Business View Caribbean | Volume 9, Issue 1

33 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1 POLAR BEAR A I R CONDI T IONING in George Town, as well as a remote warehouse on the other side of the island where we have a dual technician station and we service the eastern district from there. We started with four people, then my wife and I bought out the other three in the first couple years of business. Now we have close to 40 employees. It’s still a proud family business – my son, Brett, is the Operations Manager and I’m sliding into retirement.” Dwayne Ashley who has worked at Polar Bear for the past 17 years. He shares, “It’s been a wonderful journey working for the Mobleys. I started in 2004, about a week after devastating Hurricane Ivan almost demolished the island. I’ve been with the company through my apprenticeship program, I’ve done training online, in the field, overseas. Worked my way up from a service technician to senior technician. I’ve been dispatcher. I’ve dabbled in service management and I’m now the Install Coordinator and Quality Control Technician – so I’ve worn a lot of hats for the company. The only hat I haven’t worn is ‘owner’ and that’s a very important hat. Working at Polar Bear has been a life experience. I’ve learned a new trade, and so much about being a man from Chuck – how to be a father, how to understand the business, just everything in general.” When it comes to workforce recruitment and retention, Polar Bear’s unique company culture differentiates them from other air conditioning businesses in the region. “Everywhere you go on the island, someone wants to work for Polar Bear,” says Ashley. “As a leader, it is challenging to get people to understand our ‘why’… why we’re in business, why we do what we do, why do we set ourselves apart from the competitors. It’s a work in progress but we do that every day in our morning meetings and our training, and it’s growing along with our growth.” There is always new technology that the Polar Bear team needs to be up to speed on, in terms of equipment and systems that they’re