How to enjoy your retirement
- a profile and some investment advice from Winston Tyrell
Stabroek News
May 28, 2004
Winston Tyrell is a keen gardener and his approach to investment is very similar. He looks to get to the root, to dig deep and try to ensure an overall successful portfolio. Hardly a shareholder's meeting passes, without him asking or seeking explanations on the company's performance.
This phase of his activities has served him well and he has some wisdom for younger persons looking towards a comfortable retirement. (More on that later.)
An Essequibo lad
Tyrell was born in Dartmouth Village on the Essequibo Coast in 1934 and by 12 was attending Chatham High School in Georgetown because at the time there was no secondary school on the coast. He returned to the Essequibo Coast after three years having successfully completed the Junior & Senior Cambridge School Certificate Examinations. He noted the scarcity of jobs at that period and the only offer in two years was that of a teacher on the condition he changed his religion, an offer he declined. This experience, however, motivated him to leave Guyana for overseas at the earliest possible opportunity which he eventually did at age twenty. He claims he was never disappointed or depressed for lack of a job opportunity as he kept himself busy farming - his father and grandfather were farmers.
On a visit to Mackenzie, he secured employment as a constable in security services of the Demerara Bauxite Co. After three years, he left to further his studies in the United Kingdom in 1954. He gained employment with the Post Office/Telecommunications Department and enrolled at Northampton College of Advanced Technology to pursue studies in Electronic Engineering and Measurements for which he was granted day release from his employment.
After five years he was successful at the Higher National Certificate Examination and had gained valuable experience in internal and external telephone systems. He was called up in 1959 for compulsory national service of two years duration. He served in the Signals Regiment of the British Army. It was a very satisfying experience first as a trainee soldier and then as a technician. Later, he was appointed a technical instructor. That appointment offered opportunities for training in Human Resource Management in the army and at Leeds University. Sports was another interest particularly cricket, athletics and rugby.
On being demobbed he returned to Guyana in December 1961 and joined P.O. Telecommunications as an Electrical Engineer with responsibility for power and air conditioning systems. He resigned from Telecommunications Dept. in early 1965 to join Booker Sugar Estates (BSE) as an Electrical Engineer. As he
recalls it, "This is where I spent the bulk of my working life -35 years - divided into two periods before nationalisation and after nationalisation when BSE became Guyana Sugar Corporation. I was promoted Senior Engineer,
Factory Manager and Administrative Manager before nationalisation in 1976.
It was the time when Bookers was undergoing changes such as the concept that men were more important than ships, shops and machinery ....
The process of Guyanisation ......... Continuous training at all levels to ensure that the concepts accorded with a business plan for a viable industry. After the industry was nationalised the concepts were
a) ownership and operation for and on behalf of the people of Guyana &
b) the small man shall be the real man."
After 1976, Tyrell was promoted to Technical Director and after retirement was kept on as a consultant before he fully
left the industry in 2000. "Only three years of my time in the sugar industry was spent strictly in engineering. Thereafter it was more to do with management. I really enjoyed that because there is so much one can do for people. The same skill and experience gained in management can be used to transform personal lives." Tyrell was fortunate, to have been exposed to two courses - one in 1968-9 run by Harbridge House (concentrated on management by objectives) and one in Tobago, was a Caribbean Senior Executive seminar in 1975 which dealt with socio-political environment and
perspective of the Caribbean and the World. As a result, he firmly believes that effectiveness of business and society can only be maximised when goals and objectives are pellucidly clear and that the institutional framework operates to ensure that friction in relationships is minimised.
He was also married in 1958 to a Guyanese in the UK. The couple has two children, a son now aged 34 and working in the sugar industry and a daughter now 29 who lectures at UG.
A simple investment strategy
Besides gardening four or five times a week at his Oleander Gardens home and being involved in his church, he takes an active interest in his investments. And here he takes a sensible approach that he learnt early on while in England ... Seek knowledge so that when opportunities come your
way you can capitalise on them. It might be cloudy today but tomorrow the sun will shine. One of his favourite haunts in England was the library. "Apart from doing electrical studies, one got involved in all sorts of subjects,
politics, economics, religion etc Lots of discussions went on at that period in time among West Indians ... What was wrong at home and of course plenty of solutions were forthcoming."
The other observation one made was that conditions in the UK for a lot of the people were not very dissimilar to Guyana. He noted that, at first, his earnings in the UK were lower for a higher cost of living. However , there was a better business culture.
"So when I came back, I armed myself with a lot of books on finance, stocks and shares. The situation in the country was far from stable causing me to reflect those hopes and aspirations built up over the eight years spent in the UK.
One ray of sunshine presented itself .... rugby. Most of the participants were in business. It is not only a game on the field, it is for conviviality, a chance to discuss business etc off the field. I listened, heard and put in practice. At that point in time things weren't very clear, so I approached share acquisition in a cautious manner."
Up to 1976 he purchased shares in JP Santos, Guyana Management Trust, GICIL, Guyana Match Company, Demerara Liquors, Banks DIH, Rupununi Development Company, Bookers Stores and the Enmore Estates. But in 1976 Tyrell suffered a setback when sugar was nationalised including GICIL, Enmore Estates and Booker Stores. He received compensation but did not realise the investment potential of his shares. "Was I disappointed? Yes. Most of my investments were in these companies. So, I deserted the market for two years."
Meanwhile the economic realities of previous decisions taken by Government and the effects of the oil crisis began creeping up. He was rather daunted by the developments and decided to take a long term perspective which was
to provide security for his old age. It had dawned on him that people who were pensioners were the first level of paupers, people in jobs were the second level and the only people were winning were those involved in businesses or the acquisition of assets, shares. "I had to make a decision; here it is, I am on an estate, enjoying the best of life - Administrative Manager... I am given a butler, a gardener - then you ask yourself, when you are retired, what will be your position? Only a depressing picture.
Nationalisation also taught him an important lesson. Spread your risk. He adds that, "People tell you all the technical ways of doing things but from hindsight, your only safe bet is to spread your risk -wherever there is a credible business opportunity, put something into it."
By 1979 he redoubled his energies into stocks, holding shares in almost every public company. He adds that in these times of inflation the saving game was a losing one "because in the face of inflation, as you are putting money in the bank, it is virtually losing its value. In point of fact, it is better to be in deficit to the bank by seeking a loan or overdraft, with one proviso that the it is used towards the acquisition of assets and not on consumables. One of things I do encourage young people is the need for a relationship with a bank. Savings play its part, but a loan or overdraft establishes that necessary relationship and they get to know you.
Most people only reflect on profit and dividend. There is need for further investigation. One must be able to garner how the company is performing from selective information in the annual report. Anyone with a primary school education is capable. It requires the will to learn the basics and asking questions from persons with knowledge." Tyrell stresses that everyone should try to secure their financial future so that they do not suffer a drop in standard of living when they retire. "Manage your investment portfolio. Don't leave it to luck and chance."
And he says you would be surprised who holds shares. He mentions one Ms. Dotty Grey as outstanding. " She invested in nearly every company. Over her working life as a cleaner, she acquired enough shares to guarantee a reasonable standard of living even in her retirement - she died a couple years ago - Even when she was retired she was still investing money."
Tyrell says there is still a culture that you have to be wealthy to get involved in shares. "Far from the truth. The game is "In defence of a reasonable living standard". It demands to be proactive, set goals and work towards them. Of importance is to seek out people who are supportive and can give relevant advice. However, the decision must always be yours."
He says a shareholding public promotes economic development for a country, because of a common goal unity of purpose is established, democracy is more easily promoted as selection or election depends on performance towards the common goal. "Nationalisation failed because of lack of people involvement. However when we started privatising, we ended up selling out to majority shareholders. Personally I feel that we lost the opportunity of shareholder development." He pointed to UK experience., when Margaret Thatcher made it fairly easy for more small men to be involved.
He also refers to the sale of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) to the Beharrys which he opposed because he wanted more small men to take a stake in the bank. He is now a GBTI director which raises the suggestion that he may be compromised somehow. But Tyrell says he was pleasantly surprised by the way the Board operates and in retrospect wonders if the sale would have been as successful to the general public. "You see without education the small man is in a wilderness if not lost."
However he says it is time institutional investors become more proactive and take the lead by asking questions of accountability of public companies. "Only good can come
from it." Otherwise the companies can become like old boy's clubs. He mentions that such analysts as Christopher Ram are providing a useful service in the community and that there is a mistaken idea that if you ask questions you are somehow anti or opposed to the company. He says all boards must be transparent and fully answer their shareholders queries.
Otherwise they are doing Guyanese a "disservice because an ignorant public is a setback to development and can be dangerous."
Tyrell says changing the culture to encourage smaller investors is not an easy task: "Development is a slow process, slow but steady, keep at it, but there are quite a few people out there, who are becoming more and more interested. Perhaps a lot are interested for the wrong reasons. For me, people must recognise, when you go into a business, you can lose out or you can win.
That opportunity exists. That is the reason why you should take an active interest in the company you are putting money into. You can assist, make suggestions in the development of that company."
He encourages directors to take a responsibility in educating their shareholders and the public.
Some parting advice "It does not matter where you are, any job these days only takes you so far and in point of fact, in a lot of cases, you are going to end up on the poverty line, simply because you are working, earning, and you save, but
money is losing its value," says Tyrell.
"Everyone ought to start seriously considering their whole life and particularly their post retirement financial scenario and start planning for it and be proactive, rather than reactive. Spread your risks. Apart from having some money set aside for emergency, most of us hold on to too much cash , Investing in stocks and shares is a more viable proposal."
He notes the biblical quotation " Be timid in business and come to beggary, be bold and make a fortune. (Prov.11:12NEv).
Sounder words were never spoken.