Dr Ju­dith M S Mark

Over the last two decades, T&T com­pa­nies from sec­tors in­clud­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing, en­er­gy ser­vices, the cre­ative sec­tor, tech­nol­o­gy, and fi­nance have so­lid­i­fied their po­si­tions as lo­cal and re­gion­al play­ers. This suc­cess of­ten de­fined by rev­enues, al­so in­clude in­creased cus­tomers, new mar­kets or new and en­hanced prod­ucts or ser­vices.

De­spite these laud­able gains, far few­er com­pa­nies have tran­si­tioned from lo­cal or at best, re­gion­al play­ers, to be­come in­ter­na­tion­alised. While ac­cess to cap­i­tal has been cit­ed as a ma­jor con­straint, the truth is in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion is dri­ven by vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship.

The case for in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion

At a time when the fore­cast for the T&T econ­o­my is gloomy (neg­a­tive S&P Glob­al rat­ing and growth rate of 1.2 per cent pro­ject­ed by the IMF), in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion pro­vides the op­por­tu­ni­ty for di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion of the econ­o­my and eco­nom­ic re­silience. Hav­ing a pool of in­ter­na­tion­al­ly com­pet­i­tive firms re­duces vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty for com­pa­nies and the coun­try in an in­creas­ing­ly un­cer­tain en­vi­ron­ment.

 Over­com­ing mar­ket size lim­its

Giv­en the size of the lo­cal mar­ket, in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion pro­vides com­pa­nies with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to scale, in­no­vate and ob­tain cost ef­fi­cien­cies through economies of scale;

 Di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion be­yond en­er­gy

The ur­gent need to in­crease the con­tri­bu­tion of the non-en­er­gy sec­tor can be ad­dressed by the in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion of firms in the man­u­fac­tur­ing, ser­vices, and cre­ative sec­tors as well as an in­crease in the num­ber of born-glob­al tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies;

 Earn­ing for­eign ex­change

In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion presents the op­por­tu­ni­ty to gen­er­ate for­eign ex­change at a time where firms risk scal­ing down or clo­sures due to lim­it­ed for­eign ex­change. In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion can aid with for­eign earn­ings need­ed to safe­guard the econ­o­my and en­hance the coun­try’s bal­ance-of-pay­ment;

 Im­prov­ing com­pet­i­tive­ness

Com­pet­ing in in­ter­na­tion­al mar­kets push­es firms to meet glob­al and of­ten high­er stan­dards in qual­i­ty, com­pli­ance, brand­ing, and op­er­a­tional ef­fi­cien­cy, rais­ing over­all busi­ness ca­pa­bil­i­ty;

 Re­tain­ing and at­tract­ing tal­ent

In­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­tive firms cre­ate high­er-val­ue jobs and glob­al ex­po­sure for qual­i­fied cit­i­zens, re­duc­ing tal­ent flight. It al­so pro­vides the op­por­tu­ni­ty to part­ner with di­as­po­ra net­works to at­tract tal­ent; and

 Fos­ter­ing con­tin­u­ous learn­ing and in­no­va­tion

Ex­po­sure to in­ter­na­tion­al cus­tomers, com­peti­tors, and part­ners ac­cel­er­ates learn­ing, in­no­va­tion, and man­age­r­i­al de­vel­op­ment.

Think­ing be­yond bor­ders

The tran­si­tion from lo­cal leader to re­gion­al dom­i­nance to glob­al con­tender be­gins with lead­er­ship mind­set. In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion is suc­cess­ful when vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship, long-term glob­al think­ing, ro­bust gov­er­nance, and or­gan­i­sa­tion-wide dis­ci­pline ex­ist. It re­quires the abil­i­ty to think be­yond do­mes­tic and re­gion­al suc­cess. It al­so re­quires the en­gage­ment of a lead­er­ship team with the right skills and at­ti­tude.

Strate­gic dis­ci­pline is es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant for firms from small economies. A num­ber of Trinidad and To­ba­go man­u­fac­tur­ers have tak­en mea­sures to be in­ter­na­tion­al­ly com­pli­ant in or­der to ac­cess glob­al mar­kets by pri­ori­tis­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, sup­ply-chain re­li­a­bil­i­ty, and com­pli­ance with in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards. These are lead­er­ship de­ci­sions which to in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner sig­nal se­ri­ous­ness and at the same time strength­en the abil­i­ty to ne­go­ti­ate.

Build­ing lead­er­ship depth be­yond the founder

Com­pa­nies pur­su­ing growth through in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion can­not de­pend on a sin­gle charis­mat­ic leader. Strate­gic lead­er­ship for growth re­quires en­gage­ment be­yond the leader or founder.

In the con­text of T&T, au­thor­i­tar­i­an-style lead­er­ship can stymie the cre­ation of a mean­ing­ful in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion strat­e­gy. This chal­lenge is par­tic­u­lar­ly vis­i­ble among fam­i­ly-owned or con­trolled SMEs where growth is con­strained due to au­thor­i­ty be­ing over­ly con­cen­trat­ed with the leader and where lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment is ne­glect­ed. Scal­ing in­ter­na­tion­al­ly re­quires lead­ers who in­vest in cre­at­ing a qual­i­fied lead­er­ship team, will­ing­ly en­gage oth­ers, del­e­gate, and trust oth­ers to par­tic­i­pate in the process of growth, a shared vi­sion, and the re­wards of val­ue cre­ation. .

In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion can al­so oc­cur in the cre­ative sec­tor how­ev­er this too re­quires a shift in mind­set. In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion in this sec­tor re­quires a tran­si­tion from a fo­cus on in­di­vid­ual tal­ent to build­ing an in­ter­na­tion­al brand that in­cludes in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners. This re­quires em­pha­sis on ad­her­ence to pro­fes­sion­al man­age­ment stan­dards, in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty pro­tec­tion, key part­ner­ships, and prod­uct or ser­vice con­sis­ten­cy.

Cre­ative suc­cess be­comes scal­able on­ly when cre­ativ­i­ty is treat­ed as a busi­ness sys­tem, not just a per­son­al craft. It is safe to sur­mise that the suc­cess of Kez­nam­di Mc­Don­ald Ja­maican reg­gae artist and song­writer and win­ner of the Best Reg­gae Al­bum at the Gram­my Awards (2026) is al­so due to ef­fec­tive lead­er­ship and man­age­ment be­yond his in­di­vid­ual tal­ent.

The T&T re­al­i­ty – a look at a ma­jor play­er

ANSA McAL pro­vides a good ex­am­ple of the role of lead­er­ship in dri­ving glob­al growth through in­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion. To date the con­glom­er­ate’s growth be­yond T&T and the Caribbean re­gion in­to in­ter­na­tion­al bound­aries is be­ing dri­ven by long-term strate­gic and fu­tur­is­tic thought.

While the con­glom­er­ate is still ma­jor­i­ty fam­i­ly-owned, the lead­er­ship choic­es are aimed at cre­at­ing the re­quired in­sti­tu­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty and ca­pa­bil­i­ty, us­ing a tal­ent­ed and di­verse lead­er­ship team. Vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship has en­abled the group to scale glob­al­ly.

To date the com­pa­ny has used a mix of strate­gic ac­qui­si­tions, in­ter­na­tion­al brand­ing, sup­ply chain lo­gis­tics and glob­al strate­gic part­ner­ships to scale, in­no­vate, mit­i­gate risks, ac­cess new mar­kets and build group re­silience.

By de­vel­op­ing part­ner­ships with com­pa­nies in the USA, the UK and In­dia, the con­glom­er­ate has ad­dressed the is­sue of lim­it­ed abil­i­ty to scale, giv­en the small mar­ket size, lim­it­ed ac­cess to fi­nan­cial re­sources and to glob­al tal­ent; all ar­eas that of­ten plague com­pa­nies in small states.

It should be men­tioned that there are com­pa­nies and con­glom­er­ates like the Bermudez Group and oth­ers that are suc­cess­ful­ly pur­su­ing in­ter­na­tion­al growth strate­gies dri­ven by lead­er­ship. Time and space how­ev­er on­ly al­low for the spot­light on one com­pa­ny at this time.

Con­clu­sion: In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion is a lead­er­ship choice

While the en­tre­pre­neur­ial spir­it is alive in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the de­sire to pur­sue growth be­yond the Caribbean has not been ag­gres­sive­ly pur­sued. This is like­ly due to lim­it­ed un­der­stand­ing that growth through in­ter­na­tion­al­iza­tion is a process that re­quires the im­ple­men­ta­tion of well-craft­ed strate­gies to cap­i­talise on mar­ket op­por­tu­ni­ties at the right time and place and con­sis­tent with a com­pa­ny’s long-term po­si­tion­ing.

What ul­ti­mate­ly de­ter­mines suc­cess is lead­er­ship courage; the will­ing­ness to think long-term, in­vest in ca­pa­bil­i­ty and to cre­ate a cul­ture of con­tin­u­ous­ly learn­ing. Com­pa­nies that in­vest in lead­er­ship ma­tu­ri­ty - vi­sion, gov­er­nance, cul­ture, tech­nol­o­gy, and peo­ple, stand the best chance of mov­ing from lo­cal cham­pi­ons to glob­al con­tenders.

For com­pa­nies from small states, suc­cess is a func­tion of lead­er­ship readi­ness and strate­gic dis­ci­pline. The ANSA McAL sto­ry demon­strates this ex­treme­ly well.

Dr Ju­dith M S Mark, busi­ness strat­e­gy con­sul­tant, ed­u­ca­tor, aca­d­e­m­ic coach and ad­vo­cate for in­no­va­tion-dri­ven lead­er­ship