This is something I've been thinking about for a while; the consensus is that we urgently need an economic base that isn't entirely predicated on the whims of MNCs and a tanking property market, but these new businesses won't appear by magic. Seed capital and decent mentoring are essential if start-ups aren't to wither on the vine, but difficult to come by if you don't know where to start looking. I have no first-hand experience with Enterprise Ireland's Business Partner Programme, which sounds somewhat similar to the Argentinean model – comments welcome below.
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Hey there James - welcome to posting and thanks a mil for the banner, if that's the right word (in case other readers didn't know, James Kelleher is the creator of the snazzy Innovate or Die logo thingy above)
ReplyDeleteSmall is Beautiful seems to be the watchword of the recovery, doesn't it? Haydn's post earlier reflected this theme too. Lots of people have ideas, but knowing even the first step towards converting the vaguest of ideas into reality is a different matter. As you said, it's difficult to know where to start looking. You'd imagine that an internet portal which would act as an appropriate gateway would be a possiblity.. or is there one already?
While I think the Geary Institute's Irish Recovery microsite http://geary.ucd.ie/irishrecovery/ is a fantastic idea, the call for "Specific well-argued projects that are properly costed, based on good practice and have definable and measurable outcomes [that] are the solution to many structural weaknesses in the Irish Economy" does set the bar very high for contributors. And while all those things (specificity, proper costing, being based on good practice, having measurable outcomes) are Good Things, they will tend perhaps to exclude more radical and more genuinely innovative ideas. So perhaps a more no-holds-barred portal is also required?
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