Editorial | Butch left Jamaica better

In time, there will be an unravelling of the complexities of Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, who died on Monday, January 4, aged 79. That, hopefully, will happen sooner rather than later. The psychologists and business analysts who do this kind of thing should begin now. Jamaica deserves, and would benefit from, their findings.

The point, we fear, is that Mr Stewart’s death will lead only to the usual clichéd declarations about the hotelier and entrepreneur: the businessman with the Midas touch, whose every enterprise is a roaring success. The reality, without any diminution of the achievements of the man, is likely to be far more nuanced. So, to cast him merely as Midas would be to understate the effort and hard work that underpinned his vision. In other words, Butch Stewart was far more than the myth.

Of course, Mr Stewart brought to his entrepreneurism something of which he may not have been consciously aware, but is of value to anyone who possesses it: charisma. Physically, he wasn’t the person you’d expect to be the most noticed. Yet, when he walked into a room, in his trademark blue and white longitudinally striped Oxford shirts and aviator sunglasses, he sucked the air away from everyone else. He commanded attention.

His son, Adam Stewart, who it seems is Butch Stewart’s heir at the helm of the ATL Group and Sandal Resorts hotel chain, says that people around his father best recognised him “as a dreamer who could dream bigger and better than anyone”. Dream, we suppose, was a major ingredient in his success in building a hotel group from a handful of properties in a small Caribbean island into one of the world’s most recognisable leisure brands. Its 15 hotels across the Caribbean employ several thousand people. Butch Stewart was not constrained by boundaries, either physical or mental. He was certain that his products were best and that he could outcompete others in the marketplace. But excellence was a process to be continually worked at.

It is the same notion that he brought to the now-defunct Air Jamaica. After its divestment by the Government, Mr Stewart became the largest investor among the private-sector group that controlled the airline. If vision and marketing and a sense of national pride, which he injected into the airline in heavy doses, were all that were required for its success, Air Jamaica would be flying today.

Mr Stewart’s successes, though, would hardly have been based solely on his ability to dream. He demonstrated, even in his advanced years, a capacity for hard work and high levels of energy. He maintained a punishing pace. Indeed, the stories about the early days of ATL, when its main business was the sale of home air conditioners, underline the point. Butch Stewart and ATL outcompeted all others with his quick turnaround time between sale and installation and in the service they provided.

REPLICATE THE BEST OF THEIR QUALITIES

It is the same drive for perfection that is reflected in the constant investment in upgrading the Sandals product and manifested in part in Mr Stewart’s penchant for, as it is interpreted by those around him, dreaming big. This willingness to dream and envision new possibilities contributed to Butch Stewart’s partnership with the former banker, Delroy Lindsay, in founding the Jamaica Observer newspaper and in ensuring its survival during nearly a quarter-century of his sole ownership.

Newspapers, and other media outlets, however characterised, are good for democracy. On that score, Jamaica owes Butch Stewart a debt of gratitude.

But back to the start. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart was a complex man. He embraced his Jamaicanness without airs. He easily engaged all strata of the society. He was generous. At the same time, Mr Stewart was ready for no-holds-barred fights, willing to bulldoze anyone in pursuance or protection of his interests and against perceived disloyalty.

On balance, however, the scale tilts heavily in Butch Stewart’s favour. He invested, took risks, built a global brand, created jobs and helped strengthen our democracy. He, on that score, left Jamaica in a better place than he found it. Our business researchers and social scientists must identify what makes people like Butch Stewart and how, for the national economy, we can replicate the best of their qualities.