Growing with a grand strategy May 25, 2025

Hello and welcome back to Chronicles from a Caribbean Kubica Podcast. This is Francis Wade, and here's an article based on a column I published in the Jamaica Gleaner. This version is entitled Growing the Economy with a Grand Strategy: 4 Unavoidable Truths. As a business leader, You're tired of hearing about countries with stagnant economies. Perhaps your own nation is among them, stuck in low-growth mode with seemingly no way out. Yet you're committed to finding answers. You're ready for bold ideas, not short-term gimmicks. Here's one worth your time. A few weeks ago, I watched a YouTube video from a University Research Day at UWI featuring Michael Lopez, a biopharma innovator with ties to Canada and South Korea. He's also my cousin, so I thought I knew his backstory, but this presentation hit differently. Lopez has a bold vision: establish a biopharma manufacturing industry in the Caribbean. He's not talking about theory. He's proposing a proven model grounded in global best practices. And while the facility could go anywhere in the region, he believes Jamaica is the natural leader. It has the infrastructure, location, and skilled talent pool to outcompete neighbors like Barbados or Guyana. But this isn't a weekend project. The investment? Around $80 million US over 5 years. The potential return? A sustainable 5-10% annual GDP boost. Not bad for a wicked problem, one that looks impossible until it's solved. Facing the facts. Other Caribbean nations have had growth spurts thanks to fossil fuels. Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana both tapped into oil and gas to ignite rapid development. Jamaica, on the other hand, leans heavily on tourism, and not especially well. For example, the average tourist visiting the Bahamas spends about 120% more than one visiting Jamaica. And the Bahamian economy is far better structured to support the tourism sector end-to-end. This hard truth makes one thing clear: there is no quick win for Jamaica or countries like it. There's no magic bullet. No 5-year plan will cut it. What's needed is a grand industrial strategy, a long-term focused commitment to economic transformation, a vision beyond 2030. You might recall Jamaica's Vision 2030, a national roadmap launched to transition the country to developed status. While it didn't dive deep into industrial policy, it offered a framework for change. But now it's become fashionable to be cynical about such visions. That's a mistake. If we take a longer view, what Apple CEO Tim Cook calls the long arc of time, We may be closer to breakthrough than it appears. This is not the moment to give up; it's the moment to double down. Let's look at 4 unavoidable truths, informed by history and grounded in realism. Truth #1: Transformation takes decades. Most major economic wins don't happen overnight. Consider the Jamaican company GraceKennedy and its GK2020 plan. It took 25 years of disciplined execution to turn vision into results. Real change takes long-term thinking and staying the course. Truth number 2: Politics can get in the way. As another election cycle looms, many countries face the same problem. Political battles overshadow growth strategies. Even when elections are peaceful, short-term thinking often trumps long-term policy. That's a structural challenge. Truth number 3: We can achieve great things together. History shows we can come together to achieve national milestones, from winning independence to dramatically reducing debt-to-GDP ratios. When we align across sectors and silos, we move mountains. Truth #4: Some goals must transcend politics. Big ideas like a regional biopharma industry can't be reduced to to partisan talking points. Political leaders may be tempted to take credit, but nation-building requires collective ownership. No single party or figure should be at the center. If these truths resonate, then support those who aim to build cross-sector alliances across political parties, businesses, civil society, churches, and everyday citizens. This collaborative approach That is how Vision 2030 was born, through 6 years of engagement with thousands of Jamaicans from all walks of life. It wasn't perfect, but it created lasting alignment. Now we must take what we learned, let go of our cynicism, and aim higher. Time to build again. As elections approach, we have a unique opportunity. Why not use this moment to begin drafting the next grand vision, one that spans 2030 to 2040 and beyond, a plan bigger than any single government, industry, or company. BioPharma is just one example, one possibility, but it shows what's possible when we focus on innovation and long-term investment instead of short-term survival. You may never see your name etched in history books, But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, you may not get there with them. Still, the sacrifice of planting the seeds, of thinking long term, of putting country above self, could be the difference between stagnation and transformation. You may not be called a hero, but your effort may just help rewrite the future. Thanks for listening. Do you have an unsolved problem in your Caribbean company related to strategy, productivity, engagement, or business process improvement? Just visit a searchable listing of all my prior articles and you may be able to help yourself to a fresh line of thinking. Go to blog.fwconsulting.com or see the show notes.