TERAPROOF:User:keevanbrowneDate:18/07/2013Time:16:19:52Edition:19/07/2013ExaminerLiveXX1907Page:
25Zone:XX1
XX1 - V1
MONEY & JOBS 25
Irish Examiner
Friday 19.07.2013
on the
GRAPEVINE
any other business...
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JOE [email protected]
DERMODY
Irish firm makes YouTube videos
of attempts to boost business in Oz
T
Nicolla Carroll, from The Bodega, and Elaine
Courtney, The Malton Hotel, as Cork Chamber and
Comyn Kelleher Tobin Solicitors, Cork, joined forces
to host a speed networking event for Cork’s business
community at the River Lee Hotel. Picture: Gerard McCarthy
Organisers laud success of
Cork speed networking event
Organisers say significant
business connections
were made at a business
speed networking event
hosted by Cork Chamber
and Comyn Kelleher Tobin Solicitors, Cork, on
Wednesday evening.
The organisers put the
success of the event
down to the highly energised meetings of three to
four minutes, in which
participants had to pitch
their business and make
connections.
“It proved to be a very
practical event for SMEs,
giving them a chance to
meet new business contacts as well as receive
referrals and renew existing connections,” said
Deborah Moore, managing partner at Comyn
Kelleher Tobin. “Networking is important in building and maintaining informal relationships — those
relationships in turn help
strengthen and support
your business.
“Every business has the
potential to better man-
age its networking capacity and there are significant
opportunities to be found
in talking to other businesses you wouldn’t ordinarily meet day to day.”
As the largest business
organisation in the region,
Cork Chamber represents
the interests of over 1,000
member businesses, employing close to 100,000
people.
Barbara Anne Richardson, director of membership development and services at Cork Chamber,
added: “Comyn Kelleher
Tobin has proved to be a
fantastic partner for this
event as they truly understand the message and
needs of SME businesses.
Speed Networking is
hugely popular as businesses see real results
from meeting up to 15
people in a controlled environment. Networking is
an excellent opportunity to
spread your business
message, share ideas and
expertise along with meeting new friends.”
IT recruitment consultant
brings her talents back home
OMORROW
morning, Leading
Edge Group founder
and chief executive, Joe Aherne, will fly to Australia to
outline his company’s suite
of Lean education and other
continuous
improvement
programmes to potential
new clients.
The company says it has
built strong brand recognition in Australia via an online marketing campaign
over the past four months.
Contacts and appointments
set up via LinkedIn and with
the help of Enterprise Ireland have given this project
a great start. Leading Edge
has already signed up one
new client without ever setting foot in Australia.
Leading Edge is also documenting its Oz mission
with a YouTube video serialisation entitled ‘How To
Build A Sustainable Business
Down Under’. Having
kicked off the video series in
June, the group has set its
own bar for success at
€100,000 in sales by
December.
While this degree of
openness is, no doubt, underpinned by the confidence that comes from the
company’s prior successes,
there is nothing cocky about
Leading Edge’s decision to
launch its online business
documentary. The first
video makes it clear that
failure is a very real possibility, which just adds spice for
viewers.
“I hope you will accompany me on our journey,”
Joe Aherne tells viewers in
the first 60-second YouTube
clip. “I hope will learn from
what we are going to do
well, and, maybe more importantly from a learning
perspective, what we are not
going to do well over the
next six months.”
On Monday, Aherne will
join his Leading Edge colleague Matthew Hamilton
in Sydney. Normally based
in Ireland, Hamilton has
done a good deal of advance
groundwork during recent
weeks in Australia. They
will meet several potential
new clients in the first two
days, including two TAFEs,
the Oz term for third level
technical colleges.
“We have already had
some negative replies when
we told people we don’t
Leading Edge Group chief
executive Joe Aherne and
Canadian Ambassador to
Ireland, Loyola Hearn.
Leading Edge, which has
offices in Ireland, the UK
and Canada, is now looking
to make gains in Australia.
have a base there yet,” Aherne said candidly. “That
makes some people doubt
our ability to deliver services
when they have a training
issue that can’t be resolved
online. We’ll have to place
someone out there.
“We may recruit someone, or we may work on
outsourcing our sales with
Bob McCarthy, formerly of
Carrigaline and now working in Melbourne where he
set up Leadership Management Australasia. I found
Bob via LinkedIn and I’m
meeting him next week. Either way, we definitely need
a strong physical presence
there. That is one valuable
lesson we’ve learned from
our advance online marketing campaign.”
That campaign and Australian micro-site were devised by John Brennan of
ePresence Online Marketing, who also features in one
of the short and snappy
YouTube clips. So too does
Amy O’Sullivan, Leading
Edge’s in-house marketing
executive who has been
building Oz links via Facebook and Twitter, etc.
Enterprise Ireland’s senior
marketing executive in Sydney, Laura Hayes, has been
very helpful in setting up
meetings for Leading Edge.
Joe Aherne advises anyone
looking to build exports to
avail of Enterprise Ireland’s
help.
Aherne will fly to meetings in Sydney, Melbourne
and Perth, and drive to
meetings in Canberra. One
of the meetings is with the
Australian Healthcare &
Hospitals Association. Leading Edge has a number of
healthcare clients in its existing portfolio.
Founded in Cork in 1995,
the group has been experiencing double digit growth
in its established Irish and
Canadian markets every year
for the past four years. It has
offices in Ireland, Canada
and the UK.
In the first six months of
2013, its business has grown
by 15% in Ireland and 40%
in Canada. The new English
office team is talking with
four multinationals on delivering training and consulting to their supply chain
divisions.
The group’s growth is
built on its reputation for
re-energising staff in finance, healthcare and manufacturing companies. Leading Edge’s approach motivates an entire staff to become
problem
solvers,
building and sustaining the
momentum for change.
This covers everything from
cutting costs and improving
processes to building sales
and
developing
new
markets.
In terms of the challenges
facing Leading Edge in Australia, Joe Aherne cites the
high cost of living, expensive housing and high salary
levels. These are offset
somewhat by the higher
price paid for training, relative to Ireland. He also has
doubts about the timing of
this venture in terms of the
Australian economy.
“Our biggest fear is that
we may be arriving into a
market which is already at a
peak,” said Aherne. “If the
country has a downturn, the
first thing to take a hit will
be training. We’d rather not
have to deal with that.
“Of course, it also comes
back. The 15% sales increase
we’ve had in Ireland in the
first half of this year is a very
encouraging sign for the
Irish economy. The training
industry would be a sort of a
barometer for confidence in
the economy.”
Aherne says he hopes
small indigenous Irish businesses will follow the
YouTube insights into Leading Edge’s mission in Australia. He says SMEs, particularly those with export ambitions, have a vital role to
play in reviving the Irish
economy.
The SME sector employs
over 850,000 people in Ireland, versus perhaps 150,000
working in MNCs, of
which 85,000 or so work
with US-owned multinationals. Of course, salary
levels and benefits to the
Exchequer
may
vary
markedly between SMEs
and MNCs.
“I am a great believer in
the SME sector,” said Joe
Aherne. “I see them as the
real heroes of the economy.
I’d like them to follow the
YouTube videos on our
progress in Australia. Of
course, that adds a little
pressure on us to actually be
a success.
“We have decided that we
need to get to €100,000 in
new sales by the end of December for our start in Australia to considered a success
in our own terms. We’d also
like companies who are exporting into Australia and
elsewhere to make comments on the videos, to
share their experience. That
would be of real benefit to
us and to viewers.”
■ For more: www.leadingedgegroup.com/australia; click on the
YouTube icon on top right of the
home page to view the video serialisation of ‘How To Build A Sustainable Business Down Under’
Web series to promote IT initiatives
IT recruiter Gráinne Bagnall, pictured here with Luke
Kelly, Clara Walsh, Max Kelly and Ava Walsh in Fota
Zoo, Cork.
IT recruiter Gráinne Bagnall is relocating from the
Netherlands to capitalise
on a growing demand for
talent in Cork.
Having joined the expanding team of technical
recruiters at Claran Consultants, Bagnall’s key focus will be on working
with people from a Science Technology Engineering and Maths
(STEM) background.
She says many IT companies and HR department have recognised a
clear shortage of candidates, especially women,
to fill high-tech jobs in Ireland.
“In Holland I was doing
all I could to snap up Irish
graduates for companies
in Holland, flying them in
their busloads into
Schiphol airport.
“A lot of companies out
there and further afield are
still doing that,” Ms Bagnall says.
Gradually, however,
Bagnall realised that she
could be doing the reverse and actually bringing back home the Irish
and in particular to Cork
where IT companies are
expanding daily, notably
such as EMC, TrendMicro,
Apple, Amazon, PFH,
McAfee and VMWare.
Mixed feelings on austerity
from Irish businesses
Almost half of Irish SMEs
report that austerity measures are now stifling their
growth, according to the
latest Close Brothers
Business Barometer.
Some 45% in Leinster
and 36% in Munster continue to back the austerity
programme, while 24% of
firms in Connacht remain
in favour of the tough
measures.
The survey revealed
that bank charges, late
payments and poor cash
flow are the main business concern for 43% of
small business owners in
Ireland.
New studio OurLand.ie has
signed
a
deal
with
IT@Cork
to
develop
GCTV, a web series highlighting Cork as an IT and
technology hotspot to international audiences.
OurLand.ie’s editing and
production of the online
videos will be done in their
studios in Blackpool, Cork.
GCTV, which stands for
Global Cluster TV, is an innovative venture that will
promote IT@cork initiatives
such as their Be Wise and
Upstart programmes.
Denis Collins, chairman
of European Tech Cluster,
said: “Effective communication is a cornerstone of innovation, growth and globalisation. Our European
Tech Cluster vision is integrating a complex model of
regional roots, national impact and global reach for
■ All GCTV shows can be found at
http://www.itcork.ie/. For more information, see www.ourland.ie
Denis Collins: Effective communication is a cornerstone
of innovation, growth and globalisation.
■ NICOLA DE BEER has
been appointed chief operating officer at field management company FMI. Appointed to the board in
2012, she joined as account
manager in 2006. She became account director in
2007, setting up the sales
sector and managed a team
of sales, merchandising and
promotional staff. She holds
a degree in Psychology from
the University of Stellenbosch and a certificate in
Labour Law from the University of Cape Town.
■ JOHN McKAY has been
named head of commercial
real estate at property firm
Ganly Walters, which has acquired McKay’s MEPC business. A chartered surveyor,
he was senior property advisor with MEPC for ten years,
and has also worked with
Jones Lang LaSalle and
CBRE. John McKay and
Ganly Walters are building
their team and are actively
chasing investment opportunities and occupational
space for a number of quality tenants.
■ CIARAN BARR has been
named CFO for BT’s all-island operation. He joins
from Hyundai Capital/Hyundai Card, a joint
venture of GE Capital and
Hyundai Motor Company,
where he was deputy CEO
and director, based in South
Korea. He has held senior
roles with GE Money Ireland,
GE Capital in Paris, and ski
holiday operator TUI in
France and Switzerland. He
has a BSc in maths and applied physics from QUB, and
is a chartered accountant.
■ MATT MORAN has been
named as chairman of Misean Cara, a distributor of
€16m in Irish aid to missionaries for humanitarian development in developing countries worldwide. The funds
provide educational and
health services to communities in Africa, South America,
and parts of Asia. He is a
former manager in An Post
and in the MSC Mission
Support Centre, Cork. He is
a former chairman of the
Marketing Institute south region.
■ DOMINIC SHERIDAN has
been named as business
development manager with
specialist insurer Ecclesiastical, focused on education,
heritage, charity and faith
sector insurance. Originally
from Cork, he joins after 15
years with Aviva in sales, underwriting and risk assessment. He holds a diploma in
Management from Griffith
College and an ACII. He also won the Gladstone outstanding achievement award
in his Insurance Law exam
in 2011.
tangible results. This aligns
with the values, energy and
skills of OurLand. We look
forward to exploring new
ways of working together in
our journey.”
■ PAUL MARSDEN has
joined Wi-Fi solutions firm
Bitbuzz as business development manager, developing new business in the UK
hotel and hospitality sector.
He brings 18 years sales experience, notably with Micros-Fidelio UK, and Targetspace and Regus. He
was also previously business development manager
with Thomson NETg. He
holds a BTEC national diploma in Business and Finance
from the Woking College of
Further Education, Surrey.