With deep Caribbean insight and global perspective, Collis helps organisations cut through complexity, modernise outdated systems, and unlock opportunities for growth and investment.
The headlines are relentless: delays at ports, new tariffs, shifting trade routes, and uncertainty about where the next container will come from. To many, these changes feel like an endless storm battering businesses and communities across the globe.
But for those of us in the Caribbean, the storm is also a clearing. It is creating the space for us to rethink, redesign, and re-engineer the way we connect to the world.
In my decades in logistics and customs brokerage, one truth has stood out: those who survive upheaval are rarely the strongest or the largest. They are those who adopt a design mindset — leaders who step back and ask not only, “What’s broken?” but more importantly, “What can we design differently?”
A design mindset turns disruption into opportunity. It sees shortages as a call to diversify sourcing. It sees rising costs as an invitation to innovate with tariffs and classifications. And it sees uncertainty not as a dead end, but as a fork in the road — a chance to choose a new path.
Too often in the Caribbean, tariffs are seen as a punishment or burden. But hidden in those codes and classifications lies a roadmap to cost optimization and opportunity.
A simple change in how a product is classified — legally and correctly — can mean the difference between profitability and loss.
When we combine tariff mastery with design thinking, suddenly businesses can reframe their supply chains:
A construction company discovers that modular wall panels attract a fraction of the duty that individual blocks take to deliver, build, and plaster.
A hotel realizes that bulk purchasing through a shared supply chain reduces per-unit tariffs while increasing negotiating leverage.
Retailers learn how in-bond facilities can create cash flow freedom while maintaining compliance.
These aren’t loopholes. They’re strategies — waiting to be applied.
As the world re-arranges itself, innovations are bubbling up in every corner. At trade shows across Asia, Europe, and North America, I see new materials, modular systems, AI-driven logistics platforms, and design solutions that cut costs by half and improve quality tenfold.
The question is: who in the Caribbean will step up to harness these ideas?
It won’t be those waiting for things to “settle down.” The winners will be those who combine international exposure with local application, customizing global innovations to Caribbean realities.
The upheaval is here. That’s beyond our control. But how we respond is within our control.
Will we freeze, complain, and retreat? Or will we rally around new ways of thinking?
I believe the Caribbean is poised to thrive — if we choose to embrace design, tariffs, and logistics as tools for progress. We can build more affordable homes, supply hotels with efficiency, and empower communities with solutions that put quality within reach.
Let's not just endure this upheaval. Let's design our way through it.
Supply Chain Innovator
Collis Williams is a Caribbean Supply Chain Transformation Specialist who has spent his career cutting through complexity to provide clarity and actionable strategies.
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