to an incredible, you know, memory of an experience. And, you know, so that it sort of becomes far more inspiring than, you know, a task for us to do. What I was going to say is that one thing I— one of the reasons that, you know, I switched over into this industry is that I actually think this is one of the not very many Caribbean industries that has the ability to be globally competitive. We have the resources to rival any tourism destination in the world, and that is a massive sort of, you know, platform to start with. I think we have a long ways to go in making really good use of that, um, but we can be, you know, top of our game. So it's really just sort of, you know, just figuring out how we best leverage, you know, the, the, the God-given, you know, resources that, that we have been, been given. And I do think that there is a resurgence of the Caribbean as a tourism destination, um, happening. And so let's take, um, you know, take that opportunity and really figure out how to— I think we need to generally as an industry step up to the next level, um, and be able to really capture the value that our assets, you know, basically have provided us the opportunity to do.

Thank you very much.

Very well said, Christine.

Yes, very, very well said. I, I just wanted to comment on the fact that, you know, as we had said earlier, we complain a lot about Caribbean workers, and but then, you know, yes, I see you shaking your head But at the same time, in the two Caribbean countries represented here, we have a cruise line coming to recruit over the same workers we don't want. They're coming to recruit, in one case 10,000, in another 1,000, and people are lining up for those jobs. So people are good. The question is, why aren't we leveraging them? Over to you, Koen.

I was going to say, I was shaking my head because I literally feel I have the best team. And I say to anyone who wants to hear, I think, you know, what Dave said, what Christine said, what I often tell my team members and my organization here is that we are the game changers, we are the innovators. And that is a message that I repeat and repeat and repeat. We need to never be who we are yesterday and today in terms of of how we are. We need to keep that enthusiasm. We need to keep our drive. In our organization, we create platforms to communicate, as Dave said. We need to create platforms so that we continuously communicate to our teams about our mission and where we're going. Our plans, our team needs to be part of our plans. We're expanding our pool deck, we're building a restaurant. Tell the team we are planning to, so it also instills and creates excitement for them because with that comes opportunities. Yeah, so, so I believe the Caribbean rocks because, you know, we know, we all, we are always thinking about how we can get next level, you know, how we can innovate, how we can create new businesses, you know. And that entrepreneurship— I, I run this business as it is my own, and I want my managers to run this business like it's theirs. And, and team members should have that untapped potential coming to life because they're empowered, they're trusted to do the right thing. And it starts with, you know, we talk about a lot about culture, respect, humility, being genuine, you know, and never stop looking at the ceiling because the ceiling don't exist. There's so much more space above it. And that would be my final, you know, word here. If we want to be excellent and we strive for excellence and we have everyone on board, there's no one to stop us. No one.

Thank you very much. And the teachers in the room, the headmistress. So I want to just thank my wonderful panel. You guys have been awesome. Lots of food for thought. I see all the hearts and so on. So thank you very much, panel. Um, I, you know, I just want to end with Nike: just do it, everyone. Thank you very much. Over to you.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Anne, and And, you know, thanks to the panel, really was very interesting discussion. But, you know, having sat— thank you so much, Anne. And it was really awesome discussion. And having sat in on the panels this morning, you know, the themes are the same. It's people, it's communication, it is getting everybody working together. Those are some of the tenets of successful strategy. And, you know, I love what Christine said about We have it in the region. We just need to leverage it. So I am really happy to round out this morning session. I think— thank you so much to the audience. Some of you have stayed on and the engagement has really, really been tremendous. Francis Wade, over to you to welcome our new host, or are we going to welcome her after lunch?

Well, I want to thank you first for being an amazing and energetic and fun. And, you know, I thought Douglas was high energy and interesting and compelling, and you had him be that way. Yes. And then the panel were like, I couldn't keep up with the things I was learning and hearing for the first time. I was blown away. So thanks for setting the stage, maintaining the energy, keeping them on the edge, and I think this morning has been— it's way past my little expectations, I guess.

I get—

I think I was pitching too low. I just—

it's the Caribbean.

It's, it's probably Caribbean, right? It's probably something.

That's what it is.

It's the— we call it the Caribbean essence, you know. And, and the theme this morning was that we have it here. We have it here. And now we just have to know how to leverage it. So, which is a good segue. I see Daniel is already keyed up.

I think you're absolutely right. So folks, welcome Daniel Terilon. I notice on my screen Lisa Maria is big and we're small. Are you guys seeing it that way?

Yes, we are.

I have no idea why.

I have no idea why either.

Well, I'm gonna say, is this my goodbye? This— do I get to officially say goodbye and thank you for everybody?

Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you for the wonderful engagement. Thank you to Francis Wade. Dale, this was an awesome start, and I know the next two days it's going to— day and a half right now— it's going to be fabulous. So stay tuned. Bye, Danielle.

Bye.

Thank you, Lisa Maria.

That was an incredible morning and just incredible energy, as Francis Wade said. To everyone, we are heading out to lunch, but I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I'll be taking you through the afternoon. My name is Danielle Terrell. I'm a communication strategist here in Kingston, Jamaica. And interestingly, because I believe in the development of the whole person, I'm also a life coach and, and coach many executives such as yourself in the area of health and wellness. I'm thrilled to be here with you to host you through the afternoon, and we're going to be having our financial panel, energy panel, and be—

and be welcome— we will also welcome Dr.

Richard from us later this afternoon. Encouraging you to come back in at 1:59. Go have some of that lunch, um, take pictures, let us know.