Saint Lucia’s public and private sector leaders are being encouraged to move beyond planning and focus on delivering measurable results, as regional and international experts warn that poor execution continues to undermine progress and economic competitiveness.
The issue took center stage at an Executive Circle event held at the Bay Gardens Hotel on Thursday.
The forum, themed around strategy-led execution, was co-hosted by Return on Investment Consulting, the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Cascade Strategy and Strategy Management Group.
The event brought together senior executives, public sector leaders and decision-makers to explore practical approaches to turning strategic plans into meaningful outcomes.
Executive Director of the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Brian Louisy, said the gathering addressed a challenge that affects organizations across the country.
“Whilst we have good plans, good strategies, the execution gap is too big,” Louisy said.
He noted that despite the existence of well-developed plans and policies, implementation often falls short.
“So we’re seeing a really slow pace of reform, a low slope, a very slow pace of execution of very important programs across the country and within companies,” he explained.
Louisy said the Chamber saw the event as an opportunity to expose its members to internationally recognized best practices.
“And so when we got the opportunity to do that, we thought it’s a wonderful opportunity to introduce our members to best practice, to do some knowledge sharing on the subject,” he said.
“That is why we are in this event, we’re hosting this event, because we seriously believe that if we could improve and improve our execution and close that execution gap, our country, our companies, our institutions will be much better off.”
Chief Executive Officer of Return on Investment Consulting Ltd, Dwayne Forbes, said organizers wanted participants to leave with practical tools they could implement immediately.
“We are hoping that one, executives here will be able to take some very tangible takeaways where they can literally start implementing Monday in the organization,” Forbes said.
He pointed to several common shortcomings that hinder effective execution.
“There’s things that are so practical that so many organizations are not doing, they’re not cascading and aligning their plan across the organization down to individual work plans,” he stated.
Forbes also highlighted the importance of using data and technology to monitor performance and strengthen accountability.
“A lot of organizations not using data, they’re not using tools like Cascade Strategy Execution Platform that so many companies are using globally to track performance down to the individual so they can hold people accountable,” he said.
“But equally important, they’re able to extract real-time data so leaders can see exactly what’s happening across the organization.”
Cascade Ltd Chief Executive Officer Charlie Newark-French said the Caribbean is not lacking in ideas or vision, but leaders must focus on translating strategy into action.
“The purpose here today is to help executive leaders, this is called the executive circle, know what their strategy is and our partners help with that, so VOID and Balance Scorecard Institute, and then track and execute on that strategy and Cascade Software helps with the execution layer,” he explained.
Newark-French outlined how advances in artificial intelligence are helping organizations improve decision-making and implementation.
“We have an AI tool which allows you to ingest data from your organization, allows you to track your data and then gives you recommendations on what you should do to better execute on your strategy,” he said.
As Saint Lucia seeks to improve the ease of doing business and accelerate development, participants agreed that the ability to execute effectively may prove just as important as the quality of the plans themselves. The message emerging from the Executive Circle was clear: success depends not only on having a vision, but on consistently delivering results.