Professional Services
in
CARICOM Single Market and
Economy (CSME)
Grenville Phillips II
BSc BEng MASc MURP CEng MIStructE MIHT MAPM MCSCE MBAPE
Three Principal Challenges
1. Negative branding
2. Declining standards of professional
services
3. Government procurement practices
Negative Branding Perceptions
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‘laid back’
Lazy
Slow
Inefficient
Incompetent
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•
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•
•
Corrupt
Sub-standard
Novices
Inexperienced
Unprofessional
Negative Branding can be Taught
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•
•
•
CNN
ABC
FOX
NBC
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•
•
•
MSNBC
CBS
BBC
Hollywood
Negative Branding can be
Experienced
• Lawyers – property transactions
• Architects – damaged houses
• Doctors – medical complaints
A trend of failed expectations on
the quality, cost, and time of services
received can establish
a negative brand.
Negative Branding can be
Reinforced
• 2005, Aruba, Natalie Holloway – Incompetent
• 2006, Bahamas, Daniel Smith – Inefficient
• 2007, Bahamas, Nicole Smith – Corrupt
• 2009, Bahamas, Jett Travolta – Corrupt
• 2009, Antigua & B, Allen Stanford – Corrupt
Recommendation: retain a publicist in New York
Developing a Positive Brand
1. Enable high standards of local services
2. Export high standards of services
3. Most local goods and services have a
psychological advantage of ‘excellence’
by association. Eg. Italy, Germany,
France
4. It takes a major scandal to break a
psychological link with excellence
Accounting Scandals
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2000, Xerox
2001, Enron
2002, Adelphia
2002, AOL
2002, Bristol-Myers
2002, ImClone
2002, Merril Lynch
2002, Worldcom
2003, Health South
2004, AIG
2008, Bernard Madoff
2008, GLOBAL CRISIS
2009, Satyam
2009, CL Financial
2009, Stanford
KPMG
Arthur Anderson
Deloitte & Touche
Ernst & Young
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
KPMG
Deloitte & Touche
Arthur Anderson
Ernst & Young
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Friehling & Horowitz
Standard & Poor’s
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
CAS Hewlett (Antigua & Barbuda)
Developing a Negative Brand
1. Enable sub-standard local services
2. Export sub-standard services
3. All services suffer from guilt by negative
psychological association. Eg. Nigeria,
North Korea, Iran, Sudan
4. It takes a trend of excellence to break
the psychological link with substandard.
Who pays for Negative Branding?
PROFESSIONAL
PROFESSIONAL BODY
NATION
REGION
2008 Global Financial Crisis
• Standard & Poor’s did not value the
financial instruments accurately.
• The accountants and economists advising
companies purchasing the instruments did
not value them accurately either.
• AIG provided retention bonuses to staff
who understood the mathematics.
Quality Standards
• Academic Qualifications (Accredited)
• Professional Qualifications (Chartered)
Declining Standards
University Graduates
• Weak scientific analytical skills
• Weak mathematical skills
Universities blame secondary schools
Secondary school graduates
• Weak scientific analytical skills
• Weak mathematical skills
Major Changes in Education
•
•
•
•
•
•
1960’s – Bruners’ Spiral Curriculum
1972 – US Law - Co-education mandatory
1974 - Computed Tomography scans
1987 – Keirsey personality type testing
1990’s – Learning styles
1990’s – Studies showing that students
performed better in single sex learning
environment.
• 2002 – US 1972 Law revoked. Funding
available for single sex schools.
Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test - Proficiency
Single
•Boys 86%
•Girls 75%
Coed
37%
59%
Stetson University, 2008
Jamaican Study
• Marlene Hamilton, studying students
in Jamaica, found that students
attending single-sex schools
outperformed students in coed
schools in almost every subject
tested. (International Science Education, 1985 )
Different Brain Physiology
• there is no overlap in the trajectories of brain
development in girls and boys.
• boys’ brains develop differently in order, time,
and rate, than girls’ brains do.
• the areas of the brain involved in language and
fine motor skills mature about six years earlier
in girls than in boys.
• the areas of the brain involved in targeting and
spatial memory mature about four years earlier
in boys than in girls.
Puberty
Puberty (years 10-15 in secondary school) is
the critical learning period for both sexes
with the:
• novel attraction between sexes;
• advanced development of girls; and
• limited concentration of boys;
• teaching of fundamentals.
Personality
• Four dominant personality types.
• 25% of students typically have the
personality directed discipline to do well in
any learning environment
Learning Styles
Audio, visual, kinaesthetic.
Students typically retained:
• 10% of what they read;
• 20% of what they heard;
• 30% of what they saw;
• 50% of what they saw and heard;
• 70% of what they said; and
• 90% of what they said and did.
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CAPE Unit 2 (1&2)
100.00
75.00
50.00
25.00
0.00
Results of Current System
• 25% are expected to do well regardless.
• For many subjects, the current system has
failed more than 100% of the students for
whom it was designed.
• The hands-on subjects (art, computer
science), where students are less
vulnerable to distraction, show significantly
better results.
Florida Assessment Test
CXC Maths Grades 1-3
Single Coed CXC
• Boys 86%
• Girls 75%
37% 43% (30)
59% 38%(24)
Stetson University, 2008
Government Policy Actions
•
Mandate single-sex classrooms for
subjects where 75% of students fail to
achieve CXC grades 1 & 2.
•
Critically review the effectiveness of the
current teaching methods.
•
Specify that any university in their
country can only offer fully accredited
professional degrees.
Government Policy Actions
• Ensure all senior professional staff
in the civil service are qualified to
the Chartered or equivalent level.
• Review procurement policies.
• Avoid misinterpreting professionals’
public comments of genuine
concern as a threat to their position.
Professional Associations
• Establish joint agreements with
internationally recognised professional
institutions.
• Improve entry standards - examination.
• Discipline sub-standard service providers.
Coalitions of Service Industries
• Promote the highest professional
(Chartership) and management (ISO)
standards in private and public sectors
• Provide ISO internal and external auditing
services to private and public sectors
• Strongly encourage professional associations
to discipline providers of sub-standard
services
• Caribbean Coalition to retain a publicist in NY
Thank you
Grenville Phillips II
CONCEPT@Caribsurf.com
Tel: (246) 426-5930