Decisions needed to face FTAA challenge or else...

As we approach the FTAA, the debate continues as to what the challenges would be for emerging economies such as ours. One thing for certain is that jobs will be lost in certain sectors, but at the same time opportunities will be created in others. I am not here to tell you about the merits or demerits of the FTAA since the implications have been well established.

However, it is imperative that small businesses — and in the global scheme of things many of us are small — be prepared for these opportunities. What then would it take? As with any change, companies must scan the environment to determine what the potential threats and challenges are. However, beyond the traditional SWOT analysis or any other variation of it, companies must surgically examine the fundamental operations of each and every aspect of the business. Where is value added? Who are the key contributors and who are the detractors? The key contributors must be rallied and motivated to continue the surgical and clinical approach to ensure that each unit is profit generating, justifying its existence, really. Well there are several suggestions that I can think of for the detractors. Essentially the FTAA will impact on the current business reality by changing the framework in which we do business. As such companies need to identify and map out a future that would be created by the coming together of the Americas and the opening up of economies to aggressive multi-nationals. Further to this, companies would need to locate their business on that map and assess its resilience to the exigencies of this future market.

In some cases, it may mean a total re-jigging of the companies thrust based on strategic competitive analysis. Will the market that you are currently in become saturated in a free trade environment? Are you large enough, with sufficient economies of scale to smooth out any increased cost incurred to sustain your business? Being number one in a small market takes on a completely different perspective when the big players enter the ball game. Preparing for competition will also mean, assessing your technology base. Information Technology is one of the areas in which companies, particularly small companies struggle. Whether it is setting up and maintaining a meaningful and interactive website or operating a complete inventory management system, technology will drive the transformation of small businesses operating in a local market to Caribbean-based businesses operating in a sophisticated global market-space. It appears though, that small businesses are challenged to find IT structures at affordable rates and reliable service. Nonetheless, small businesses need to find a way to successfully integrate best IT practices into its operations in order to become more responsive to the market demands.

However, technology is only as adequate as the people behind the technology, which begs the question of the competencies of the team members of the business. Notice I have referred to team members and not staff. Companies are fast recognising that employees need to be part of the “team.” Cross-functionalism is critical as is multi-tasking. The fight for resources must be managed if not eliminated since useful hours wasted on internal battles for resources could cost the small company time that could be allocated to the preparation of proposals for major contracts. As such it is important to know how much on board are members of the company and do they possess the required skills and training to meet the requirements of a vastly changing business environment. Where are the new knowledge base workers? How structured are companies to facilitate the development of the minds of their employees. The brain is perhaps the most competitive weapon in this new knowledge era. Indeed the minds of individuals are only limited by the experiences that persons have had. Surely people rarely see and understand beyond the choices they make. As small businesses in an emerging economy on the cusp of the FTAA, are we creating the sum of experiences that would arm our employees with the mind power to create and innovate systems, structures and strategies to compete?

What are our choices for ourselves, our businesses and the people we lead? Can we go past our own day-to-day reality and understand the choices of others, particularly as they target our regional market? Why is the Caribbean attractive? What do we have to offer that puts us in a strategically competitive advantageous position? How can we re-organise our business to tap into the chain or operations either upstream or downstream of major industry players that would view the Caribbean as an ideal location? What are the hot business areas that we should be focusing on? Leisure and Tourism? Telecommunications? Sport Tourism? Fast Moving Consumer Goods? Information technology? These are just some of the questions small businesses would need to answer as they develop a strategy to deal with the approaching FTAA.

Lisa Wickham (MBA) is the managing director of Vision Marketing Caribbean Co Ltd.