Ronald Patience Visionary leader behind CCA

The company celebrated its 40th anniversary this past Saturday (November 19) at the House of Angostura, Eastern Main Road, Port-of-Spain. While Patience died in 2015 due to complications related to leukaemia, the beloved man, and his business achievements, were very much in focus during the event.

Addressing scores of family, staff, customers and business associates, CCA’s Managing Director, Sean Patience, credited four “key lessons” for his father’s success in growing the business from a freight forwarder into an internationally-recognised, full service company that provides freight forwarding, logistics and consolidation to and from TT for customers large and small.

“How did Ronald do it? How did he manage to win business and grow CCA? I watched him for many years before joining the business myself and I learned some key lessons: 1) Always have integrity in business; 2) Have a passion for what you do; 3) Create a clean, comfortable, work environment and supply the necessary tools to get the job done; and 4) If you have a good idea, visualise it and do it!” Sean noted that if his father wanted to do something, if he had a vision of how to expand CCA’s services, Patience found a way to do it.

“Take for example, our LCL (Less than Container Load) service, which we run from our Point Lisas office.

Ronald wanted to do LCL exports because he recognised a need in the market. So, what did he do? Without any contract or promise of business, he leased a warehouse and a forklift, bought a truck and hired a manager and said, Go! That was back in 1992.

Today, CCA exports between 20 to 40 LCL containers per month. That’s the kind of guy he was.” CCA’s mission statement, “To provide customers with the highest quality service, at the most competitive pricing, whilst at the same time ensuring a win-win situation for both our customers and ourselves”, sums up how Patience did business.

Sean and his cousin, Peter Patience; Director of Business Development at CCA, both credited this with the company’s ability to survive and thrive over the past four decades in an ever-changing business landscape.

Speaking with Business Day on the sidelines of the festivities, Peter said, “Ronald was a visionary. He saw that there was a need for this type of service and as he grew the business, as customers asked for additional services, Ronald would develop them.

We have continued in that and over the last few years, we’ve added new services, including Third-party Logistics (3PL).” “In the last 10 years CCA has been handling major projects for our Petrochemical customers including Full Charters of planes to move cargo, Vessel/ Ship Charters, and a host of other Critical Shipment services. We even have teams who are on-call 24 hours a day when our customers have a Rig-Down or Plant-Down situation.” Patience was diagnosed with leukaemia about three years prior to his death and being a man known for having things in order, around the same time, succession planning saw Sean and Peter formally taking over the day-to-day operations of CCA.

Peter recalled having “three years of running the business ourselves but still having Ronald to bank on. He went too soon but we learned a hell of a lot from him.” “The one thing that I tell my staff, that I learned from my uncle as well as from my own experiences is, ‘Always try to understand what the customer wants.’ Ask yourself, ‘What is the customer looking for? What are they expecting?’ If you can understand that well enough, then you know what to give to them and if you know what you need to give to them, then everybody’s going to be happy.” Sean meanwhile described his late father as, “A thoughtful guy who would always think things through.” “Sometimes we didn’t see all of his background work, so we thought, ‘Wow. He knew what to do all the time.’ It was very hard to follow in my dad’s footsteps; he had a lot of experience in the freight industry but he would pass on the knowledge.” “His biggest lesson, for me,” Sean added, “was to always strive for integrity in business and to always have an open-door policy. In as much as we are trying to emulate him, you have to do it your own way, blaze your own trail and make it work in your unique way while still holding true to the values that he established the company with.” In 2013, CCA fully computerised all of its operations so that it could better meet customer demand for timely updates on their freight movement. Keeping with the need to be easily accessible, CCA has a Facebook page; www.facebook.com/ cargoconsolidators/, in addition to its website; www.cargotrinidad.com.

All of this takes time and dedication to excellence but Sean told Business Day Patience was never an absentee father to his three children; Sean, Kristian and Maresa.

“He was very, very family-oriented.

In the beginning, I don’t think I knew how much work he did but he was always home on an afternoon, always playing with us kids, and he’d always take vacation. Even though he had a lot of responsibility, our dad would always make time for his family, to spend time with us.” Sean recalled that as they grew up and began thinking about career paths, Patience both encouraged his sons and daughter to join CCA and to pursue their dreams.

“He encouraged us to come into the business but at the same time, he told us to do what our hearts desired. I did that for a few years before I rejoined the business; I flew helicopters offshore for nine years.

It was very good, I was a captain but I was drawn back into the company and I thought, ‘I could make it work, I could do this’ and here I am. It’s a little more stressful at times but I like it, I really do enjoy what I do,” Sean said.

His siblings are not directly involved with the company but the Executive Management team includes two of his mother’s (Vivienne Patience) brothers; Jude Xavier – Operations Manager and Phillip Xavier – Manager of HR, Finance and Insurance.

Speaking about the family-run CCA, Peter told Business Day that, “In line with our wealth of experience, Jude and Phillip are key to our success as they provide a deep understanding of CCA’s business and its background. They’ve both been with the company for decades and spent many years helping Ronald get the business to where it is.” Phillip Xavier was among the five CCA employees who were honoured last Saturday for long service contributions to the company.

The full list is as follows:
Anne Rahim – 25 years
Phillip Xavier – 20 years
Nalini Mohansingh – 15 years
Shellyann Paul – 10 years
Hidaasha Maharaj – 10 years