Kenny & Bruton introduce job support plan today

It will take a while to absorb this integrated list of actions on creating jobs announced today by the Coalition government.

As a supplier to the county and enterprise boards I am interested in what is going to replace them, and when.

35 CEBs with 35 CEOs and 35 deputy CEOs never seemed to make sense to me. But it is internationally acknowledged that advisory services to micro businesses are best delivered locally. Enterprise Ireland has raised its game in supporting exporting companies, but what about the 90% plus of businesses who don’t export? And delivering business support through the network of local authorities? An unreformed section of the Civil Service – with a culture far far away from an ordinary decent S , M or E! No futher comment until the details are revealed.

The Government has launched an ambitious jobs plan that aims to create 100,000 new positions by 2016 and a further 100,000 by 2020.

The full programme includes a total of 270 measures (download from the department site at http://www.djei.ie/publications/2012APJ.pdf ) to be delivered this year in 15 Government Departments and 36 State agencies.

The process will be policed by a monitoring committee of three Departments with think-tank Forfás.

In an effort to address the difficulties small companies face accessing credit, the State is to guarantee 75% of loans to small and medium businesses. That measure is expected to be operational by the second quarter of this year.

The plan will include a Development Capital Scheme for companies with prospects of jobs and export growth. It will be backed by €50m State investment, which is expected to leverage up to €100m.

A new Micro Finance Fund will supply investment in small companies seeking less than €25,000. The fund will be €10m every year for ten years. The European Investment Bank will supply some of the equity.

The plan proposes a finders’ fee of “up to €4,000″ for people of Irish extraction abroad who succeed in bringing major job projects to Ireland.

The Taoiseach said that people who wanted to introduce a business would contact an appointed operator. The new company would have to be one that is not already working with the IDA. [tokenistic if not simplistic activity, which will cost more to manage then it will produce - BL]

There will also be a facility for the diaspora to contribute to investment in new enterprises, which is modelled on a similar scheme in Israel.

The plan includes steps to encourage more mobile international entrepreneurs to start businesses in Ireland through a €10m State fund for investment in start-ups, improvement in immigration arrangements, a targeted marketing campaign and greater use of IDA network.

A Strategic Investment Fund will match private sector investment with money from the National Pension Reserve Fund. The NPRF will commit €250m and a further €1bn will be sought from institutional investors in Ireland and overseas for infrastructural investment.

A corporation tax exemption will be extended for start up companies until 2014.

City and country enterprise boards will be dissolved and a new unit will be created in Enterprise Ireland that will work with local authorities in aiding firms.

The Government will establish a health innovation hub to encourage transforming new technologies in health and life sciences into commercial enterprises.

Checkout www.rte.ie for further updates and www.djei.ie

Billy Linehan is MD of Celtar business consultants, and has worked with small business owners and directors for 25 years.

(Experience includes; Certified Management Consultant, mentor for Dublin City Enterprise Board, Enterprise Ireland mentor, Intertrade Ireland industry expert. Previously manager of consultancy services for a central London Business Link, manager of enterprise agency in east London & programme manager at London based training and enterprise council)

Global mega trends

Economics, Society and Business

In a world undergoing change where there are few certainties, it is useful to anticipate and plan for trends. These trends will affect us as individuals and the types of organisations we work with.

As a regular facilitator of strategy planning workshops I am always interested in the analysis of future trends. Today I share with you the views of Professor Joe Nellis of the Cranfield management school.

The trends themselves are unsurprising but the accelerated pace of change is what impresses – and frightens. Our question is what are the implications of these trends?

Professor Nellis divides the trends into three areas; Economics, Society & Environment and Business.

Economics – 3 trends

The massive realignment of economic activity from the West to the East is unprecedented. Today China accounts for less then 10% of world GDP, by 2050 it will be probably be the world’s biggest economy and have a GDP share of 25%. India is also pressing strongly behind China, and of course the US will remain a dominant force.

This economic growth in emerging economies will generate a demand for improvements in living standards. Citizens from emerging market countries look for improved public services; more schools, hospitals, infrastructure and better policing. This demand will result in an anticipated huge growth of the public sector in these countries.

Finally, the third economic trend is the unprecedented rise in the number of consumers in emerging and developing economies. Consumers with similar spending power to that traditionally associated with the West. It is predicted that there will be 1 billion of these consumers with needs to satisfy. Nellis says “such a demand to satisfy has never happened before in such a short time scale”.

Society & the environment – 4 trends

For the first time in the history of the world, people all over the world will be able to communicate with each other. Increasingly people in developing economies are gaining access to technology. In this connected world there will be a massive growth in interactivity. More companies will interact with other companies, and interact with individual consumers. This deepening globalism will, says Nellis “have profound implications for the world of business and society”.

Taking the number of university graduates as a measure of the future talent pool; the developed world produces about 16 million graduates per year. The rest of the world is graduating 33 million students annually. There will be an “exponential growth in the talent pool coming from countries of the emerging markets and the developing world.”

The shortage of natural resources is a trend that is widely accepted. The search for natural resources is intensifying. China is securing natural resources all over Africa to feed its economic growth, in Cornwall tungsten mines are about to open and closer to home there are plans for oil exploration offshore from Dalkey in Dublin.

The last societal trend he mentions is the increase in the lack of trust in big business (and in politicians). Corporate governance is increasingly important for larger companies, and how it can be used “to their advantage and to the benefit of society”. Pay and remuneration must be tied in to performance, and directors must be accountable to shareholders and realise the consequence of their poor decision making. (What measures have been made to recover the 1990s bonuses from Irish bankers? And why are failed Irish politicians being paid large pensions before they reach the pension age of 67?) 

Building trust is about actions, delivering promises and not the empty words from corporate PR and “public affairs” executives.

Business – 2 mega trends

There are “massive issues” to be faced in industry and in business.

The first is the availability of information through search engines on the internet and sites like Wikipedia. How will managers deal with information overload? Can products and services be mass customised for individuals and not only for market segments? The use of information is a huge opportunity for businesses, and “dealing with the overload a significant challenge”.

A combination of all of the above, of the increasingly connected and trading global village is that industry structures will change. New global networks will emerge as well as bigger companies (many of them state owned in emerging markets). Nellis anticipates “different business models and developments concerning the way in which companies interact with each other”.

Big Change is here

How can managers “manage” in this world of increasing complexity? Nellis suggests there is no choice, “if you don’t like complexity, don’t go into management!” The right talent must be recruited to run companies in a much more complex environment.

Gone are the 50 year economic cycles identified by the Russian economist Kondratiev. There has been a major seismic shift, the cycle of economic change is now much shorter, 10 to 15 years. Challengingly, a manager’s career will endure several seismic shifts. Previously managers would have lived through for example one or two economic cycles of ‘growth to recession’. Organisational change will need to be delivered quicker, and better.

Short term focus will no longer suffice, “a successful manager must stay focused on the horizon”. The pace of change is accelerating as has never happened before. “Address these long-term drivers of change now”, Nellis asserts, “or you may be heading for extinction”.

The question facing leaders is how can an organisation take advantage of these global movements?

Joe Nellis, Professor of International Management Economics, Cranfield School of Management, www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/

Billy Linehan of Celtar has much experience in strategic planning with clients, facilitating workshops in planning for change. Based from Dublin, Billy has a long term interest in future thinking and is available to work with you in anticipating future trends and how they will affect your business or organisation. Contact Billy at billy.linehan@celtar.ie to benefit from the input of an external adviser into your strategic thinking and business planning.  

Your Business Day 2.0 returns to the Science Gallery on 9 December 2011

Celtar are proud to be project managing the second Your Business Day event on Friday, 9th of December 2011 in the Science Gallery, Pearse Street.

” We are delighted to be part of this major initiative from Greg Swift, Liam Barry and the team at DCEB” says Billy Linehan of Celtar, “already seeing the lineup it has been called the small business version of the Dublin Web Summit!”

Dublin City Enterprise Board (DCEB) the leading enterprise support agency for Dublin City are hosting the event for the second year.

The event is aimed at supporting small business in Dublin City, and will be of interest to those in business AND individuals starting up in business or thinking about starting a business.

Amongst other things the day will involve a series of talks from successful clients of DCEB, seminars and several development agencies are taking stands at the event.  There will also be a Tweet and Meet zone for networking and making connections.

A key feature of the day will be free business mentoring on the day to individuals attending the event, (we had over 250 attendees last year).
25 business mentors from a variety of business backgrounds will be available all day to answer your questions. The mentor slots start from 0900 and end at 1600.

The general theme of the event is “creating opportunities for self employment”, and DCEB clients and other speakers will share their experience through addressing specific topics such as,

• Growth through exporting,
• Use of technology in a small business
• Digital marketing, Social Media & SEO
• Innovation in small business
• Value of Design in business
• Financing your business, different stories
• How to start a a web based business, and even make a profit!

Real business owners speak at the event, practical people giving up their time for free to share their experience with attendees.

To date speakers include

George Howlett of  www.safefood360.com

Jamie Jenkinson of www.cushnshade.com

Agata Stoinska of www.D-Lightstudios.com

Martina Delaney of www.HandyBaby.com

Conor Lynch of www.SocialMedia.ie

John Ring of www.RingJohn.com

Mark Scanlon of www.SourceDogg.com

Lorna Coleman of www.First-Step.ie

David FitzGerald of www.Scapegoatdesign.com

Graham Clark of www.kookydough.ie

Joanna Norton of www.click4ESOL.com

And more to come!

For further information, and to book a free advice session with a business mentor, go to www.dceb.ie

For more information on Celtar services, contact Billy on 086 608 6991 or billy.linehan@celtar.ie

The Cork network is moving to Dublin for one day - on November 10

Places are still available for companies to participate in this networking event which will be held in Croke Park in 2 weeks time.

The objectives of the event are to encourage Cork and Dublin based businesses to meet, to partner and to trade. And look out for Billy Linehan and Celtar as we’ll be there.

Features of the event

-         More then 100 companies from Dublin, 50 companies from Cork already registered

-         Places still available, till 4^th of November

-         Cost €60, includes lunch

-         You can prebook meetings with 20 companies at the event

Comments

-         The meeting booking element of the website is awkward to navigate, so be patient

-         You have to register, pay €60 fee before you see what other companies are attending

-         Good opportunity to meet other business owners, new customers (and not Sean Gallagher who won’t be attending this year)

Targeted at (or expected to attend from website)

Cork, Dublin and Irish companies from all sectors – agri-food & beverage industry, pharmaceutical & health, construction, engineering, craft & textiles, IT, energy supply, alternative energies, manufacturing, printing & design, services to SMEs, research & education, tourism, hospitality, transport and logistics.

Representatives of Irish and International Business Networks.

Irish Public Sector Buyers.

Micro-enterprises, Small and Medium-sized Companies.

Large Companies, Multinationals.

Sponsored by the usual suspects

CORKMEET 2011 – DUBLINFORUM is funded and organised by Trading Link Cork, a partnership for business between Cork County Council, Cork County & City Enterprise Boards, Cork City Council and Cork Chamber, in partnership with Dublin County & City Enterprise Board and Plato Dublin.

For more information and to register

see www.CorkMeet.ie

Tweet  @corkmeet

For Cork region businesses – enquires and information please contact:

Méabh Ring Coordinator for CORKMEET 2011 – DUBLINFORUM.
Tel: 087 6711147 Email: enquiries@corkmeet.ie

For Dublin region businesses – enquires and information please contact:

Marion Walshe Plato Dublin Manager.
Tel: 086 823 4309 Email: dublin@plato.ie

 Incite information note from Celtar business consultants

Celtar client Fit For Life is  supporting Positive Aging Week in a very positive manner.

Maintaining fitness as we get older makes a very significant difference to the quality of life of an older person. Nursing home residents will take part in the ‘Fit for Life’ Olympics this week, Positive Aging Week.  The event allows residents, family and nursing home staff to get involved in Fit for Life’s Group Exercise therapy sessions and learn more about the benefits of keeping active in old age.

The Fit for Life Olympics run from 26th to the 30th of September in 22 nursing homes in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Mayo, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow.  Participants, who’ve been training for the event for the past month, will compete against each other in team events such as bowling, magnetic darts, golf and ring toss. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to winners.

Speaking ahead of the Fit for Life Olympics, Managing Director of Fit for Life, Mark Sweeney said “We here at Fit for Life are committed to improving the quality of life of the older generation.  The Fit for Life Olympics are designed to provide our clients with a fun event where their families and nursing home staff can get involved and see the benefits of keeping active!  Our clients in the 22 nursing homes involved have been practicing their events for the last few weeks and we’re seeing a healthy competitive spirit brewing as a result!”

“Fit for Life’s team of chartered physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, and exercise and rehabilitation specialists have been providing active life services to nursing homes, day care centers and active retirement groups for the past 10 years” added Mr Sweeney.  “Our research and experience over that period has shown that those over 50 can really benefit from keeping active and getting regular exercise.  Our specialised group exercise therapy sessions are designed to provide a fun environment in which participants can improve their flexibility, mobility and balance.”

About Fit for Life:

Fit For Life, was established in 2001 by Mark Sweeney to provide a wide range of services for adults, from the very active right through to those who may need more assistance in their day to day lives.  The company currently employs 22 fully qualified and experienced staff, all of whom are educated to a minimum of a BSc standard in relevant disciplines such as physiotherapy, exercise physiology and exercise and rehabilitation.  All staff are full and practicing members of their respective associations including the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists.

Fit for Life’s mission is to empower the aging Irish population and help them to remain as active and independent as possible, ensuring they achieve and maintain the best quality of life possible.

Fit for Life provides extensive health based services to over 3,000 clients over the age of 60 in over a 100 residential Nursing Homes, Day Care Centre’s, Hospitals and other organisations throughout 26 counties.  It also provides services to community groups and private individuals on a weekly basis.

 www.FitForLife.ie

For further information please contact Mark Sweeney mark@fitforlife.ie