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.
16.2.09
Old heads, young shoulders
David McWilliams has some interesting things to say about an Argentinean "match-making" service which pairs young entrepreneurs with recently laid-off older executives, and how a similar scheme might work in Ireland.
11.2.09
My inner Robespierre is screaming...
I don't know if there's a way to embed this...
http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/av_20090206.html?2488947,null,228
Anyway, much as I would like to get off to a balanced and considered start to posting on this blog (thanks for the invite, Seamus), I'm afraid it's going to be a matter of barely suppressed rage. It's a depressing state of affairs when we must turn to Éamonn Dunphy to add some sense to the national conversation.
Since there's not a whole lot I can say without the bile rising, I'll limit my remarks to the perspective of an emigrant, who had been hoping to return at some point, but now fears that the Irish economy will not even begin to recover until the US and UK do so sufficiently to take in a new wave of Irish workers.
Firstly, I've been hearing a very great deal about the clip, and Kenny himself preens about the effect of a similar panel on the general election. Has the LLS somehow returned to a central position in the national psyche?
Secondly, does anybody at all buy Harris' take on emigration? It's certainly the case that in recent years it has tended to be voluntary - mine certainly was. But why on earth would he suppose the massive forced emigration which the economic disaster is about to bring on will have more in common with that than with the dehumanising and debilitating misery of the 1980s? Why would anybody think it germane?
A final thought regarding Pat Kenny's comment at the end. "What do we remember about the 1980s, the dole queues or the sporting successes?" That's a "let them eat cake" moment, if ever I heard one.
"Unfocussed anger"? Mine is pretty much pin-sharp at this point.
http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/av_20090206.html?2488947,null,228
Anyway, much as I would like to get off to a balanced and considered start to posting on this blog (thanks for the invite, Seamus), I'm afraid it's going to be a matter of barely suppressed rage. It's a depressing state of affairs when we must turn to Éamonn Dunphy to add some sense to the national conversation.
Since there's not a whole lot I can say without the bile rising, I'll limit my remarks to the perspective of an emigrant, who had been hoping to return at some point, but now fears that the Irish economy will not even begin to recover until the US and UK do so sufficiently to take in a new wave of Irish workers.
Firstly, I've been hearing a very great deal about the clip, and Kenny himself preens about the effect of a similar panel on the general election. Has the LLS somehow returned to a central position in the national psyche?
Secondly, does anybody at all buy Harris' take on emigration? It's certainly the case that in recent years it has tended to be voluntary - mine certainly was. But why on earth would he suppose the massive forced emigration which the economic disaster is about to bring on will have more in common with that than with the dehumanising and debilitating misery of the 1980s? Why would anybody think it germane?
A final thought regarding Pat Kenny's comment at the end. "What do we remember about the 1980s, the dole queues or the sporting successes?" That's a "let them eat cake" moment, if ever I heard one.
"Unfocussed anger"? Mine is pretty much pin-sharp at this point.
10.2.09
Forbes article on Innovation from the margins...
Worth a look
My own $0.02 is that innovation, like creativity, is damn difficult to control and to channel. The modern tendency to develop strategies and frameworks for everything is in some ways laudable, but one wonders about its relation to really new and fresh ways of looking at things. Perhaps I seem unduly pessimistic, or negative about it - I would argue though that allowing a certain amount of creative chaos and having the discrimination to encourage the promising results is a more, um, creative way of apraoching innovation.
Hat tip - mad housewife
My own $0.02 is that innovation, like creativity, is damn difficult to control and to channel. The modern tendency to develop strategies and frameworks for everything is in some ways laudable, but one wonders about its relation to really new and fresh ways of looking at things. Perhaps I seem unduly pessimistic, or negative about it - I would argue though that allowing a certain amount of creative chaos and having the discrimination to encourage the promising results is a more, um, creative way of apraoching innovation.
Hat tip - mad housewife
9.2.09
Are there champions for small change out there?
From Haydn
One consequence of this bubble, different from all other bubbles, is that many, many companies have expanded on the back of cheap and easy finance and on the back of cheap resources and markets that only grow. We need champions who recognise this for what it is: unreal. And champions who can step up and experiment with change.
We think of the past decade as a property and credit bubble but actually companies even in manufacturing and in services have borrowed to grow, and have had access to cheap resources (China, India), and customers who have grown their spending consistently.
These are the ingredients of a cocktail we don't yet understand.
One consequence has to be" under-developed managerial capabilities". When your markets keep growing and when the banks keep lending so that you can grow to serve those markets, life as an executive is easy. We have to find ways to identify the weaknesses this exposes for hard times and normal times. We have to find executives who are willing to acknowledge that change is necessary and the time is right. And we have to find companies who are prepared to experiment with new strategic, structural and managerial forms.
We can see already in the USA companies are adopting new managerial practices around Web 2.0 principles - build in a capacity to do experimental management, experimental strategy; trial, error, failure, learning, moving on. Who in Ireland and which companies in Ireland can see the need to experiment with how they manage their companies? Because there is no six sigma, no business process transformation and no other formula to turn companies around this time.
One consequence of this bubble, different from all other bubbles, is that many, many companies have expanded on the back of cheap and easy finance and on the back of cheap resources and markets that only grow. We need champions who recognise this for what it is: unreal. And champions who can step up and experiment with change.
We think of the past decade as a property and credit bubble but actually companies even in manufacturing and in services have borrowed to grow, and have had access to cheap resources (China, India), and customers who have grown their spending consistently.
These are the ingredients of a cocktail we don't yet understand.
One consequence has to be" under-developed managerial capabilities". When your markets keep growing and when the banks keep lending so that you can grow to serve those markets, life as an executive is easy. We have to find ways to identify the weaknesses this exposes for hard times and normal times. We have to find executives who are willing to acknowledge that change is necessary and the time is right. And we have to find companies who are prepared to experiment with new strategic, structural and managerial forms.
We can see already in the USA companies are adopting new managerial practices around Web 2.0 principles - build in a capacity to do experimental management, experimental strategy; trial, error, failure, learning, moving on. Who in Ireland and which companies in Ireland can see the need to experiment with how they manage their companies? Because there is no six sigma, no business process transformation and no other formula to turn companies around this time.
International Digital Legal Services Centre
Seamus,
Good idea. Good blog. Have you seen http://nextleap.wordpress.com ? Similar thing, but focussed on the digital sector. One idea that we came up with was to take advantage of the global boom in digital media content (iTunes, games, films etc) by establishing a global digital legal services centre here, handling payments, rights trading and clearance etc.
Good idea. Good blog. Have you seen http://nextleap.wordpress.com ? Similar thing, but focussed on the digital sector. One idea that we came up with was to take advantage of the global boom in digital media content (iTunes, games, films etc) by establishing a global digital legal services centre here, handling payments, rights trading and clearance etc.
Geary Institute Irish Recovery Page
The UCD Geary Institute has a very impressive microsite which "is a portal for people with specific ideas that will improve people’s lives and aid the process of recovery in the irish economy."
Worth checking out.
Worth checking out.
Innovation versus Recession
Hello,
How will Ireland get out of its current, sudden, sharp (yet rather predictable) post-property bubble slump? Well, if our leaders and most media commentators are to be believed, essentially by Taking The Pain and in a few years things will mysteriously be ok again.
That may be true. Full disclosure - unlike it seems 95% of the Irish population, I'm not an economist, not even an armchair one. However I do believe that perhaps it might be interesting it we took all the guff spouted by our betters about innovation and, most dread phrase of all, the knowledge economy, at face value. If Ireland is to get out of this recessaion, or even we are to endure it less painfully, we'll need to get creative again.
This blog is intended to be a return to the wild frontier of the internet - a febrile clearing house and crossing point for ideas. Innovation in politics, economics, technology, philosophy, science, medicine, psychology, literature, art, music (anything I've left out?) and any combination thereof. From all points of the spectrum (except the really unpleasant and nasty ones) and from all levels of expertise.
How will Ireland get out of its current, sudden, sharp (yet rather predictable) post-property bubble slump? Well, if our leaders and most media commentators are to be believed, essentially by Taking The Pain and in a few years things will mysteriously be ok again.
That may be true. Full disclosure - unlike it seems 95% of the Irish population, I'm not an economist, not even an armchair one. However I do believe that perhaps it might be interesting it we took all the guff spouted by our betters about innovation and, most dread phrase of all, the knowledge economy, at face value. If Ireland is to get out of this recessaion, or even we are to endure it less painfully, we'll need to get creative again.
This blog is intended to be a return to the wild frontier of the internet - a febrile clearing house and crossing point for ideas. Innovation in politics, economics, technology, philosophy, science, medicine, psychology, literature, art, music (anything I've left out?) and any combination thereof. From all points of the spectrum (except the really unpleasant and nasty ones) and from all levels of expertise.
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