Michael Donald, President of Island Industries Inc., Nassau, Bahamas:
“Number one is that my family, and friends, and myself have stayed in good health. It’s been a tumultuous year. Business has been good, mostly due to the rebuilding after Hurricane Dorian, but that would be secondary to the health of loved ones.”
Bobby Mahallati, Broker at London Foster, Miami Beach, Florida:
“I would say to look at your business as helping others, as opposed to looking at your own success. Because, from experience, when you’re just looking at “I did this” and “I did that,” you actually become successful much slower than if you’re interested in providing more value to other people and helping them. That’s one of the biggest takeaways that I personally learned from 2021.”
Jesse Scott, Manager of Steel-Framed Engineered Solutions, San Juan, Trinidad:
“That if you don’t change your stroke, you’ll drown. 😊 You have to adjust and be adaptable. You can’t be rigid in this industry; you have to change the way you do business as the changes come. You cannot continue to do business as normal – there is no normal, thanks to COVID. You have to be willing to adapt, and shift, and find a different way. Then look at the results and use the data. The data has all the answers. And you have to take the customer feedback and focus on enhancing the customer experience. Your customer is most important, because without them you are nothing.”
JP Gallagher, Chief Executive of Butte, Montana:
“I think we’ve learned to appreciate the little things in life that we took for granted before the pandemic. The family time and being able to go places freely. Our freedoms that we didn’t take the time to appreciate. I think in 2021, people became more conscious of the lack of ability to do those things and that we need to care more for our communities.”
Marc Netka, President & CEO of STS Education, Simi Valley, California:
“I’m a ‘glass is half full’ kind of guy. I just think there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for those people who are willing to keep their eyes open, and change, and not be so rigid in their thinking. I believe we continue to have a positive impact, not only on our customers but on our employees. And that’s exciting. Seeing people grow and rise to the occasion… it’s been a difficult operating environment for two years and I’m amazed at my employees who have stepped up to the plate and done a great job. Also, I’ve been in some schools and seen the amazing job that the teachers are doing under very difficult circumstances. So, it’s easy to look at all the negative that’s happening in the world but I choose to turn that off. I don’t watch the news, I look for the positive and there’s a ton of it out there if you look for it.”
