This year’s TTCSR edition has been published just ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics and we are pleased to have a section specially dedicated to sport. An interview with TT Olympic Committee President Brian Lewis provides some context on how corporate Trinidad and Tobago is investing in professional sport and supporting a number of star athletes for the Game.
Blink|Bmobile has launched its ‘Bring it Home’ campaign which inspires hope for gold in a number of disciplines including athletics, cycling, and swimming. Jehue Gordon also features as a brand and not just a sportsman.
On a more sombre note, the issue of crime and lawlessness in society continues to occupy the attention of a number of corporate entities and institutions, including the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Port of Spain, His Grace, Archbishop Joseph Harris, has launched a national appeal to free prisoners in Remand Yard who have been waiting for an extraordinary amount of time to have their cases heard. Unfortunately, the appeal has met with resistance in some quarters and has sparked a debate among other religious groups who are opposed to the idea. The Review interviewed the Archbishop to get his perspective on his Mercy Appeal and on his timing. Attorney Gregory Delzin and Human Rights Consultant Wendy Singh also weigh in on the debate and their views are carried in this edition. Our Conscious CEO this year is Catherine Kumar, who comments on the economic slowdown and how responsible businesses should be responding. She also reflects on the principles of social responsibility and its role in the practice of sound corporate governance.
My own opinion is that in a slow economy, everyone should share the burden. Over the last three decades, corporations have recorded the highest profit margins in history. But maximising profits has come at a great cost to consumers, employees and even developing markets like ours that rely on big business to boost employment numbers and to pay taxes. The unusual alacrity with which some companies responded to emerging discussions on a national ‘economic downturn’ by closing operations or sending employees home, should be cause for concern. It means that the people who have helped these companies to amass great wealth, will be disenfranchised over what many see as a necessary rebalancing of business and civil society. Knee-jerk solutions such as workforce contraction and reductions in capital expenditure may appear to ‘maximise profit’ in the short-term but is it real profit?
Could it be then, that companies should reset their expectations on profitability to be more in line with global realities? Could it be that the time has come for business to share the burden? While many CEOs are earning millions for showing quarterly bottom-line increases, many of their workers are under-paid, under-employed, in debt or more recently, simply out of work.
I certainly am no economist, nor will I pretend to make an academic analysis of the effects of the increasing number of persons joining the breadline; but it seems reasonable to surmise that if there are less people able to buy food and clothes, or pay for products and services, or able to take loans or mortgages, then there will be less revenue available to many other companies.
Perhaps companies should be resetting priorities to aim for a more equitable distribution of wealth – not just for executives and shareholders, but for all stakeholders, including their workers, consumers and the communities in which they operate.
The Review commends those companies that have seen the value of maintaining their investments in social programmes and that have made the critical adjustments to retain employees during this current challenge.
Donna Ramsammy
Editor-in-Chief