SBA toasts staff, members

The Barbados Small Business Association (SBA) recently celebrated the successes of its staff and members during the SBA awards ceremony and dinner at Mahogany Ridge, Plum Tree Road, St Thomas.
The ceremony awarded several businesses in categories such as community, the president’s award, sectorial awards, entrepreneur of the year, and people’s choice.
Featured speaker Patrick Todd, former Minister of State in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Empowerment, Innovation, Trade, Industry and Commerce, advised the businesspeople to make use of current modalities to ensure they remained a competitive option for sustainable economic development.
“I refer to such methods as franchising, joint service providers, cooperatives or clusters, holding companies and trade and export consortia, to name a few.
“In this regard, Government has taken initial steps in the exploration of these engineering tools to promote the sector’s sustainability,” he said.
Todd said sustainable development had become more important in the modern business environment.
“The relationship between companies and civil society has moved on from being paternalistic philanthropy to a re-examination of the roles, rights and responsibilities of business in society.
“Key drivers of this change have been the globalisation of trade, the increase in the size and influence of companies, the repositioning of Government and the rise in strategic importance of stakeholder relationships, the power of knowledge and brand reputation, and most certainly the circumstances that have given rise to the evolution of the current global recession,” he said.
The Entrepreneur Of The Year was Khai’s Kutz & Plaits; the People’s Choice Award went to Premier Designs, the President’s Award to Trinity Homes, and executive assistant Beverley Shepherd as the SBA Employee Of The Year. (CA)