Category: Business

Life in a Small Market, Tickling the Global Market

February 22, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

I sat across from an attractive female academic not too long ago as she asked me about helping her find a USB mass storage device for her Apple laptop. Trinidad and Tobago, of course, is a small market - and the people who bring down hardware bring what is most likely to sell. And Apple compatibility is really not as big of a draw as the typical Apple user may think. The majority of the market in Trinidad and Tobago uses the PC platform - so when people bring in computing paraphernalia, it's basically for the PC platform.

It wasn't too long ago that a Bajan friend had problems with Apple- you can read about it here and here - but to save you the trouble of clicking the links, I can simply tell you that reading it will make you think different of Apple. But really, it is just life in a small market.

It doesn't just mean Apples and oranges. Automotive parts for vehicles pre-abused foreign ('foreign used', aka 'foreign abused') vehicles are known for unavailability of parts, black licorice is an oddity instead of a commodity and the author has pondered selling his soul for a pack of Nutter Butter cookies at some times. It isn't to say that there isn't some demand for these items - it's that, relatively speaking - there isn't enough demand for such items. One day they will be on a shelf somewhere, and when they are found they aren't reordered because the businesspeople involved don't necessarily want their money tied up on dusty shelves.

Magazines arrive 2 weeks late. Bookstores and music stores are subject to the ordering taste and whims of the owners of the stores. {Read more}

Region Needs Something Worthwhile To Invest In

November 26, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

While bankers say that the [Caribbean] region needs investment, I believe it is important to point out that there should be worthwhile things to invest in. And when I write 'worthwhile', I do not mean only  to investors; thinking otherwise brings us things such as aluminium smelters. And aluminium smelters are at best a high risk to the environment - especially on an island. 

Granted, with less rigorous enforcement of safety, Trinidad and Tobago is a haven for industrial investment. My thoughts on this are not too far removed from Richard Feynman's comments regarding the Challenger space shuttle - the key being that just because something has not failed yet does not mean it will not fail in the future. NASA believed engines wouldn't fail even though they were used more. Trinidad and Tobago seems to believe that a serious industrial accident won't happen simply because one hasn't happened yet. Considering the number of earthquakes Trinidad and Tobago has been seeing, it is only a matter of time.

So yes - the region most certainly could use money. But what to invest in? More buildings? More sports complexes? Perhaps an island off of Otaheite Bay in Trinidad and Tobago? In a nation that is being pushed toward 'Vision 2020', where developed nation status is expected by 2020, we seem to ignore the fact that the smokestack is the sign of a developing nation. Things that other countries do not want in their own backyards are amongst the 'investment opportunities' that foreign investors should have taken off the table. But this hasn't happened. {Read more}