Building Corporate Competency in Dominica

“…We need to build a national competency…” so says Mr. CB (09/04). I think we are seen as a country of primary school students with the latest scientific calculator and no manual, and the result is an increase in consultant imports. Home grown consultants are sprouting, but not fast enough to take on the national work load. One would have thought their 15-25 year tenure at companies X, Y, Z would have taught them a thing or two about pricing.

“I set as the goal the maximum capacity that people have, I settle for no less. I make myself a relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings”, Benjamin Zander. When I first heard this quote, I dug deep into my archive of personalities (you have one too) that have spurred me on, one way or another. And, not one had the characteristic of “relentless”, (opps! My parents) and I doubt that I or you will ever understand that term in its practical application.

Companies fail to empower their employees, in fact, management fails at empowering themselves. Two and four years later, companies with a staff of thirty were to late in realizing that employee X had a knack for figures, and would outsource their services part-time. The company did very little to investigate employee competencies, and did even less to harness these competencies for positioning the company as a company for tomorrow. An additional $5000 to keep these employees was preposterous, instead, that money had to be used in securing brand named consultancy with a template approach for a new Dominica future.

Secretaries sit at their desks bored, hungry Sales Clerks are like lions pumped with morphine, aspiring officers retract in a shell they call a career and hope the company can still bleed and offer their children an education, and it goes on and on. You have under appreciated and under utilized employees desperate to make a difference in their company. But they are stifled by the pillow of “fear of management”, or by insane accounting that is fixated by a $10 increase in expenses.

Most employees are looking for an exit, wanting to earn and accomplish beyond their employed asylum. Twenty years at company X, and you are now a manager but limited to department V, trained under department V, unable to move horizontal or vertical because you are depart V only material. Our Dominican companies are decaying with employees who care only about themselves and the next pay check, who want a raise for everything, and who display the worse type of work etiquette today (and really, can you blame the poor souls).

The largest part of investing for the future is investing in your employees. Equipping your employees with the competencies for tomorrow rather than today is that probable emotional decision that will keep them another two years cleaning your dump. Inspiring them, trusting in their ability to contribute effectively on the Balance Sheet, and labeling them as the future of your company is beyond the realm of management (its something else).

So the “relentless” architect was in pursuit of what? Go back to primary and secondary school and remember. Remember when; teachers gave their afternoons so that the entire class could pass Common Entrance or CXC, or when you got an “A” and all you got was a “Silver Star”, because 95%-100% was the only “Gold Star”. Your teachers worked relentlessly (the good ones) with you, because today you remember their names. They were relentless, they challenged your potential, they are the foundational architects of who we are today. I’d wish I understood back then why Mr. Wilson was so hard on me (what it was he was trying to communicate = because now its abundantly clear). It’s sad that 99% of students today will never embrace the message.

Employees are herded in routine tasks, preached to about the merits of team building and towards the later end of the financial period, their superiors scramble for answers. Teams in the sports industry have a hard time keeping its’ members, so how are multi skilled employees in a non-decentralized Caribbean company going to pull together when the MVP player of that company has been the manager for the last 180 months?