Joy Clark, marketing powerhouse.
Janet Silvera, Gleaner Writer
Mom, Dorreth Morris, basic school teacher in St. James, raised five girls to believe that it was quite within their powers to become the best in whatever area they had potential. Today, daughter Joy Clark, marketing powerhouse who was recently promoted to head of sales, west and central Jamaica for Digicel, has proved the teacher right.
Within the last four years, Clark has worked to secure a market share of 100 per cent for the Irish-owned communications giants in the parishes of St James, Hanover, Trelawny, Westmoreland and St Ann.
Joy, in an interview with Outlook, reflects: "My mother, in true Jamaican traditional style, has always drilled the memory gems in our heads as we grew up. 'Good, better, best. never let it rest, till your good is better and your better best.' This has remained with me since, as far back as I could remember, from about the age of four."
The girls had little in terms of material things. Dorreth's five daughters slept in the same bed.
Dyed school shoes
Joy remembers, "We had no choice but to be very close. My twin sister and I (the babies of the family) would always get the clothes and shoes that could no longer fit our bigger sisters. Even their black Montego Bay High School shoes were often dyed into brown for us to wear to Mount Alvernia High School. We shared everything and, in hindsight, developed a very strong bond and love for each other as a result."
The girls and their mother lived in inner-city communities such as Flankers, Glendevon and Norwood, and were always moving. "There was no stability, so I knew the first thing I wanted to do was to own a home and give my mom what she never had," Joy reflects.
Could not afford a helper
What Dorreth Morris provided in abundance, however, was good advice.
"We were also constantly reminded to 'do unto others as you would have them do to you.' We had to do our homework over and over for neatness and accuracy.
"Our shoes had to be spotless for school or church, and since we could not afford a helper, we worked from weekly duty rosters to cook, clean, wash, iron, do the dishes, tidy the house, rake up the leaves, and any other odd jobs that we could count on my precious mother to find for us to do, she would have us do."
Joy Clark states that her mom was "also a living example of hard work, as she taught in school during the day and in the evenings she would roll out her sewing machine and do her second job as a dressmaker, to supplement her pay as a teacher". Dorreth also "found time to share her time and the little that we had, with persons in our community who were less |fortunate."
Summers were filled with happiness. "As a child, our summer vacations were spent in the country with our uncle and grandparents, where we learned to climb, swim (in rivers) and catch crayfish for lunch, which was cooked on the riverside," joy remembers.
At age 19, Joy Clarke held down two jobs, and with encouragement from a mentor, and loans from her mom and sisters, made the deposit on a studio in Catherine Hall housing scheme, becoming a homeowner while still a teenager.
Modelled part time
"I was a customer service agent at Ajas Limited and modelled part time," Joy remembers.
"I borrowed the deposit for my first house from my mother and sisters to make up the little money I could come up with, which I think was $950. The house was a studio apartment which was considered a 'starter' home for low-income citizens. I also borrowed $50,000 from the NHT to make the studio into two bedrooms with two bathrooms, living, dining, kitchen, a laundry on the ground floor and upstairs a patio and entertainment area."
Joy moved into her new home with her mother (all her sisters were already married by then) and continued the struggle to achieve with her mother's encouragement.
"I lived to pay the rent. I could barely do anything else, it was a struggle."
In her early 20s, Joy chose sales and marketing as a career, and working and studying, racking up outstanding performances. She started out in the male-dominated life insurance industry, where she spent five years outperforming the men in the institution. She proved her prowess seven months in the job, when she was named to the coveted Million Dollar Round Table.
Collected awards, accolades
"Competition was stiff, but I rivalled men the likes of insurance great, the late Arden Griffiths, who in those days was Montego Bay's top insurance executive. I was able to beat him and it felt good," she says.
Later, she moved to the beverage industry where she again collected awards and accolades from Red Stripe from 1995 to 1999, and in telecommunications at Cable & Wireless from 1999 to 2003.
In 2004, Joy, by this time married and the mother of two boys, joined Digicel as sales manager. She was soon promoted to regional sales manager and within two years she was made national sales manager with responsibility for strategic and major accounts.
Her capacity for hard work and intelligent decision making had paid off.
Joy reflects, "When I came to the company (Digicel) four years ago, we had no presence in western Jamaica, but I convinced my managers that there was a need to set up a dedicated sales team here, because there was enough business to substantiate it," Mrs Clark told Outlook.
She said her former CEO, David Hall, believed in her from the "get go", and gave full support, moving her sales team from two to 14.
Today, the result is seen in the formation of solid business partnerships with companies such as the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall, Couples Resorts, Rose Hall Developments Limited, E-Services, ACS Limited and Chukka Caribbean Adventures.
"The relationship has solidified to the extent that whenever we bring in new products and services these customers are always willing to be our guinea pigs."
Joy explains, "My love and passion for delivering excellence in service caused me to be labelled 'customer centric' in one of my former jobs, and has propelled my growth in all my jobs."
According to Chris Hayman of Digicel Business, who announced her promotion recently, "Joy has mastered the art and science of three key strategic areas: business and market development, service experience and delivery, and client retention."
He added that Mrs Clark had firmly established her personal brand of a results-oriented focus, unquestionable integrity and a professional work ethic.
Girls excelled
Dorreth Morris' girls have excelled. Joy holds a BSc (first class honours) in business administration from the University College of the Caribbean; sales and marketing management certification from the University of New Orleans; certification in credit policy and collection techniques from the Institute of Management Production, and is a graduate of the Digicel EMBA programme.
Donna Morris, Joy's eldest sister, works in the security field at the Sangster International Airport, sister Marcia Fletcher is a former vice-president of marketing, National Commercial Bank, and current director for a marketing and management consulting firm. Sister Paula Roach is operations manager for Dispatch Services at Sangster International Airport, and finally, Joy's twin - Juliet Smith-McFarlane, former group purchasing manager of Couples Hotel, has decided to take a break from working and spend quality time with her children and newly wedded hubby.
"Mom is now a retired schoolteacher who currently lives in a comfortable home next door, which has been afforded by her daughters, with a guest room for her children and grandchildren who visit her (too regularly)," Joy discloses.
The siblings are, today, able to make annual vacations overseas or locally, away from home with their families. Joy is married to Maxim and has sons Jordan and Joshua. She "enjoys shopping trips abroad with my sisters".
Joy comments, "I cannot think of anything that I would need to make me more comfortable that I cannot afford, although I live a fairly simple lifestyle.
