Howard Mitchell, former president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and distinguished entrepreneur, is a man that when he speaks, people of substance keenly listen.

Some say he is a provocateur but it would be more precise to say that he is given to dispelling the unvarnished truth supported by data.

Howard Mitchell was one of the special guest speakers at the launch of the Amber/UTech Launchpad, an initiative designed to help Jamaican entrepreneurs get started. The idea is to create 100 entrepreneurs in 1000 days.

Below is Howard Mitchell’s full address: 

Good evening.

My invitation from [University of Technology] president Dr Kevin Vrown encouraged me to share aspects of my experience as a business leader with you, and, therefore, I am compelled to depart from my habitual outpouring of criticism for the political directorate and our political system, which, considering that my friend, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is here, is a wise and prudent course of action for me to take.

I am deeply honoured to be a part of this initiative and I congratulate Ambassador Dushyant Savadia, the Amber Group and the University of Technology for taking a bold and absolutely necessary step to accelerate the development of our country with an acute focus on entrepreneurial education at his most vital level.

Entrepreneurship is a process of taking risks and of failing sometimes…and unfortunately, our fellow Jamaica continue to see failure as we stigamise those who have the vision and courage to take those risks.

We perhaps too often view them as reckless or foolhardy or stupid and not recognise their boldness and courage.

As an entrepreneur myself, I have come to realise that as Winston Churchill said…’Success is final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts‘.

I am deeply encouraged by the initiative being launched here today and, as a member of the private sector that stands to benefit tremendously from the success of this venture, I want to pledge and put on record my support and willingness to help in whatever way I can.

We in the private sector are often quite happy to sit back and put all the responsibility for national development on the shoulders of the State and to say, often not quite truthfully ‘We pay our taxes, the Government must do [its] job’.

A favourite topic nowadays is the shortage of labour, skilled and unskilled. We complain we cannot get people to work for us, that when we do get workers, they don’t stay with us or their productivity is low and their work ethic is poor. Much of this is true. But we must, as leaders, ask why?

When I was chairman of the Mona School of Business & Management, I was horrified to hear that almost 50 per cent of its graduates migrated soon after graduation. As chairman of the Island Grill Group, I see the turnover rate in the food and restaurant sector and hear the laments of the inability to retain workers in the lower categories of employment.

The problem has existed for decades and is now reaching proportions of crisis.

This is not to say that attempts have not been made to address the issues of productivity, work ethic and worker satisfaction.

From 2003, the Jamaica Productivity Centre has been striving to deal with some of these issues. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security is fully seized of the challenges and international agencies such as the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) have put in place programmes for apprenticeship and productivity to address the crisis but the decline continues.

There is no question that we start at a disadvantage because of this openness of our small economy, because of our historically poor management of our socioeconomic affairs and because developed countries plunder our human capital at will.

Similarly, we are all aware of the severe inadequacies of our education system; of the irrelevancies of much of our training and we know that it takes time and resources to change things.

Our education system in increasingly inadequate to turn out people with the skill sets needed in a modern economy.

The linked challenges of controlling costs and maintaining quality, relevance and utility are overwhelming some universities and colleges globally. Universities are, therefore, seeking to survive in several ways and UTech must choose a path that fits Jamaica’s policy directions and our growth model and that choice should be made now!

Because for the first time in a long time, we have capable fiscal management by our State; profitability is returning to much of our economy and the State is moving to address the inadequacies of training in many of its educational institutions.

In those circumstances is it not time for the private sector to increase its attention to ‘on the job’ training? To provide budgets for training their employees? Should this not be a priority item in annual budgets to upskill our very own staff and to improve the working conditions of our human capital—to establish performance-based pay so as it incentivise them to stay in our companies and in Jamaica?

One of the reasons why I agreed to speak here today was that Amber Group has in the past stepped out to establish technical training opportunities for our young people and I congratulate them for that. I am aware that some of these opportunities have not been altogether successful but they were made in good faith. And hopefully, lessons will be learnt by Amber and the participants from the experiences and benefits can be salvaged for both sides.

That, my friends, is what entrepreneurship and progress is about. That is how we retain our people here in Jamaica and empower them with the skills needed to preserve and grow personally and professionally… A result from which, selfishly, we will all benefit!

I often ponder how, in the midst of the complaints about high turnover rates of employees and low productivity, companies like Sandals, Knutsford Express, Sagicor Group, CARIMED Group, Spur Tree Spices, JMMB and GraceKennedy manage to consistently produce good results. How the National Baking Company manages to maintain much lower percentage of employee turnover and much higher productivity than the national standard? They must be doing something differently from the rest of us.

Is it because they have recognised the value of human capital and the constant need for its development?

And I call names at the risk of making enemies but omelettes are not made with unbroken eggs. I often hear how companies will go out of business if they spend more money on the working conditions of their employees.

If it is that they depend on the exploitation of their human capital to be successful then perhaps and objective study would reveal that some of them should not be in business anyway!

And while I am on the topic of objective studies and standards of working conditions, another Budget Debate has been opened, another Throne Speech has been made and there has been no mention of Parliamentary consideration of the six-year-old Marshall Hall Labour Reform Commission report. Again, we must, as private sector leaders, ask why.

A national effort to increase productivity needs national understanding. The Marshall Hall report needs to be tabled and discussed in Parliament, in the board rooms, on TV, on social media, on radio and on the street. This is must be a nationally consistent, unrelentingly focused conversation.

We suffer from a ‘national avoidance syndrome’. It absolutely a cultural tendency to ignore the 600-pound gorilla in the room until in threatens to squash us and then we go to another room.

Ladies and gentlemen, speaking of 600-pound gorillas in the room…

I personally support the free movement of labour. I have noted the call for the importation of skilled and unskilled workers into our island and while I am not opposed to the idea in principle, I caution that it should be based on careful study and should not disenfranchise either those of our workers in jobs and in need of skills nor those of the approximately 700,000 of our citizens or 50 per cent of our potential workforce who chose not to be employed in structured activity but prefer to scam or hustle or engage in illegal or quasi-legal activity in order to live.

I doubt that it could ever be our intention to proceed to Vision 2030 in this manner. If that is so, then it will be Vision 2080!

We need smart collaboration among the institutions and agencies of our country in a way that I personally have not seen before but which is absolutely essential! And I encourage the private sector and the State to work together closely on this issue!!

In closing, I want to again congratulate UTech, Ambassador Dushyant Savadia, the Amber Group and all who have contributed to this wonderful initiative. I wish you Godspeed and every success. I thank you for your patience and tolerance in listening to me and hope that what I have said will encourage dialogue rather than diatribe; that it will encourage us to ask and answer the right questions for the good of our country.