ON?ITS?OWN, entrepreneurship cannot be the solution to the growth problem facing Caribbean economies, according to Professor Miguel Carrillo, executive director of the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business who specializes in innovation and strategy.
“We have to understand that entrepreneurship is not just about new ventures,” he said in an interview with BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Rather, the professor said, the focus should be on innovativeness and international growth potential.
“Anyone can create a new business but not any entrepreneur can make it grow,” he said, noting that very few Caribbean businesses are growing at a fast pace.
Ventures rare
“Very few, as well, have high international growth potential. Those are the ones which are going to make the country grow. Those kinds of ventures are very, very [rare],” Carrillo said.
He added that companies should also offer something unique to the public.
“The problem in the Caribbean is not in our capacity to create new business but to create business which will grow and grow fast,” he said.
Carrillo said the objectives of any company should be “to grow, to keep growing, to accelerate growth, to make growth sustainable and profitable and to create social, economic and environmental value”.
“If a company is not growing, it’s dying. As with any species, if you’re not growing, it means that there is a predator that’s taking care of you or you are not adjusting to changes in the environment,” he said. (NB)
