Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary 

Location, location, location …

Despite the direct references to the physical world, it turns out that ‘location’ is equally important in the virtual world.

The consideration of location is the most important factor in the Art-and-Science of Marketing. That field has these 4 charters, considered the 4 P’s, but location rises to the front of the priorities:

• Place – Location, location, location… (See Appendix below).
  Can also refer to distribution; the destination and activities that make the product available to consumers.
• Product – The goods and/or services offered by a company to its customers.
• Price – The amount of money paid by customers to purchase the product
• Promotion – The activities that communicate the product’s features and benefits and persuade customers to purchase the product.
  Source: Marketing Online Journal

But for the virtual world – or electronic commerce – the discussion of location considers “community” more so than buildings. “Community” as in community ethos; this is defined as the fundamental character of a culture, that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society.

So where – which community – an e-Commerce company is located in really matters … for access to the right ethos, skilled talent, support services and capital. Is the Caribbean a good location for electronic commerce? No, we are not!

Can we be a good location for electronic commerce? Yes, we can!

We must simply adopt the appropriate community ethos; then execute the proper strategies, tactics and implementations to foster the industrial policies, entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs.

There is a model for us to follow:

Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In a previous blog-commentary on April 16, 2015 by the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, the college-town of Ann Arbor was examined as part of a year-long tour of the economic anatomy of City of Detroit and surrounding Michigan cities. The book identified the Detroit metropolitan area (Page 140) as a Failed-City that parallels many Caribbean communities. Yet still, out of the “ashes of decay”, a few positive innovations were observed-and-reported on, such as the impactful community of Ann Arbor. That previous blog quoted the following:

The idea of impactful cities aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean in stressing the elevation of the societal engines through entrepreneurial endeavors. The book asserts that Caribbean society can be elevated by improving the eco-system to live, work, learn and play. This is the example of Ann Arbor.
…
The Go Lean roadmap accepts that change has come to the global marketplace, due mostly to the convergence of Internet & Communications Technology (ICT). The book posits that size no longer matters, that from any location – like Ann Arbor … – innovative solutions can be developed and promoted to an appreciative audience. What matters most is the innovation, not the location; so any Caribbean member-state, large or small can be impactful. The first requirement is the community ethos of valuing intellectual property. This ethos would be new for the Caribbean market; it is therefore a mission of the CU to forge.
…
The Go Lean roadmap asserts that one individual or community can make a difference in the quest to elevate Caribbean society – the promoters of Go Lean have come to Ann Arbor to observe and report on their progress. We want the same outcomes by fostering genius qualifiers in our region; we therefore need impactful college-towns in the Caribbean.

Consider this example of a world renowned company, based in Ann Arbor, that embraced that city’s spirit and most-assuredly rebooted their company, culture and fortunes. That company is Domino’s Pizza. Yes, a pizza company with more staff in Information Technology than any other department in the corporate headquarters. They place a huge emphasis on developing- deploying technology-based solutions, while also improving their underlying product, Pizza. This story is portrayed in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO: Behind Domino’s Pizza’s recipe for success – http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/dominos-pizzas-recipe-for-success

Published on Mar 25, 2017 – Domino’s Pizza is hotter than ever.
One big reason has to do with marketing seven years ago that helped save the day when the flat-bread company was flatlining… .
“In 2009, we decided that technology was going to be a big deal,” CEO Patrick Doyle said. Domino’s has more people working in IT than anywhere else in the company, at its Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters. CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports.
(Read the full transcript here: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/dominos-pizzas-recipe-for-success)

See a related VIDEO here: Domino’s® Pizza Turnaround by Domino’s Pizza on YouTube

The book Go Lean…Caribbean strategizes technology as well; in fact that Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) – e-Commerce is one such economic activity – is presented as a great equalizer for Small Country-States versus Big States on the world stage. The book stresses this point early (on Page 14) in the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The Go Lean book details technology and other strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to forge a cyber-friendly community ethos in the Caribbean. The book presents one such advocacy on Page 127, entitled:

10 Big Ideas … in the Caribbean Region

The opening Declaration of Interdependence also stressed the need for entrepreneurship and job creation. The book relates that the right community ethos can be – must be – forged, especially if we want to create jobs … in this new economy; (we want those jobs). See that pronouncement here also in the opening Declaration of Interdependence on Page 14:

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like … frozen foods …. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism… – impacting the region with more jobs.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of all 30 member-states of the Caribbean. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This commentary examined many other companies and many other cities, detailing their successes and failures in transforming their communities. Consider this sample of earlier blogs:

The Go Lean book and these accompanying blogs posit that the economic failure in the Caribbean in the past in general is the result of the lack of diversity in our industrial development. The region depends too heavily on tourism. We need to be prepared for the new economy – with the tenants of ICT. While location does not matter online, when it comes to e-Commerce, location does matter for having a community that fosters the right attitudes and achievements.

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Appendix Title: Who coined the phrase ‘location, location, location’?

Language expert William Safire searches for who came up with the phrase “location, location, location” in the Times Magazine this weekend after a colleague working on a wedding announcement said the phrase was attributed to a British real estate tycoon named Lord Harold Samuel. Lord Samuel’s 1987 obituary names him as the phrase coiner, but the editor of the “Yale Book of Quotations” found the phrase used in a real estate classified ad in the Chicago Tribune in 1926.

Lord Samuel was 14 years old at the time. Safire said the context of the 1926 ad suggests it was already a familiar phrase in Chicago and phrasal etymologists are not yet finished with this challenge.
Source: The Real Deal – South Florida Real Estate News – Posted June 9, 2009; retrieved April 24, 2017 from: http://bit.ly/2jyEzbD