This article was first Published September 2010

Honourable Lascelles A. Chin, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the LASCO Group of Companies, is one of Jamaica’s most distinguished and respected entrepreneurs, a pioneering exporter, outstanding philanthropist, and a much honoured leader in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Born in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, from an early age, Lascelles Chin demonstrated that he possessed the skills and attributes to make him a successful businessman – hard work, determination, perseverance, clarity of vision and the ability to see obstacles as challenges.

His early working life also demonstrated that he had a very clear understanding of the importance of accumulating capital and remaining focussed on one’s vision.  Thus, as early as 1958 when he worked as a lab technician in the Pharmacology Department at The University College of the West Indies, he saved more than half of his weekly earnings of Seven Pounds Ten Shillings (£7.10).

Three years later, at the age of Twenty-three, with savings of one hundred and seventy-five pounds (£175.00) and a family to support, Lascelles Chin entered the business sector and began importing black pepper from the Far East and peas from Portugal and the United States.  Through sheer determination, he was able to overcome many obstacles.  Although his loan application for £1,000 was turned down by one bank, he emerged as Jamaica’s largest trader of black pepper.  He then expanded his entrepreneurial activities to partner with the German Company Henkel Ltd.

Lascelles Chin also demonstrated his ability to focus on opportunities and not be discouraged or beaten by challenges and obstacles.  In 1965, he was not deterred either, on learning of a plan to establish an adhesive plant in Jamaica, or by Government’s inevitable restriction on the quantity of such products he would be able to import.  Instead, he saw this as a crucial business opportunity and successfully convinced Henkel to enter into a joint partnership with him.  He became the Chairman and Managing Director of the company’s operation in Jamaica and was able to make the Jamaican market into the highest per capita user of Henkel adhesives in the entire world.

Full of entrepreneurial energy, and with an unerring ability to seek out business opportunities, it is not surprising that Lascelles Chin took advantage of opportunities in a variety of sectors including furniture, manufacturing, data processing, car rentals, horticulture, insurance brokerage, hair products, soya oil refining, and chicken processing.  All his business acumen, work experience and expertise were brought to bear on the successful establishment of the LASCO Group of Companies in 1988.  The Group now manufactures and distributes over 300 products with the LASCO brand name.

He currently serves as Chairman for the following Companies:

LASCO Distributors Limited

LASCO Foods Limited

LASCO Foods (Successors) Limited

LASCO Properties Limited

LASCO Financial Services Limited

LASCO Remittance Services Limited

LASCO Barbados Limited

Summit Development Limited

Not forgetting his humble beginnings, Lascelles Chin has made his products affordable, investing in extensive research and development that takes him worldwide.  With the advent of each new product, consumers throughout Jamaica and the Caribbean have seen the prices of competitive products tumbling and have rewarded LASCO with strong brand loyalty.  The Group now exports to most of the Caribbean, Central America, the United States, Canada and England.

Lascelles Chin has shared his vision and energy with his colleagues in business through dynamic leadership of several organizations.  These include serving as:

Past Chairman for:

Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation (JIDC)

National Productivity Council

Jamaica Exporters Association (JEA)

National Industries Development Company

Bureau of Standards Foundation

Past Deputy Chairman for:

Trade Board

Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO)

Jamaica National Export Corporation

Founder and Past Chairman:

Jamaica Shippers Council

Past Director

National Commercial Bank

Ex-Im Bank

Island Victoria Bank

Institute of Sports

Bureau of Standards – Standard Council

Current Director

University of the West Indies School of Nursing Advisory Board

Kings House Foundation

Current Chairman

Caribbean Community of Retired Persons (CCRP)

Among the accolades / achievements gained by Hon. Lascelles Chin are:

ü  Most Admired Business Leader – 2009 Inaugural CVM People’s Award

ü  Ranked in the Top Three Most Admired Non-Financial Company – 2009 Inaugural CVM People’s Award

ü  Ranked among the Top Five Most Admired Business Leader – Gleaner Commissioned Bill Johnson Poll March 2006

ü  2005 American Foundation for UWI Award – Outstanding Contribution to Business in the Caribbean & as a Caribbean Luminary

ü  2004 Florida International University (FIU) Business Leader Award

ü  2002 -The Agri-Business Award from the American Soybean Association, for active involvement in the Soybean Industry.  This award has only been won by multinational companies such as Dupont, Monsanto and Dow, Bayer, Ciba Geigy, Zeneca

ü  Received the 4^th highest civilian Jamaican recognition, the Order of Jamaica, in 2001 for his philanthropy and his contribution to the development of commerce/business

ü  2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award -Retail and Distribution

ü  Jamaica Observer Business Leader of the Year 2000

ü  1997 – Entrepreneurial Award from the Jamaican Institute of Management.

ü  Business Leader of the Year in 1996

ü  He was listed among top ten Personalities in Jamaica for 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 in the Jamaica Observer.

ü  1992 – The Administrator of the Year Award from the Administrative Management Society;

ü  Conferred with the Honour of the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander Class – 1986, for outstanding services to Industry and Commerce

ü  Highly sought-after motivational speaker by business groups, service clubs and tertiary institutions including the University of Florida

ü  Dynamic Chairmanship of several state agencies

ü  Has served as Director for in excess of 15 companies

Lascelles Chin continues to explore new horizons, his energy and creativity undiminished by his four decades in business.  He continues to be a great believer in the importance of hard work to the optimum efficiency and in being as optimistic as possible, despite obstacles and hardships.

The 2023 Businessuite Skin Index (BSI)

The 2023 Businessuite Millionaire Index (BMI)

Our transportation network is comprised of:

• Ridesharing Marketplace. Our core offering connects drivers with riders. The scale of our network enables us to predict demand and proactively incentivize drivers to be available for rides in the right place at the right time. This allows us to optimize earning opportunities for drivers and offer convenient rides for riders, creating sustainable value to both sides of our marketplace. Our ridesharing marketplace connects drivers with riders in cities across the United States and in select cities in Canada. In 2022, we launched Lyft Maps in an effort to optimize routing, improve safety, save riders and drivers time and add to our marketplace efficiency. In addition to our standard rideshare offering, riders can select a variety of other rideshare offerings which include Wait & Save, Lux, Lux Black, Lux Black XL, and have access to Lyft Pink, Lyft’s transportationfocused membership.

• Express Drive. Our car rental program for drivers, including those who want to drive using our platform but do not have access to a vehicle that meets our requirements. Through our Express Drive program, drivers can enter into rental agreements with our independently managed subsidiary, Flexdrive, and our rental car partners for vehicles that may be used to provide ridesharing services on the Lyft Platform.

• Lyft Rentals. In 2019, we launched Lyft Rentals to offer a rental car option for users who have long-distance trips. Lyft Rentals is consumer facing and is therefore different from Express Drive, which is driver facing. Lyft Rentals is supported entirely by third-party partnerships.

• Light Vehicles. We have a network of shared bikes and scooters (“Light Vehicles”) in a number of cities to address the needs of users who are looking for options that are more active and often more cost-effective and efficient for shorter trips. These modes can also help supplement the first-mile and last-mile of a multimodal trip with public transit.

• Public Transit. Available in select cities, our Transit offering integrates third-party public transit data into the Lyft App to offer users a robust view of transportation options around them and allows them to see transit routes to their destinations at no cost. Providing real-time public transit information is another step toward providing effective, equitable and sustainable transportation to our communities, and creating a more seamless and connected transportation network.

• Lyft Autonomous. Our partnership with Motional has enabled the commercial deployment of a fleet of autonomous vehicles on our platform in Las Vegas. In July 2021, we completed a multi-element transaction with Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, for the divestiture of certain assets related to our self-driving vehicle division, Level 5, as well as commercial agreements for the utilization of Lyft rideshare and fleet data to accelerate the safety and commercialization of the automated-driving vehicles that Woven Planet is developing.

Drivers
The drivers on our platform are active members of their communities. They are parents, students, business owners, retirees and everything in between. We work hard to serve the community of drivers on our platform, empowering them to drive on their own flexible terms while providing them the opportunity to focus their time on what matters most. Key benefits to drivers on our platform include:

• Flexibility. We offer drivers the flexibility to generate income on their own schedule, so they can best prioritize what is important in their lives.

• Technology. Our predictive technology around ride volume and demand enables us to share key information with drivers about when and where to drive to maximize their earnings on a real-time basis.

• Transparent and Consistent Pay: We’ve released multiple features over the years aimed at providing transparency to drivers, including upfront pay, which enables drivers to see ride information and what they’ll earn before accepting a ride, and Weekly Pay Statement, which gives drivers a more clear and comprehensive view of earnings details.

• Insurance. We procure insurance that helps protect transportation network company (“TNC”) drivers against financial losses related to automobile accidents while on the platform.

• Community Standards. To help us uphold high community standards, we give both drivers and riders the opportunity to rate each other after a ride booked through the Lyft App.

• Support. We offer drivers access to 24/7 support and earnings tools as well as education resources and other support to meet their personal goals.

Riders
Riders are as diverse and dynamic as the communities we serve. They represent all adult age groups and backgrounds and use Lyft to commute to and from work, explore their cities, spend more time at local businesses and stay out longer knowing they can get a reliable ride home. Unless otherwise stated, riders are passengers who request rides from drivers in our ridesharing marketplace and renters of a shared bike, scooter or automobile, or have used services for car owners available in the Lyft App. We work hard to provide riders with a quality experience every time they open the Lyft App, in order to earn the right to have Lyft be their transportation network of choice. Key benefits to riders on our platform include:

• Selection and Convenience. We designed the Lyft App with a focus on simplicity, efficiency and convenience. Our proprietary technology efficiently matches riders with drivers through advanced dispatching algorithms providing faster arrival times, localized pricing and maximum availability. Additional modes, such as Light Vehicles, offer riders more options for shorter trips. The more rides that are taken on our platform, the better we are able to offer riders personalized experiences most suitable to the trip being planned.

• Availability. We strive to ensure that riders can get a ride when they want one. We leverage our proprietary dispatch platform and data to help drivers and riders connect efficiently and reduce wait times.

• Affordability. Our platform empowers riders to choose from a broad set of transportation options to easily optimize for cost, comfort and time.

• Safety. Since day one, we have worked continuously to enhance the safety of our platform and the ridesharing industry by developing innovative products, policies and processes.

Business
Lyft is evolving how businesses large and small take care of their people’s transportation needs across sectors including corporate, healthcare, auto, education and government. Our comprehensive set of solutions allows clients to design, manage and pay for ground transportation programs that contribute to productivity and satisfaction while reducing cost and streamlining operations.

Our Technology Infrastructure and Operations
We organize our product teams with a full-stack development model, integrating product management, engineering, analytics, data science and design. We focus on affordability, reliability, efficiency, optimization and cohesion when developing our software. Our offerings are mobile-first and platform agnostic. We seek to continuously improve the Lyft Platform and the Lyft App.

Our offerings are built on a scalable technology platform that enables us to manage peaks in demand.
We have a commercial agreement with Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) for cloud services to help deliver and host our platform. As a result of our partnership, we believe we are more resilient to surges in demand on our platform or product changes we may introduce.

We designed our platform with multiple layers of redundancy to guard against data loss and deliver high availability. Both incremental and full backups are performed and redundant copies of content are stored independently in separate geographic regions.

We are also investing in iterating and continuously improving our data privacy and security foundation, and continually review and implement the most relevant policies.

Our Proprietary Data-Driven Technology Platform
Our robust technology platform powers the millions of rides and connections that we facilitate every day and provides insights that drive our platform in real-time. We leverage historical data to continuously improve experiences for drivers and riders on our platform. Our platform analyzes large datasets covering the ride lifecycle, from when drivers go online and riders request rides, to when they match, which route to take and any feedback given after the rides. Utilizing machine learning capabilities to predict future behavior based on many years of historical data and use cases, we employ various levers to balance supply and demand in the marketplace, creating increased driver earnings while maintaining strong service levels for riders. We also leverage our data science and algorithms to inform our product development.

Our Intellectual Property
We believe that our intellectual property rights are valuable and important to our business. We rely on trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, intellectual property assignment agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements and employee non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements to establish and protect our proprietary rights. Though we rely in part upon these legal and contractual protections, we believe that factors such as the skills and ingenuity of our employees and the functionality and frequent enhancements to our solutions and offerings are larger contributors to our success in the marketplace.

We have invested in a patent program to identify and protect a substantial portion of our strategic intellectual property in ridesharing, autonomous vehicle-related technology, micro-mobility, telecommunications, networking and other technologies relevant to our business. We hold numerous issued and pending patents in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions and continually review our development efforts to assess the existence and patentability of new intellectual property.

We have an ongoing trademark and service mark registration program pursuant to which we seek to register our brand names and product names, taglines and logos in the United States and other countries to the extent we determine appropriate and costeffective. We also have common law rights in some trademarks. In addition, we have registered domain names for websites that we use in our business, such as www.lyft.com and other variations.

We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost effective. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, they may not be respected in the future or may be invalidated, circumvented or challenged. For additional information, see the sections titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulatory and Legal Factors—Claims by others that we infringed their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could harm our business” and “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulatory and Legal Factors—Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

Transportation represents a massive market opportunity, one that we are in the very early stages of addressing.

Our key growth strategies include our plans to:

1. Increase Rider Use Cases. We are continuously working to make Lyft the transportation network of choice across an expanding range of use cases. We offer products to simplify travel decision-making, for example with our Lyft Pink subscription plan, Lyft Pass commuter programs, first-mile and last-mile services and university ride smart programs. We also provide centralized tools and enterprise transportation solutions, such as our Concierge offering, that enable organizations to manage the transportation needs of customers, employees and other constituents.

2. Grow Active Riders. We see opportunities to continue to grow our rider base. We may make incremental investments in our brand and in growth marketing to maintain and drive increasing consumer preference for Lyft. We strive to provide a full range of price points and ride experiences such as Wait & Save, which allows riders to save money by waiting for a ride, and Priority Pickup, which provides a premium experience by allowing riders to pay for prioritized pickup. We plan to continue to grow our ridesharing marketplace by prioritizing competitive service levels and attracting and retaining more drivers and riders on our network. Additionally, we will continue to evaluate ways to expand our network coverage beyond the geographies and markets we currently serve. We also believe we are a beneficiary of demographic shifts, such as the growing percentage of the U.S. population that is accustomed to on-demand services and has digital-first preferences.

3. Grow Our Share of Consumers’ Transportation Spend. Lyft’s transportation network is designed to address a wide range of mobility needs. The Lyft network spans rideshare, car rentals, bikes, scooters, transit and vehicle services. By integrating the fragmented transportation ecosystem, we are well positioned to deliver the best holistic experience to all of our riders and to capture significantly more of our market opportunity.

4. Deliver Increasing Value to Drivers. We strive to provide drivers that use Lyft with the best possible experience, including access to a variety of economic opportunities. For example, through our Express Drive program, drivers can get access to rental cars they can use for ridesharing. We also provide drivers with a suite of resources, including access to our on-demand, 24/7 support through our Driver app, to ensure drivers have the resources they need before taking the road. By making the driver experience better and better, we can retain and attract more drivers to Lyft’s network.

5 Invest in our Marketplace Technology. Our investments in our proprietary technology allow us to deliver a convenient and high-quality experience to drivers and riders. Our mapping technology, now known as Lyft Maps, optimizes routing, in-app navigation, and user matching to improve the rider and driver experience and our marketplace efficiency. Additional investments in our payments and data science capabilities have been central to making our network more efficient and
seamless to use.

6. Thoughtfully Pursue M&A and Strategic Partnerships. We have from time to time made strategic acquisitions, including our acquisitions of Bikeshare Holdings LLC (“Motivate”), the largest bike sharing platform in the United States at the time, Flexdrive, LLC (“Flexdrive”), one of our longstanding Express Drive partners, and PBSC, a global leader in bikeshare that supplies stations and bikes to markets internationally. We will continue to selectively consider acquisitions that contribute to the growth of our current business, help us expand into adjacent markets or add new capabilities to our network. In addition, we continue to expand our commercial partnerships. We believe drivers and riders will continue to benefit from a broad partner ecosystem that builds on our existing loyalty and reward programs. We have also built strong relationships with transportation suppliers, state and local government.

The market for TaaS networks is intensely competitive and characterized by rapid changes in technology, shifting levels of supply and demand and frequent introductions of new services and offerings. We expect competition to continue, both from current competitors and new entrants in the market that may be well-established and enjoy greater resources or other strategic advantages. If we are unable to anticipate or successfully react to these competitive challenges in a timely manner, our competitive position could weaken, or fail to improve, and we could experience a decline in revenue or growth stagnation that could adversely affect our
business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our main ridesharing competitor in the United States and Canada is Uber, though we also compete with other ridesharing transportation network companies and taxi cab and livery companies as well as traditional automotive manufacturers. Our main competitors in the bike and scooter sharing market include Lime, Bird, Fifteen and Tier. Our main competitors in the vehicle rental market include Enterprise and Avis Budget Group as well as emerging car-share marketplaces. We also compete with other manufacturers of bike and scooter sharing equipment for sales of such equipment, particularly in markets outside of the United States.

Additionally, there are other non-U.S.-based TaaS network companies, non-ridesharing transportation network companies and traditional automotive manufacturers that may expand into the United States and Canada. There are also a number of companies developing autonomous vehicle technology and TaaS offerings that may compete with us in the future, including Alphabet (Waymo),

Amazon (Zoox), Apple, Aurora, Baidu, General Motors (Cruise), Motional, and Tesla as well as many other technology companies and automobile manufacturers and suppliers. We anticipate continued challenges from current competitors as well as from new entrants into the TaaS market.

We believe we can compete favorably. However, many of our competitors and potential competitors are larger and have greater brand name recognition, longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets and established marketing relationships, access to larger customer bases and significantly greater resources for the development of their offerings. For additional information about the risks to our business related to competition, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Operational Factors—We face intense competition and could lose market share to our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

Markets changed dramatically in 2022

2021 saw robust performance in global stock and bond markets as well as record profits for Sterling Investments Limited (SIL). The company was able to generate more income and profit during the depths of the pandemic.

However, as management anticipated, the easy monetary and expansionary fiscal policy of the COVID era ended abruptly in 2022. Major central banks across the globe, hiked interest rates rapidly and Governments tightened spending in response to skyrocketing inflation. The war in Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions further added to market uncertainty. The result – lower bond and stock prices.

Management had prepared for the rising rate environment by shortening the duration of its investment portfolio and staying liquid.

Strong performance in a difficult year

Sterling Investments Limited (SIL) demonstrated resilience amidst broad declines in the global stock and bond markets. SIL continued to generate steady levels of US dollar income from its global bond portfolio and shareholders enjoyed this in the form of dividends throughout the year. Management took advantage of the market declines by selectively purchasing undervalued assets and reinvesting liquidity in higher yielding securities.

The company expects interest rates to move higher, and ultimately result in higher levels of income for shareholders.

The company remained profitable and cash flow positive despite the decline in market prices and the appreciation of the Jamaican dollar.

Our Investment strategy wins in times of crisis and change

The company has successfully navigated different economic and market conditions. The manager’s dynamic approach and core principles will continue to shape the strategy going forward.

Derek Jones Chairman Sterling Investments Limited 

Extracted from the Sterling Investments Limited 2022 Annual Report Chairman’s
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