Aubyn Hill
THIS MONTH Montego Bay celebrates its 25th anniversary of being granted city status. Also, this past week the Western Mirror newspaper and its founder Lloyd B. Smith celebrated their 25th anniversary as well. All came together in a wonderful event named 'Expo 2005' which was launched at the cruise ship terminal at Montego Bay Freeport last Friday evening. It was an elegant and delightful event.
A FEW VISIONARIES - SOME DOUBTERS
The organisers of the Expo 2005 led by the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and City Fathers, including Chamber of Commerce President Mark Kerr-Jarrett and Mayor Noel Donaldson, have adopted the theme 'Montego Bay - Gateway to the Caribbean' as their motivating mantra.
What an absolutely great idea. Most novel ideas start off with a few visionaries who are committed to the crystallisation and implementation of the idea, a few doubting believers who follow far behind and support from the periphery - and often many doubters.
The excellent and novel idea to treat Montego Bay as the 'Gateway to the Caribbean' is one that should be encouraged. Forget those who scoff at the grandeur of this idea. Tell the scoffers that the first event that started with 40 booths in 1990 has grown to more than 120 booths in today's Expo.
Tell the scoffers that this Expo will attract over 10,000 people this year. Tell the scoffers that Dubai started much smaller, selling a few camels and goats and sending a few dhows across the seas to trade with India.
Today, Dubai has become the 'Hong Kong of the Middle East', which was its stated vision 20 years ago when Shaikh Mohamed bin Rashid, the visionary behind Dubai's success, was almost laughed out of town!
Today, Dubai is a major tourist and health tourism destination (in the desert!) and is the commercial and banking centre of the Middle East. It connects commerce from Southern Africa, East Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Americas with the supply of money and commercial demand in the Middle East.
Dubai's oil ran out decades ago. One of the best acts of confirmation of Dubai's success in the big leagues is the decision by the World Bank and the IMF to hold their annual conference in that city two years ago. As Montego Bay takes this bold move, it will be useful to take heart from cities such as Dubai and Singapore as it seeks to implement its vision. In fact, so can Kingston.
ACHIEVING THE DREAM
If Montego Bay is going to achieve the dream of becoming the 'Gateway to the Caribbean', the city's leaders, the city's businessmen, the churches, schools, workers and unions will all have to do a number of things in the short term and certainly over the long hall.
They will have to adopt the principle of continuous training for their employees. Many businesses in the Montego Bay area practise this principle in some form, but the new 'Caribbean Gateway Vision' means that these efforts have to be increased or redoubled.
The proof that businesses in the Montego Bay area - especially in the tourism industry - are well on the way to training their staff with the 'Fit for Export' stamp, comes from the fact that a couple weeks ago a major cruise ship just sailed in and recruited about 95 hotel workers from the Montego Bay area to join the cruise ship staff.
I see a great business opportunity in that event. Training Jamaican tourism and hospitality workers can become a substantial and lucrative business. Investors should heed the call.
USE DISCIPLINE AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Montegonians will have to deliver, individually and collectively, their services and products to their customers when they say they will, and possibly in a form that is better than that which was promised - but certainly not less!
People in Montego Bay must develop the discipline to adopt the Microsoft Model - load on more and more functions (in Montego Bay's case - more and more services) for the same price. This can only be done by raising the productivity of each staff member (more training!) and thereby increasing each person's efficiency. Discipline means that there must be no lawlessness at each business place - not by staff or by customers.
Discipline means keep crime off the streets and out of the city. Discipline means that each business in this city must practise fair play, which means charge a fair price, do not overcharge. We tend to kill the goose that lays the golden egg by taking the short-term view and try to get back our investment in three to six months.
TAKE THE LONG VIEW
Outstanding cities that become gateways to their regions and eventually the world are never built in a day or in a couple of months. Indeed, excellent cities, states, entrepôt and great port cities take up to 20 years to be established properly.
Montegonians, take the long view. Make your port and city needed. Develop and enhance the services that gateway ports need to sell themselves - lots of good restaurants with well-trained people, safe and interesting excursions that are mixed with entertainment and or heritage, excellent entertainment facilities and great taxi and bus services with well-trained drivers and attendants.
Develop tight linkages between facilities and services of the city such as the port, the airports, hotels, tour companies, entertainment complexes, sports facilities, health tourism facilities and real estate developers and realtors.
SHARE THE CREDIT LIKE PRESIDENT REAGAN
President Reagan often said that if he could always find some way or other to credit someone who has done anything for the government or for his country. Indeed, he also said that invariably he gives a lot of people a lot more credit than even they may think they deserve.
This is a real attribute that the city leaders and businessmen in Montego Bay - and we across Jamaica need to learn. Lloyd B. Smith suggested in a recent article that maybe Montegonians should share accolades more readily and easily. I suggest that we adopt the President Reagan principle on giving credit - give to every deserving person more than he or she expects.
On that note, congratulations to the people behind the NCB and Honey Bun booths who won the best booth prizes - in first and second place respectively.
Aubyn Hill is managing partner of Corporate Strategies Limited, a restructuring and financial advisory firm.Respond to:writerhill@gmail.com
