Odetta’s gift
If there is one gift we would all love to receive it is one that keeps on giving. Turns out there is such a gift…if you accept it from Odetta Rockhead Kerr.
She has used her extensive business leadership experience to set up a genuinely global e-commerce platform to give entrepreneurs a clear path to sustainable success. It’s called GOFFAH, short for Gift of Financial Freedom and Hope. The unmistakeable mantra behind GOFFAH is the title of her book, No Regrets, Just Lessons: Odetta Rockhead-Kerr Unedited (NRJL).
Her LinkedIn profile paints a picture of someone with significant management experience overseeing large Fortune 500 client portfolios. In addition to being an author and the founder and CEO of GOFFAH, she is a speaker and a mindset coach. She remains passionate about family and improving people’s lives, even while relentlessly pursuing her personal goals.
This is why Rockhead Kerr decided to share her gifts with others seeking an independent path to financial freedom built on hope and perspiration. She transformed from a twenty-something with limited prospects into one of the brightest stars in corporate Jamaica. Her path was not an easy one, but it was full of life lessons that served to drive this ambitious woman who was the first local to manage a business process outsourcing (BPO) unit.
A senior executive in the BPO and transformation space with over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, Rockhead Kerr is the former country head and vice-president at Sutherland Jamaica, a subsidiary of Sutherland Global Services, which she joined in 2012. In starting her role as country head and associate vice-president, she spearheaded Sutherland’s entry into Jamaica, employing 6,000 professionals at a growth rate of 1,000 per year and establishing five service delivery centres in six years.
Unquestionably a pioneer in the BPO industry, Rockhead Kerr’s expertise and consulting work caught the attention of one of the country’s most successful enterprises. She now serves on the board of Wisynco, a company which boasts some 110 brands with over 4,000 different products between beverages, grocery and synthetic items.
Today, her entire focus is on the entrepreneurial platform she established under the GOFFAH brand. An event held earlier this week brought together young business operators with international players in a gathering that was both inspirational and instructive. It was as if Rockhead Kerr and her team conducted a gospel session where there was praise for the opportunity and a sharing of testaments on the journey — from the realisation of a concept to implementation.
The programme professes to “give the gift of hope to our people, by enabling financial freedom indiscriminately, to include the disenfranchised, the undereducated and the underserved”. In other words, to fill a critical development gap to transform Jamaica into an enabling society.
During the event, Rockhead Kerr noted the expected shift both the e-commerce platform and her self-help mémoir will have on the country. She also pointed out that NRJL, her book title, is also fuelling her newest success strategy.
“The launch of NRJL and the GOFFAH Platform is not just a tremendous accomplishment for our company, but will also serve Jamaica by injecting money into our economy, through increased business transactions, increased export activities and particularly an increase in income-earning opportunities to support the growing number of unemployed Jamaicans,” Rockhead Kerr predicted.
She explained how the GOFFAH environment differs significantly from the usual nine-to-five.
“Individuals will be able to earn remotely at all times and do not need any special education or special physical capabilities to perform duties,” she said. “GOFFAH was formed on the basis of empowering individuals, especially the disfranchised youth, those who have been marginalised because of where they live and their social status. Furthermore, GOFFAH will help to bridge the gap between Jamaica and the globe, creating a segue for exponential income and business opportunities for entrepreneurs.”
In this season of giving, Rockhead Kerr and her team arrived before Santa Claus to deliver a gift to new entrepreneurs, a gift which is bound to keep on giving and providing them with a source of income.