Bank of Bermuda chief executive officer Phil Butterfield had it right when he warned that Bermuda is becoming complacent about its economy and place in the world.

And he was also right to warn that Government needs to beware of expecting the business sector to continue to thrive at the same time that it is loading regulations and costs on to businesses.

Mr. Butterfield is uniquely positioned to make these comments. He?s a veteran executive of US banking giant Citicorp, the most senior black business executive in the Country, the brother of the Deputy Premier, Dr. Ewart Brown, and the chairman of the Board of Education.

So when he speaks, one would assume the Government and the business community would listen. The Government could not dismiss his concerns as somehow being politically motivated, or the same old same old from the white establishment business community, or a ?foreigner?s? comments being made from international business. And the business community will listen because of Mr. Butterfield?s own accomplishments.

Nor is it possible that when he criticises poor service levels he is making a coded attack on black Bermudians, as some would assume if a white business leader made the same comments.

The truth is that service levels in shops, restaurants, the trades, white collar companies and, yes, banks, are often so low that they are laughable.

And yet, too many customers accept this as being the Bermuda way.

Nor is this a uniquely Bermudian characteristic. Neither race nor nationality is a guarantee of good service.

Employers are to some extent to blame for failing to set and maintain standards. While this is often because they are desperate for staff and reluctant to go through the tortuous road to dismissal, that?s no excuse. Ultimately slovenly and careless service will cost them their businesses.

But the lack of personal pride and the sense of entitlement on the part of employees is also to blame. So is the failure of the Government to support employers when they are in the right.

Instead there is an assumption that there will always be more jobs than there are people, that the construction boom will never end, that companies will take on an ever-growing tide of fees, taxes and regulations while still giving millions of dollars away to charities and the like, and that a Civil Service that grows and grows without becoming more efficient is acceptable.

In the late 1980s, a then-Progressive Labour Party MP stood up in the House of Assembly during one of the many debates on hotel labour disputes and declared that tourism was a tap that could be turned on and off.

Presumably that MP would admit the fallacy of that remark now, but it had remarkable currency at the time.

Much the same viewpoint exists today, both with regard to international business and to local companies. International companies are in Bermuda because it is in their economic interest. When the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, they will leave.

And most local companies face a constant struggle to survive and remain profitable as they have to find new products and efficiencies to offset the stunningly high costs of local pay and benefits. The assumption that Front Street merchants in particular are making millions is a fallacy, yet it too continues to be a widely shared perception.

The recent wave of mergers and consolidations in local business, both retail and otherwise, symbolises the problem; rather than a sign of strength in business or a symbol of the rise and fall of companies that is typical of any economy, these mergers often mean that a business can no longer make it on its own and must join forces to survive.

But businesses that offer good products and superior service at good prices should thrive. The question that Mr. Butterfield asked is whether ?Bermuda Inc.? is doing that now. And the answer is that we aren?t doing it enough.