Author Archives: Astley Henry

About Astley Henry

I leverage my research expertise to help both public and private sector organisations better understand the people they wish to serve. I am especially interested in policy evaluation and market research. Connect with me on Google+

Your Money eZine Business Summit 2011: Key Takeaways

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So earlier in the month I went to Your Money eZine Business Summit 2011. It was a a great summit – provocative ideas, an enthusiastic audience and a nice venue. I was particularly impressed by the great job done by Garrick Communications and National Outdoor Advertising. My only real qualm was that it began over an hour late. Not a good look. However, the organisers were very apologetic.

You know what I am realising? I go to a few great forums, but don’t get to post about them due to the pressures on my time. So instead of a full review, I am just going to drop a few key ideas which the panelists, Pan Caribbean’s Donovan Perkins (DP) and Sandals’ Adam Stewart (AS), shared with those in attendance. Quotes are indicated. The bold text are just messages that really struck me.
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Leadership and Management

DP: No one person is going to have all the skills to run a business. Mentors are very important. I learned different things from different mentors.

AS: ‘Leadership is a heck of thing. You have to keep your team motivated.’

DP: ‘Keep your eyes on the competition. They are keeping their eyes on you.’

AS: Sandals cooks 40 million meals a year.

 

Doing Business in Tough Times

 AS: We tightened up backend of the businesses. This took a huge cost out of the businesses. The challenge is how to do it, without affecting quality of service. For instance, we got a broker to consolidate how fruits and vegetables are bought.

DP: ‘There are three paths you can pursue – growth, stability or retrenchment. Our entrepreneurs have become more introverted. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and hope that things will get better.’

DP: Uncertainty is not as rare as we think.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility
AS: ‘If you took all the NGOs and charitable organizations out of Jamaica, the country would literally collapse.’
DP: There are projects which are meaningful but do not cost a lot. Continue reading →

We Cannot Go On Like This

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What kind of society are we creating when the future of the society, young people, feel that there is no future for them in that society?

That is what I was asking myself when I read the Observer’s article pointing out that most young Jamaicans want to leave to improve their quality of life.  The main take away message is that when asked about their prospects in a number of traditional destinations for Jamaicans, a consistent majority of respondents felt that they would have better life chances if they left our shores.

A number of things stood out about the article. I am surprised that the numbers that think they would be better abroad are not far higher. This could be because although prospects are not great here, an increasing number of Jamaicans know that life overseas is not easy and comes with its own set of distinct challenges. Additionally, Jamaicans are some of the most robustly patriotic people in the world. I would have been far happier with the article if the writer made some attempt to seriously grapple with what such a large number of young people wanting to leave means. Surely it an indicator of deep, societal dysfunction.

Some of the sentiments of one of the officials on hand also intrigued me:

She went on to say that the survey has provided interesting and critical data about Jamaican youths and shows how best the country and government, including her agency can engage its young people and cater to their current needs.

It annoys me no end when news articles or speakers on the nightly news make claims that they do not go on to substantiate with evidence. Sorry, I’m a researcher. I have not seen the survey, so I can’t comment on the contents. But I would be surprised if a survey (especially in isolation) was used to determine how to engage our young people. And if the spates of violence in schools, constant Ananda Alerts and often troubling exam results don’t tell you that our young people need help and spur genuine change, then I am not sure a survey is going to do it. Surveys are very good at tracking long-term socioeconomic trends and less good at developing effective means for addressing pressing social problems. Participatory assessment and planning approaches exist. However, if our government cannot see that it needs to develop genuine partnerships with the successful ‘big people’ of the diaspora, how are they going to do it with disenfranchised, frustrated youth as their partners?

By now you know I like to throw numbers at you.

 

Figure 2 is taken from the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief 4 and illustrates that quite a high proportion of our tertiary graduates leave. More generally, the Caribbean has the second highest proportion of tertiary graduates which emigrate. Sub-Saharan Africa takes the gold medal in this unhappy contest. What is the impact of such a tremendous loss of human capital on institutional development? Continue reading →

My Coffee Obsession, Act 1, #eatjamaican

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So the government has new initiative telling people to eat Jamaican. I have no problem with this. In fact, I don’t care how red a tomato is, or how yellow a banana is, if it tastes like cardboard.

But it is coffee that is the great love of my food life. I am obsessed and it feels good. I have several different blends from all over the place and different machines to make them. Yet, none compares to our own. With the amount of money I spend on Blue Mountain Coffee, I know that I am making a huge contribution to the Eat Jamaican campaign.

#Jptweetup Remixed: The Tweetheart Tweetup

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Last Friday, The Jamaica Pegasus put on its third tweetup deemed the ‘Tweetheart Tweetup.’ I attended the second tweetup in September 2010. That one was held at the ‘Gardens at the Pegasus’ and I was very impressed. There are some great reviews of the second tweetup here and here. When registration opened for the third tweetup, tickets were sold out in 15 minutes. This time around the Pegasus did not match the success of the second tweetup. They surpassed it!

Why a Tweetup?

Tweetups are essentially about marketing and networking. It provides companies with an opportunity to amplify their message about what they do. They can also obtain feedback which is essential in becoming better at what they do. Additionally, tweetups have been known to create or cement brand evangelists –  customers who will go out and have conversations about why your product is so great. Invaluable!

A tweetup is also a networking event. Networking is essential in an ever changing labour market. Too many of us see ourselves as a business ‘army of one.’ It is neither true nor realistic. Your network is your resource for information, advice, help and inspiration. It was great to reconnect with my tweeps @Endzoftheearth, @YardEdge, @Stunnerj, @marciaforbes and @Jamaipanese. Shoutout to the new people I met too.

What was different about the Tweetheart Tweetup?

The ‘Tweetheart Tweetup’ had more of an upscale, focused, yet familiarly friendly feel. A great deal of the effect was due to layout. After the quick registration process you go up the stairs to the ‘Top of the World’ and you are greeted by a very enticing chocolate fountain by Chocolate Dreams.

 

Continue reading →

A Friend’s View of Egypt: From the Inside

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Is this a turning point in Egypt?

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In my sojourns abroad I have become good friends with a few Egyptians. One among them stands out in this instance as he loved to talk politics. A born activist. Let’s call him Amun. I was kinda worried about his safety for precisely this reason. Well I got a couple emails from him. He and his family are fine. I learned so much from the communication which just highlights once again how important local knowledge is. I am sure people have been watching Anderson Cooper get his but kicked, I mean the news and reading the newspapers and blog posts about ‘lessons’ (like what? people are fed up with bad government? *yawn*) from Egypt especially with reference to twitter or inequality and unemployment. See a nice rebuttal of some of the dumbest comments here.

What struck me about Amun’s emails was what he emphasised. His views are very different and detailed compared to what the so-called experts have been saying. A few things stood out in his emails.

Egypt is a society in which honour is very important. Many of the top brass in the military do not want to force Mubarak out and humiliate him. To complicate matters significantly, Mubarak will not step down voluntarily. He said it himself, ‘I have a Ph.D in obstinacy.’ Many Egyptians, even those on the street, do not want to embarrass Mubarak either. Not because they love him, but know that doing so will make it harder to achieve his exit. Moreover, the key issue is not Mubarak. It is about the Mubarak way of government. It is not clear how the political system is going to be reformed. The constitution even bans the formations of political parties! Additionally, the people angling to manage the much vaunted ‘transition’ (except El Baradei who many people see as ‘foreign’ and out of touch) are cut from the Mubarak cloth.

Next, the regime is not simply a military regime. It is an oligarchical economic system in which key families control a disproportionate amount of the wealth of the country. The military protects these people and vice versa. Quelle surprise. These people are in favour of the status quo. Whatever happens, transforming the economic situation will not be easy or quick. Continue reading →