Reflections – Southern Region Mini Conference in Barbados

IABC Barbados created another piece of history on Friday Sept. 27 when it hosted one of the mini conferences in the Southern Region Conference series.  Due to conflicting commitments at PRMR Inc.  I was only able to take in just a half of this historic event, but by the time I arrived the tone of the event had already been set.

From my enquiries I discovered that Andre Bello, one of the morning presenters had swept away the audience of predominately females, he could have done this on appearance alone but having seen the gentlemen present a while back at another IABC Barbados event, I knew it was not just his charm that had everyone in awe.  Only today I was reading a blog by Drake Baer on Fast Company which explored Sir Richard Branson’s view on hiring, it quoted him as saying that the most crucial part of a hire is the personality. “Most skills can be learned,” he says, “but it is difficult to train people on their personality.”  Bello is living proof that Branson practices what he preaches. Click to Read More

Business Ethics: Where Do You Draw the Line?

As an independent contractor, my company, PRMR Inc., has the opportunity to work in a variety of industries with diverse groups of clients, including for-profit, not-for-profit, entrepreneurial, regional and international businesses.

In carrying out our business, we are often faced with ethical decisions that may clash with the demands of clients or affect the services that we are expected to deliver. For example, we may be building a website for a client who expects us to use images that have been taken from another site without that site’s permission. After telling the client that we are not willing to do so and explaining why, we are told that other companies that they have worked with had no problem with it. The client implies that in acting ethically, we are inept and unresourceful.  Read More

Of Publics, Perception and Reality Cont'd

Discussion 3.

Having dealt with the perception of Sir Roy based on his controversial May Day 2012 comments and historical vantage points in my last blog I now continue this topic with the toughie, which is the public’s perception of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.  I have found Prime Minister Stuart to be one Barbados’ most honest and thoughtful Prime Ministers.  The public however perceives his biggest strengths as his biggest weaknesses.  For instance persons were horrified (including me) when he called Leroy Parris his friend (the former Chairman of Clico Holdings Barbados and certainly the most unpopular person on the island because of the CLICO collapse and the many policies and pensions left in jeopardy including one belonging to yours truly). READ MORE

PR for Public Relations

In Barbados, in secondary school we are required to select subjects early; know and stick to a particular career path, all at the tender age of 13 or 14 despite having no world experience and certainly as the old people would say ‘never even seen a star pitch.’ For students like I was, who were unsure what they wanted to do but felt uncompelled to follow a traditional career as a lawyer, doctor or accountant; this decision probably did not come until late.  Read More