When one combines the five primary elements of management with the five primary business functions there are 25 cells in the “Management of Business” matrix. In this generic model, if any one of these cells presents a challenge for which there is no solution, then the enterprise is at risk of business failure. Shepherding mitigates the risk of failure. In the introductory workshop, participants will share their challenges in each of the 25 cells of the matrix in the morning session. In the afternoon, participants will address solutions to the challenges with my guidance and after the workshop each participant will be sent electronically a dossier “Guidelines to the Management of a Business”. This interactive dialogue workshop will be held on Thursday 26 January from 9.00am to 4.30pm. Register now at sprinsib@sunbeach.net or call Helen on 250 9781. (Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. - CBET - Columns are archived at www.cbetmodel.org)

In addition to the activities I was involved in this year, I shall be attempting to seamlessly transition to new thresholds: Extending the BIM Ventures pilot project experience to another level; responding to my sister’s initiative to launch Springer Consulting to share my lifetime professional experience with others through the media of (1)franchising the CBET Shepherding Model™; (2) facilitating interactive dialogue workshops on diverse topics; (3) converting the body of “weekly column” information over more than eighteen years into appropriate publications; and (4) continuing to make appearances as a public speaker. Then there is the innovation of “Barbados as a Donor Country”; launching the BEF Enterprise/Mentor Matching Web site; a member of the team to develop the first Tourism Development Plan for the United States Virgin Islands; linking with the Caribbean Diaspora for Science & Technology Innovation /The Caribbean Science Foundation; mounting a CPTM interactive dialogue with the likely theme: “South-South dialogue as a Smart Catalyst for the sustainable development of Small States and Emerging Economies ”; helping where I can with the Boy Scouts’ Association which was very instrumental in the formative stages of my life; and participating once again in the activities of National Agricultural Commission. Let us hope that we make some progress on this last activity on this occasion.

The first was the Rotary Club of Barbados South's Classical Best of Youth Concert at the Frank Collymore Hall, two Saturday nights ago, where we witnessed the magnificent performance of the St. Leonard's Boys' Choir and the Barbados Youth Symphony Orchestra performing together on stage for the first time. Opera Singer Amanda Fields was a highlight in the evening's extravaganza. It was quite amazing to hear the after party buzz of compliments on the performances of the youth and their wonderful repertoire of Christmas and other renditions. The Rotary Club of Barbados South is now motivated to make this an annual fund raising event. The second was the launching of a CD, "Scenes of Nostalgia", by piano virtuoso Kean Springer accompanied by guest artiste Captain Alfred Taylor, on double bass, at the Barbados Hilton two Sundays afternoons ago. Bevan, a radio personality in his own right, flew in from New York for the day to MC the event for his mother jointly with Win Callender who was a radio commentator teammate with Kean at many calypso judging competitions over the years. The buzz in the after party was very indicative of the appreciation of the artistes recording theses renditions for posterity. Canon DeVere Murrell blessed the proceedings; the Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Dr. Delisle Worrell, was the featured speaker; Kean's "third son" Red Plastic Bag, delivered a masterpiece from his popular repertoire; and Mike Sealy, a long standing musical colleague of Kean's, exquisitely showcased his skill on the guitar.

For the records, last week's CPTM Think Tank theme was "Innovating for Collaboration, Collaborating for Innovation". There were six interactive sessions over three days. In sessions two to four there were breakout elements. (1) Welcome and General Overview: Keeping in mind the changing world; Think Tanking not Think Tanks; Learning, Transforming and Adapting to Change; and Culture and Science using software of the mind. (2) Plenary: Innovating and Green Fuel; Achieving resilience and Cyber Trust. Breakouts: (a) Tradition and Transformation - Vision 2016, Botswana - Smart Partners Cooperative Links and Visions, Lesotho; (b) Vision 2020 and Leaders of the Future - Seychelles 2020 - Smart 29ers Leaders of the Future, Uganda; and (c) Carrying forward National Visions and National Smart Partnership Dialogues - 2011 Swaziland and Cameroon 2025. (3) Plenary: Towards Innovating for Agribusiness and Infrastructure for Water. Breakouts: (a) National Economic Consultative Forum, Zimbabwe - National Involvement Movement, Mozambique; (b) Caribbean, African, Malaysian Entrepreneurship Dialogue (including quality and standards) - Integrating Quality and Financial Inclusion for Informal Settlements, Namibia; (c) Smart Partners Labour Link and Trade, Swaziland - Agribusiness Trade & EPAs. (4) Plenary: Innovating for Quality and Business. Breakouts: (a) Quality Inclusion and Innovation, Uganda and Zimbabwe; (b) Financial Crisis, Opportunities and adapting Public, Private Sector Partnership, Small States and Zimbabwe; (c) National Quality Movement, Lesotho and Swaziland. (5) Towards Smart Values in the Commonwealth and Beyond. Finally session (6) Bringing everything together.

The CMEx 2011 theme, "Communicating for Clarity and Prosperity", defined how practitioners in the Caribbean public relations and marketing sector can promote and enhance sustainable tourism in the region. More than 60 visitors, including tourism and media professionals, descended on St. Thomas from several CARICOM nations, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, the BVI, Martinique, the US and Canada to participate with local delegates. There were many local youth delegates in attendance. Delegates were hosted by Governor John P. de Jongh Jr. at a reception at Government House on the first evening. We enjoyed interventions and interactive dialogue on the state of the tourism industry in the USVI; Hotel Franchising: A new Choice; Creative Industry Connections; Media Relations 101; The Caribbean Diaspora; Engaging the Youth; the Environment; African American and Caribbean American opportunities. CMEx delegates also discharged their social responsibility by making a community presentation to the Family Resource Centre. We also explored topics such as Techniques for TV Technology; Multi-Cultural Travel and Tourism; Crisis Communications; Social Media; Tourism Linkages, Maintaining Balance in a Busy World, Tourism is Key: CHTA & the Media; and the Future of CMEx. With all that we were still able to "Dine around in St. Thomas", be entertained by the emerging young USVI vocal artist K-Victoria, enjoy a Catamaran sail, complete an island road tour and engage in effective networking. Presentations are available on the website. CMEx thanks the 19 official supporters associated with the event. Remember the Rotary Club of Barbados South's "Classical Best of Youth" fundraising concert to be held at the Frank Collymore Hall on Saturday December 10, featuring The Barbados Youth Symphony Orchestra and the St. Leonard's Boys' Choir appearing for the first time together. Tickets may be obtained by emailing me at basilgf@caribnet.net.

B We have to develop our people and that means starting from our primary schools and focussing on management education and training right up to our tertiary institutions. Addressing management issues will mitigate the risk of business failure. The Barbados Chapter of the Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants is a potential force that needs to be nurtured. Then finally we need to creatively mobilise the dormant financial resources in the banking system and put them to work for the mutual benefit of all concerned. We need to mobilise the wealth in the Diaspora. The Caribbean Diaspora for Science Technology and Innovation has already been able to take steps in that direction. The BEF is playing a facilitating role to address these issues. The challenge now is to mobilise the public and private sector agencies to execute. There has always been the sleeping giant, the “Barbados as a Donor Country” concept which needs to be awakened. Let us bury the conservatism and be more aggressive in implementing change.

Dr. Ronnie Yearwood is a Barbadian lawyer who lives in London. He has prepared a dossier which was shared by email about a week ago. His concern is that Barbados needs a new Governance Model which means that the operations of the Political, Public, Private, Trade Unions and Civic Society sectors must be reviewed. The system to which we have grown accustomed is not appropriate for our foray into the future. We need new systems and new leadership paradigms. More anon. This is consistent with the BEF approach which may even serve as a model for the rest of the Caribbean and beyond. The next three weeks promises a diet of introspection and conversion. BIM Ventures is going through a period of review and restructuring; The Caribbean Media Exchange for sustainable tourism mounts CMEx XX in St Thomas USVI after 10 years of service to the Caribbean; the Barbados Chapter of CICMC holds its inaugural board meeting; and the NCF programme “Know the Business of Your Arts” continues.

The BEF is expecting a large turnout of entrepreneurs and small business owners for its second 2011 Entrepreneurs’ SUMMIT slated for November 17-18 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre. A group of volunteers established the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation (BEF) with the vision to make Barbados “The #1 Entrepreneurial Hub in The World by 2020”. It has five support pillars each headed by a Pillar Champion in the areas: Government Policy; Business Facilitation; Education; Mentoring; and Finance. Register now for the SUMMIT at – www.barbadosentrepreneurshipfoundation.org

Then I went on to describe my involvement in the entrepreneurship thrust which began in earnest in 1998 when the Caribbean Development Bank invited me to become a Consultant with the specific mandate to create an innovative approach to re-engineering the economies in the Caribbean, given that the traditional industries, sugar cane and bananas, were in their sunset phase. Out of this the CBET Shepherding Model™ evolved as “A Caribbean Catalyst Converting Concepts into Commercial Realities”. Then, over the last three years there was the pilot project in Barbados which has been instructive in indentifying issues associated with: the enterprise and the entrepreneur; the shepherding process; and the types and sources of funding. These are being delineated for inclusion in a franchise operational system.

The film “Calypso Dreams”, by Geoffrey Dunn, Michael Horn and Executive Producer Eddy Grant and with narrative commentary by the popular Caribbean musician David Rudder, captures riveting, contemporary performances by a host of legendary Calypso performers including the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, Lord Superior, Black Stalin, Mighty Bomber, Lord Blakie, Singing Sandra and Mighty Terror, and pays homage to recently deceased Calypsonians, including Lord Kitchener and Lord Pretender. Also included is a rare and exclusive interview with Harry Belafonte on the issue of his early involvement with Calypso and his complex relationship with Lord Melody in the early 1950’s and 60’s. The film is a celebration not only of the music of Calypso, but of the intense sense of community it engenders in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean and of the art form’s dynamic social and political roots, which sustain it. We would be delighted to see you there. To reserve tickets please email basilgf@caribnet.net and they shall be delivered to you. Rotarians get an opportunity to serve in many facets of life. The motto of Rotary is “Service above Self”. The opportunities in five avenues of service are many. There is Community service and the Inclusive Play project is an example of this. Then there is International service where we host individuals sponsored by Rotary Clubs outside our Rotary District which spans from St. Kitts in the North to French Guyana in the South. International Service may also involve Rotarians helping in projects outside of our country. In Vocational Service, one exhibits service above self in activities related to our vocation. Rotarian James Corbin, President of the Information Society of Barbados, exhibited Vocational Service above Self by leading the team of volunteers which organised the recently and successfully concluded conference “Event Caribbean 2011” which promoted ICT Awareness and Development. Past President John Jones was also in the news last week when “endless” accolades were showered on him by his colleagues in the insurance industry (his vocation), his family, his family friends and other associates with whom he had been in contact for many a decade, at a Cocktail Reception held in his honour to mark his official retirement from Guardian General Insurance Limited. He touched many of these persons indelibly and was heralded as an exemplar to his associates in Barbados and beyond. It was a very emotional but controlled celebration sealed with a few classical familiar live renditions by the Might Gabby before the vote of thanks. Then there is a relatively new avenue of service New Generations with the commitment to get youth and young adults actively involved in the principles of Rotary through the Interact Clubs (for seniors at Secondary School) and then the Rotaract Clubs (for young people from school who are in their first decade of establishing themselves in a career). The fifth Avenue of Service is Club Service which in fact is the Committee that manages the club, it plans, organises, mobilises human resources, monitors and controls the activities of to club. The fund raising activities lie under this portfolio – we depend on support of the public to succeed.

In this particular example, however, the advent of such an industry will contribute to the macro-economic environment in the country in the form of: net saving of foreign exchange; increased energy security; employment creation; reduction in carbon emissions; higher living standards; and a more attractive investment climate. Who is the guardian of the macro-economic environment? The Government is the guardian on behalf of the people. If the advent of an industry is not financially viable from the private sector perspective but may contribute a significant improvement to the country from a macro-economic perspective, then it is the duty of the Government to conduct an economic analysis and offer incentives of one form or another for the private sector to invest with the expectation of a fair financial return on investment. The economic analysis aims at identifying and comparing economic and social benefits accruing to the economy as a whole, setting aside for example monetary transfers between economic agents. Finally, it must be remembered that economic and financial analyses are not self-contained topics: they are used to verify the economic and financial sustainability of the projects likely to be implemented.

Two Saturday nights ago Standard Distributors Limited celebrated its 50th anniversary of operations in Barbados. Dr Anthony Sabga from Trinidad and Mr. Trevor Bowring from Barbados were the initial partners behind this enterprise. Incidentally Dr Sabga came from Syria to Trinidad in 1930 at the age of 7. He joined the family business at the age of 13, at the age of 14 he assumed responsibilities greater than what you would normally expect a 14 year old to bear. The resulting ANSA McAL Group made a 2010 profit before tax (PBT) of $954 million, which its Chief Operating Officer, Gerry Brooks described as a “record-year performance” in what was a “very difficult and challenging year locally and regionally”. Dr. Anthony Sabga in his address at the anniversary celebrations was full of praise for Barbados. He said that the island is one of the jewels of the Caribbean, offering even more opportunities than the oil-rich twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He said that it needs to move from being one that is driven by tourism to one based on industrialisation. Why not engage Dr. Sabga and follow this wonderful positive proposal.

In Barbados, we may not have a solar roof spanning a Blackfriars Railway Bridge. However, we have many roofs tops and I put out the challenge that we should cover each of these roof tops with solar panels and feed the energy into the national grid to boost our energy supply. These roofs should also be designed to collect water to supplement the supply in a water scarce country. The natural lighting system is so obvious yet few architects build this feature into the design of the top floors of their buildings as an energy saver. Architects should be aggressively proposing that all buildings be clad with solar collectors using the more sophisticated materials, technologies and designs that are now available. The recently formed Barbados Renewable Energy Association must start beating the Clean Revolution drum and where better to start than on the doors of the Barbados Social Compact to influence the impact on the policy which leads the way forward in the vision to which we aspire. We need financial capital to implement these innovative initiatives. Look out for the Barbados Entrepreneurship’s Financial Pillar Forum on Tuesday 25 October when you will have a chance to respond to proposals and give your own innovative views on how we can mobilise the liquidity in our financial system to protect the holistic environment for future generations for a sustainable financial and socio-economic return.

Each pillar will stage a presentation at the Conference and each pillar will host a series of workshops at which Conference participants will interact with international and local presenters to reflect on the past and plan for the future. The mentoring pillar, for which I have been assigned the responsibility of Champion, will be mounting a Digital Enterprise and Mentor Matching Service which will be formally launched in November 2011 and which recognises the importance of mentoring to the enterprise. It will allow each enterprise, which has conformed to the registration requirements, to interrogate the service and seek mentors in specific business function areas. This service obviously requires that mentors are also registered within the system and the enterprise and mentor will be encouraged to negotiate the terms under which their matching arrangement will take place. This service, coordinated by an administrator, will be designed to monitor the progress of the enterprise from month to month, year to year, and therefore, provide a dashboard which allows us to monitor the rate of growth of the economy. Information will also be provided which will allow enterprises to either applaud themselves on the success achieved or to take corrective action so that we may refocus and reset our controls to achieve the overall target.

The Rotary Club of Barbados South in partnership with the Rotary Club of Barbados West has embarked on an ambitious project to create an “Inclusive Play” facility where children of all abilities will play, learn, explore, discover and imagine together in an environment where their common experiences make a more lasting impression than their different abilities. We are in the throes of conducting a series of fundraisers to construct and manage this physical facility, thus creating an opportunity for the general public to be of service to others by contributing from their pockets or their foundations. In return for these contributions, Rotary will be providing services. An upcoming fundraiser is at the Barbados Museum on Saturday November 05 2011 at 7pm. The extravaganza will be an evening of: interaction, a movie “Calypso Dreams”, an after party with live entertainment and a silent auction. Drinks and finger food will be complimentary. The movie is a full length feature on the history of Calypso from the beginning right up to the first decade of the 21st century. It should be a nostalgic evening for the older folk and very informative for the younger brigade. The Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation is hosting its tenth monthly Forum on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 6.00 pm on the topic, “Cultural Industries – BIM’s Intellectual Gold”, presented by Dr. Jo-Anne Tull at the Plantation Garden Theatre. These monthly Fora have been heralded by the entrepreneurship community as a very valuable service. The annual BEF SUMMIT, a wow event, will take place at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on 17/18 November 2011. Join us at these events and connect to someone else.

I had two back to back meetings last Friday. The one was to share a few ideas with members of the newly formed Barbados Renewable Energy Association (at the request of Clyde Griffith, Executive Director); and the other was to interact with colleagues at a meeting of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation’s Finance Pillar (at the request of Colin Daniel who was chairing the meeting) to see how best the BEF Finance Pillar and the BEF Mentoring Pillar (which I have the honour to chair) could work together towards the BEF goal: “Barbados to become The #1 Entrepreneurial Hub in the World By 2020”. At the first meeting I enquired as to why are we not seeing a rapid increase in coverage of photovoltaic panels on roof tops in Barbados to feed electricity into the national grid thus reducing the dependence on the use of high priced fuel. I was assured that the single most important constraint was access to finance even though there is an abundance of liquidity in Barbados. Surely we can invoke the power of the public and private sector minds in Barbados to find a quick and sustainable solution to this problem free from bureaucracy. This is an emergency! If we do not address this now the growth rate challenge will be aggravated, the wealth divide exacerbated and crime rate will be on the increase. We are faced with an economic problem, not a financial one, we need to Bank on the Sun.

Since the Second World War billions of dollars have been spent in grant and investment funds in developing countries including the Caribbean. In Barbados, even though we cannot gainsay that some progress has been made; my opinion is that the sustainable Impact, as measured in socio-economic terms, has not been commensurate with the funds expended. A quick look at the Impact in South East Asian countries, for example, will corroborate this hypothesis. How can Impact Investing improve the situation? Let us take grant funding. Projects are selected, budgets are approved, the project is executed and completed and the project is signed off. What has been the Impact? Undoubtedly there is some benefit left behind, there is certainly much support service funding spent locally but is it part of a sustainable solution? When the project ends and the money runs out “the weeds that were the manifestation of the problem at the beginning of the assignment, begin to grow again”. This is not a sustainable solution in itself. Let us consider the traditional loan and investment funding. Only relatively “low risk” enterprises with the appropriate hard asset profile ,which can be used as collateral to protect against the “depositors” money, are considered and even then this system experiences failures because it does not address the challenge of the mitigation of the risk of business failure. Those which are successful financially do not necessarily give specific social and/or environmental returns. There are two challenges that remain. The need to find an investment strategy whereby an investor proactively seeks to place capital in businesses that can generate financial returns as well as an intentional social and/or environmental goal and the need to find an investing model for start-up enterprises. We shall work to scale the wall and provide a creative solution through the blending of the concepts of Impact Investing and BEVCF, using the CBET Shepherding Model™.

The Ministries responsible for policy in each of these seven areas are, respectively: Tourism, Agriculture, International Business, Culture, Industry & Small Business, Commerce and the Prime Minister’s Office. These and all other Ministries lead policy direction regarding various support services to the country. In my own private sector experience with BIM Ventures which was established a little over two and a half years ago (with Government support), we are in the process of reviewing our performance in the context of the Mission of the entity which is “To be a high quality provider of facilitation services encompassing the CBET Shepherding Model™ to start-up and emerging enterprises in Barbados”. We have attempted to establish a Venture Capital company supported by a shepherding process to mitigate the risk of business failure among start-up enterprises. Even though our efforts were started in a recession, we have had a significant learning experience and are now poised for the partnership of Revolution and Renaissance. All private sector firms, despite their apparent success are well advised to engage in an exercise of introspection and review as a service to sustainable economic growth in the country. There has been talk about public sector reform for as long as I care to remember. Even though there are pockets of success, I would suggest that there are many ways in which efficiency and productivity can be increased in the civil service and in statutory boards. One measure is the reduction of numbers where those who are out of a job may be steered and guided in the direction of entrepreneurial activity. Over the last two weeks there has been a very active blog where “public sector reform” has been discussed under the general topic “A Citizen's Charter Project for the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation’s Think Tank on 18 November 2011”. The combination of family, the extended family and close friends is the ideal mix under which to undertake small cooperative projects which can cut their costs of essential items, generate savings, make creative investments and earn additional revenue. This is not new, it has been going on in many cultures for generations. What we need is to spawn a revolution which will cause a rebirth of this activity so that every time we complete an orbit we will find ourselves at a higher socio-economic level than we were in the previous round. Do this across all families and the resulting effect will be exponential growth for the country. Remember to inculcate the philosophy that “I am; therefore I can; therefore I will”.

Doug Staneart has written about "Problem Solving Tips: Creative Solutions to Difficult Problems" and points that there are five simple steps from identifying the problem to implementing the solution i.e. (1) Identify the Specific Problem and Create a One-Sentence Description; (2) Determine what are the Possible Causes; (3) Brainstorm what are the Possible Solutions; (4) Decide on the Best Possible Solution; and (5) Create an Implementation Plan. The concept of Constructive Research by Hidetoshi Shibata complements the above. With a change of mindset, the acquisition of appropriate skill sets and cross cultural communication skills, we should be well set to face the challenges ahead.

Rotary is mounting an Inclusive Play physical facility in Barbados which will provide a safe, secure playground environment where “children with disabilities will continue to gain confidence as they interact more and more with both other children with disabilities and non-disabled peers.” These vital interactions will also help parents overcome social challenges by providing opportunities to teach their children important social interaction skills. By extension, Inclusive Play will help the wider community integrate children with disabilities into Barbadian society. Rotary will continue to appeal to the general public through fund raisers where we offer you a service in return for your contribution. I continue to relive the mantra “good nutrition, exercise and peace of mind”. Last week I had my regular visits to my osteopath and masseuse, practised a healthy diet and took every opportunity to de-stress. I was invited to an information and investment opportunity meeting to learn about a private sector driven Medical Village concept consisting of medical offices, a state-of-the-art hospital with four operating theatres, an accident and emergency department plus all other facilities associated with a modern hospital and residential suites. This will enhance the opportunity to shape society not only for Barbados but our Caribbean neighbours. Congratulations to Aunt Sybil Barrow the only surviving sibling of the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow. She signalled her advent as another nonagenarian in the family, last Thursday. As the second BEF SUMMIT approaches on November 17/18 2011, not only are we focussed on the free Wi-Fi project 11-11-11 ON but, as Champion of the Mentoring Pillar, I am also engaged with my team in striving to achieve our objectives, namely: to register enterprises, to identify and train mentors, to match mentors with enterprises, to monitor their performance and to provide a user-friendly Enterprise Information System for the benefit of all. Each of us has to manage the God given gift of 24 hours which is given to us everyday. We do it with varying degrees of efficiency. I was conscious of the need to increase my efficiency and decided to begin the process of refreshing my home office complete with computer software upgrades. I am already beginning to experience an increase in productivity. Also, a carefully cultured shorter haircut had the desired effect in terms of a psychological boost. “Hey you looking younger, man!” We need all the help we can get as we manage the prosperity/hard times cycle. (Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. - CBET - Columns are archived at www.cbetmodel.org)

The myth of "taking" Barbadians' jobs arises from segmented myopic thinking of those who are stuck in a rut or do not take the time to learn from the history of successful nations which themselves have benefitted from the immigration of human resources (at all levels) from other countries (including Barbados). This myth must be exploded.”

It would be interesting to review the economic argument which led to the decision to invest significant sums in mounting the Rihanna LOUD concert in Barbados last Friday night. Let me say upfront that I believe the benefits on the local scene are many, not the least of which is a political benefit. Please note that one, of course, does not need to have a Barbados concert to sign a deal with Rihanna to market Barbados. It would be even more interesting to see the analysis of the actual money spent as compared with the receipts including the composition of the breakdown of the expenditure/receipts in Barbados and US dollars. Then the question that must be answered is “what was the net effect on the Forex reserves after the concert, as a result of the investment?” The basic “I think Foreign Exchange” argument is such that it can be introduced at primary school. The collective benefit by the time these students get to the age where they become fully fledged entrepreneurs will be tremendous. Finally, Strategy #2 should include the concept of investment in building the Forex reserves or more loosely “buying Forex”. The BIM Ventures model is designed to do thus that but it depends on its Venture Capital fund being adequately funded. Strategy #2’s priority should be to ensure that the environment is in place to stimulate interest in funding the Barbados Entrepreneurs’ Venture Capital fund.

I was picking up my Aunt from the hairdresser last Friday and entered the Salon at an opportune moment to witness one of the hairdressers expending what appeared to be an enormous amount of energy, dancing to the rhythm of one of this year’s calypsos. Later in the evening I was able to stay awake long enough to observe on TV the first half of the pic o de crop finals where, again, as the camera panned the audience, one could see many patrons spontaneously expending tremendous energy dancing in tune to the music coming from the stage. I did reflect, for a moment, on how we could convert that energy into electricity or, at least, how we could convert that energy into increased productivity in the workplace. My natural diurnal cycle did not permit me to see the second half of the show but it came as no surprise to me on Saturday morning when I awoke, to find that Popsicle, the lone newcomer to the Calypso Finals walked away with the Kia Sportage motorcar, valued at BBD103,700, a trophy, $10,500 in cash, and other prizes, after being crowned the 2011 Calypso Monarch. I heard his first song, “Don’t Sell Cornell”, which apparently was advice given to him that no matter how long the recession he was advised not to sell his ass, that is, a donkey called Cornell. The crowd roared their approval when Popsicle sang His delivery of the cleverly written ‘Don’t Sell Cornell’; it indeed brought the Gymnasium alive. It was reported that he also kept that momentum in the second half with ‘I would Pick a Fair.’ I think it is the general opinion that this is what real Calypso should be like. This expenditure of energy will continue over the Kadooment weekend. The Crop Over festival, originally a celebration to signal the end of the sugar commodity production season, is now a fixed event in the festivals calendar of Barbados. Let us focus on other ways to diversify products from the sugar cane plant or work like we playin’ mas’ in some other areas of economic endeavour to give an other than historical reason for our celebration.

As a matter of urgency we must focus on the Budget, the next Elections, a Strategy for growth and the appropriate Training of our people. The resulting output would be BEST for Barbados.

My proposition to you is to determine “Who or What Am I?” by following the affirmations of I am, therefore I can, therefore I will.