Business December 04 2025

Stop calling it recovery! Business needs a different word

Updated December 9 2025 3 min read

Loading article...

In the midst of Hurricane Melissa, a broken billboard stand is seen at the intersection of Port Royal Street and Ocean Boulevard in Kingston, on October 28, 2025.

If you are a CEO in Jamaica, you could be using the wrong vocabulary. Like many, you are talking about “recovery”: getting back to where you were before the hurricane. But here’s some data: Sony didn’t “recover” after Japan’s post-war devastation. Indonesia didn’t “recover” after the 2004 tsunami. Instead, they did something fundamentally different. The word matters because ‘recovery’ assumes your old business model was viable. It wasn’t. That’s why you’re calculating hurricane damage for the third time this decade.

Unlock this exclusive content and more with Gleaner Premium

  • Unlimited Access to Exclusive, In-Depth Journalism
  • The Same Newspaper You Love — Delivered Digitally
  • Early Access & Subscriber-Only Content
Phone Mockup Screen Mockup

Unlock this exclusive content and more with Gleaner Premium

  • Unlimited Access to Exclusive, In-Depth Journalism
  • The Same Newspaper You Love — Delivered Digitally
  • Early Access & Subscriber-Only Content
Phone Mockup Screen Mockup