After he had ‘sealed a deal’ a week ago with the Trinidad and Tobago company Computer Technologies & Services Limited (CTSL) a leading provider of ICT solutions in the twin-island Republic, Guyanese Human Resources practitioner Peter Benny sat down with the Stabroek Business to discuss with the newspaper a range of entrepreneurial ambitions that embrace a broad sphere of disciplines ranging from management consultancy that targets clients across the Caribbean to creating what, over time, he expects will be one of the most ‘tasteful’ restaurants in the Caribbean. If he concedes that ‘fine dining’ has long been a ‘passion’, the fact that he has divided himself across various pursuits has not afforded him the time, up until now, to give more of his attention to what he considers to be his one of his favoured entrepreneurial pursuit.
Benny’s gushing pride in the Mango Walk Restaurant, situated at 48 Croal street Stabroek has caught the eye of a range of clients ranging from fine dining afficianodos to wine bar lovers, where the cuisine and wines combine to create a measure of comfort and taste that is not reflected outside, on a quiet road that offers few clues to the comfort and character. After you have entered the glass door and completed the short walk along a corridor flanked by diners, mostly couples, you are offered a choice of proceeding directly ahead to a modest but well-appointed bar, or else turn left then enter another dining area, more spacious and possessed of a more generous measure of informality.
Everywhere, however, there is a measure of tastefulness that is coupled with a particular mindfulness by female hostesses dressed smartly in black attending to the needs of patrons. Transactions are done discreetly with delays in the taking of orders only occurring when patron clarifications are required to facilitate specific menu inquiries. Benny himself, when he is ‘on site’ occasionally wanders across the floor, not hesitating to intervene discreetly in exchanges between guests and staff on issues that might require clarification. If Benny says he exudes calm when undertaking his pacing-the-floor routine he concedes that there are times when the exercise can be a “pins and needles” routine. “Given the image that we seek to project through our marketing I feel compelled to have us reflect that image in the quality of our services.”
The former Omai Gold Mines Ltd Human Resources Manager over time, acquired a reputation for managing a ‘tight ship’ at an interior location where – as he put it – discipline and good order is what held institutions like Omai together. At Mango Walk, Benny says he has strived to maintain a sense of order attended by a high level of customer satisfaction by implementing a regimen of sustained awareness of the needs of guests without imposing anything even remotely resembling the unrelentingly strict regimen which obtained during his tenure with the Canadian gold-mining outfit.
A veteran management trainer, Benny, whilst asserting that “good help is hard to find” is altogether persuaded that sustained focus on training can result in the realization of high standards. While as a trainer he asserts that he has spent “several hours in classrooms” he believes that training can be more effective when the classroom “becomes that wider work space, a real theatre in which the routines are played out and where the responsibilities have to be effected in ‘real time.’” Going forward, Benny told the Stabroek Business that while he is currently seeking to paint with a broader entrepreneurial brush that will take him beyond fine dining, he intends to leave a sound human resource management ‘footprint’ on all of his business pursuits. “I believe that effective human resource management is one of the most important keys to success in any sphere of entrepreneurship,” Benny says.
