I was recently in Cleveland Ohio and saw many lovely churches (as many churches as in Barbados or Jamaica – a church on every block)…large structures (the same size or larger than our Trinity Cathedral) and beautiful from the outside. There were also many outstanding sculptures strewn about the city. I got to wondering, what was in the minds of the people who built the two types of structures.

I suppose those who built churches expected people to enter and worship God but those who built statues wanted to mark a time and a spot. Today the churches are empty – the city has moved from where the people live or they no longer are interested in the message or invitation to enter. The churches have now become statues – something to gaze upon. They now compete with the real statues for gazers but do not fulfil their original purpose. But what about us and the companies we work in? Which are they, a church or a statue? Are we keeping our parishioners, aka our customers?

Do we know their demographics and the things that concern them or are we serving ourselves? How can we do that? Locally, we had ‘Stephens & Johnsons’, a leading department store which was an elite store in Port of Spain but has disappeared completely. Why do you think this has happened? Can it happen to the company you now work in? What keeps a church aka a company from turning into a statue aka a memory of the past? Let me hear from you on this.