Hinchcliffe book for anyone with vision

The Will to Overcome: Reflections on Circumstance, Vision, Service, by Audrey Hinchcliffe (Arawak Publications), 239 pages on Women’s Business Leadership in Washington, DC, at the behest of former Secretary of State and US First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Hinchcliffe extols many virtues on the journey of entrepreneurship in her book and gives us tacit lessons on how to negotiate the business environment, including how to handle competition, establishing a vision and a plan of action to achieve success, creating the right ecosystem in which we can not only survive but ultimately thrive, taking financial control, recruiting talent and minimising bureaucracy. We should all be inspired by her story of triumph over adversity, and her book acts as a touchstone in the leadership landscape not only in Jamaica but across the region and, I daresay, the world. Through her narrative Hinchcliffe demonstrates that she is acutely aware of the multifaceted barriers to entry for many women entrepreneurs, but has instead parlayed these into pivoting and providing many opportunities for their advancement, through avenues for access to finance, training and capacity building, business counselling and creating networks. She continues to display an indefatigability of effort and a compendious knowledge of the interrelated areas of business, society, history, economics, politics and the environment, Her analysis of the human resource environment, the state of labour relations in Jamaica, and her prescriptions for middle managers particularly resonated with me, given my exploits in these specific areas. She is fully cognisant of the need for the latter, especially to disrupt organisational complacency and develop key control systems, plans and programmes that must be evaluated through pre-determined tools and rewarded with substantial incentives in order to ensure the continued success of the entity. Consistent with my own capacity-building initiatives on the subject, the author has brought into even sharper focus their role in bridging important gaps in the organisation between subordinate and supervisor. This bears even more significance in Jamaica as one of only three countries in the world where a middle manager is more likely to be a woman, six times out of 10.

Her perspectives on leadership and philanthropy make for fascinating reading and through her stunning resilience and never-say-die attitude, she has fashioned a life completely on her own terms, across several spheres of endeavour, culminating in the establishment of one of the country’s household names in cleaning and sanitation services. We are all richer for her generous contribution in the form of this publication, and I feel blessed to have shared part of the journey with her. Indeed, this book is recommended reading not only for its intended audience, but anyone with a vision who desires to expend every possible effort to turn their dreams into reality.