General Manager (IBM Jamaica)

Jamaica, as well as other countries in the region, is working to promote and attract foreign investment.What would you say are Jamaica’s competitive advantages compared to other countries in the region?

The first ones are our physical location, deep harbours and English speaking people. We also have a large pool of skilled and easily trained work force. Unlike some countries, our goodwill from longstanding relationships and significant trade opportunities/laws, allow us opportunities to ship from Jamaica. It is a summation of all these strengths that makes Jamaica really presents itself as a strong location possibility for the benefiting from significant participation in the logistics trade as a real value chain contributor. With the good relations we have with many countries, many desirous of seeing Jamaica return to economic health and strength, we are getting lots of attention and support through the work that the government is doing as well in developing key understandings and partnerships to benefit all.

IBM has been ranked as one of the largest and profitable technology and consulting corporations in the world.What would you say makes IBM such a successful company?

I have worked for IBM for 26-27 years and what I have seen that makes this company different is its desire to make a difference to the world. Nobody signs you up and says come and make a difference to the world but once you get on board and you see the things that IBM does to stay in front, to innovate and to change ourselves, which are doing again right now with where technology is going - but not just for technology sake. We look at how businesses, people and the planet can benefit so it’s our insatiable appetite to contribute to the world and all of its capabilities from an innovative and technology perspective in a meaningful way.

The technology and consulting industry is fiercely competitive. What are IBM Jamaica’s competitive advantages compared to other major players in the sector?

What differentiates IBM in Jamaica is that we are a branch office of the IBM World Trade Organisation and not a separate company that is trying to represent IBM. So all the technology, consulting and Software innovation, and all that’s available through IBM around the world is available through this office here in Jamaica. There’s a matter of relevance but the point is that we are part of worldwide IBM, rather than being a vendor. This means that our trained folks get the same training that anyone in IBM elsewhere gets in understanding what we do, what we are about and how we should take that and leverage it in the marketplace. So I think that’s the number one advantage and we, like anyone else, go for a certain calibre of educated persons and our task really is to stay ahead of our customer in what’s available today and to see how all of IBM can be leveraged.

Innovation is essential for the long-term survival of any company especially those in an industry like IT. Does IBM Jamaica incorporate innovation into its work through, for example, research and development?

We are a selling branch and a service branch so our job is to engage directly with clients and to bring the solutions that IBM has to the table. As a result, no R&D is specifically done here.

I don’t think that there’s anything that we do that you would say only in Jamaica. We work with the same cadre of business partners that we have available elsewhere as they are very important to us in the delivery of solutions. We will lead with IBM Solutions, and work with our partner solutions, where appropriate,  to integrate and complete solutions for our clients to help them to achieve what they are trying to achieve.

Is IBM involved in Jamaica’s logistics hub initiative?

IBM actually is quite a player in logistics World Wide. We have what we call a Centre of Competency where we reach out to and employ industry experts who work at IBM, but would have had both IBM and Industry experience working with major players in the Industry. So IBM has significant interest in participating in, and supporting, the activity for the development of the hub here in Jamaica. It’s not a very known fact here in Jamaica but if you got to the bottom of it you would be very surprised at the amount of capabilities that IBM actually has on the Digital and on the Consulting side, which are two major areas of development needs for our Logistics Hub initiative to succeed. We don’t build ships or pour cement but we try to innovate around how these can work better in a smarter world. Many of the initiatives that IBM has going today, are applicable to a hub, for example, the management of data, data analysis and our Internet of Things. We have tonnes of solutions and capabilities in those areas to support what the hub is trying to achieve.

Is that a niche that IBM has in terms of logistics?

If you compare IBM to other technology companies, absolutely. The word is definitely out there about IBM and some of its capabilities. We have met with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, and with other important ministries who will contribute and lead to the success of Jamaica; participated in events with the Chamber of Commerce and have had discussions with the American Chamber of Commerce on our capabilities. IBM absolutely sees the opportunity in the logistics hub. We have since presented IBM as a viable and substantial company with capabilities and experience to match our interests in helping the logistics hub to become a reality.

With the logistics hub initiative, Jamaica is bound to welcome an increased number of business people. This could only benefit IBM in Jamaica. Is the company working to promote Jamaica in any way?

A number of the major companies coming into Jamaica would come already with existing partnerships. IBM may help some of them to make the decision that Jamaica is the best location for them because that’s one of the practices that we have in our consulting arsenal. We will work for big companies, like we do with Governments, to help determine best plant locations for production and other significant infrastructure to support the manufacturing, value add in the chain of delivery towards end products and end users. IBM can also work with a country like Jamaica, and through technologies like data analytics, impact approach towards favoured industries which are best suited for our location because of key factors mentioned earlier.

So from your experience, which would you say are the best sectors to invest in in Jamaica?

I’m not an investment advisor but certainly for companies looking to get into the Caribbean, South America and North America, and for those wanting to take advantage of east-west significant trade potential, there’s an opportunity in Jamaica. Given the new paradigm of logistics and near shoring, which is how quickly can you deliver your product, Jamaica becomes a good location to take an order and deliver a product quickly to North or South America. If you use the same modes of transport, the distance is shorter from Jamaica so the delivery time will be much less. We also have the added advantage that if there is the requirement to deliver to somewhere that’s not on a port, instead of delivering to the port and clearing and trucking to somewhere, you can take those goods from Jamaica, put them on a plane and drop them in Charlotte. So for near shoring and goods that can’t bear long delivery times without heavy refrigeration, Jamaica becomes a great location. There’s an opportunity in pharmaceuticals because of the amount of waste that will happen if something happens on the high seas while you’re shipping them.

There are also opportunities for companies that cater to markets that are slightly differentiated. Light manufacturing and assembly of goods become an extremely interesting possibility - you will get what you want faster and exactly how you want. If you are delivering to North America maybe they need the goods on hangers, whereas if you’re delivering to South America maybe they need them in a box. So a lot of customization of goods, assembly and value added can take place here in Jamaica.

BPO/call centres are part of the movement of information. With good internet connectivity and communication connectivity to the mainland, Jamaica is a very interesting prospect for BPO services especially because we have well educated, English-speaking persons who can take on high-end BPO services in, for example, medicine and accounting. So with our people, technology, location and time zone, we are very attractive for BPO and much more than just taking stuff out of boxes.

You’ve been with IBM 26-27 years. What is the biggest and most important lesson that you have learnt over this time?

Customer service. Customer first, IBM second and then the business comes. Also through training and understanding the solutions that we can bring value to your clients but it’s absolutely customer first and understanding our clients’ businesses so it’s training, training, and training.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an invaluable way to give back to the communities in which you work as well as your hard working personnel. What CSR projects is IBM engaged in?

We have done different things in education, which is where we are focused. We participate with the University of the West Indies in supporting partial funding to help manage the university costs for a few students. In the past we have done things with Edna Manley Art School. Over the last 2 years we have also done some projects with I think 12 basic schools, providing them with computer technology and enabling the teachers to understand what the programs were about and how to use them to address maths, reading and writing. We think it was a success so we want to move onto different programs so we are trying to keep pace. Our focus right now is really on how can we extend our continued participation through impacting the education industry.

We continue to look for innovative ways in participating and differentiating our involvement.

The readers of Harvard Business Review include the world’s most influential business and political leaders. What message would you like to send them about Jamaica?

Jamaica is known for its beauty and recreation but we want to make it be known also for business as so many things are being done. In the past, less so now, persons coming to Jamaica, their peers’ initial thoughts may have been “Oh you are going to have fun” but we actually do have many companies who need professionals to help them to do what they need to do. So it’s serious work and business here in Jamaica. Jamaica needs to get that open for business sign out there so people are very aware that Jamaica is open for business not as a political statement but as a country where I live and my family live because they are going to be here and Jamaica is a great place. I’ve travelled and I haven’t found anywhere like Jamaica so that’s why I haven’t left.

How does IBM help to get that message across to the international community?

We have been here over 60 years. We are committed to Jamaica so we don't have any plans to pull out. We are committed with full IBM employees and are a full business office with a focus on sales and service to our clients. We plan to be here to support what is happening and we go for our best resources just like anywhere else to bring value. We do a lot of work in many industries, in fact the two largest sectors that we participate in are government and financial services so you will find that we are installed one way or another in all of the financial institutions and are a major part in many. So for us it’s supporting the businesses that are here with all that IBM has to offer. Right now we are reinventing ourselves again and are talking to our customers about cloud not as a technology but as part of an innovative way for their businesses to grow and be successful. We also engage our clients in regards to analytics, big data projects, mobile solutions, social and security so we are focused on all of these things at the moment. We have events that we use to educate them. We bring experts here to have one-on-one meetings and we keep ourselves on the forefront of what IBM is doing and bring the relevance of it to our clients here in Jamaica so that they can take advantage of it.