Whatever else we may do in this country to alleviate our economic position, the point is always made that we should encourage entrepreneurs and the establishment of small enterprises. This call underscores the critical importance of business to our community and indeed to our political system.
Sometimes in the hurly-burly of our existence we tend to take business for granted, and we assume that it is just a question of making money that is involved. But two recent items of business news late last week underscore the kind of constant forward thinking that must always occupy the mind of the entrepreneur if he is to proact to the changing marketplace.
Swan Street merchant Mousa Moses disclosed last Thursday that after 52 years his establishment was closing and that Barbados might be seeing the end of medium-sized businesses such as his. He also remarked that after his closure there would be only two fabric stores remaining on Swan Street.
Mr Moses and merchant entrepreneurs of his kind deserve our applause for the significant economic and social contribution they have made to our country. They came to our shores and filled a very real need at a time in our social history when many of our indigenous were not minded, or able, to become involved in the retail trade.
That the economy has moved on is evidenced by the decision of Mr Moses and his sons to diversify into a new type of retail business, and the plan appears to be one of turning the property into a mall or leasing it.
A quick glance at the latest financial report of Cave Shepherd & Co Ltd shows the value of being proactive; for what started life as a department store has now morphed into a company with holdings in a number of diverse enterprises.
It holds substantial shareholdings in Duty Free Caribbean Holdings, Colombian Emeralds International, Fortress Fund Managers Limited, Signia Financial Group, DGM Bank & Trust and Bridgetown Cruise Terminals.
It is this kind of forward thinking that may fuse a symbiotic relationship between the corporate sector and the Government because the investment of private, sometimes borrowed, capital in business ventures provides social benefits of increased employment and taxes for the national treasury.
All democratic governments therefore have a responsibility to frame an enabling policy environment within which our companies, whether small or large, domestic or foreign, can plan their investments, pay decent wages, and yet make reasonable profits.
Business enterprises such as the Moses Group and Cave Shepherd & Co Ltd bear remarkable testimony to the business acumen of their respective managers, for their survival must have involved an accurate reading by them of shifting economic times and policy initiatives.
Uncertainty of Government policy can be the bane of successful business planning in any economy, for the entrepreneur alone suffers the most grievous embarrassment and loss of face and investment if the business fails.
Particularly in a recession, a Government must send crystal clear signals of its policies, for the example of these two enterprises shows that businesses can adapt to and survive fluctuating economic events once policy is clear.