THERE IS LITTLE consensus about what should constitute “Brand Barbados”, says ambassador to CARICOM `Robert “Bobby” Morris.
Speaking during the inaugural Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants (Barbados Chapter) lecture and panel discussion earlier this month, he said it was important for everybody to be on the same page regarding the country’s brand positioning internationally.
“If you had to look at Barbados as concentric circles of knowledge creators or producers and users and operatives, it would be `a very small circle somewhere `in the centre that creates anything, that produces `anything in a meaningful way.
“Then there’s another band `of knowledge operatives waiting for you to give them instructions and there is a wide group out there that don’t belong to this knowledge thing at all [and `they are] totally dependent `and have to be carried,” he said.
Morris said these groups generated different views, attitudes and perspectives, preventing the kind of “gelling” that could improve the country.
“What you’re finding now `is that you’re going to get `some extremes therefore `within the brand.
“There will be some groups `that don’t even identify with Barbados at all and will seek `to bring it down and their `actions are actions that have `to be checked very carefully.
“We have to make sure that rather than getting that diversity that we bring people closer `to a centre of what constitutes Brand Barbados,” he said.
Morris added that this lack `of integration was also evident within CARICOM.
“CARICOM is really a grouping of sovereign nations that are `said to be in an integration process but they think more like sovereign nations most of the time than they think of themselves `as a collective,” he said. (NB)
