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| Barry J. Malcolm, Managing Director of GFSL |
Over the years, Barry J. Malcolm has seen a stream of foreign companies establish themselves in The Bahamas.
Many have succeeded. However, many have spent more money and time during start-up than they should have. A few failed. For Malcolm, there were common threads.
“It’s surprising the number of companies that come into a new investment environment with insufficient understanding of the start-up risks,” said Malcolm, a Bahamian with 30 years of experience in both public and private sector economic development in The Bahamas, Caribbean, and Latin America. “Our job is to help new companies identify, and to find strategies to eliminate the risks, that often accompany coming on-stream in a new country.”
Two years ago, Malcolm established Global Fulfillment Services Ltd., a Freeport-based firm. GFS caters to the companies that in increasing numbers, are setting up operations in Freeport’s 230-square-mile free-trade zone, including its Sea Air Business Center, a duty-free area for commercial operations and warehouses near the Freeport Container Port and Grand Bahama International Airport – all private facilities.
Malcolm’s firm supports clients’ start-up of their business operations – developing business roll-out strategies and facilitating operations. In addition, Global Fulfillment Services provides nearly every operational service a company would need, from administrative and logistical support, to HR and Corporate Media Services.
“The little details are what can destroy your start-up efforts,” observed Malcolm, who for a number of years was a top official with two prominent Bahamian organizations: the Nassau-based Bahamas Financial Services Board and Freeport’s Grand Bahama Port Authority.
The Bahamas is widely regarded as a business-friendly environment. “Even so, new firms – especially those from countries – inevitably face confusing hurdles in The Bahamas and elsewhere,” Malcolm noted.
Hurdles for new firms range from unfamiliar regulatory hurdles and cultural norms, to knowledge of new employment and the investment environment. Many newcomers turn to lawyers and accountants for help. However, Malcolm contends, such professionals typically have little direct business experience and are therefore, unable to “identify and address and manage the business operations hurdles you typically face in trying to set up and establish a business.”
Like many new businesses, Malcolm’s company responds to a number of trends that, in recent years, have come together in The Bahamas, including globalization-spurred international trade and shipping.
Ten years ago, the increase in trade gave rise in Freeport to the creation of the world’s largest man-made harbor and deep-water container port. Sitting in Florida’s backyard, at the heart of international shipping lanes, the facility is part of a duty-free zone that is attracting businesses that want to ride the wave of globalization.
Malcolm, a former official with the Inter-American Development Bank, said Global Fulfillment also can provide services throughout the Caribbean and even in Central and South America.
Although most of Global Fulfillment’s clients are from the United States, Malcolm said he has a number of clients from Asia and Europe. He and his associates identified some. Others came to him.
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