Business View Caribbean - June 2015 39
crisis, which began in 2007.
“When the housing market had its big bump in the
States back in 2007 – they say when the U.S. sneezes,
the Caribbean catches a cold. And we definitely caught
a cold,” recalls Oran. “It was a very trying time. We had
to take a look around us and see what was most im-
portant, and in that case, we thought it was preserving
jobs in our company. And we took a long-term approach
investing and stayed our course… I guess they’re clear-
ing up in the States now in the housing market, and
we’re looking forward to something similar down here.
So again, you try to not give in to those pressures, but
invest smartly, and set yourself on a path so when re-
covery does take place, you’ll be able to capitalize on
it.”
Looking ahead, he says, “I hope things will continue
to improve, and we’ll get some growth down here, and
you’ll see a lot of the islands kind of come out of the
slump that we’ve had over the last few years.
“There’s a lot of investment that needs to take place in
the Caribbean,” he says. “Everybody needs to do their
part – companies need to invest, companies need to
take risk and grow, they need to invest in their employ-
ees, and employees need to understand productivity.
The government needs to facilitate that. And should
all those things come together, and we can all work
together, then we’ll see a good result in 2020, I think.”
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