Thriving Amidst Policy Shifts in Medicinal Cannabis!

We’ve all heard the saying “fail fast” in the world of startups and innovation. The idea is to move quickly, take calculated risks, and if something doesn’t work, fail quickly so you can pivot and try a new approach. While failing is never fun, there is wisdom in this mindset of failing fast to learn and move forward.

“I believe in the concept of falling fast, so you get up faster, so you correct the mistakes and move forward.” With those words from Shanika Roberts-Odle, you get a sense of the bold, solutions-oriented mindset she brings as the acting CEO of the Barbados Medicinal Cannabis Licensing Authority (BMCLA). In this newly created government role, she is tasked with charting Barbados’ path into the burgeoning medicinal cannabis industry.

Being a former senator, her diverse background as a policy expert, political scientist, and public sector leader has prepared her well for the unique challenges ahead. “I have spent my time focused on where Barbados is and where it needs to go, making the best use of what we have to get where we want to be,” she explains.

For the Caribbean region, legalized medicinal cannabis represents a promising but complicated new frontier. “We have a unique spiritual and cultural context and relationship to the plant,” she says. “But the science, best practices, and regulations have historically been driven by Europe, the U.S., and Canada.”

Her mission is to merge international standards with regional knowledge to develop a regulatory framework that upholds global rules while respecting local culture. It’s not an easy balance, she admits, but one she’s uniquely qualified to strike.

“We’re in a place where we try to figure out how to comply with international rules while charting a path that is respectful of the unique place in which we find ourselves,” she says. “There will always be mistakes. But I’m willing to admit them, fall fast, get up faster, correct the mistakes, and move forward.”

With her open-minded, adapt-as-you-go philosophy, the pioneering CEO is proving to be an ideal pilot for Barbados’ trailblazing new cannabis venture. As the jurisdiction stakes its claim, all eyes are on Roberts-Odle to help the tiny island nation establish a mighty footprint in a global industry primed for explosive growth.

Below are the interview highlights:

Could you give our readers an insight into your company and its inception story?

BMCLA’s inception, and I can only speak to the parts that I’m aware of. I think the Prime Minister of Barbados, the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, believes in driving innovation and moving ahead where others dare not.

Medicinal cannabis is one of those areas that Barbados has been talking about for a long, long time, but pulling the trigger to create the industry always seemed to be something that required a bit more political bravery than what was previously available. And so, when she pulled the trigger, she did so with the understanding that it was going to be something that was going to be a slow march toward where we needed to be. What was required for success was an organization aimed at laying the groundwork for said industry, with an understanding that there is always going to be a need to make adjustments, to make changes, and that there would be risks.

I think the international market truly understands that there is a uniqueness to the cannabis space. Even when you look at what has truly been successful, there have been large, huge companies that have fallen, trying to dominate this space, while the medium and smaller companies have successfully been navigating this cannabis space with skill and grace. There are not many industries in the world in which this is the case, and so the inception of BMCLA is aimed at understanding the landscape, both nationally, regionally, and internationally, and then making the best practices work for Barbados.

At the BMCLA, we started as a very, very small group of individuals placed together for this purpose. Originally, there were four of us women who started the groundwork; then we grew from four to five and then doubled to ten employees. But every individual at the BMCLA has skills and talents that delve into areas that allow us to be unique in our space. For example, I have one person who practically knows every possible person that we need to know in this Barbadian landscape.

I have another who understands marketing and framing context, branding, communication, and public education, which is always highly important. I have another individual who is firm about details, and therefore, because the devil is always in the details, he is most definitely essential. What we have tried to do is ensure that we keep our employment numbers small and our skill sets very high, and that is how we’ve been able to come to this point. But there’s still a huge road left to travel, and we will continue to do so.

What motivates you to lead and inspire your team towards achieving business goals?

Leadership has been one of those funny things that I find myself being steered into and not necessarily striving for. It has been a journey. One that is met with meeting people where they’re at, understanding the uniqueness of each of my employees, understanding what their failings are and what their great achievements can be, and crafting how I respond to each of them in a manner that is unique to them but also distinctly me, and that has been where I have been able to meet our internal and external business objectives and goals.

I have been able, in all of those things, to be uniquely myself, and in being uniquely myself, I’ve been able to find common ground with every person that we have met with and to find what makes that person tick, what they’re looking for in the interaction. What are we looking for in that interaction and to find that middle ground, that special sauce that truly leaves everyone walking away satisfied from an interaction? And that is where I aim to be. We have been able to do that with the University of the West Indies—Cave Hill. We have been able to do that on a licensee basis. Each of our licensees.

Each of their business plans and models has been unique. And so we have found ourselves looking at how we meet them halfway while still ensuring that they understand the need for compliance. They understand the need to conform but also to shine.

Even in what we’ve been doing, there have been huge amounts of setbacks, delays, issues, and problems. But even in the face of all of that, we’ve been able to walk away from each interaction successfully because we’ve gone into it not just for ourselves but also for our partners across the table, treating them as partners. Finding common ground. Finding space to work together. I believe and certainly hope that when this is all said, that is the signature that I leave on this organization.

How do you balance short-term success with long-term sustainability in your business strategy?

I give it to Jesus. (she laughs) But seriously, you have to be cognizant that the decisions you make will have repercussions, and sometimes those repercussions are beyond you. You also have to be willing to walk it back when it is necessary. That may sound odd, but it’s the truth. You have to be willing to, as the common vernacular says, stand ten toes down on business.

For me, decisions that I take have to have short-term benefits and long-term vision, but also the constant and consistent understanding that we have to be able to make a shift where it is necessary. And I think a lot of times people are so invested in the success of a decision that they have taken that they are unwilling to sometimes undo that decision where it is necessary. My plan is never to be so stuck in any way on anyone’s success, or any one position, that I am unwilling to make a change for the long-term success of the organization and the industry itself.

Can you share a significant challenge you faced as a business leader and how you overcame it?

I think by now the issue that I am going to use is one that everybody fully understands, which is banking in the medicinal cannabis industry. In Barbados, all of our banks are US correspondent banks, and with the current federal laws in the US prohibiting medicinal cannabis sales, our banks have refused to take medicinal cannabis money for fear of upsetting their correspondent banking partners. Where that leaves us is an inability to find banking solutions for the industry in its current state.

I’ve met with the British Banking Association on three (3) separate occasions. We have gone to other regional partners and had them give us information on how they were able to do their banking, for us to then be able to explain that to our local banking authority with regional examples that include methodologies, strategies, and a framework.

However, the response has been pretty much, ‘Thank you so much for that information, but we’re going to stay where we are.’ So, as you can imagine, that has been one of the biggest issues that we have faced. The truth is, we continue to face it.

I can’t tell you that, at this point, there is an answer to that problem. Does that mean that I am going to stop looking for an answer? Not. I am not going to continue to look far and wide for a partner who may not be in the current Barbadian banking system but who may be interested in providing a legitimate alternative and who may be interested in coming solely to be the partner in the medicinal cannabis industry or to create relationships and contacts that may be able to provide that.

We’ve started that search from across the region and the world to look for partners. We’ve looked into partnerships with Canada and Europe for people who already deal in medicinal cannabis from a banking perspective who would be willing to come to Barbados. We are open to anyone who can fit that bill; feel free to contact us.

I have the support of the Barbadian government through our Prime Minister, Mia Amor Mottley, and with the country’s Central Bank, who have been very clear in their advocacy for this industry, so I am sure that we will find a solution.

How do you foster a positive and inclusive work culture in your organization?

I have some distinct advantages. One being, and, you know, I say it all the time, and it’s one of the few joys I have in my office to say I happen to be the youngest person in my office, who works directly for the company that has given me some joys and some downs. But one of the things it has allowed me to do is be able to recognize that there is a wealth of knowledge and understanding in the people that I work with.

Some people have an entire lifetime of understanding of employee relations, so I have learned to lean on that, just as I’ve learned to lean on every member of my staff in their area of expertise. There is one of my individuals who has great skill in making friends with everyone he meets, and I have learned from that that when I need to be able to pull out what sometimes can be an introverted nature, I can instead exhibit my best-extroverted self-learning from that person.

Being inclusive for me is less about the ideology and more about understanding that each person has their own skill set—each person has their power that I can lean into and learn from, which I have found sometimes leads them to the understanding of learning from you. Rather than a hard command, a soft word will do. But sometimes a hard command is necessary. So yes, that is my position: understanding strength and power in everyone and, through that, inclusivity and acceptance.