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Small Market Marketing

Reflections on Small Country Customer Service vs. “Modern” Customer Service.

Recently, my colleagues and I have been giving thought to the idea that the Caribbean as a “single” market is a different animal from the mass markets of North America and the EU. Obviously, the size differences are tremendous — the CSME countries represent a market of only 6 million or so. What is not so obvious is that a single “geographic” market of 6 million
is also very different from a group of island markets, the largest of which has 2.6 million. In addition, island markets which insist on maintaining their political and cultural autonomy further emphasize the psychological distance.

The practical result is that managers in the region must think about customer behaviour quite differently. The way that First World managers think will not work in the Caribbean, if the hope is to increase the market share and profits. There are three hidden assumptions that underly the prevailing thinking of how customers in mass retail markets behave that just do not apply.

Myth #1: Customers are Customers for Just a Moment

In a true mass market there is a limit to which one will go to serve a customer. After all, it makes no economic sense to give too much time, attention and energy to a single person when there are many others (millions of others) right behind them. “It would just not be fair to everyone else,” the logic goes.

Therefore, interactions tend to be brief. While the hope is that the maximum value possible will be extracted (from their wallet) there is also a feeling that Customer Service Representative (CSR) productivity must be maximized by increasing the number of people they deal with. In this particular frame of mind, the customer is something to be processed, rather than a person to be connected with.

This is fine, as far as it goes, for a large market in which customers have been conditioned over time to be treated in this way. However, in a Caribbean market it’s quite jarring to be treated like this. Recently, on a series of Digicel customer service phone calls I had the overwhelming impression that they were more interested in keeping the call short than in serving my needs. I imagined that some training had been imported from Canada or someplace, and that the operators were “being incentivized” with bonuses linked to lower call-times.


Myth #2: Customers Are Strangers

Of course, in a mass market, there is no way to get to know millions of people. Instead, front- line staff is trained to deliver a kind of “fake-friendliness” that a Caribbean-grown, first-time visitor to Miami often confuses with authentic caring. There is the smile, the cheery greeting, and the well-trained question — “How can I help you?”

However, two seconds after the transaction is over, everything disappears as the “fake-friendliness” is turned on to the next customer and the prior customer melts into the mass of invisible strangers. I remember being amazed when I lived in the US that a store attendant with whom I had a long conversation would, five minutes later, not recognize who I was when I walked passed them in the mall. For them, the interaction was indeed the first and the last encounter.

In the Caribbean, there is a different belief at play, which is much closer to the notion that when I meet someone for the first time it is just a beginning.

In social settings, we Caribbean people are often amazed upon meeting someone for the first time that we have not met before! Sometimes, we insist that we must have met, and commence a playful game of “Where Do I Know You From?” If time and circumstances permit, and we are sure that there has been no prior visual contact, then the next game we play some version of “Who Do We Know in Common?”

If that game fails to yield a result, a warm game of “Who Do You Remind Me Of?” can be used to round out the conversation. By the end, a tremendous amount of information has been shared that allows for a second, future meeting to be one that now takes place between acquaintances, and sometimes friends.

In other words, that first encounter is the first…. and it is understood to be the first of many.

Once again, it’s jarring to run into a Caribbean person who acts as if the customer is a stranger. A few months ago on a flight I ran into a BWIA flight attendant I’ve seen at various fetes for years, and got “fake-friendly” treatment. (I know there could be many explanations for why this happened.) I played along by falling into my US/North American “stranger as customer” mode, for the first time outside of that country — and it felt quite foreign.


Myth #3: Some Customers are More Valuable Than Others

The idea of a retail mass-market conjures up the image of millions and millions of people who are potential customers. The first strategy that the thinking mind employs to deal with the idea of marketing to so many, is to segment these millions into manageable mental buckets.

Once the bucketing starts, the prioritization soon follows as it seems to make good sense to maximize sales by directing more attention to those customers with deeper pockets — all the better to extract more sales for the company. This works to some degree in mass markets as the sheer number of customers prevents much coordinated action to be taken, unless there is the kind of extreme neglect or abuse that leads to class-action lawsuits.

However, it is a mistake to think that our consumer markets in the Caribbean operate in this manner. Our markets are small in number, and located on islands for the most part. There is a fixed number of people to meet and greet with, and no-one is more than 3 degrees of separation away from anyone else. (This is why the game of “Who Do We Know In Common?” can be so fruitful.)

One of my clients has been wondering, in exactly the same way that companies in mass markets do, whether or not the company should shed its “unprofitable” customers. I guess this means that they are considering ending their relationship with them.

However, in our micro-markets you don’t really end relationships. They can be altered, however, and it is much easier to make them worse than it is to make them better. Furthermore, the close-knit nature of our societies means that an unprofitable customer can be more influential than they seem.

It would be a mistake to systematically rid the company of customers, who may well turn out to be the head of a PTA or a Deacon in a large church, or the cousin of the head of conglomerate, or the neighbourhood “teh-teh” (gossip.) In such cases, the profit that can be made from a single customer is only a single measure of who they really are, and their value to the institution. By and large, Caribbean want to do business with people, and not institutions, Conversely, they want to be treated like people also, and do not want to be treated as disposable profit-centres.

Digicel’s entry into Trinidad seems to have engendered the kind of resistance that I can only ascribe to a severe misunderstanding of the market they are dealing with. At the moment, Trinis are unified in a way they have never been before by virtue of gaining a berth in the upcoming World Cup in Germany. Also, TSTT is not quite equivalent to Cable and Wireless. The difference is that TSTT is not a foreign company, being owned by the government, and also that the name TSTT carries within it the name of the country – Trinidad.

The Digicel backlash in Trinidad at the moment is palpable.

On a recent trip I was told by several people that they would never get a Digicel phone, based on the Digicel advertisements in the press and the aggressive recruiting currently underway for local talent. Digicel’s service is not due to become operational until April 2006, and already the news that Digicel is sponsoring Carnival events and bands had some of my friends rolling their eyes with nothing short of disgust.

Of course, I can’t tell whether or not any of the 3 Myths mentioned above were believed in this particular case, but I do know that the Trinis who I heard complaining were not angry at a corporate oversight, but were reacting to something like a personal insult.

Such is the fate of companies that are unable or unwilling to understand the unique nature of our Caribbean markets.


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Living the Good Life


When I’m in Barbados, I’m reminded how lucky I am to be working here in the Caribbean.

I woke this morning at about 6am and went for a swim in the sea just as the sun rose. That by itself is not so unusual, and the fact is that most hotels here in Barbados are right on the water.

As I was swimming I was thinking about the news I heard that a major snow-storm is heading towards the north-east. Memories of a project I once worked on in Toledo, Ohio came to mind…

I also know that many people coming here to the Accra Beach Hotel, have saved for years and months for the opportunity to come to the Caribbean on a vacation. I come here every other week or so, and barely blink an eye.

It made me think of how good life is here in the Caribbean, and how easy it is to convince oneself that the grass is greener on the other side — over there in the US, Canada and England, where most migrating West Indians end up. The tragedy is that most are able to fulfill only the first part of the dream — to leave.

Part 2 of the dream almost always includes some kind of return, and this is where the challenge lies. It’s relatively easy to leave the Caribbean to live outside the region, but quite hard to return.

The reasons aren’t legal, either.

They have more to do with the psyche that develops in the minds of those of us who have left. The result is that a return remains nothing but a dream, which ends up drifting into a permanent stage of being “neither here nor there.” Eventually, the kids become American, Canadian or British, and then they get married and have children who have just about no connection to the homeland. Then the only practical thing to do is to live close to them. And, thus, the dream dies.

If only this were understood before making the decision to leave.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to evaluate the pros and cons of migration. Even worse, I’ve never seen any kind of service, website or book that offers any help for those are thinking about migrating. They inevitably end up making the decision on only partial information.

When they reach the U.S. unfortunately, many fall into the “justify my being here” frame of mind in which they complain about their home country in the most exaggerated way. To hear them talk is to to think that nothing good could ever come from such a place. The irony is, they also have no idea that they are also talking about themselves.

The law of unintended consequences seems to be at play here.

For example, most West Indians moving to the US have no interest in raising their children as African Americans. Being West Indian is different. However, for Black Caribbeans, there is really no choice . The forces they confront at school, the workplace and in the larger society are just too big to resist, and they inevitably leave the accent, the food, the music and the vibe behind.

Yet, it seems that these kinds of questions are not openly asked and answered, and most who do migrate end up saving for months for a one week opportunity to return home to enjoy the beaches that they, and I, took for granted. The sad thing is that this all just an unintended consequence.

I’m trying hard to not take it all for granted.

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Abundance

What does it mean to recognize the abundance that is right around us?

This question is one that I continue to wrestle with, given that recently I’ve heard some very different opinions that I’m feeling the need to sort out. Here are some of the ideas I’ve read recently, put into my own words.

God Didn’t Make No Mistakes
One point of view that I find easy to accept is that the Creator of the Universe didn’t make any mistakes, and that in the world there is a perfect amount of everything. This includes the easy to accept things, such as the number of animals, clouds, atoms, energy, etc.

However, it also includes the harder to accept things, including the things that his creations have made such as crime, murder, rape, etc. Whatever amount there is of these things, are exactly the right amount, and clearly man’s Creator, by extension, made these things also, and allows them to exist.

Individually, also, each person was perfectly made with the exact amount of ability to do some things well, and some other things not so well. For each of us, there is an abundance of Life for each of us to work with, and an abundance of humanity to deal with also.

It may well seem to us that we are not given an unlimited amount of time, but the truth is that time is experienced in the way that space is, which is relative to the person having the experience. Have you ever noticed that when you visit a place that you have not visited since you were small, how much it seems that the space has shrunk? The road I grew up on as a small child seemed like a tremendous highway, until I went back as an adult and saw that it could barely contain two cars side by side.

Time occurs in a similar way — as I grow older, it seems that is flying by from year to year, and I am still in my 30’s!

Some small insects live only a matter of hours or days at best, and somehow I think that they have an experience of having lived a life that is just as full as ours. While I’ve never been a small insect to my knowledge, I imagine that they are quite content with the time they live, and at some cosmic level, it is the perfect amount of time.

Trusting that each component of our lives (tangible or not) exists in exactly the perfect amount has begun to allow me to relax into what some authors call the “suchness” of what is in our lives. This certainly helps in dealing with the challenges of daily life in Kingston!


In Scarcity There is Abundance
The word “lack” is one that is troublesome, and the way we use it seems to create its own mischief.

Is there a lack of fresh water in the ocean? It depends on who is asking the question, and the concern depends on how the word is being used. To a human seeking to find drinking water on a desert island, there would certainly seem to be a lack. To an animal that needs salt water to survive, it would not (I suppose.)

Is there a lack of fresh water in the desert? It also depends on who (or what) is doing the asking.

The fact is that the concept of “lack” occurs inside of a context of “wanting more.” This is quite different from accepting the current amount as perfect and complete, exactly the way they are.

How about scarcity?

The word scarcity can be taken to mean the same as “lack.” At other times, scarcity can be used to denote some reality, or near-reality, such as “there is a scarcity of one kind of fish in the sea, relative to the total number of fish.”

But, scarcity is mostly a relative concept.

When I lived in New Jersey, for each and every cold month of the year, I experienced a scarcity of warm weather. For many, however, the summer heat was oppressive (when it came) and they experienced a scarcity of cold weather for each of the months when the temperature rose above 65 degrees. It was all a matter of perspective. I personally don’t complain about an abundance of warm weather… I blame living in Ithaca, NY for 4.5 years for that.

While I lived in the US, most Americans who heard that I lived in Jamaica would share some positive impression they had of the island and expressed a desire to visit and to stay as long as possible. Conversely, most Jamaicans living in Jamaica have said clearly in opinion polls that 80% of them would migrate to the US if given the chance. The fact that this is the same island does not mean that there are similar experiences of the abundance that exists.

Most people, however, regardless of nationality would agree that there is a scarcity of money in their lives.

However, just because there is wide agreement, does not mean that there is not a different experience that is available. Perhaps, a sound place to start would be with the following: “I have the perfect amount of money right now, down to the penny. The Universe (or God) has not made a mistake in giving me more or less than I have at the moment.”

“Furthermore, the Universe will be sending the perfect amount to me within the next 6 months, 6 years or 66 years, or more.”

Is it possible to see that in the acceptance of the perfect amount available to us, that we can see the abundance of everything in front of us?

For example, a child can easily see the abundance of the days left to live life.
An elderly adult can see the abundance of love that is available to her for the rest of her life.

An Eskimo can see an abundance of plants growing in a tropical backyard.
A gardener can see an abundance of weeds in that same yard.

A Jamaican can see an abundance of ganja growing in his country.
The US’ Drug Enforcement Association (DEA) can see an abundance of illegal drugs in the same country.

A resident can see an abundance of crime in the neighborhood, and an abundance of opportunities to make a difference.
A thief can see an abundance of possible criminal acts.

A mystic can see an abundance of Moments of Now.

It seems that an experience of scarcity only exists when there is an inability to accept completely what exists now. When what is, is accepted fully, then abundance is always present.

In Jamaica at the moment, the country has a per capita murder rate that is in the top three in the world (for countries that are not at war.) There is an abundance of murders, and also an abundance of possible contribution to make, and therefore an abundance of opportunities to be continually fulfilled in life.

In Trinidad at the moment, the kidnapping rate continues at the rate of 4 per week (from my memory.) There is an abundance of opportunities to transform the culture that allows that level.

In poverty, there is an abundance of opportunities to make more income. In wealth, there is an abundance of charities to which a significant contribution can be made.

In prison there is an abundance of time to meditate and discover self. In the hot deserts there is an abundance of sand and heat. In the cold deserts there is an abundance of heat and snow.

The point here is that in life, there is an abundance of chances to live life abundantly. In 2 days of life, there is an abundance of chances for an ant to life its life abundantly.

It all depends on the one doing the living, and the context that then gives rise to a particular experience.


Opportunity Needs Space
At the same time, it seems to be true by definition that scarcity can be interpreted as “space.” And, there is no possibility of growth, expansion and learning if there is no “space” within which growth can occur.

Huh? What does that mean?

A plant needs space around it to grow. A person who knows everything cannot be taught anything. A business that has 100% of the market cannot grow its market share. A room full of people cannot expand by adding more people. A country that has conquered the planet becomes the planet, and ceases to be itself. A breakthrough is impossible if everything that there is to accomplish, has been accomplished.

Opportunity, any opportunity, requires that there be space within which to grow. In other words, if scarcity is seen as nothing more than “space,” then opportunity requires scarcity for it to exist.

Without scarcity, there is no opportunity.

In business, a scarcity of poor customer service leads to an abundance of opportunities to differentiate the business on the level of service. In sports, a scarcity of top teams presents an opportunity to improve and to accomplish a high standard. In life, a scarcity of comfort presents an opportunity for spiritual growth. In the world, a scarcity of poverty gives humans an opportunity to experience growth and expansion.

“Scarcity” can therefore be seen as an opportunity, and a prerequisite for growth. To argue that there should always be more, however, is a recipe for madness, and sets up an expectation that life will never meet.

The truth that is so very difficult to remember is that while life is providing the perfect amount of everything, we are the ones driving ourselves crazy with thoughts that it should another way, other than the way it is.

Krisnamuthy, the philosopher, was once once asked what his secret to happiness is. He replied “I accept what’s happening” (paraphrased.)

Someone else also said “A Master prefers what occurs.” In our world, that could be translated as “A Master prefers what he or she has right now.”

Brilliant.









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On Winning Hearts and Minds

A while back, a client asked me what it took to win the hearts and minds of the people in his corporation. This was no theoretical conversation. As a senior manager, he had seen declining morale reflected in internal surveys. While profits were up, the company was seen as an “also ran” in its industry, and had an uncaring, unfeeling image.

Without answering, I said “find something new to be responsible for, and bring closure to it by apologizing for it.”

When I said it, it actually surprised me a bit.

While it’s something that I’ve been thinking about for many years, it struck me that until he asked me, I would not have answered that way before, even to myself. The statement makes no sense, in the normal way of thinking.

Yet, it applied perfectly.

Between the employees and its senior managers there was significant distrust. There were promises made that were broken. Outright lies told. Projects were started with great fanfare and then dropped.

While this kind of things happens in companies all day long, when they happen in public they have a particularly corrosive effect on culture and morale. People refer to them over and over, as the upset that occurred lingers without being addressed or resolved.

The weakest managers try their best to “keep things positive.” They skip over bad news, and focus on the good. Their public utterances are all about how great things are, as they try to look good and make everyone around them feel better.

Unfortunately, relentless optimism only irritates the original upset and deepens mistrust.

The only effective response is to “find something new to be responsible for, and bring closure to it by apologizing for it.”

And here, I’m not talking about the fake, no-apology that politicians and CEO’s are so fond of: “We need to find better ways to get the word out about the good things that are happening in the country / company.” This involves nothing new.

The “something new” could even be a success that has been unacknowledged, but usually leaders have no problem with this kind of communication. It is the failures that are much harder to acknowledge, but these are the ones that employees are the most willing to hear, when they have been fed a steady diet of good news.

The funny thing is, winning hearts and minds involves little more than an ability to “find something new to be responsible for, and bring closure to it by apologizing for it.” It unfailingly gets the attention of even the most ardent critic. An honest good faith effort to make things right is supremely powerful, especially to those who want things to be right, and are even cynical that that will never happen.

Recently, South Africa underwent such a process on a massive scale, involving millions of people. Politicians, soldiers, policemen, “freedom fighters” — they all involved themselves in the process that brought an end to the psychic suffering of all the people of that country.

My sister, who lives in Johannesburg, reports that the mood in the country is one of deep optimism, and she recently moved back to live in South Africa after living for several years in Ghana.

This optimism is to be expected. After all, that’s what happens when anyone takes steps to regenerate a relationship, and this is what it takes to win hearts and minds.

It is ironic – winning hearts and minds has nothing to do with being tough, and everything to do with working to “find something new to be responsible for, and bring closure to it by apologizing for it.”

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On Asking Better Questions

In a couple of speeches given recently, it has struck me that I appear to be learning less and less. I long for the days when I thought I could offer some powerful answers to the questions of the day, and apply some well-thought out conclusions to my audiences.

However, I find myself only being able to come up with questions.

More questions than the average person asks, to be sure, but still more questions than answers. At the start of each of these speeches I told people that I could not promise them solutions. Instead, I promised to share with them some of the questions that my colleagues and I were asking, and some of the answers that were coming up with. Our answers were admittedly partial.

Fortunately, the experiences were interesting and stimulating. It was exciting to share “partial answers” with a large group, and to let them in on the knowledge we are developing as a part of our own discovery process.

To be honest, I did have a concern that I might appear to them to not know what the heck I was talking about, given that I was coming to them with more questions than answers. Supposedly, they wanted me to speak because I know something about the topic, not because I know a bunch of questions.

But, in each case, my fears were unfounded. I found the following.

Intimacy

Sharing the problem and our thinking about the issues allowed people to better understand the issues themselves, as they could relate to the problem. In most cases, they already had done some thinking about the issues. No-one might have gone as far as we did in our thinking. No-one might have asked as many questions as we have. No-one may have been willing to share the partial answers derived.

But I did sense that people wanted to do their own thinking, even if they did it as part of an audience in a group setting.


Partnership

By opening up the issue with our questions, I sensed that they felt included as our partners in coming up with answers. This partnership could be used to get at better answers, if we both engaged in the questions for long enough.


Credibility

Any concern that I had about my own credibility disappeared when I found out that by virtue of the thinking we have done, we were asking better questions than others. I used to think that an expert was someone who had all the answers, but I’m not convinced that a Master is someone who has better questions, taking me back to my days of reading Tony Robbins personal development books.

Expertise can be demonstrated by the kinds of questions that are asked, as they show that the expert has moved from the easy answers to the more difficult ones, and the audience in each case enjoyed the process of learning by asking, versus learning by being told.


I think the days of being respected by having “all the answers” are essentially over – there is too much knowledge available to the average professional through the internet to allow it to continue. Instead, there is a new kind of respect coming from “having all the questions” especially when the mere fact of asking the questions demonstrates courage, conviction and intelligence.

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On Authentic Leadership

In a prior article I addressed the particular corporate creature I had “discovered” called the “High Tone Manager.”

On further reflection, I thought it would be useful if You, Dear Reader, happened to be a High Tone Manager and began to realize it after reading that particular blog. I imagined that you might have been stumped as to what to do about it, and without a clear course of action.

I thought I had found a solution when I found a book at Borders in Miami called “Authentic Leadership.” I quickly scanned through the book and was disappointed as it had none of what I wanted it to have. After “chewpsing” my teeth, I decided that I really needed to write about it, rather than just… “chewps.” (“Chewpsing one’s teeth” is the same as kissing one’s teeth.)

What was I looking for?

There was a particular young, hot-shot senior manager who I met and worked with for a while, who was an outgoing, friendly, gregarious high-flier. He had been promoted rapidly, and in his early thirties had about half of the company reporting to him.

He was a relentless self-promoter, who was deeply invested in looking good, and in his organization looking good, the better for him.

However, after a meeting with him I made this remark: “he needs to have his first big failure.”

Now, lest you accuse me of having “goat mout’,” my intention was not to cause him to fail or to wish him badly. On the contrary, I want him to succeed fabulously, but the kind of learning that he needed to do can only come from failure, and the humility and insight that comes from having to deal with public embarrassment.

This I know from personal experience.

A few years ago I was divorced from my wife of 15 years, and it came as a shock to everyone except our closest 5 or so friends.

Part of what kept me in the marriage for that long, and kept me trying to work things out, and would not allow me to consider the possibility of divorce (while keeping all this hidden from as many people as possible) was shame. I could not bear the public embarrassment about a failure that should not happen to us, or more accurately, to me.

In many ways I was a poster-boy for marriage, and led public personal development programs in Florida for a large company, and in the Caribbean within corporations in which my “testimonial” was largely about how the techniques I was sharing had made a big difference for me in my marriage, first and foremost. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of people had heard how I had worked to turn my marriage around, and many had thanked me for bringing some light into their situation.

A failure of the marriage would bring an end to the heroic story of a couple who had overcome adversity – to my mind.

Now, years later, and now re-married, I can see how much I learned from the experience and how much I’ve grown. It was humbling, and also freeing, to be able to end the pretending and to bring the truth into the open where it could be accepted as fact. In many cases I had to apologize for keeping friends and family in the dark for so long.

In a real sense, I was a “high-tone husband” with respect to my marriage.

Powerful leadership has many of the same traits.

  • Telling the truth.
  • Being authentic.
  • Making things right.
  • Causing reconciliation.
  • Apologizing.
  • Taking responsibility.

But these only make sense when there is a recognized failure that is completely embraced, and completely owned.

Without it, the manager or leader is left like I was – on a high wire act, waiting for the moment of failure to come to expose us in the way we most fear.

The high-tone manager (or politician) is always running hard – trying to pile up enough accomplishments to stay ahead of the public failure that MUST come. Because the failure is seen as catastrophic, he or she must work harder and harder to prevent it, even as it seems to be coming closer and closer. The smile gets wider, the mood gets more upbeat, the jokes get louder, the laughing gets more raucous.

But the hollow feeling only expands in depth.

Until, the truth gets told. Then, the suffering stops. The high wire disappears. The ground is found to be solid. Confidence returns, but instead of the weak confidence that comes from successive positive results, it is a deep confidence that comes when one has weathered failure with character and conviction.

So, my wish for that high-tone manager is something like “many happy failures” because they can be for him, an opportunity to expand who he is for himself and others immensely.

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CSME — Offense or Defense?


In a recent conference on the impact of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) there was a presentation by a representative of CSME. During her presentation it struck me that the reasons being given for the implementation of CSME were defensive rather than offensive.

In other words, the CSME was being formed to protect the region from the adverse effects of being very small countries. It seems that in key negotiations, our territories have suffered from not having sufficient clout in important international negotiations.

In short, CSME will enable us build a trading bloc that will enable our governments to accomplish more.

There is nothing wrong with this rationale, except that it’s all about reacting to circumstances, and attempting to right a weakness.

As a business-person, however, I think that while that objective is a worthwhile one, it doesn’t do a whole lot in the short term for my business.

And this is the challenge — CSME is not being sold with enough of a vision to attract the average man.

I am sure there are people who are creating such a vision, but they are yet to be heard from.

I wonder if this has something to with Federation, and whether it was not fulfilled due to Jamaica’s 1962 withdrawal? Are people feeling that if they create too big a vision for the region, then the old suspicions will be rekindled, and a collapse would ensue?

Or is it that there is a subtle fear that if CSME is too successful, then our countries will be overrun by foreigners from the countries that we are not so fond of?

There needs to be a much more clear vision for the new world that CSME is creating, and I’m going to get the ball rolling by painting the picture for myself.

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Caribbean Time and Jamaica Time


“Jamaica Time” isn’t all that bad, actually.

Once upon a time there was a tourist on a fishing visit to Mexico, who heard about a lake that was well-stocked with edible fish. In a few days, the tourist found himself sitting on the side of the lake, beside a Mexican who was also fishing. He recognized the man from the night before, when he had seen him chatting with his friends over drinks, having a good time relaxing and enjoying their company.

He started chatting with the fellow, in between catches, and as the time passed he realized that he had caught much more fish than he had expected. He was excited, because in all the fishing he had done in his home country, he had never caught this many fish in such a short time.

He asked his new Mexican friend whether this was normal, and he confirmed that, yes, this was always an excellent lake to fish in. He could count on being able to catch enough fish to take to the market to sell each week to meet his expenses, which were not much as he pointed out his modest home on the edge of the lake. He was able to do all this even though he could only afford a single rod and line.

The tourist, who happened to be a successful millionaire and entrepreneur, got even more excited. He said, “Why don’t I help you? I could help you invest in a boat and some equipment, and if we hire the right people, then you could catch enough fish to make some real money!”

The Mexican seemed interested, but a bit confused. “What would I do with all that money?” he asked.

“Oh, then you could really live! You could retire to a nice place in the tropics, and spend time with your friends eating, drinking and fishing each day to your heart’s content. You’d be successful!”

The fisherman sat silently for a while and stared into the sun as it set into the waters of the lake. He replied quietly,

”Why bother? That’s the life I’m living now.”

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This story made me wonder about coming back to live in Jamaica and work in the Caribbean.

Many Americans think I was nuts to live in the US for even one day, when I had a beautiful country to live in and move back to. Of course, most Jamaicans (and especially those that live in the US) are quick to explain that “all that glitters is not gold.”

However, there is a reason that Americans are willing to save up for years to come to Jamaica, and it’s not only because of the flora and fauna.

Part of it has to with how time is felt and experienced in Jamaica.

My wife gave me a clue by asking me a few times “did you get a lot done today?” and “did you have a productive day?”

Now, this is a normal question to ask in the U.S. It’s so normal and everyday that there is no reason to do anything other than answer directly.

However, it sounded strange here in Jamaica and it drove me to think more deeply about what time is for. It’s clear to me that in the US, time is for getting stuff done. It has utility, and its utility has to do with getting tasks done and producing results. It comes in part from viewing a human at work as a factor of production, and as a tool for work.

Time spent talking with others is seen as something to get through quickly, and pleasantries are necessary evils to be dispatched with as soon as it’s polite to do so.

Here in the Caribbean, however, I sense a very different relationship with time. Instead of an obstacle, time is seen and experienced as a resource, but not as a resource to get stuff done, but one in which the gift of life is to be savored and enjoyed to its fullest.

The Mexican fisherman story illustrates the difference to some degree. Time is seen by the tourist as something to be spent to create a future experience. The Mexican is right to question the logic, implying that the joy of retirement could be experienced in this very moment, and not after it has been “earned”.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that a friend of mine passed away. He did so while jumping off his boat at Lime Cay, when his head hit a rock and fractured his spine and skull. He died with those he loved, doing what he loved.

That is, he died in the middle of the activity, probably anticipating the feel of the fresh, cool saltwater on his skin at one of Jamaica’s best getaway spots.

In my time working and consulting in US corporations, there certainly was an overriding feeling that the job one was in at the moment could not possibly be a source of enjoyment and excitement. If anyone loved their jobs, they would hide the act from their colleagues, as that was how cynical these environments had become. Furthermore, anyone who was enjoying their jobs was seen as being “drunk on the Kool Aid” (a reference to the Jim Jones cult suicide of 1979.)

In other words, work and the job were things to be endured and suffered through until there was some relief in the form of retirement, which would be spent visiting places like Jamaica, Barbados or Florida – and that’s when real life would start.

The sad thing is that many Caribbean people buy into this logic when they migrate to the US, Canada and England, where they get lost in the material aspirations of these cultures. One day, they too will return to retire in Jamaica.

It seems to me that one is prepared to work hard, and to invest in one’s career, that that might as well happen here in the Caribbean, where time is seen so differently.

Yes, the pace is slower here, but the truth is, that it only seems slower if the goal is to get a lot of stuff done. If, instead, the goal is to savor each and every moment, as if it were one of the few remaining moments, then the “pace” is irrelevant, and instead the quality of the time spent is seen as the variable to maximize over all others.

From my experience, Trinis and Belizeans are particularly good at this.

They seem to understand that the lime, or the time spent with others, is not just important, but to be prolonged as long as possible. I remember spending time in a Trini lime that went for about 5 hours, of just sitting in a circle and drinking mixed drinks (screwdrivers on my part) while eating snacks.

It would never happen in the US, and it would rarely happen in Jamaica. Belizeans and Trinis are willing to get together to just sit, talk and enjoy each other’s company. To say it differently, they actually plan to spend time together to just… enjoy time together, and nothing else. The food is secondary, turning on the television for the heck of it is thinkable, and taking it all to seriously is unforgivable.

Unfortunately, we in Jamaica are becoming more American – more rushed, more impersonal and more mechanical in our interactions with each other. Somehow, at some point we adopted the North American point of view regarding time, and began to relate to “Jamaica Time” as nothing more than being late.

Perhaps “Jamaica Time” has more to do with using time to savor life. Instead of saying “Sorry I’m late” and giving some excuse related to how busy we are, we might say “I’m on Jamaica Time,” meaning to say “I’m late because I was caught up in savoring my life and the people in it.”

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Who You Are


Blogging seems to have some similarity to me to writing a newspaper column, with one exception: I have real difficulty imagining who you are.

Obviously, the reason I blog rather than just write in a private diary is that I am writing for You, Dear Reader. All I know with absolute assurance at this moment is that you are reading this blog.

Are you a programmer living in New York City, taking a break from crafting some subroutine at 7pm? Are you a newspaper columnist from the Gleaner looking for ideas? Or a cousin of my wife who is trying to catch up with our lives? Or a Trini looking to move to Kingston from Woodbrook in the next month for business? Or a crook looking to see if I slip up at some point and mention my social security number? Or are you some lonely soul who lives in the apartment next door to me who saw me running the other day and has been stalking me ever since (I hope not, because I’m on to you if you exist! )

I suppose that You, Dear Reader, read blogs the way I read them, which is just for the odd moment when something goes click and a connection is made that leaps from my world into Yours. Those odd moments are well worth waiting for, and reading for, and the beauty of blogging is that the jump can happen quickly… without waiting for the book to come out.

And while I’ve met only a few blog readers in person, I imagine that You and I would click if we were to meet in person.

Unless you are a crook or stalker, that is.

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On Transitioning to Work in Jamaica

In the Caribbean Acquisition Project (CAP) one of the issues that surfaced was that of the built in assumption that the Caribbean worker is the same from country to country.

As my wife has been telling me – “It’s one thing to act like we’re all one Caribbean in New York or Miami, and quite another to take over a company in another Caribbean country.” In other words, if there are cultural issues when a company from Antigua takes over one from Barbuda, or one from Nevis takes over one from St. Kitts, or one from Trinidad takes over one from Tobago; then there must be issues when the differences are more significant.

I’ve seen senior executives moved from their home country to new countries in the region, and the only preparation they were given was a map.

There is no Department of Cross Cultural Management Studies at UWI.

Yet, with the advent of CSME, it’s likely that there will be more and more of these kind of executive transfers. At the moment, there is nothing like a “boot camp” to prepare expat executives. What would such a learning experience look like?

  1. It would be built on facts
    Many executives coming to     Jamaica arrive pre-loaded with some combination of the best things imaginable, and the worst.

    Is this an island paradise? Or a breeding ground for hardened criminals? Is it the cradle of reggae and rap music? Or is it a place that encourages violence against gays? Does it have a full, functioning and vibrant democracy, or is it a place where vigilante justice takes place even in high schools? Should the relocation be welcomed, or cursed? Can ackee kill you? Is it safe to eat fruit sold at a stop-light?

    These questions can all be debated by an expat, and should be. Yet, there are hard facts are available to guide a working visitor, and they can be used to help make critical decisions.

  2. It would be experiential
    This could not occur in the classroom only. In the past few years, I was lucky enough take 3 ghetto tours. I took the first in     Soweto, the second in Crossroads and the third in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

    They were all well off the beaten path, and were the highlight of their respective trips. The sights, temperatures, smells and scope of each place were unimaginable from text or video, and today they remain in my memory in a way that will never be lost. I once heard someone say that the most important things in our lives cannot be learned, but they can only be experienced.

    A course for expats would have to put people in contact with other people, and give them a sense of an unfamiliar environment in the host country by immersing them in what might be a somewhat uncomfortable situation. In fact, there would have to be several such experiences. The key would be to manage them in a way that learning is possible, and transforming.

  3. It would be reflective
    Whereas it might seem that the process of learning to operate and manage in a new culture is a matter of learning information, the truth is that no two people experience with a new culture in the same way. In other words, the experience has everything to do with the interaction of two different cultures and not on one culture or the other.

    Also, different people within different cultures interact with new cultures differently, so that, for example, a Black American’s experience of Jamaica would be very different than a white American’s.

    Instead of trying to customize the course to every single possible variation, it’s much more powerful to teach the visitor some tools to understand their own background, and their own blind-spots. They would learn to be reflective in a way that would teach them to understand how they react to unfamiliar situations, and give themselves a chance to respond effectively regardless of whatever new situation they find themselves in.

I think that a course that hits these three elements – fact based, experiential and reflective would be a lot of fun to design, and to conduct for real-life people.