Dr Ju­dith Mark

Over the last decade, un­pre­dictable and rapid change in the glob­al en­vi­ron­ment, has pre­sent­ed ex­tra­or­di­nary chal­lenges for com­pa­nies of all sizes. These changes have forced com­pa­nies to re­ex­am­ine the mod­el of en­tre­pre­neur­ship. The COVID-19 virus, suc­ces­sive wars, tech­no­log­i­cal changes, ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, and oth­er glob­al de­vel­op­ments, have re­sult­ed in a shift from a prof­it on­ly dri­ven-mod­el to one that places so­ci­etal val­ues at the fore­front of strat­e­gy. In­clu­siv­i­ty, so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, fair­ness, in­equal­i­ty, cli­mate change and en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty are now at the heart of the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process. The tra­di­tion­al style of en­tre­pre­neur­ship has been en­hanced by adding a hu­man el­e­ment. This ap­proach re­ferred to as hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship in­flu­ences a com­pa­ny’s core pur­pose, its lead­er­ship, peo­ple en­gage­ment, and op­er­a­tions styles.

Why hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship mat­ters

In or­der to pos­i­tive­ly re­spond to en­vi­ron­men­tal changes, mit­i­gate risks, iden­ti­fy and cap­i­talise on op­por­tu­ni­ties, a re­vised mod­el for busi­ness suc­cess is now nec­es­sary. Fol­low­ing the 2010 pan­dem­ic, the prof­it mar­gins of com­pa­nies de­clined, and em­ploy­ees’ dis­en­gage­ment in­creased. The ad­verse ef­fects of glob­al de­vel­op­ments are more ap­par­ent for com­pa­nies with­in the small is­land states of the Caribbean, giv­en the gaps in the en­tre­pre­neur­ial ecosys­tem. To date, the prof­it mar­gins of many com­pa­nies are still low­er than pre-pan­dem­ic years, and em­ploy­ee dis­en­gage­ment is high, es­ti­mat­ed cur­rent­ly at 70 per cent for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

While rapid tech­no­log­i­cal changes and the ad­vance­ment of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence present op­por­tu­ni­ties for com­pa­nies, they al­so present threats as ex­ist­ing prod­ucts be­come less com­pet­i­tive, dif­fer­ent skills set are re­quired, and em­ploy­ees de­mand in­clu­sion. Com­pa­nies are re­quired to con­tin­u­ous­ly in­no­vate, en­gage, and in­clude em­ploy­ees, seek more ef­fi­cient ways to at­tract and re­tain tal­ent, and in­clude the wider com­mu­ni­ty as a key stake­hold­er. These fac­tors sig­nal the need for an en­tre­pre­neur­ship mod­el with a very hu­man ap­proach; one where com­pa­ny goals are at all times linked to so­ci­etal well-be­ing.

The Caribbean con­text

In the con­text of the Caribbean, hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship is in­creas­ing­ly be­ing recog­nised as a strate­gic tool for firm suc­cess and re­silience, giv­en the unique chal­lenges that small is­land states face. In ad­di­tion to the long-stand­ing is­sue of mar­ket size, lim­it­ed rev­enue streams and low pro­duc­tiv­i­ty lev­els, these is­lands face chal­lenges of the mi­gra­tion of skilled work­ers, in­creas­ing crime, youth un­em­ploy­ment and high­er cost of liv­ing, as well as vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to cli­mate change. As ex­ter­nal shocks give rise to re­duced na­tion­al in­come, gov­ern­ments are stymied in their ef­forts to ad­dress an ex­pand­ing range of so­ci­etal is­sues. Fur­ther, fail­ure to treat with these is­sues can re­sult in the spi­ralling of a sit­u­a­tion of so­ci­etal de­cay. Ac­cord­ing­ly, the tra­di­tion­al mod­el of en­tre­pre­neur­ship is not suit­able in the con­text of pre­vail­ing cir­cum­stances. A more hu­mane ap­proach: one that fo­cus­es less on short-term prof­its and more on pos­i­tive so­ci­etal im­pact is re­quired.

Build­ing com­pet­i­tive ad­van­tage

In hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship, lead­er­ship is eth­i­cal, work­ers safe­ty and de­vel­op­ment are para­mount, in­no­va­tion is per­va­sive, and stake­hold­ers in­clude the wider com­mu­ni­ty. The en­tre­pre­neur and the lead­er­ship team view the com­pa­ny as a key con­trib­u­tor to so­ci­etal co­he­sion and progress at the com­mu­ni­ty and na­tion­al lev­els. The sus­tain­able mod­el is re­plac­ing the tra­di­tion­al prof­it-dri­ven mod­el.

Eth­i­cal lead­er­ship

Eth­i­cal lead­er­ship is a key pil­lar in hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship. It thrives when lead­ers pri­or­i­tize eth­i­cal prac­tices. The eth­i­cal leader pos­sess­es qual­i­ties of em­pa­thy, emo­tion­al in­tel­li­gence, trust, en­vi­ron­men­tal con­scious­ness, and in­clu­sion. In a re­gion where more than 60 per cent of busi­ness­es fall with­in the mi­cro, small and medi­um en­ter­prise (MSME) sec­tor, a sec­tor ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed by glob­al de­vel­op­ments, ad­her­ing to the core prin­ci­ples of eth­i­cal lead­er­ship can be viewed as an al­ba­tross for lead­ers ill-equipped to nav­i­gate tur­bu­lence. The eth­i­cal leader, how­ev­er, has a long-term ori­en­ta­tion and views com­mu­ni­ty im­pact as in­trin­sic to growth and re­silience.

Tal­ent ac­qui­si­tion and re­ten­tion

As job op­por­tu­ni­ties shrink and wages be­come less at­trac­tive, an in­creas­ing num­ber of qual­i­fied per­sons are like­ly to seek ex­ter­nal em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties. This re­sults in brain drain to ex­tra re­gion­al coun­tries, in­clud­ing those not tra­di­tion­al­ly sought for em­ploy­ment by Caribbean pro­fes­sion­als. Brain drain can be re­duced when com­pa­nies use fair and eq­ui­table ap­proach­es to em­ploy­ee re­cruit­ment, de­vel­op­ment, and re­ten­tion. Giv­en that many firms are sourc­ing tal­ent glob­al­ly and re­mote work is pos­si­ble, tal­ent­ed Caribbean work­ers are now able to read­i­ly pro­vide ser­vices to glob­al firms from their ex­ist­ing lo­ca­tions. While this may help earn for­eign ex­change for the home coun­try, it re­duces the tal­ent pool avail­able to lo­cal com­pa­nies.

Cul­ture of in­no­va­tion

Com­pa­nies whether small or large can on­ly sur­vive in to­day’s en­vi­ron­ment by amend­ing their busi­ness mod­els. The busi­ness mod­el changes, whether in­cre­men­tal or rad­i­cal are dri­ven by cre­ativ­i­ty and a cul­ture of con­tin­u­ous in­no­va­tion. Hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship thrives where there is in­no­va­tion in thought, process­es, and ac­tion at all lev­els of the com­pa­ny. Agili­ty and time­ly re­sponse to glob­al de­vel­op­ments re­quire that firms de­vel­op mea­sures to fos­ter em­ploy­ee-dri­ven cre­ativ­i­ty and in­no­va­tion and a cul­ture of seek­ing new ways to cre­ate new val­ue through en­hanced prod­ucts and ser­vices, and in the process­es used to bring them to mar­ket.

A tri­par­tite frame­work for hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship

For hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship to be­come the dom­i­nant ap­proach for en­ter­prise cre­ation and growth in the Caribbean, a tri­par­tite frame­work is pro­posed. Stud­ies have re­peat­ed­ly ad­vo­cat­ed for the strength­en­ing of the re­la­tion­ships be­tween the state, pri­vate sec­tor, and acad­e­mia in so­cio-eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment. While hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship is pri­mar­i­ly a pri­vate-sec­tor led ini­tia­tive, its suc­cess hinges on the sup­port­ing roles of gov­ern­ment and high­er ed­u­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions:

Gov­ern­ment

Gov­ern­ment is re­quired to pro­vide the in­cen­tives for com­pa­nies to op­er­ate eth­i­cal­ly and in ac­cor­dance with sound gov­er­nance prin­ci­ples. In ad­di­tion, pol­i­cy ini­tia­tives should be geared to­wards the cre­ation of in­no­va­tion and en­tre­pre­neur­ial ecosys­tems. Labour laws and poli­cies should al­so be geared to­wards eq­ui­ty and fair­ness for all work­ers;

Acad­e­mia

Uni­ver­si­ties are ex­pect­ed to ful­fil the role of pro­vid­ing the knowl­edge and the skills need­ed for hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship. Pro­grammes which fo­cus on in­no­va­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty as well as eth­i­cal and sus­tain­able lead­er­ship must be de­vel­oped and de­liv­ered with the au­then­tic­i­ty and prac­ti­cal knowl­edge re­quired to ef­fect change. It is note­wor­thy that the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies has with­in re­cent times in­clud­ed sus­tain­able lead­er­ship and ethics in its stud­ies.

The com­pet­i­tive­ness of Caribbean coun­tries will in­creas­ing­ly de­pend on the col­lec­tive abil­i­ties to cre­ate a so­cial­ly co­he­sive so­ci­ety in which hu­man­i­ty is cen­tral to en­ter­prise and re­silience. By fo­cussing on eth­i­cal lead­er­ship, trust, in­no­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, hu­mane en­tre­pre­neur­ship can be a cat­a­lyst for the glob­al com­pet­i­tive­ness of the small is­land states of the Caribbean.