THE NATIONAL INITIATIVE for Service Excellence (NISE) and the National Productivity Council have both failed, an engineer has claimed.
And against the backdrop of the latest NISE survey which found that 70 per cent of the people employed in Barbados were not fulfilled in their jobs, chartered structural engineer and president of Walbrent College, Grenville Phillips, is insisting that that ratio is “not good”.
The survey showed that people in the teaching, health and other sectors wanted to be doing something else, and Phillips said it was not a good reflection.
“We have NISE, and they seem to be trying to force square pegs into round holes. You cannot pay people enough to care. If nurses care about the patients they would naturally offer an excellent service, you don’t need other initiatives to train them. If the teachers cared about the students they would naturally offer an excellent service.
“If people in the tourism industry cared about the visitors they will naturally offer an excellent service. But when you don’t care that’s it. . . .You can’t train someone to care. Trying to train people to care is a losing exercise and we know for the past 10 years for NISE and 20 years for the National Productivity Council hasn’t really worked,” Phillips insisted.
He was speaking at a workshop for entrepreneurs facilitated by Upstart Caribbean held at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex yesterday, where he spoke on How to Spot Opportunities.
Phillips said he had reached a stage where he worked a few days a month because he wanted to, and not because he was compelled to make cash flow,and it was that “destination” he wished for all of the participants.
He said the thing would be to find square pegs to fit into square holes, by creating an environment where people are doing things they liked to do. Oneof the easier ways to do so was to start a family business, which Phillips said every family should have.
His argument was that money would be coming in, which would allow people to do exactly what they wanted to do on any given day.
Like business and financial consultant Jeremy Stephen, who preceded him, Phillips advised participants not to borrow money to start up their business because they did not want to be indebted to anyone so early on in the game.
While the intent was not to dissuade anyone, both of them told the small business owners that they would than likely lose their initial investment, thus the need to use whatever available personal resources they had.
Stephen’s advice was to focus on building their business, buy as a second resort and not to borrow. He encouraged people to rent or use home offices until such time as they were cash flow positive before buying real estate.
Noting that it did not cost a lot to build a reputation, Stephens encouraged people to make use on the many resources that were available online. Terming it a “social capital” approach he said the online facilities and the in-kind investment from family and friends can eliminate the need for cash. (YB)
