Recognising entrepreneurs
Editorial
"Growing a company from concept to industry leader requires a special breed of individual - someone who doesn't believe those who say it can't be done.....someone who sees opportunity in every problem...... someone who won't take `no' for an answer. They're called entrepreneurs". This blurb in the Ernst and Young brochure promoting their Caribbean Entrepreneur of the Year 2000 award programme, despite the triumphalist language, a combination of Madison avenue and babbittry does capture something of the dogged, never-ending determination required to stay the course and succeed in business. In Guyana, of course, there have over the years been the additional obstacles of a hostile ideological attitude, a weak infrastructure, an underdeveloped financial system where raising substantial sums presents special problems and a relative absence of technical and managerial skills. The road to `success' can be a veritable journey to Calvary. It is good, therefore, that our outstanding entrepreneurs be celebrated, particularly as it is a breed that our politicians on both sides now proclaim they want to encourage. That faceless `private sector' which is said, so glibly, to be the engine of growth in our economy today translates in practice into the sweat and tears of thousands of individual business persons and farmers, small, medium and (relatively) large struggling to cope with a variety of problems. The accounting firm Ernst and Young and their main sponsors Republic Bank and CIBC must be congratulated on expanding their annual award programme, which started in the United States of America twelve years ago, to Guyana last year. Several Guyanese entrepreneurs were nominated and some won awards. It was an encouraging start. This year Jamaica was included and nominees were drawn from across the region. Competition was therefore a lot stiffer. Five Guyanese were nominated, Mohabir Singh of Guyana Furniture Manufacturing Co., Sattaur Gafoor of A. Gafoor and Sons Limited, Joseph Johnson of Nigel's Supermarket, Violet Lall of L Mart Exclusive Furniture Store and Suedatt Singh of IDS Holdings Limited. Regrettably, none of them received awards. The 20 finalists from 88 nominees were selected by an independent panel of judges and were mainly from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. The winner was the Barbadian businessman, Ralph `Bizzy' Williams. Guyana has had its own business awards. But it is important for our entrepreneurs to compete regionally, as it is for our athletes, as it gives some idea of how they are measuring up in a wider sphere. One local businessman suggested that there should be a special award to Guyanese entrepreneurs for surviving in the midst of political instability and a devalued currency, what might be called the endurance award. But at the end of the day all businessmen everywhere face stern challenges, that is the name of the game. It is the ability to roll with the punches and stay the course that is the ultimate test, though in fairness it must be said that if the course is too tough, as it was at the US Open golf tournament this year with rain and blustering winds, it is only the business equivalent of Tiger Woods who will finish under par.
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