View recession as opportunity

In fact, current economic conditions might present a huge opportunity for expansion.

He gave this insight to students on Monday at Scotiabank Insights, a motivational programme of the bank, held at The Teaching and Learning Complex at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus.

Professor Ramroop said businesses can do this by looking for markets abroad, using his own company Maurice Sedwell, on London’s famous Savile Row as an example.

He said he bought the company in 1988 but in the early 1990s, the UK went into a deep recession, almost a depression and that is when he expanded his business by looking for customers and markets abroad.

He said that at the time the company was only exporting one or two percent but now it exports 70 percent of suits to customers in 60 countries. He made the point that his suits are luxury items, high quality bespoke suits costing ?6,000 each (TT$60,000). “They are expensive but are affordable for people who can afford it.” Ramroop, originally from Maingot Road in Tunapuna, migrated to the United Kingdom at 17 to pursue his dream of becoming a master tailor. At the event, he detailed many problems encountered getting started in the trade both as a young man in TT and in London before breaking into the exclusive “tailoring mile” - Savile Row - as a black person.

He told the students, some of whom came from Servol’s Beetham Life Centre, that they should never give up their dreams despite whatever problems they might encounter.

Eventually he did succeed in getting a job with one of the tailoring businesses on the street and went on to buy the shop, becoming the first black man to own a business on Savile Row. Ramroop was honoured by the Queen with an Order of the British Empire (OBE ) in 2008. He told his youthful audience that if they have the confidence, passion and will to succeed they should think of themselves as a business.

He said all the people who had turned him down before he succeeded, were actually preparing him for his future. “Anyone who says ‘no’ to you is driving you on,” he said.

Entertainer and radio host Rodell Cumberbatch, who is also Chief Executive Officer of his own production company, Blu Moon Productions, also made a presentation on his achievements and served as Master of Ceremonies for the event.