Jean Casserly This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Patrick Casserly, a true business pioneer - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM

   www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazi - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/8/2004   Last Visited: 4/8/2004

   Casserly, like his parents Alvaro and Jean Casserly, (Alvaro was executive chairman of Jamaica Unit Trust) wanted to pursue his masters, but the rapid devaluation of the Jamaican currency in the early to mid 1990s placed that ambition out of his reach.
   
   He accepted a job as the director of operations of New Era Computers, a computer company in N Carolina, where he stayed for three years.
   
   "I am prone to making life-changing decisions in a moment," declares Casserly in explaining how his tenure at the firm was short-circuited.
   ...
   By 1999, Casserly was earning US$62,000 per year - a relatively high salary by the then standards in Jamaica. He was in charge of a workforce of 700. The company had sales of about US$750,000 per month.
   
   Then the owners sold the operation to another American firm - National Processing Company (NPC) - which invited Casserly to remain on board as a vice president of the parent firm. By then, the workforce had grown to 1,100.
   
   "The company was very profitable," he recalls. "The net profit was 32 per cent of gross revenue."
   
   Not long after, Mike Gatewood, Randy Wilson and another investor and colleague, Mark Rovenstine, called Casserly and informed him of their interest in reentering the data entry business in Jamaica.
   ...
   Casserly left NPC "at the drop of a hat" to venture into this embryonic sub-sector, but as a 24 per cent capital partner with the other three investors.
   
   The company was floated with capital of US$600,000, and was called e-Services Group International, with Casserly at the helm as CEO, and Wilson its chairman.
   ...
   "People thought we were crazy," remarks Casserly. "Why would I leave a company where I was earning good money and had security?"
   
   It is not clear whether Casserly himself has ever answered that question, but the bottom line is that, by yearend, it had become irrelevant.
   ...
   "Mike is a great salesman, I am the closer," says Casserly of the synergy that exists between them.
   ...
   Casserly says that his approach to growing his company has been to expand only when he has a firm contract. "Technology ages so rapidly . that we do not build and let the infrastructure idle,"he explains.
   
   Last year the company underwent its most frenetic expansion to date - employing 600 people, and doubling its revenue to $1.2 billion.
   
   "It all came together, everything gelled," says Casserly of the period.
   
   Growth was generated primarily by existing clients expanding their contracts, and was the result, according to Casserly, of a carefully crafted growth strategy.
   ...
   "We want to show a presence outside of Jamaica, though no place provides the opportunity that Kingston does," according to Casserly.
   
   At the 50,000 square foot facility now being outfitted at Naggo Head in St Catherine, e-Services will represent a pharmacy company, an operation that will require 300 employees. By yearend another 300 will be added to provide services for another company.
   
   Casserly says he is heartened by the "sense of energy and engagement" of the youngsters employed by his company, and the obvious impact it is having on the lives of so many families.
   
   "When we began, there were three cars in the parking lot," he points out by way of example.
   ...
   Yet ultimately, Casserly sees his job in simple terms: to create an organisation that is flexible and resilient enough to withstand the changes that are inevitable in this famously mercurial market.
   
   "Lots of companies do not look to make their money over time. They want to make a quick win," he says.