Speeches

Address to Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Clubs

April 12, 2005

 

Ambassador John Darrell Rood

I am pleased to be here to speak to the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and Freeport’s Rotary Clubs.  These two organizations have meant much to me over the years.

I have always supported our local Chamber of Commerce in Jacksonville, as they have been instrumental in creating one of the best business environments in Florida.  Several years ago I was asked to chair our Membership Committee.  This committee is critical to the success of the Chamber and I spent a year conducting a membership expansion program.  It was a very rewarding -- and extremely busy -- year.

My grandfather was a Rotarian as well as President of his club and I remember going with him as a young boy to his meetings in Moorhead, Minnesota.  After I became a Rotarian, and I should add the president of my club, I visited his club and I was very proud to look at the bulletin and see his name as a past president.

Rotary is where I first learned to appreciate and to enjoy serving others.  I can honestly say that if it were not for Rotary I would not be here as the United States Ambassador to the Bahamas.

Today I would like to share with you my background, my responsibilities as an ambassador and similarities between my new role and the role I left as a businessperson.

Ambassador’s Background

I grew up in the Midwest and attended college in Arizona and Montana.  After college I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and worked for the Carlson Companies.  Like many of you, I desired to have my own business.  So, with not more than a dream, my wife Jamie and I packed up and moved to Florida to start a business of our own.

Our dream came true in 1983 when we founded the Vestcor Companies.  We developed multi-family properties in Florida and Texas and operated a construction company.  The firm eventually grew to over 400 employees.  I am very proud of Vestcor.  I believe that a firm’s reputation is more important than its financial success and we made decisions accordingly.  The numerous awards that were received are a tribute to our reputation.

I should also mention that I have been a frequent visitor to The Bahamas.  When I was younger, my family frequently came to West End and stayed at the Jack Tar hotel.  In fact, I was living in West End and working on a cruise ship in the summer of 1973 when The Bahamas became an independent nation.  It was a time I will never forget, seeing firsthand the joy and the pride of a country becoming independent.  I never dreamed back then that I would return thirty years later as Ambassador.

Vestcor steadily grew as an organization and finally reached a place where I as Chairman didn’t have to directly oversee all of its operations.  I became involved in a wide range of volunteer organizations and public service, which eventually led me to serve as a commissioner of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

I already knew the Governor, Jeb Bush, and through him met his brother George as he was planning his run for the White House.  After he became President, I thought about being an ambassador, but initially hesitated.  We had kids in school in Jacksonville and the timing wasn’t right.  But a few years later when this position became vacant, I realized it was an opportunity of a lifetime.

Role as U.S. Ambassador

As U.S. Ambassador, I have four broad areas of responsibility.

First, I am the manager of the embassy and its 300 American and Bahamian employees.  Former Secretary Powell told me prior to leaving for post that management and leadership should be my priorities.  He explained that he never had to recall an ambassador because of a failure on a bilateral issue, but he had to recall many ambassadors because of failures of management.  He told me to take care of the staff, as they are the future of our country’s diplomatic efforts.  Needless to say, I heard his words loud and clear.  Management is my number one priority. 

One of the things they don’t tell you is the ambassador has to do more than just manage.  I presented my credentials to the Governor General on September 1st last year, officially making me the ambassador.  But as you know on September 2nd, Hurricane Frances hit Nassau.  One of my first official acts as ambassador was to order the majority of my staff and their family members to leave the country.  The rest of us rode out the storm bunkered down in the British Colonial Hilton across the street from the embassy.  It was – you may say -- a sort of a corporate retreat.  And this was the first step to developing a strong team under my direction.

My second area of responsibility is to work on the specific bilateral issues between our countries.  This includes agreements and treaties, votes at the United Nations and Organization of American States, as well as ongoing operational matters.

Last month Foreign Minister Mitchell and I made a trip to Washington where we discussed our bilateral relationship with members of the Florida Congressional delegation.  We had a great series of meetings in which I stressed the tremendous partnership that the U.S. and The Bahamas have on a variety of fronts, in particular our joint fight against narcotics trafficking and illegal migrant smuggling.  We told them about our $30 million dollar OPBAT cooperative counter-drug effort that seizes tons of cocaine and marijuana each year.  We told them about the work the U.S. Coast Guard does with the Bahamian Defense Force – a cooperative effort that interdicted over 5,000 illegal migrants at sea last year.  Those are good programs that benefit both countries.

The embassy works a great deal on what are called consular issues.  Over four million U.S. tourists visit The Bahamas each year, some of which get injured, have health difficulties, encounter legal problems and end up in jail, or are the victims of crime.  We do everything we can to help those Americans.  Sometimes it’s as simple as providing information notices to American residents.  Or it can be as complicated as visiting American prisoners jailed in The Bahamas or dealing with the families of Americans who die here.  This area can be very difficult and we are fortunate to have very dedicated professionals who have the compassion to work these types of issues.

We also provide visa services to tens of thousands of Bahamian travelers, something we try to do as efficiently as possible.  We want Bahamians to come to the United States as tourists, students, or on business.  We do everything we can to facilitate legitimate travelers.

My last area of responsibility is what we call public diplomacy.  I spend a lot of time communicating with Bahamians on issues that are important to the United States -- whether it is the spread of democracy, promoting free trade or stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS.  I meet with school kids and business leaders.  I have spent countless hours on radio shows.  I am very proud of what we as Americans value and I want the Bahamian public to have a greater personal understanding of those values.

One area I particularly enjoy is supporting the President’s -- I should say the First Lady’s -- love of reading.  As a librarian she has a well-known love of books and the joy that reading brings.  We know the President listens to his wife and, as a result, the President began a worldwide literacy initiative.  To support this initiative, I have launched an embassy reading program.  So far I have read to primary school students in Nassau, the Abacos and Eleuthera, and tomorrow I will visit a school here in Freeport.  I’m going to keep visiting schools every chance I get so the kids know important it is to read and get a good education.  This has been the highlight of my work as Ambassador.

Let me also touch briefly on what we are doing to fight HIV/AIDS.  The President launched a $15 billion, 5-year initiative known as the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to combat HIV/AIDS around the world.  The program focuses on the countries with the highest rates of AIDS incidence in the world, including two in this hemisphere.  All U.S. ambassadors are directed to do what they can in this fight.  We provided $20,000 last year in funds to several agencies in The Bahamas.  This October the embassy will be hosting a regional HIV/AIDS conference for U.S. Chiefs of Mission from throughout the Caribbean.  This promises to be a great event that will bring attention to the successes and challenges of the fight against HIV/AIDS in The Bahamas.  

These are my four areas of responsibility: leadership and management of the embassy, bilateral issues, overseeing our consular assistance and reaching out through public diplomacy.  It has been a very busy seven months!

Similarities between Government and Business

I have been a businessman for thirty years and an Ambassador for seven months, but already I can see the similarities between business and government.  We often treat them like completely separate animals, but really they have a lot in common.

There is never any substitute for strong leadership.  Every organization needs someone to set its direction, make the tough decisions, and be accountable for achieving its goals.  Without effective leadership, organizations stagnate or see their energies go off in many different directions instead of focusing on the most important strategic objectives.  We recently spent several weeks developing our mission performance plan.  This plan sets out priorities and establishes specific goals to be accomplished to support those priorities.  This plan was developed with input from each section head and has resulted in a direction for our embassy understood by all.

Second, both business and government must demonstrate fiscal responsibility.  You must know what you’re spending and how your expenditures advance the pursuit of your goals.  The embassy doesn’t focus on profits and losses.  But it must compete for scarce resources within the government and then decide how to allocate those resources most efficiently among its many programs and activities.  Irresponsible or inefficient spending - limits what we can do.  We have a mandatory annual planning process to review our goals over the next four fiscal years and ration our resources accordingly.  The more fiscally responsible we are, the more we can accomplish.     

Next is the importance of customer service.  Both business and government have clients who expect to be treated with courtesy and respect.  I was on a radio call-in program recently, prepared to discuss counter-narcotics, hurricane relief or U.S. policy toward Cuba.  But almost every call was about visas!  We sometimes forget that most of the people who interact with the embassy are not foreign ministers or diplomats; they are Bahamians who want to travel or Americans who are renewing a passport.  Those basic interactions are the starting point for the embassy’s success or failure as a public institution.

We work every day to advance our customer service.  We expanded the embassy’s visa section to provide more seating in the waiting room, so applicants can get in out of the weather.  We added more interviewing windows so the lines will move faster.  If there is a line outside, I can see it from my office, so I know how well we are doing.  We are also exploring a reservation system and, as a long-term project, we are exploring the possibility of a mobile data collection site in Freeport.

Both business and government must be committed to constant organizational improvement on all levels.  If you stand still, someone else will figure out a way to surpass you.  Your competitiveness will suffer.  The goal may differ (profitability in business vs. effectiveness in government), but the need for organizational improvement is the same.  To be successful you simply cannot conduct business or run government the same way it was done in the past.

Spend time to listen and learn.  I am a fan of Stephen Covey, Author of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.  My favorite habit is to seek first to understand and then to be understood.  Those of us in business know how important this is.  If we don’t know what the customer wants it is hard to sell it.  We learn quickly.  Government on the other hand is slower at this.  But governments that listen build successful partnerships.  They build successful relationships.  Governments that listen respect their neighbors.  Over the last six months I have done a lot of listening -- and a lot of learning -- as a result we have a close, strong relationship with the Bahamas.

As you can see, business and government have much more in common than most people think.  I am confident that my business background will help me to lead the embassy, build long-term relationships and achieve our mission objectives here in the Bahamas.

In closing let me say it is an honor to represent the President as the United States Ambassador to the Bahamas – and I am thankful for that opportunity as well as the opportunity to speak to all of you today.