An August challenge

THE EDITOR: It’s August. And on our collective horizon in the coming days and weeks are World Steelpan Day, Patriotism Month, Independence Day, Republic Day and the inevitable reading of the national budget; all of which has had me in a reflective mood.

My grandfather told me years ago, that you can’t change the world all at once, but you can do so, one person at a time. And it is with that hope that I direct this missive today.

I think that we can all agree that after the government, the business sector is the largest engine of growth and transformation in our economy, and possibly our society. Yet, as a single grouping that sector may preach a big game, but comes up short when it comes to putting meaningful action behind what it says.

So, my challenge today is for the business owners of TT to brake the cycle and to take the reins of societal change. To wit, if businessmen in TT wish to be active participants in the transformation of this republic, there are options available to them over which they do have considerable control and influence. Here are eight of them.

1. Pay a fair wage for a fair day of work, and treat your people like
   your people ­– predatory employers are more harmful to an employee’s work ethic than any other contributing factor.
2. Report (and even videotape) public officials who demand bribes to do their jobs – no point in making the abstract case about how corrupt we are as a society without owning up to the fact that the person who pays the bribe is also breaking the law. I’ve always been surprised by the fact that in a nation of two million mobile phones, that there have been so few recorded incidents of fraud, extortion and solicitation.
3.  Reinvest your profits in the diversification of the economy.
4.  Encourage and support local entrepreneurs, and avoid the temptation to elbow them out in order to steal their ideas – stop viewing them as your potential competitors. There is enough opportunity to go around.
5. Take an active role in mentoring (and even bankrolling) young businessmen. Sometimes, all it takes is regular coffee date to provide an entrepreneur with the confidence required to succeed.
6. Pay your fair share of taxes. Fun fact: if every dollar of legitimate taxes were collected annually, there would be no talk of property taxes, deficits or belt tightening. Make taxpayers a badge of honour and not something to be avoided.
7. Bring back the wealth. If you made the money here, using resources based here, then those dollars earned should at the very least be in a local bank. Stop exporting your wealth!
8. Recruit more. Be it one, five, or 100 additional employees. If there is capacity in your business, find a way to make employment for deserving and hardworking employees – especially if they come from the communities in which you are located in. Become a real part of the community where you exist and through which you derive benefit from. Also, make new job creation one of your annual KPIs – it makes for a far more tangible contribution than any CSR (corporate social responsibility) activity that you can undertake.

GEORGE ELIAS

Cascade

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