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Womenfolk should step out and assert themselves
Introduction
“My personal
disappointment is that there are so few female entrepreneurs... From where I
sit, my greatest lament is that the womenfolk are so underrepresented in
business. It is clear that their entrepreneurial potential has not been
fully exploited.” So said Ms Beverly Lopez, President of the highly
influential Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in her feature
opening presentation at the launching of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur
Conference being held at the Ritz-Carlton, on the north coast of Jamaica to
coincide with the banquet and awards ceremony for the Entrepreneur Of the
Year 2003.
Had Ms Lopez seen the list of the finalists vying for the prestigious award,
she could have justifiably omitted the missing words ‘in Jamaica’ since
there is only one woman among the fifteen persons. All four of the finalists
from Guyana - Dennis Morgan of Denmore Garments, Brian Tiwarie of B K
International Inc, Mokesh Dabi of Grand Coastal Inn and Anthony Thorne of
Wilderness Explorers are male. Indeed, not a single woman was among the
eight nominees from Guyana - a statistic that is as representative of the
business reality as it is depressing.
The frog
That the
statement comes from a Jamaican makes the situation even more troubling for
the region since Jamaican womenfolk are regarded as the most advanced and
assertive in the Caribbean. In seeking an explanation for this situation, Ms
Lopez noted that it is often felt that women like to remain in their comfort
zone and called for this myth to be destroyed by women stepping boldly
outside of their safety zones, because “that is where the growth takes
place.” As a reminder of the dangers of staying in one’s comfort zone she
told her audience of Caribbean entrepreneurs the story of the frog which
kicked back and relaxed, enjoying the soothing water, oblivious of the
increasing heat and in that blissful state, being cooked to death.
She suggested that Jamaican women who are known for their pioneering spirit
and who more and more are becoming the sole breadwinner in the household
have a ‘unique position’ in the matriarchal society. She identified the
following as some of the challenges facing women:
* Their inability to raise capital via the formal financial system;
* The absence of sufficient role models and mentors from whom to draw
inspiration and guidance;
* Fewer and less developed networks in the business community;
* The challenge of the stereotype which requires women to prove that they
can perform as well as their male counterparts.
In addition to the multitude of other problems such as the responsibility
which women bear for bringing up the kids, these are the unwoman-friendly
nature of the workplace, some still outmoded and clearly discriminatory laws
in Caribbean countries and the generally chauvinistic nature of their male
counterparts. Interestingly, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in
the Clinton administration in her biography Madame Secretary published last
week, spoke of similar problems in operating in what she describes as “a
predominantly man’s world.”
Ms Albright noted that as she began to achieve success, the level of the
challenge she faced in this man’s world became particularly intense, more
among her own male colleagues than foreign officials who often saw her
disembarking from a plane with United States of America emblazoned on its
side which gave its passengers whether male or female immediate respect.
She recalls having “to cope with the different vocabularies to describe
similar qualities in men (confident, take charge, committed), and women
(bossy, aggressive and emotional),” something with which Ms Lopez would not
be unfamiliar.
Entrepreneurship and economic growth
Referring to a
2001 study which added to the growing body of evidence of the “significant
relationship between entrepreneurship, economic growth and poverty
reduction,” Ms Lopez expressed the view that “the time has long passed for
our universities to accept that entrepreneurial activity is an important and
integral component of development,” ignoring the fact that the university
environment is probably the most un-entrepreneurial environment one can ever
find. In this region, we have learnt little from the mushrooming of the
ubiquitous business schools in the developed economies offering the highly
practical MBAs which have been a significant factor in the ballooning of
entrepreneurial businesses providing millions of new jobs in both new and
traditional sectors.
Calling for better collaboration between the private sector and the
universities, Ms Lopez noted that universities have the opportunity to give
key advantages in the development of new entrepreneurs and managers, as well
as in promoting a culture of research and development. Such a culture is
sorely lacking in the region and she suggested that the universities and the
private sector should be aiming to partner each other to stimulate economic
growth. Specifically Ms Lopez identified work on the commercial exploitation
of research in the areas of patents and royalties as “an idea whose time has
come.”
While expressing optimism about the private sector’s ability to achieve
extraordinary results given its nature to be innovative and resourceful, Ms
Lopez told her audience of some of the schemes to encourage entrepreneurship
in her country including the Job Creation Award Scheme between the PSOJ and
Cable and Wireless Limited, to recognize the enterprises whose investment
over a six-month period had resulted in the creation of twenty-five jobs;
and the Small Business Award to companies that had employed a minimum of
five persons over a six-month period. The scheme has handed out forty Job
Creation Awards and eighteen Small Business Awards since its establishment
in February 2002, which is commendable given the state of that country’s
economy.
Migration
On the
negative side, Ms Lopez referred to a problem with which Guyanese are all
too familiar - that many of our best minds are migrating, often never to
return and share their knowledge and expertise with the country that would
have subsidized much of their education. She expressed the view, however,
that there is much more that countries can do to entice their high-energy
youths to stay at home and become part of their family businesses “applying
new knowledge to see them grow and expand.”
Ms Lopez noted that becoming a successful entrepreneur is no mean feat, and
requires hard work and good sense. Several things need to be done to
survive, compete and prosper in the globalised world. Among these
imperatives are: improved efficiency, reduced consumption and increased
savings and investments, embracing new technology; understanding the
customer and empowering the employees, noting that when the employer hires a
pair of hands, a head comes with it for free. To succeed, both a business
and a country would need to identify their competitive advantage and
demonstrate superiority in their market. Leaner operations with fewer layers
of management provide the nimbleness of action required to adapt to the
rapid changes to which businesses are exposed.
Conclusion
The full text
of Ms Lopez’s speech will shortly be available at no cost on the web at
ramandmcrae.com and readers are invited to access it. Meanwhile, however, we
in Guyana need to reflect on how little are the opportunities we afford our
womenfolk who are no less resourceful than their male counterparts. There
seem to be no national policies to exploit this major resource while our
business community is rife with chauvinism bordering on backwardness. Very
little study has been done to determine the needs of this sector and
decisions are often made purely on anecdotal evidence.
As Ms Lopez said, it is time that women step out and assert their rights in
the interest of Guyana. They are grossly under-represented in business and
there is much more that they can and should do. It is regrettable that
Sunday Stabroek no longer carries Women’s-eye view, and that perhaps our
only woman director on the board of an insurance company is better known for
her views on cricket that for her views on insurance or business. Meanwhile
the law is only now being amended to allow the election of women on the
board of one of the country’s leading insurance companies.
Women need to have role models outside of the limited confines of partisan
politics and the traditional vocations of teaching and nursing, which
incidentally are not known for their high salaries. The future of Guyana
lies not only in its youths but in its unrecognised and under- utilised
womenfolk.
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