Business Ireland Q3 2013

Q3 2013

TALKING THEATRICS

H BUSINESS IRELAND Q3 2013

Dublin’s theatre scene during festival season

Method in

MEDIATION The commercial mediation option for businesses BI cover 2013 Q3.indd 1

TRIED AND

TRUSTED

Independent Trustee Company’s Aidan McLoughlin on the need for pension sector reform

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AUDI CLUB MEMBERSHIP PUttIng YoU CEntRE StAgE

A Private Members Club at The O2

T / +353 1 866 3425 | E / info@audiclub.ie | W / www.audiclub.ie

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s

BuSINESS IRELAND CONTENTS

619u Cool Grey 5u Cool Grey 11u

On The Cover:

Tried aNd TruSTed

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Independent Trustee Company Group Managing Director Aidan McLoughlin speaks to Joseph O’Connor about the need for a dedicated pensions minister and how small, self administered schemes are giving people more control over their futures.

regularS 2

BRIEfCASE The latest business news.

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CAREER PATH Recent job announcements.

wellbeing can be essential to an effective working environment.

29

is huManly possiblE. 10 MOVERS & SHAKERS

Movers & shakers in New association with Manpower appointments in the Dublin

business community.

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05/09/2012 13:06:04

32

CHAMBER MEMBERS Listing of new chamber members.

feaTureS 21

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ADAPTING TO CHANGE Conor Forrest speaks to BearingPoint’s Peter Minogue about how cost effective solutions continue to be key to Irish business.

35

HOw TO START AfRESH

40

Sarah Kiely speaks to AfRESH founder Deirdre Cronnelly about how managing an employee’s

15

TALKING THEATRICS

Joseph O’Connor explores the current theatre scene in the capital during festival season.

23

CASH REMAINS KING

Conor Forrest looks at western union Business Solutions’ entrance into the Irish market to assist businesses with cash flow problems.

THERE’S METHOD IN MEDIATION

Dean Van Nguyen considers commercial mediation as an attractive option for businesses seeking to resolve commercial disputes.

GATEwAY TO GLOBAL INVESTMENT

DMS Offshore Investment Services’ Derek Delaney speaks to Business Ireland on the company’s operations and servicing a global client base.

MOTORING

Motoring Editor Michael Sheridan test drives the Mercedes Benz CLS Shooting Brake.

STREETS PAVED WITH GRANITE

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Sarah Kavanagh reports on how role playing in business training can motivate and educate employees.

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Grafton Street is set for a €4 million facelift with the laying of a new granite street surface.

Colm Gorey reports.

EDITOR: Joseph O’Connor COMMERCIAL EDITOR: Conor forrest MANAGING EDITOR: Mary Connaughton CONTRIBUTORS: Conor forrest, Colm Gorey, Sarah Kavanagh, Sarah Kiely, Michael Sheridan, Dean Van Nguyen DESIGN: Edel Quinn ADVERT DESIGN: Alan McArthur, Kevin O’Connor Photography: iStockphoto.com, Thinkstock PRODUCTION MANAGER: Leonard wilson PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE: Nicole Ennis SALES DIRECTOR: Paul Clemenson BUSINESS IRELAND MAGAZINE is published by Ashville Media Group, on behalf of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce ASHVILLE MEDIA GROUP Old Stone Building, Blackhall Green, Dublin 7. Tel: (01) 432 2200; fax: (01) 672 7100 Email: info@ashville.com DUBLIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 7 Clare Street. Tel: (01) 644 7200; fax: (01) 676 6043; Email: info@dublinchamber.ie; web: www.dublinchamber.ie Material printed in this journal is not necessarily endorsed by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce or by Ashville Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © 2013

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Briefcase D

u New

Traffic Management Scheme at the Green

The latest business news from Dublin.

Nicola Mortimer, Head of Business Products and Portfolio Management, O2.

New u

research finds two thirds of SMEs using cloud services

M

ore than two thirds of small businesses in Ireland are using cloud software products, according to new research published by O2. The survey of 350 Irish business owners and managers was conducted by Behaviour & Attitudes in August, and follows a similar survey commissioned by O2 18 months ago.

O2’s survey found that the number of companies using any form of cloud computing including well-known cloud apps like Microsoft’s Office 365, Dropbox and SurveyMonkey, has risen to 69 per cent up from 48 per cent 18 months ago. The research also found that while Irish SMEs are upping their use of cloud services,

over a third (36 per cent) are still unclear about the benefits.

O2 commissioned the new research as part of an announcement that it has invested almost €3 million in developing and launching a cloud services platform and suite of digital solutions for businesses called O2 Digital Solutions. The platform represents the most extensive rollout of cloud based services in the company’s history.

O2 Digital Solutions includes: an ecommerce solution and website builder; security solutions for virus and spam protection; business class cloud storage; a video conferencing application; and mobile marketing and collaboration services.

ublin City Council has announced a new traffic scheme that will make travelling around St. Stephen’s Green easier. This will result in less disruption when the utility works for Luas Cross City begin in 2014. The council expects all work to be completed by late November this year.

The new arrangements will make it easier for public and private transport to travel around St. Stephen’s Green, while also improving access to car parks in the area and reducing the need to use Dawson Street as a through route.

The most significant changes are new right turns at St. Stephen’s Green’s junctions with Harcourt Street and Merrion Row. Other improvements will include new cycle lanes, pedestrian crossings, Dublin bikes stations and measures which will improve bus operations around St. Stephen’s Green.

“The scheme will benefit all road users in the St. Stephen’s Green area. It will also minimise any necessary disruptions during the Luas Cross City works and integrate the expanded Luas into the City’s traffic management,” said Michael Phillips, Director of Traffic at Dublin City Council.

“As Luas Cross City work progresses, the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council will continue to work closely together to ensure the least disruption to movement around the city,” added Gráinne Mackin, Director of Communications, Luas Cross City.

The improvements will be staggered so as to minimise disruption to local businesses and stakeholders. Some disruptions will occur during the works but the public and businesses will be able to access the area and all car parks throughout the works.

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Briefcase Business News

u Three

T

Breaks Even

hree, Ireland’s fastest growing mobile operator, has announced it is now EBITDA positive for the first time since entering the Irish market.

The announcement came as Three’s parent company, Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), published its results for the first half of 2013.

Three reported it reached EBITDA break-even for the 1st half of 2013, compared with a loss of €15 million in the same period last year.

u BearingPoint

makes first move into the cloud

©shutterstock.com/Bohbeh

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earingPoint, the management and technology consultancy firm, which employs 200 people in Dublin, has announced a major move into the Irish cloud computing market following the signing of a new agreement with SAP, the German headquartered software company. The company has also signed its first two contracts for the new cloud service worth in excess of €400,000 over a three-year period.

Under the agreement, BearingPoint becomes the first Irish reseller to sell and deploy SAP’s Business ByDesign – a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) solution. SaaS offerings enable customers to avoid significant upfront capital outlays such as software, hardware and infrastructure costs. BearingPoint also offers additional support implementation services such as consulting, change management and data migration. BearingPoint Ireland will be the firm’s first office to provide the SAP cloud offering.

BearingPoint and SAP believe this service is ideal for Irish small to medium enterprises and multi-national subsidiaries and that Business ByDesign will be an attractive offering to new and growing companies who want to get established quickly and run their operations with a market-leading

Three continues to win customers over its incumbent competitors with its active customer base increasing by 18 per cent year on year.

In June 2013, Three Ireland entered into an agreement with Telefonica to acquire O2, Telefonica’s mobile business in Ireland, for €780 million with an additional deferred payment of €70 million payable dependent upon achievement of agreed financial targets. The completion of this transaction is subject to competition approval by the

relevant regulatory authority.

Commenting on the results, Robert Finnegan, CEO of Three, said: “These interim results highlight yet again the progress Three is making in the Irish mobile market.

The milestone of EBITDA breakeven is an important achievement for the business. Coupled with our continued growth in market share in a stagnant market, this reflects our commitment to offering value and innovation to our customers, which is ultimately giving us the edge over our competitors.”

business system.

“We have hit the ground running with the signing of our first two contracts with a combined value of over €400,000 over a three year period,” said Peter Minogue, Managing Director, BearingPoint Ireland. “Our first two customers are start-up joint venture businesses.

Both selected Business ByDesign from BearingPoint to manage their core business processes including finance, supply chain, HR, project management and logistics in an integrated manner.

Our implementations will enable both companies to better manage operational costs and support growth.”

Richard Bennington, Head of Channel Cloud Solutions UK&I SAP, added: “SAP Business ByDesign delivers the best of SAP software. It recognises the growing trend for executives and business owners wanting to run their business in realtime, from whatever location they may be in. It is also aimed at companies that want the benefits of large scale business management applications without the costs of supporting the corresponding IT infrastructure.”

Peter Minogue, Managing Director, BearingPoint Ireland

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Briefcase Business News

Taylor launches ARAMARK Ireland Right Track Survey

O

lympic gold medallist and ARAMARK Ireland Health and Wellness Ambassador Katie Taylor was on hand to help launch ARAMARK’s Right Track Survey into Irish eating habits among its customer base across Ireland.

Taylor is working with ARAMARK to promote the company’s commitment to health and wellness issues under their ‘Right Track’ programme.

ARAMARK’s food services division currently serves over 250,000 meals every day and the company spends €50 million with Irish suppliers.

Grainne Kelliher, Vice President Food Services, ARAMARK explains: “We are committed to highlighting the importance of

u Capital’s

Tech Startup Potential Highlighted in New Report

T

he creation of 2,800 jobs with an economic impact of €200 million can be achieved on an annual basis by “making Dublin the best place to start a tech business”, according to a new report. The tech startup sector is highly competitive amongst international cities, but the report finds that Dublin is ahead of many European cities in this regard.

The report is the output of one project of ‘Activating Dublin’, a joint initiative of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Dublin City Council – as well as other individuals from the private, public and social sectors – which aims to generate growth and employment in the Dublin region.

The #bestplacetostart report found that Dublin was home to a thriving startup ecosystem that has the potential to grow even further.

nutrition in the area of health and wellness. This survey will provide us with further insight into the eating habits of consumers and allows us to continue our focus and range of healthy options available, as part of our overall Right Track programme.

As market leaders, we regularly survey customers and clients for valuable feedback around eating trends and habits and we look forward to sharing the findings from this survey.”

ARAMARK Ireland Health and Wellness Ambassador Katie Taylor with her father Peter.

Amongst the strengths highlighted in the report were that three of Europe’s top eight startup accelerators were in Dublin. The report was compiled following consultations with those in the community and supporting agencies.

John Moran, Secretary General of the Department of Finance and Chair of the group said, “The report confirms the huge potential in the tech startup community. The energy and excitement of the people working in this sector is unrivalled internationally. The key is not to try to take control from them. The objective of this report is to build upon these strengths and develop a supportive strategy in place to make sure they can focus on developing their ideas, grow their business and create jobs.”

Welcoming the report

as a blueprint not only for Dublin but for the tech startup sector throughout Ireland, Minister of State for Research and Innovation, Sean Sherlock T.D. said: “The report comprehensively maps out the opportunities and challenges for turning good ideas into jobs. I believe this report is important for other regions as well in that it acts as a blueprint for a way forward for those in the start-up community outside of Dublin.”

© istockphoto./thinkstock.com

u Katie

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The new ŠKODA Superb.

From €289 per month at Annesley Williams.

Celebrating 20 Years in Ireland with the new ŠKODA Superb.

Available in a variety of turbo charged TSI petrol and TDI diesel engines with reduced fuel consumption (achieving up to 67 mpg), the New ŠKODA Superb offers comfort like no other. Drivers and passengers alike enjoy unrivaled spaciousness and immense luggage capacity (595l) thanks to our patented TwinDoor boot system. The Superb range is also equipped with LED rear lights, Cruise Control, Bluetooth and Start-Stop technology, as standard.

Join the celebrations and test drive the new ŠKODA Superb today.

Annesley Williams, Old Airport Road, Cloghran, Co. Dublin.

T. 01 8428855. W. www.annesleywilliams.ie

1993-2013

Finance example ŠKODA Superb 1.4 TSI OTRP €26,095. Deposit €7,876.85. 36 monthly payments of €289. Optional Final Payment €10,198. Total cost of credit €2,533.85 including acceptance fee (€75) and completion fee (€75). APR Typical 5.9%. Minimum deposit is 10%. Subject to lending criteria. This offer is made under a hire purchase agreement. ŠKODA Finance is a trading style of Volkswagen Bank GmbH Branch Ireland, authorised by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for conduct of business rules.

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Briefcase Business News

u Governor

of Maryland Visits Dublin Chamber of Commerce

M

artin O’Malley, Governor of the US State of Maryland, visited Dublin Chamber of Commerce over the summer to speak to members about the power of good government and his role in the transformation

of Maryland. The State is now considered as one of the leading destinations in the US for enterprise, innovation and education. The Governor also briefed representatives from Dublin Chamber on his StateStat programme. StateStat uses statistics to track the performance of government agencies. It is modeled upon a programme O’Malley pioneered as mayor of Baltimore.

Liam Kavanagh, President, Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland, Gina Quin, CEO, Dublin Chamber of Commerce. u Dublin

Needs a Mayor with Real Power

©shutterstock.com/Luciano Mortula

A

directly elected mayor with real power to reform and develop the Dublin region is vital, according to Dublin Chamber of Commerce. The comments followed the results of Dublin City Council’s ‘Your Dublin Your Voice’ survey which found that 61 per cent of those surveyed were in favour of a directly elected mayor.

Gina Quin, Dublin Chamber Chief Executive said, “All over the world, mayors with strong executive powers and real vision are transforming their cities and making a real and tangible difference to the lives of their citizens. Over the past decade, Dublin Chamber has championed the concept of a directly elected mayor for Dublin with the powers required to drive efficiency and to promote the region internationally.”

Next May, a plebiscite will be held to determine public appetite for a directly

elected mayor. Between now and then, a forum of Dublin’s four local authorities, chaired by Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn, will discuss proposals for a directly elected mayor. Following a public consultation, their proposals will be presented to Phil Hogan, Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government.

“Dublin needs a champion who will be directly accountable to the people of Dublin as a whole on issues of regional importance. Such a champion would market the region internationally as an attractive location, drive the regional integration of infrastructure, and provide coordinated regional leadership. To achieve this, the forum must ensure its recommendations include real executive powers and accountability that cuts across the four local authorities,” said Ms Quin.

u Record

Year For Transatlantic Traffic At Dublin Airport

T

ransatlantic traffic at Dublin Airport will set a new record this year with more than 1.8 million passengers expected to travel on flights between North America and Dublin during 2013.

Already this year, Dublin Airport has welcomed almost 1.3 million transatlantic passengers, which is a 14 per cent increase on the same period in 2012. Transatlantic passenger numbers peaked at 1.75 million in 2008, during Ireland’s economic boom, but subsequently declined to just under 1.5 million in 2010.

“Transatlantic traffic is growing rapidly at Dublin Airport and the previous record for passenger numbers travelling to the United States and Canada will be comfortably exceeded this year,” said Dublin Airport Authority’s Strategy Director, Vincent Harrison.

The significant growth in transatlantic passenger numbers is due to a number of factors, according to Mr Harrison. “We have a large increase in capacity this year with available seat numbers expanding due to a new service to JFK from American Airlines, increased frequency on Boston and Chicago with Aer Lingus, a larger aircraft on the US Airways’ service to Philadelphia, and the impact of a full year of United’s Washington DC service. We’re also benefitting from The Gathering, which has given a major marketing push to Ireland in North America, and which also has been strongly supported by DAA.” Dublin Airport is also benefitting from an increase in transfer business to the United States and Canada, as passengers from Britain and continental Europe are choosing to travel to North America via Dublin.

“This transfer business is very welcome, as a steady supply of transfer passengers underpins the viability of existing long-haul services and also encourages airlines to launch new services and extra frequencies from Dublin,” Mr Harrison said. g 7

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CAREER PATH JOB CREATION

Business Ireland looks at companies expanding or starting operations in Dublin and the jobs that are coming on stream. uPM

grouP

PM Group has announced the creation of 250 new jobs, 100 of which will be located at its operations in Dublin and Cork. The latest recruitment drive will boost the Irish-owned international project management and engineering firm’s workforce to more than 2,000 people for the first time in its 40-year history. up to 100 of the new posts will be filled in PM’s Irish operations. The positions are available for experienced engineers, architects, project managers, construction managers, consultants and graduates. Already, the group has taken on 50 of its intended target to work at its offices in Dublin and Cork and another 50 will join before the end of this year. The other 150 positions will be filled at its overseas operations in Britain, the uS, Asia and mainland Europe. uSyMaNTec

Technology firm Symantec is to create 400 new jobs at a new customer management centre in Dublin. Half of the jobs will be created this year with the remaining 200 positions coming on stream over the next two years.

Symantec is already well established in Ireland, having set up its base in Blanchardstown in 1991. Dublin is

already home to a Security Operations Centre, as well as operations in business authentication, software development and testing. The new centre will provide a Europe-wide sales and support function to Symantec customers and partners. uPfiZer

Pfizer has announced that $130 million is being invested in two of its Irish manufacturing sites. $100 million is being invested in the Grange Castle site in Dublin and $30 million is being invested in the Ringaskiddy site in Cork. The investments will enable the sites to expand their capacity and begin producing more advanced, complex therapies to deal with some of the most devastating and difficult to cure diseases.

Pfizer employs approximately 3,200 people at six sites in Ireland across manufacturing, shared services, treasury and commercial operations. Pfizer has invested $7 billion in operations in Ireland since opening the first site in 1969 and in 2011 announced a $200 million investment in the Grange Castle site to develop a new suite to expand the Irish manufacturing process for an invasive pneumococcal vaccine.

MaNageMeNT irelaNd

field Management Ireland (fMI) has announced the creation of 60 new full-time jobs in Dublin. fMI Ltd is a company offering sales, marketing and management services to businesses.

Established in 1995, the firm currently employs 52 people at its head office in Dundrum Business Park, and is now looking for 60 prospective employees to take up a number of residential sales and management positions. fMI provides a range of services which include direct sales, merchandising, in-store promotions and demonstrations, retail auditing and price checking.

Commenting on the new positions, the company’s chief operating officer, Nicola de Beer, said: “we’re looking for keen enthusiastic recruits across a range of disciplines who want to build a career with us. As a business we encourage talent and development in our staff, investing time and resources to allow them to maximise their potential.” uoMNiPlex

grouP

Omniplex Group has commenced construction on a major extension to the Swan Omniplex cinema in Rathmines, Dublin. The €5 million investment will provide four additional screens, doubling the number of screens to eight, and the number of staff employed at the cinema will also double from the current 16 to 32 in total. Thirty people will also be employed during construction. work is underway on the extensive redevelopment, which will extend over the top floor of the Swan Shopping Centre in Rathmines. when complete, the total investment in Swan Omniplex Rathmines will exceed €9 million. g

©iStockphoto.com/studiovision

Career path

u field

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MOVERS & SHAKERS APPOINTMENTS

Movers

Shakers

New appointments in the Dublin business community.

u

aNdrew

MoNTgoMery, BeariNgPoiNT

Andrew Montgomery has been appointed a partner in BearingPoint, the management and technology consultancy firm which employs 225 people in Dublin. Montgomery is currently responsible for BearingPoint’s public services business in Ireland.

He joined the firm in 1991 and he has over 22 years’ business and technology consulting experience across the public, financial and commercial services sectors in Ireland and Europe. His areas of expertise include ERP, systems integration, IT and business consulting.

Montgomery holds an MA in Management Science and Industrial Systems from Trinity College Dublin, a CDipAf from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and completed BearingPoint’s executive

Managing Partner John White with Kathy Irwin, Head of Private Client and Family Law, Beauchamps.

leadership programme in Yale in 2011. u

kaThy

irwiN, BeauchaMPS

Kathy Irwin has been announced as the new Head of Private Client and family Law at Beauchamps.

Innovation and personal, clientbased service are the hallmarks of the private client and family law unit at Beauchamps, according to Kathy Irwin, the newly appointed head of the group.

Joining the firm as a partner in July, Irwin has been working to re-launch Beauchamps’ offering for private client and family law.

Her vision for the group is to

focus on meeting the individual needs of modern clients.

“Beauchamps has a long history of servicing the needs of the individual and takes great pride in this tradition. The demand for high end services has increased as the demand for residential property becomes more buoyant.

Private clients are now more sophisticated and there is greater awareness of the need for quality, innovative advice and service.

Beauchamps has this well-earned reputation,” said Irwin.

Irwin was previously owner of Irwin Solicitors, a family law and private client practice based in Dalkey, Co. Dublin. She

Expanding capabilitiEs 10

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MOVERS & SHAKERS APPOINTMENTS

has twenty years’ experience in advising on separation, divorce and all related matters, including custody, access, maintenance and guardianship. She is a respected and well known practitioner in family law in Ireland.

u keiroN

hwBc

u ciaraN

Barr, BT irelaNd

BT Ireland has announced that Ciaran Barr has been appointed Chief financial Officer (CfO) for its all-island operation.

Barr joins BT from Hyundai Capital/Hyundai Card, a joint venture of GE Capital and Hyundai Motor Company, where he was Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Director, based in South Korea. Barr previously held the senior roles of Chief Executive Officer and Chief financial Officer of GE Capital Restructuring Operations Group - GE Money Ireland. Prior to this, Barr worked as CEO and CfO for GE Capital in Paris, and Chief Accountant for france/ Switzerland for TuI, the largest ski holiday operator in Europe.

Barr has a B.Sc. Hons in Mathematics and Applied Physics from Queen’s university Belfast and is a chartered accountant.

diaMoNd,

HwBC, Ireland’s leading independent property firm, has announced that Keiron Diamond is joining the company. Diamond joins HwBC from Knight frank where he was a director for twelve years.

Diamond brings his extensive knowledge of the commercial property market, with particular focus on the retail and office segments of the market. He is well known in the industry for his provision of strategic advice to a number of high profile retail and office occupiers as well as private investors.

Commenting on the appointment, Jonathan Hillyer, Managing Director of HwBC, said: “Keiron is a great addition to the HwBC team bringing his long-standing relationships and expertise to the firm. HwBC has had an excellent start to 2013 growing business over 30 per cent in comparison with the same period last year, and with Keiron on board we are very optimistic about driving new business opportunities for a strong full year performance.”

Diamond’s role at HwBC will particularly focus on growing the tenant representation side of the business across all sectors and to further improve the range and quality of the service provided to clients.

u ger

coNNolly, MaSoN hayeS & curraN

Ger Connolly has been appointed as Partner in the Employment Law division of award winning Irish business law firm, Mason Hayes & Curran.

Connolly advises public and private sector employers on both contentious and non-contentious matters. He provides strategic advice on restructuring, reorganisation and general employment related matters.

He regularly appears in Employment Law fora, including the Rights Commissioner Service, the Equality Tribunal, the Labour Court, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Circuit Court, the High Court and Supreme Court and specialises in contractual and dismissal issues with senior executives.

Connolly joined Mason Hayes & Curran from another leading Irish law firm in 2012 as a Senior Associate. He is a lecturer and tutor for the Law Society of Ireland and speaks regularly at conferences on the subject of employment law and related topics. g

is huManly possiblE. Movers & shakers in association with Manpower

12/11/2012 16:17:38

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Tried & Trusted At a time when pension liabilities are posing a threat to the Irish economy, Joseph O’Connor speaks to Independent Trustee Company Group Managing Director Aidan McLoughlin about the need for a dedicated pensions minister and how small, self administered schemes are giving people more control over their futures.

T

he Independent Trustee Company is an Irish-owned business that has been in operation for twenty years. It is one of the leading providers of selfadministered pension schemes in the country and also acts as trustee to larger occupational schemes and private trusts. Working in conjunction with clients and their advisors, its stated focus is the delivery of flexible and transparent pension plans.

The firm has operated on a conservative basis through good times and bad, and hence been bucking the trend by performing well at a time when many companies have required a helping hand from the State. Aidan McLoughlin, Managing Director of the group has been involved in pensions for 25 years. He outlines the key factors to the company's success: “We employ more than fifty people here and take in a lot of young graduates on a regular basis. And because of the nature of the pension structures we have, we need a lot of good people and we have been very successful in recruiting those and developing them further through education and that has been key to our success.” uSelf

Control

Among the wide range of clients on the Independent Trustee Company's books are self-employed individuals, professionals, company directors, corporate clients, financial advisors and high net-wealth individuals and

families. The firm has recently seen an uptake in the number of people opting for self-administered schemes as an alternative to defined benefit schemes. Those seeking to avail of the self-administered schemes are usually people who are used to controlling their finances and who are not content with the one-size-fits all approach of the standard pension structures in the marketplace. This uptake is a direct result of defined benefit schemes proving to be an unsustainable option for most employers going forward due to the regulations attached to them. This ominous future for defined benefit schemes is a global trend and one that is not exclusive to Ireland.

McLoughlin outlines how holders of defined benefit schemes have been losing out. “At the moment there is a lot of controversy in the market over the priority order in group pension schemes where some people get priority over others.

And if you're on the wrong side of that, your benefit gets reduced in order to make sure somebody else's benefit gets paid.” Self administered schemes offer much more protection, as McLoughlin explains. “In a self-administered scheme you're completely ringfenced away from everybody else.

You control what assets you invest in, how you invest in them, who your service providers are. You get greater control of costs. That leads to value for money. Typically our schemes are running at a cost lower than

50 basis points or half a per cent, whereas as we know from a survey the Minister conducted recently, the average pension structure out there is costing one per cent or more. So there is a significant saving there. Because it's a one-person arrangement, you have huge security inherent in the structure. You're not affected by other people in terms of other members of the scheme, or indeed by other providers in terms of your service provider and how they might become insolvent.” uSector

Reform

McLoughlin is acutely aware of the challenges currently facing the pensions industry in Ireland and has been among the more vocal figures in the sector to highlight the urgent need for reform. These calls can be backed up by official figures from the OECD who recently reported that the shortfall in the social welfare pensions budget would rise to €324 billion by 2060. Back in 2008, the Comptroller and Auditor General estimated the scale of pension liabilities in respect of public sector pensions at €108 billion. Meanwhile, defined benefit schemes in the private sector have deficits in excess of €15 billion. It is figures like these that have led McLoughlin to call for a dedicated pensions minister. “We have enormous liabilites bouncing around with no one really managing them and I believe the solution would be to have a specific pensions minister appointed which would give the focus at Cabinet level on this critical issue for the long term - financial security of the State,” says McLoughlin.

He believes that people are being discouraged from saving for their retirement and highlights the need for a clearer policy at Government level.

“Part of the difficulty at the moment for people is that the Government

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Cover story Independent trustee company

has no declared policy on pensions other than if they have money to take it,” says McLoughlin. “People need to know that retirement saving is not a punishable activity. It's something that the State actually encourages and that's not clear from its policy at the moment. So again, the focus of having a pensions minister would be one step towards that.”

McLoughlin believes additional legislative measures would help restore faith in the pensions system.

“Having a clearly defined strategy which people can rely on being there would be a second step,” he says. “And indeed, building into the Constitution a protection for pension benefits so that it cannot be simply seized by the State when it needs some money, which is effectively what happened with the National Pension Reserve Fund, would restore some faith in the system. Otherwise you get people wandering away and ultimately becoming liabilities for the State and adding to the problem of the finances of the State. So it's in our interest that it's there but it's equally in the State's interest to have that.” uRegistry

Calls

Equally, McLoughlin is calling for the introduction of a system to address how workers are losing out on pension entitlements due to the winding up of company pension schemes. Research from the Pensions Board has revealed how poor record keeping by the administrators of company pension schemes is seeing people who have changed jobs or whose company has been taken over by new owners, miss out on the money that could help fund their retirement. It has been estimated that at least €200 million is being lost in this manner and McLoughlin has called for a central registry to be established, similar to the Pensions Tracing Service in Britain which enables people to be reunited with their lost retirement funds in about three-quarters of cases. McLoughlin explains how the problem could be solved: “People may not know where to go if the employer for example

Aidan McLoughlin, Group Managing Director, Independent Trustee Company.

has ceased trading in the meantime, there isn't a natural point of contact for such benefits. Yet the Pensions Board does collect a lot of data on pension schemes and it would be quite easy for them to provide a service whereby if you were looking for your pension benefits you would be able to contact them and they would be able to identify all of those benefits for you.”

So is there any sign of action on the introduction of such measures?

McLoughlin is realistic in his response but believes it is imperative that pressure is placed on the Government. “I suppose the simple answer is 'no' at the moment,” he says. “The call for it is an attempt to put it on an agenda somewhere.

Politics as you know can move

quite slowly on these things, but somebody has to start thinking it's a good idea first and get it considered

by Government and perhaps taken up by future government to put in place. But at a time when people are ending up with less benefit, it seems wrong that they are perhaps ignoring benefits that they have accumulated and forgotten about.”

Regardless of whether or not such sectoral reforms are introduced any time soon, the Independent Trustee Company will continue to support independent financial advisers who are the cornerstone of the advice industry in Ireland. As the group begins planning for its 20th birthday celebrations, it is expected that its success to date will continue for another twenty years and beyond. g 13

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INDuSTRY SPOTLIGHT THEATRE

Talking Theatrics Gaiety Theatre Auditorium

As the Dublin Theatre Festival kicks off for another year, Joseph O’Connor considers the current state of the Dublin theatre scene and profiles some of the venues and organisations helping the city claim its position among the elite capitals when taking to the stage.

f

or a small island nation on the fringes of western Europe, there is no doubt that Ireland punches well above its weight in the world of theatre. famous playwrights like Oscar wilde, Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw have ensured our country’s disproportionately large contribution to the history of theatre in the western world. Today in the capital, theatre’s rich offering to Irish society and the arts lives on and, despite one of the harshest recessions in our State’s history, a strong appetite remains among the public for good theatre; be it a seasonal pantomime, staged political commentary, a mainstream opera, or the production of a classic play at the national theatre, there is something for everyone. A thespian background is not essential in embracing Dublin’s thriving theatre scene.

Maintaining this vibrant sector of the arts by getting ‘bums on seats’ does not come easy though, and like

any other business, theatre groups and venues are having to work extra hard to deliver the message to the public about what’s on offer as well as attracting those who have not yet discovered how accessible and enjoyable the theatre experience can be. Of equal importance is the growing relationship between business and the arts which has become more visible in recent years. Such partnerships can be mutually rewarding for both parties and help sustain a healthy theatre industry; one that enhances the cultural life of the city. u ModerN

claSSic: The aBBey TheaTre

Celebrating its 110th anniversary next year, the Abbey Theatre was founded as Ireland’s national theatre by w.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory “to bring upon the stage the deeper emotions of Ireland.”

Premises for the venue were

purchased on Old Abbey Street and on 27 December 1904, the Abbey Theatre opened its doors for the first time. The Abbey originally traded as the National Theatre Society Limited but on 31 January 2006 this format was dissolved and all assets and liabilities were transferred to a newly established company, Abbey Theatre Amharclann Na Mainistreach, which now runs the theatre. The artistic policy of the theatre remains unchanged and its mission is to “create a world-class theatre that actively engages with and reflects Irish society,” placing the writer and the theatre artist at the heart of the Abbey.

Nowadays these deeper principles envisaged by its founders are very much alive on the Abbey stage. And despite a difficult economic period, the national theatre is holding its own, according to Oonagh Desire, 15

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Industry Spotlight Theatre

Director of Public Affairs and Development at the Abbey Theatre.

“Our audiences have been holding up well. The last quarter of 2012 was actually our busiest on record,” says Desire. “I’d say there is partly a seasonal thing going on there but there’s definitely people out there who are wanting to go to good theatre.” Such statistics defy trends of businesses, particularly those providing entertainment, being hit by a fall in customers. It certainly helps that the Abbey is conscious of having a wide range of ticket prices to ensure the national theatre is accessible for all sections of society.

Desire says: “Our regular tickets range from €13 but we also have early bird concessions at €9 so we’re conscious that we don’t want to be pricing people out and then making sure we promote those, whether it is front row of every performance, the €13 tickets or concessions which would make up around 25 per cent of our audience. Then the top price at €45 isn’t too expensive either so I guess that’s part of trying to keep

growing audiences by recognising times are hard.”

As part of this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival, the Abbey Theatre will contribute two of its new productions. On the Abbey stage there is a new play by Frank McGuinness called The Hanging Gardens, which is his first play at the Abbey for fourteen years. On the smaller stage, the Peacock Stage, there will be another play called Maeve’s House by Eamon Morrissey who is one of Ireland’s best loved actors. The Abbey will also host a production by Scottish writer David Greig called The Events which received glowing reviews at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As well as these plays, the Abbey will use the festival to showcase some of its offerings which people might not be familiar with. Desire expands: “We’ve got an amazing portrait collection of writers and actors and theatre artists, and we’re going to be unveiling two new portraits, Sebastian Barry and Tom McIntyre, with Mick O’Dea giving a tour of the collection, so

“It certainly helps that the Abbey is conscious of having a wide range of ticket prices to ensure the national theatre is accessible for all sections of society.”

that’s our look at theatre as well. It’s a bit more unexpected in terms of what we do behind the scenes.”

As the Abbey continues to produce a range of diverse, engaging and innovative Irish and international theatre, it is conscious of maintaining a fresh and versatile approach to theatre and is focused on the future. With next year’s landmark anniversary, it seems like an ideal time to reflect on how the national theatre can progress in the future. “We are very interested in the fact it is a celebration of the Abbey’s past but also in announcing new plans and initiatives for the future, particularly around new talent and nurturing and supporting talent in theatre,” says Desire. “We have a great partnership with NUI Galway who are working to digitise our archive so there’ll be an exhibition around that. We’re working on our production programme so we’ll announce that this autumn and again it will be a mix of plays that people know and love and also new plays by Irish writers. We’re really working on plans for that at the moment and hopefully it will be a year where it’s a chance to tell the Abbey story but it’s also a chance to look ahead to the next 110 years.”

The Abbey Theatre

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whole new audience into the building each year and it’s a really good way for us to show ourselves off, show the venue off and try and get those people to take a risk, come back later in the year or between the festivals.” u A

Rousing Refurbishment: The Gaiety Theatre

Cian O’Brien, CEO and Artistic Director, Project Arts Centre. u The

Place to Showcase: Project Arts Centre

The Project Arts Centre, situated in Dublin’s Temple Bar, is recognised as a venue at the forefront of cutting edge, high-quality art in Ireland. With an eclectic mix of visual arts, dance, music and theatre in its year-round programme, the Project Arts Centre has been in operation in 1966. It started out as a three-week festival at the Gate Theatre but one year later evolved into a permanent alternative centre for the performance and visual arts. The Project took residence in varius locations around Dublin in the preceding years but finally found its home in a new multi-purpose building at its current location on East Essex Street and was opened to the public in June 2000, having developed from a voluntary, artist-led co-operative to the structure of a fulltime artist-driven company.

Cian O’Brien is CEO and Artistic Director of the Project Arts Centre.

He believes the theatre scene in Dublin is thriving but expresses concern over the funding available to budding artists. “I think [the theatre scene] is really vibrant,” says O’Brien.

“There is a huge growth now in young theatre artists and people who are are really experimenting with different types of form and presentation but obviously like every other industry the arts are struggling with declining

funding and with less opportunities.

The fact that so many artists depend on an audience to come to see the work – if audiences have less money to spend on tickets, there are less opportunities for artists.”

Despite these challenges the centre is performing well and audience figures have been growing steadily since they took a dip in 2009. “That year and 2011 were the project’s busiest years ever,” says O’Brien. “We had 70,000 people through the doors last year, so I certainly feel that there is not a lack of people out there who are wanting to make work and wanting to produce theatre. There’s not a lack of audience out there who want to see it. I think the real struggle that artists have is the resource to make sure they get paid and that their work is properly resourced. But I would certainly feel like it’s really a flourishing, exciting time for theatre in Ireland.”

The Project Arts Centre is one of the host venues for the Dublin Theatre Festival and will be presenting performances from India and France, among other nations.

On some festival days the centre will present up to five shows in both of its performance spaces, so it’s a busy fortnight, all of which takes place directly after the Project’s involvement with the Dublin Fringe Festival. O’Brien welcomes the busy period: “The Theatre Festival is such a great time for us because it brings a

Dublin’s longest established theatre in continuous production, the Gaiety Theatre, has acted as the city’s premier venue for popular musical shows, opera, ballet, dance and drama since its inception in 1871. The inspiration behind the theatre came from brothers John and Michael Gunn, who originally had a family business on Grafton Street. Eminent architect C.J. Phipps provided the original design and today the theatre’s Venetian façade remains a sight all Dubliners recognise and love. The Gaiety has been the venue for such diverse attractions as the earliest Irish language performance on a professional stage, Douglas Hyde’s Casadh an tSugáin in 1901, Sean O’Casey’s controversial The Bishop’s Bonfire in 1955, and Norman Maen’s production of Finian’s Rainbow in 1964. And on one famous night in 1971 the Gaiety’s audience jumped to 400 million, when the Eurovision Song Contest took place for the first time in Ireland, and RTÉ broadcast its first colour transmission of an indoor event.

More recently, in 2003, theatre owners, Denis and Caroline Desmond, invested more than €2 million in the biggest restoration programme The Gaiety Theatre had seen in over 50 years. The latest, and most substantial restorations were undertaken in 2007. Caroline Desmond reflects on the venue’s most recent facelift: “We’ve had a huge refurbishment carried out. We put in air conditioning, we revamped the bar, we revamped the bathrooms, we painted it, we put in the new roof, we got money from the Millenium Fund to extend the bridge to accommodate opera, all those various things. We

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Photo on right by Silver Merick

Industry Spotlight Theatre

created the hands on the boardwalk outside with the Council. We’ve recently renovated another bar. We constantly renovate. We constantly look after it. It needed some love and we gave it some love.”

Now with its new and improved look, the Gaiety Theatre is seeing customers flock through its doors to see productions on the more commercial end of the scale in comparison to some of the other venues. Caroline Desmond sees the theatre scene in Dublin as a very “healthy” one and believes some of the shows on offer at the Gaiety provide people at a young age an accessible introduction to performing arts and theatre. “Performances such as Riverdance, and every pantomime in the Gaiety, are a good way to encourage children to start going to theatre,” says Desmond. “I think with the introduction of the Grand Canal (theatre), it has opened up a more commercial aspect to the sector, it has opened theatre up to a lot of people who might not have gone before. I know that’s how I introduced my daughter to theatre, musicals and various different things. She’s now 22 and goes all the time, so I started with her when she was very young which I think was light-hearted and entertaining and then more serious stuff as she got older.”

In order to sustain a busy venue and a healthy theatre industry, the relationship between business and the arts remains a crucial one. This is something Caroline Desmond is aware of and a challenge which she faced in the past when she was on the board of the Dublin Theatre Festival. “It was hugely important, having sponsorship from the business community,” she says. “That afforded [the festival] to be able to go out and take in productions that would have been quite large. That would have meant it had a big impact on the festival and having sponsorship from the business community definitely enabled them to have these much greater productions.” The Gaiety Theatre continues to make use of corporate sponsorship today and often

invites corporate people to attend shows where they can entertain their clients and even go to dinner with the cast. According to Desmond, it’s “another element of fundraising to help the theatre.” u Attracting

Foreign Bodies: Polish Theatre Ireland

which its Artistic Director Anna Wolf feels are being addressed more by smaller and more independent producers. “I feel that there are so many low budget productions that are more socially engaging, more relevant,” says Wolf. “Let’s say the shows in the Theatre Upstairs (located above Lanigan’s Bar on Dublin’s Eden Quay) which are addressing current affairs, contemporary issues relating to people in Ireland today. And then there are the big productions; I am going to see them and they are not really saying anything to me about the current condition of Irish people.

So that’s how I would describe it. It’s interesting – they are all really high quality, well performed, well acted, well designed but it actually doesn’t have that impact, that it’s actually telling you where you are.”

Not only are Polish Theatre Ireland’s productions providing an alternative option to theatre-goers in Dublin, they are affording the opportunity to non-national actors who might normally struggle to acquire a lead role in a production due to being typecast as the ‘immigrant’.

One organisation which is contributing greatly to the Dublin theatre scene in attracting audiences from varied cultural backgrounds and giving a voice to a significant migrant group in the capital is Polish Theatre Ireland. Established in 2010, it is a non-profit group based in Dublin which aims to produce theatre and dramatic productions to high artistic standards primarily for Polish and Irish audiences. Their recent production, Foreign Bodies, which was staged at the Project Arts Centre, was well received and gave Irish audiences an opportunity to gain a slice of Polish history through the story of an unlikely political hero during the communist period.

Inspired by the real life of Ewa Holuszko, a member of the Solidarity movement, who, after the political crisis of 1989, had a male-to-female sex change operation, Foreign Bodies provided an insightful look at political and gender issues during an important historical period.

Subject matters such as those addressed in Foreign Bodies are the ones which appeal most to Polish Theatre Ireland, and themes Anna Wolf, Artistic Director, Polish Theatre Ireland.

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Industry Spotlight Theatre

“A lot of the time there is the perception that we are ‘airy fairy’.

Ours is absolutely a business and it’s run like a business.,” Wolf explains: “I think we gave the opportunity to a few Polish actors to appear on Irish stage and this has been one of the big benefits. One of our main actors, Kasia, as a Polish actress, she has two options really in Irish theatre; to play a prostitute or to play a cleaner. That’s the reality and that is proven by the auditions she goes to. So for her and other Polish actors, it’s great that they can appear on stage with a deep character. There’s nothing wrong with playing a prostitute or a cleaner but as long as the character is a real character and not simply a stereotype.

Our mission statement is somewhat fulfilled with each production because we are giving Polish actors the chance to appear as bigger characters.”

Polish Theatre Ireland remains a small outfit as it is still in its infancy.

It doesn’t have any productions as part of the upcoming Dublin Theatre Festival but with new productions coming thick and fast, it won’t be a surprise to see the group listed as part of the 2014 programme. Currently, its main sources of funding come from the Polish Embassy as well as one-off sponsorships such as the Polish Medical Centre’s backing for the production of Foreign Bodies.

Everyone involved is working on a voluntary basis, but Wolf has set her sights high for the future: “In five to ten years I can see Polish Theatre Ireland being a government funded theatre. I would like to have a permanent cast, that’s how I see it – just to connect it to the Polish tradition a little bit, to hire a few actors and give them a job for the year and produce a few shows in which they will all appear in.

Perhaps producing some workshops for children; we have loads of plans to create theatre for children. But my goal is to have a permanent group of actors, producers and designers. I would like to have an office at least!” Wolf concludes wryly.

u A

Year in the Making: The Dublin Theatre Festival

Established back in 1957, the Dublin Theatre Festival is set to descend upon the capital for another year this autumn, bringing together artists, theatre-makers and audiences from Ireland and around the world. Behind the scenes, organising the annual event, is a core team of seven staff.

They work year-round to ensure the festival supports Irish theatre artists in creating productions of high quality, bringing world-class shows to Dublin audiences and providing a platform to showcase the best of Irish theatre to the world.

Heading up this operation is Willie White, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Dublin Theatre Festival. He outlines how the event has remained buoyant amid a challenging economic period: “In terms of the bottom line, our turnover has decreased as many other areas of Irish life have from 2008. We’ve held our own, we grew our audiences by 30 per cent last year. From my point of view, the festival is absolutely a business and you run it like a business. But our ambition is to make a contribution to the cultural and social life of the city.

Our stakeholders are the citizens of Dublin, we don’t have shareholders per se. So it’s challenging but I think we’re up to that challenge.”

Another challenge facing the theatre scene in Dublin right now which White highlights is the scarcity of mid-scale venues available in the capital. Currently, theatres such as the Project Arts Centre, the Samuel Beckett Theatre and Smock Alley hold around 200 people. At the higher end of the scale there are venues like the Gaiety and Bord Gáis Energy Theatre which can cater for large commercial productions, but White feels there is a lack of options available to stage shows aimed at an audience somewhere in between. “Depending on the shows to suit the venues, where I see a gap in the city centre is in the mid-scale venues. I would dearly love if someone could come along and develop something – not just to fit

500 people but also with a large size stage which would be used by the likes of ourselves, the Dance Festival, the Fringe Festival, anyone else that wanted to use it year-round. We’re actually missing a mid-scale venue in my opinion and certainly it’s a challenge that I face every year.”

Helping to sustain a healthy bottom line and meet the challenges facing the organisation is the existence of creative partnerships between business, individuals and the arts which helps diversify income streams, grow audiences and improve efficiencies. White echoes Caroline Desmond’s belief that this is key to a thriving theatre scene. “A lot of the time there is the perception that we are ‘airy fairy’. Ours is absolutely a business and it’s run like a business,” says White. “We’re just in a different type of business to people who are answering to shareholders or who are producing fast-moving consumer goods. So we have throughout this festival, particularly in the past twenty or thirty years, had very productive relationships with different types of companies like Irish Life, Eircom, Accenture and most recently Ulster Bank. I think that it doesn’t suit everybody but I think a lot of people see the value of being part of investing in something that is a flagship cultural event for the city.”

The Dublin Theatre Festival will take place over 18 days from September 26th to October 13th. Some of the highlights include The Hanging Gardens - a brand new play from Frank McGuinness, which will receive a world premiere in The Abbey Theatre; The Critic from Rough Magic, which fuses 18th Century characters with modern techniques; The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Rape of Lucrece starring Irish singer Camille O’Sullivan; and Circa, a sexy new cocktail of circus and burlesque from the internationally renowned Wunderkammer. This much anticipated event will whet the appetite of theatre-goers throughout the capital and encapsulate the current state of what is a flourishing theatre scene. g

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Platform bearing point

Peter Minogue, Managing Director, BearingPoint Ireland

Adapting to Change B

Value and cost effective solutions continue to function as the main requirements of Irish business.

BearingPoint’s Peter Minogue explains to Conor Forrest.

earingPoint, which employs 225 people here in Ireland, has been providing business and technology consulting services to many of Ireland’s largest and most successful organisations for over 45 years. The firm combines industry, operational and technology skills with relevant proprietary and other assets.

BearingPoint delivers a full service operation, from strategy execution

“The firm combines industry, operational and technology skills with relevant proprietary and other assets.”

and advisory through to business and technology solution design, build and implementation. While many in the same sector operate as business or IT consultants, BearingPoint stands out in that it does both. uOperation

Ireland

In Ireland, BearingPoint has built up a reputation as one of the major players in the consulting market. Clients come from a broad swathe of sectors including central government departments, public service agencies, media and content organisations, as well as main players in the telecommunications, mortgage and insurance markets.

The Irish operation has built up considerable expertise around four main areas.

BearingPoint’s digital strategy and transformation practice is aimed toward assisting companies in understanding how mobile technology can be used to reduce selling and service costs, and in building customer loyalty. To this end, the company has worked with several major international brands across Europe – in the commercial, financial services and public sectors – and is leveraging that experience to great effect here in Ireland.

The firm has worked in SAP advisory, implementation and support for 30 years, and has 21

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Platform bearing point

“It’s thinking about how you automate what you do with customers, how you make sure the customer service you give is top quality, and how you use the tools people have in their hands, such as smartphones.” recently moved into the cloud market in Ireland following the signing of two contracts worth over €400,000 over the course of the next three years. “We have hit the ground running with the signing of our first two contracts with a combined value of over €400,000 over a three year period,” commented Peter Minogue, Managing Director, BearingPoint Ireland. “Our first two customers are start-up joint venture businesses. Both selected SAP Business ByDesign from BearingPoint to manage their core business processes including finance, supply chain, HR, project management and logistics in an integrated manner.

Our implementations will enable both companies to better manage operational costs and support growth.” BearingPoint holds the belief that the future of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is in the cloud. Hundreds of SMEs in Ireland are currently running their businesses on SAP Business ByDesign, offered by BearingPoint, the first Irish company to do so. uManaging

Data

Data analytics also remain a recognised phenomenon for the firm, in highlighting the opportunities which companies can harness by effectively handling the growing amount of available data in business processes. Irish organisations are currently being swamped by the sheer volume of information that is now available to them. “The digital revolution has exacerbated the challenge with today’s volumes of information exceeding current ability to manage it,” said Martin McKenna, partner at BearingPoint Ireland. “New practices need to be implemented

to extract and transform the information required to manage organisations effectively.” To this end, the company acquired Hypercube last year – recognised as one of the best data analysis tools today – a new data mining algorithm with superior predictive value, according to the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The Hypercube acquisition complements the company’s MIKE2.0 methodology, an open source information management methodology released in 2006 which incorporates data integration, data warehousing and information governance.

“MIKE (Method for an Integrated Knowledge Environment) provides a common method and architecture to turn disparate sources of data into usable and accessible information,” McKenna added. “MIKE2.0 provides the open source face of BearingPoint’s Information Management advisory services and is a key differentiator for us.” BearingPoint also has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, both before and after, and has developed a detailed Merger Integration Framework which it uses to help clients to be successful in their M&A activities.

The role of technology in business, with regard to digital and mobile, is another area of focus for BearingPoint. “Digitalisation and mobilisation are critical next steps on the agenda of many organisations. We are seeing this in a number of financial services organisations. It’s thinking about how you automate what you do with customers, how you make sure the customer service you give is top quality, and how you use the tools people have in their hands, such as smartphones,” Minoue adds.

uBusiness

Needs

Getting to know the various industries and the players within is of paramount importance to understanding the key issues and problems to be tackled.

The firm has taken it upon itself to sponsor industry conferences and workshops, while publishing papers across business strategy, IT and other markets of concern. From BearingPoint’s perspective, having dealt and consulted with a variety of Irish businesses, finding ways in which their needs can be met, what is the overarching concern? Faster and more measurable delivery – delivered with clear demonstration of value – is what Irish organisations require in today’s business environment according to Minogue, who also sits on the European board of BearingPoint. He joined the company in 2006 from Capgemini. Prior to that he worked with IBM for 15 years, having begun his career in the Civil Service. “A lot of the focus is on cost reduction,” he explains. “[Businesses] are looking for ways to reduce costs – whether they can automate something or move it online. From an operational perspective, [questions like] if you move into the cloud, will it be cheaper? They also want certainty in terms of delivery – people are looking for shorter projects with quicker and definitive lead times.

People are focussing on how to make their businesses more effective at a lower cost.” uThe

Future

Looking forward, Minogue remains quite confident that BearingPoint Ireland will not only grow and thrive, but will continue to attract the best in Irish talent. “We’ve hired 14 or so experienced people this year, we’ve also hired a number of graduates. We have a very strong focus on the local market here. We’re also starting to do some work in the UK; we just won another project recently in the north of England. We’d like to think that we can continue a bit of growth, and also look at how we can use our skills abroad, because our offering is very valuable there too.” g

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SME Feature Role players for training

Practice makes Perfect Widely used in the US and UK, role playing for business training has a much smaller presence in the Irish market. Rita Smyth of Role Players for Training established her company to meet demand in Ireland and she tells Sarah Kavanagh how role playing can motivate and educate employees.

W

hile qualifications and technical, or ‘hard’, skills are inarguably an important component in a company’s personnel, less emphasis is placed on developing ‘soft’ skills’ in Ireland. However, these ‘soft skills’ - especially communication, self confidence, delegating, influencing and problem-solving - generally play a large role in many an employee’s performance at work. Until recently, employees were expected to develop many of these skills on the job with no formal training but there is now growing demand for opportunities to learn and practice these skills in a training environment.

Following a 15 year career as a Human Resources professional in the Financial Services industry, Rita Smyth trained as a professional actor and worked extensively with blue chip organisations and professional firms as a freelance corporate role player in the UK and Europe. Realising that demand

“The theory behind role playing is that you get the opportunity to practice new interpersonal skills - such as dealing with difficult conversations - and other ‘soft skills’ in a safe and encouraging environment.”

Rita Smyth, Founder, Role Players for Training.

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SME Feature Role players for training

“There are lots of very, very talented people coming out of universities in terms of the level of technical skills and the degrees that they have but an area that seems to be missing are those communication skills – the ability to have a good conversation with somebody and to get past the interview stage.” for a similar service was not being met in her home country, Smyth established Role Players for Training in 2011. “Role playing companies are very common in the UK, whereas they are not so common here in Ireland, and that is where I was initially introduced to the concept of using drama-based skills in business and education,” she says.

“In 2011, I decided that I had gained considerable experience and skills and, combined with my previous career, I felt that I had a really good offering to bring to the Irish marketplace where, to be honest, there wasn’t a huge amount of this type of work being done.”

Role Playing for Training offer organisations and their staff - from trainees to senior management - the opportunity to practice a workrelated situation with their team of professional actors. “You can read a book on how to drive a car, how to bake a cake or how to fly a plane but you can’t do it unless you actually practice it,” says Smyth. “The theory behind role playing is that you get the opportunity to practice new interpersonal skills - such as dealing with difficult conversations - and other ‘soft skills’ in a safe and encouraging environment.”

Practice sessions range from oneon-one exercises to forum theatre style scenarios where professional actors play out a scene and the audience can provide feedback. “The participants will interact with the role players and direct them in how to do whatever it is they are doing

in a better way,” says Smyth. “They direct the action from a safe place which is their comfortable seat in the audience - so they don’t feel under any pressure in terms of actually performing in front of a group.”

One-on-one exercises can be scripted or improvised depending on the scenario and provide an opportunity for participants to receive feedback themselves, an element which Smyth believes to be the most valuable part of the process.

“We find increasingly that there is a difficulty in giving negative feedback or bad news,” she says. “They tend not to do it in a very good way and that usually ends up in the meeting not being very productive, positive, or encouraging. We, the corporate role player, will give feedback to the participant and we would also give it out of role and facilitate feedback from observers in the group. They learn from the observers, they learn from the feedback they get from us and they also learn a huge amount about themselves by saying ‘gosh, this is how I felt when I was in that situation and if I had to do it again I’d do it differently’.”

However, this form of role-play training is only one facet of the business. Professional role players are utilised in other areas such as assessment centres for executive and graduate recruitment. “In very senior executive recruitment they have what is called an assessment centre where they are actually put through a simulated meeting with other parties and we would take on those roles,” says Smyth.

The company also work with thirdlevel executive education institutions, such as UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School, and provide training to the leaders of tomorrow.

“We think it’s really relevant for that sector of people as they try to hone their communication and influencing skills,” Smyth says. “There are lots of very, very talented people coming out of universities in terms of the level of technical skills and the degrees that they have but an area that seems to be missing are those communication

skills – the ability to have a good conversation with somebody and to get past the interview stage.” In addition, they provide the School of Pharmacy at RCSI and the Royal College of Physicians with professional role players to act as simulated patients for postgraduate and certification examinations.

While all of the role players at Role Players for Training are professionally trained as actors, Smyth believes an important distinction is that they also possess real business skills, training and experience too. “The people who work with me have come from various backgrounds,” she says. “IT, banking and teaching combined with experience working as role players in financial services, pharmaceutical, management consultancy and executive education.

We’ve got a whole spectrum of real work experience behind us so we’re not coming in just as actors who have just come out of drama school.”

However, Smyth does not discount the importance of professional acting qualifications among her staff. “We have training around consistency, improvisation, repeating, and emotional responses that are natural,” she says. “In a difficult role play we will respond very naturally to whats coming across at us as we have been trained in how to deal with such situations. Consistency is vital so that every candidate has equal opportunity to succeed.”

Having recently worked on projects with companies such as Deloitte, KBC Bank Ireland, Pfizer and Newbridge Credit Union, it is clear that many businesses appreciate the importance of practical training for ‘soft skills’ and Smyth hopes to continue to grow her client base with similar organisations.

“We want to work with more of the organisations that are putting their resources into developing their staff, and their management in particular,” she says. “The response that we’ve got from clients that we’ve worked with has all been extremely positive.

They really value what we add to their programmes, workshops and training courses.” g

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How to start AFRESH AFRESH is improving companies’ bottom line by increasing productivity in the existing workforce. Founder Deirdre Cronnelly tells Sarah Kiely how managing an employee’s wellbeing can be essential to an effective working environment.

I

ncreasing productivity is not a question of working harder but of working better. So often, when we work very hard we are not contributing our best work because we are not functioning at the optimum level. Deirdre Cronnelly spent 15 years working in telecoms and found that eating well, getting a bit of exercise and having a good night’s sleep made a huge difference to her productivity. “A friend said

Deirdre Cronnelly, Founder, AFRESH.

to me if I could bottle and sell what I had for others, it would be a fantastic product. That prompted the idea behind AFRESH,” Cronnelly recalls. Healthy living is a simple concept that is often neglected in our day-to-day lives but what we sometimes don’t realise is how it affects us professionally. “I believe our physical, mental, emotional and socio-economic wellbeing are all interconnected. If we are equipped

with the knowledge and tools to make positive choices in those areas, we will get more out of life.”

Cronnelly returned to college to retrain and get a better understanding of how to energise people and increase their productivity. “I felt the best way to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives was through education and motivation to make small positive lifestyle changes and so the idea of AFRESH came about.”

The original concept for the company was to assist people in taking “a fresh look at their lives professionally and personally to make sure they got the most out of them.” uA

fresh take

AFRESH, like many companies, faced difficult times when the economy took a downturn but was able to evolve to match the needs of clients in a changing economic climate.

“Our fundamental philosophy and concept is still the same and indeed now more relevant than ever before as the country has gone from boom to bust since we set up,” says Cronnelly. “Previously clients would use our services as a reward for employees to engage them and make them feel valued. Nowadays we find there is a greater demand from our clients to assist them to do more

“I felt the best way to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives was through education and motivation to make small positive lifestyle changes and so the idea of AFRESH came about”

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sme feature afresh

career f u l f illment

with less, build resilience and manage mental health issues; quite a change!”

AFRESH is now based in Dublin but also works out of Limerick, Cork and Galway. They employ a tight network of five multidisciplined professionals, drafting in a core team of associates for the larger nationwide contracts.

AFRESH now provides a range of services which “help clients improve performance through enhancing their physical, mental, emotional and socio-economic wellness.” This service is provided in a number of formats whether it is through talks, workshops, online training, one to one productivity consultations, onsite wellbeing therapies such as massage, ergonomics, yoga and pilates. All members of the AFRESH team are from a corporate background and can understand the stress of the working environment of their clients as well as the need to promote efficiency for both employee and employer. Like

Cronnelly, many of the team have retrained in diverse fields to become psycholoigsts, coaches, nutritional therapists, massuists and health and fitness professionals. This allows the team to approach each person as an individual and provide a range of solutions to improve their general wellbeing. u Wellbeing

work

and

Cronnelly not only advocates employee wellbeing as an aspect of professional success but as the foundation of the success of any business. “Our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing is critical to our ability to work well. Think about it. If our back is sore or we have a headache or serious disharmony at home, how are we going to work as well as we could if we had none of these issues?” In support of this claim, Cronnelly cites the findings of Harvard researchers who proved that workers lose as much as 20 per cent of their productivity because of poor concentration, memory Deirdre Cronnelly offers lapses, indecisiveness, fatigue, advice about how to find apathy and lack of self-confidence; fulfillment in your career. all things affected by our physical, mental and emotional wellness.

What advice would you give to It is estimated that the cost of lost someone just beginning a new productivity to business in the career?

UK is £77 billion per annum and As far as possible, make sure you €8 billion per annum in Ireland. do something you enjoy. That Cronnelly aserts that studies are increases your chance of being not required to demonstrate lack successful and content in all of productivity in workers not areas of life. performing to the best of their ability. “We don’t need statistics What advice would you give to tell us this; all of us know deep to someone who is unhappy in down how we perform when their present career? we are slightly off kilter. If we List what you currently like and multiply that across a workforce dislike about your career. and consider what the impact List what you firstly need and is of poor physical, mental and secondly want from a career. emotional wellbeing to the bottom Compare the two lists and see line, we would invest a lot more in what you need to do to address employee wellbeing.” the difference.

If necessary, get some professional, neutral, objective advice to help you take the appropriate next steps.

uPersonal

Success

AFRESH now carries out much of its wellbeing work with large blue chip clients to assist their employees in staying energised

and productive. However, they do not work exclusively with large corporate clients and are equally available for private individuals who Cronnelly describes as being “at a crossroads in their career or life and need a sounding board to plan the next steps.” When asked how large scale business success compares to working on a one-to-one basis, Cronnelly remarks: “We have won a number of large nationwide contracts with Ireland’s biggest employers over the years which has been great in terms of business success. Having said that, from a personal perspective I prefer the success stories I hear from individuals we’ve trained. It can be something as simple as putting lavender on their pillow to help them get a decent night’s sleep right through to having the guts to retrain and change career. It may sound silly but those are the success stories that give me real satisfaction!” u Bringing

home

expertise

Cronnelly recently appeared on RTE’s Nationwide programme to discuss AFRESH and how people can fulfill their work ambitions in a difficult economy. She advised newly trained professionals who are having difficulty finding a job in their field that one option may be to travel abroad to find work, but how could this ‘brain drain’ impact the Irish economy? “Of course there’s a risk that we are going to lose our best and brightest abroad if we can’t meet their needs in this country and indeed it is happening today,” she says. “We can’t expect people to hang around and sign up on the dole. We should be doing more to encourage them to stay and particularly to set up their own businesses where they have the drive and experience to do this. At the moment, the risk of doing this is too great for many as if it doesn’t work out there is little support afterwards. On the upside, hopefully many of those who do leave will come back with great ideas and experience which will benefit us all in the future.” g 27

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Feature western unoin

Cash Remains King Western Union Business Solutions is entering the Irish market to assist Irish business, particularly SMEs, with cash flow problems.

To find out more, Conor Forrest speaks to Western Union’s Jonathan Rees.

Jonathan Rees, Regional Divisional Director, Western Union Business Solutions

A

s most people in business will know, cash is king, particularly in relation to SMEs. Profitability is always important, but the availability of cash is the top trump, allowing the business to operate day to day. Many seemingly successful businesses, with plenty of orders on their books, can still fail, running out of cash, often due to late payments. The advantages of good cash management are clear – knowing where your cash is, the ability to forward plan, the ability to identify surplus assets and invest them wherever they’re needed and ultimately, to ensure you’re in the driver’s seat of your business.

“Cash flow is the life’s blood of a small business,” explains Jonathan Rees, regional divisional director.

“Very often, within a small business, profitability is in the amount of cash they have on hand. Any issues that

they have with cash flow causes real problems in that small business.

Any large payments that they’ve got and are waiting to get can impact profitability – from being able to buy stock to pre purchased goods at a good rate.” Good cashflow management essentially comes down to two main strands – keeping a tight eye on your spending, and making sure your customers are paying you, and on time. uBusiness

Solutions

Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) is no stranger to handling transactions, and the various issues businesses of all shapes and sizes can come up against. A division of the Western Union company, its parent is the largest non-bank provider of business payments in the world, with access to over 135 currencies in over 200 countries and territories. It’s

one of the most recognisable brands in the world, from its early days dominating the telegraph industry in the late 19th century to where it stands today. While technology has grown and evolved, and the telegraph has all but disappeared, one thing which has remained is the incredible penetration and reach Western Union has always enjoyed. “We’ve got fantastic global reach,” says Rees.

“We’re very much bank agnostic – we partner with different banks all over the world, plus we’ve got our own global clearing network in 70 countries. We help companies spend less time managing their exposures in their day to day business, with us as their experts. We process payments of all different sizes and complexities; small businesses all the way up to larger corporates.” WUBS also produces customised solutions for niche sectors such as the legal sector, education; students paying tuition fees and universities awarding research grants, as well as large payment aggregators such as payroll or Giro/BPO type companies. “We are an additional stream for them in offering innovation for them to their clients,” says Rees. uRecurring

Payments

Recurring payments are designed to assist businesses in managing their cash flow. The premise is simple – payments are made on a regular basis, generally in the same or in similar amounts. The manual method is effective for businesses with smaller client bases, who can easily send out a bill in the post or online each month. However, for larger businesses with larger client bases, this obviously becomes more difficult to maintain, and automated recurring payment systems are recommended, such as those offered by WUBS. Generally, the use of automated recurring payments systems sees the costs outweighed by the benefits.

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© istockphoto./thinkstock.com

For example, automated systems can increase efficiency and so reduce costs, and a secure online billing system can ensure the protection of any sensitive information, when compared with the paper alternative.

“The more regular a payment, the easier it is for them to limit their risk exposure. If we can get a truer understanding of what a company does, we can then plug that into one of our products, a cash management product, and it can actually look at their risk and exposure throughout the period of those recurring payments, and the rates of the day,” says Rees. “If they felt that the rate was good enough for their budget input, they could lock in that rate and protect those incoming funds so they know where they are, so that it’s transparent to them. There are two levels – the simplistic payment element which is an online payment platform like any other website. It’ll walk you through it. We also have our own consultants who would

come and do all that work and train the finance staff. But it’s very simple and intuitive to use.” u Paying

time

online, on

Western Union has also been working with Dublin Chamber of Commerce in assisting Irish firms.

For a number of years the Chamber has offered resources along the lines of export services and business assistance. Earlier this year, Dublin Chamber of Commerce launched a pilot initiative called ‘Pay Online - Pay On Time’. The initiative was launched in response to a problem amongst Irish businesses making payments on time in Europe. A substantial number of Irish businesses issue cheques - a Central Bank study highlighted a link between the use of cheques and a culture of late payments. The three month programme aimed to persuade Irish businesses to adopt online payment systems to tackle

cash flow problems. “Cash-flow is the second biggest challenge for SMEs after making sales,” said Gina Quin, Dublin Chamber Chief Executive. “The ‘Pay online - Pay on time’ initiative aims to find a common solution that will help businesses move in step to world class payments habits.” WUBS has been working closely with Dublin Chamber, providing Irish businesses with valuable information on the subjects of international payments and cash management, amongst others. The company has also been working with ISME, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, attending networking events, helping Irish SMEs manage their currency and cash exposure, grow their business and manage cash flow. “We’ve got a dedicated team that’s focused on the SME area, and we’re looking to expand that into the education space too. The SME space is a key area of focus for the next six to nine months,” Rees concludes. g

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West

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There’s

Method in Mediation Commercial mediation has become an attractive option for businesses seeking to resolve commercial disputes without the cost and stress of lengthy court battles. Edmund Butler, Founding Partner of LK Shields, tells Dean Van Nguyen why.

confrontation, many businesses now see commercial mediation as a quicker, easier and more costeffective form of dispute resolution.

One law firm specialising in commercial mediation is LK Shields.

Founded in 1988, the group has grown over the past two and a half decades into one of the most prominent firms of its kind, jumping from just four solicitors to now boasting 50. “I think that growth was driven by the commercial focus and by client focus and strong personal relationships,” says Founding Partner Edmund Butler. u The

growth of commercial mediation

Edmund Butler, Founding Partner of LK Shields.

F

or businesses drawn into the murky world of full legal arbitration or litigation, commercial disputes can prove a stressful, poisonous and financially draining experience that can be damaging to a firm’s operation and even threaten their viability.

With such disputes a symptom of the economic downturn (as well as resources to inject into legal proceedings being far more limited), it’s no surprise that there has been a hunger over the past five years to find more feasible alternatives.

Faced with a potentially drawn-out

Butler is head of LK Shields’ litigation and dispute resolution department. Key to their operations, the firm advises on dispute resolution, helping clients choose a method most appropriate to their needs with the objective of resolving disputes quickly and effectively with as little disruption to their business as possible. Often, commercial mediation is judged to be the most attractive route to take. Butler has witnessed the method grow over the last number of years and believes the pace of growth is only increasing as clients and their legal advisors begin to understand the benefits of the process.

“In recent years there’s a greater appetite on the part of the clients, especially sophisticated clients who have got, I suppose, extensive experience – usually international experience – of dispute resolution,” says Butler. “Those clients tend to have a strong appetite for mediation.

Mediation hasn’t really become popular at all until the last handful of years in Ireland. I think we

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FEATURE Mediation

followed international trends. I think it had its genesis in the States some years ago, then it became very popular in England. Then Ireland followed.” uA

flexible process

© istockphoto./thinkstock.com

Commercial mediation is an entirely voluntary process. Both sides enter into negotiations at their own free will and can walk away from talks at any point, making it a much more flexible arrangement than litigation through the court system.

In fact, the flexibility commercial mediation offers is seen as one of its key advantages. Unlike the court system, the parties themselves set a timescale that suits both sides. Not every mediation settles on the day of negotiations, but the flexibility that mediators apply allows the process to remain open over a time period to allow one or both parties to consider their next step.

They can also choose a mediator for their particular knowledge whereas choosing their judge in the court system is not an option.

According to Butler, this ability is key to commercial mediation’s success. “You can get a mediator

who is skilled in the relative subject area and they understand what the dispute is about,” he explains.

“Whereas a judge may not, in fact, have the skills to understand a dispute.” In addition, if there is a third party relevant to the dispute, both sides are fully entitled to invite them to participate in the process.

“It’s a further example of the flexibility,” says Butler.

If a dispute is successfully resolved via mediation, both parties sign up a written agreement, usually with legal advice, and that written agreement is as enforceable as any legal contract between them. But unlike a court ruling, an agreement reached is one that both sides have negotiated, agreed and signed, rather than a decision made by a judge or an arbitrator. If there’s no agreement, the dispute generally falls back into the courts. “What I think it does is it gives people a focus in resolving a dispute that they really weren’t going to get until a far later stage in the court proceedings,” says Butler.

So while its flexible nature and the benefits of keeping decisions out of the hands of a third party are particular advantages, there are other benefits to commercial mediation, not least of all it’s far cheaper than conventional litigation.

“I think the way people are spending their money nowadays is a factor that is going to drive mediation in that people do not want to incur very substantial legal costs with litigation or by the conventional method because they see it as being quite inefficient,” says Butler.

In addition, Butler asserts that resolving a dispute by mediation gives both parties a better chance of maintaining a business relationship than by

“Commercial mediation is an entirely voluntary process. Both sides enter into negotiations at their own free will and can walk away from talks at any point, making it a much more flexible arrangement than litigation through the court system.” potentially drawn out battles in the court room. uConfidentiality

Commercial mediation is governed by an agreement that the parties enter into among themselves and with the mediator, which effectively makes the meetings confidential and prevents things said in the mediation from being opened to the court if the dispute is not resolved.

Indeed, most often take place in secret, meaning there’s no official register that would tell you how often the disputes are resolved. But in Butler’s experience, approximately 75 per cent of cases come to a successful resolution.

With such tangible benefits and a high success rate, commercial mediation’s growth is likely to continue as more firms look to save themselves long and arduous treks through the court system.

But even for those currently embroiled in legal battles, it’s not too late to examine the system.

According to Butler, mediation can present itself as a practical method of dispute resolution at any point of the process.

“Mediation is something from the outset that advisors and their clients really have to consider, but often as the case ripens, mediation that didn’t appear appropriate earlier may become appropriate later. So your advisor needs to keep his eye over his shoulder as the case develops to see whether a case that didn’t look like a good one to mediate at one stage, might look like a good one to mediate at a later stage.” g 33

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Feature DMS OFFSHORE INVESTMENT SERVICES

Gateway to

Global Investment DMS Offshore Investment Services Europe’s Managing Director Derek Delaney speaks to Business Ireland on the company’s operations, servicing a worldwide client base and why Ireland is playing a key role in the international firm’s future.

© cretas/thinkstock.com

H

eadquartered in the Cayman Islands, DMS Offshore Investment Services is a worldwide powerhouse in the offshore investment industry, maintaining offices all around the world to serve a client base that represents investment funds with assets exceeding $270 billion across a wide-variety of jurisdictions. As one of only two European outposts, their Irish branch plays a key role

in their operations, as well as bringing many of the company’s potentially important services to companies based on these shores.

DMS was founded in 2000 by Don Seymour, a former Head of Investment Services and a Director of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. The firm now claims to operate more fund directorships than anyone else in the world and says they are “the standard against which all others are compared”.

Seeking to branch into Europe in 2008, the company established itself in Ireland due to existing Irish ties with the Cayman region.

“DMS decided to set up an Irish office and the main goal of that office was to support our global client base in understanding what they needed to do to set up a fund in Ireland,” says Derek Delaney, Managing Director of DMS Offshore Investment Services Europe since 2011.

Delaney believes there are several reasons why DMS decided to set up here, not least of all that one of the company’s partners – Ronan Guilfoyle – is Irish.

“That certainly worked in our favour,” says Delaney. “But 35

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Feature DMS OFFSHORE INVESTMENT SERVICES

if you look at Cayman funds – Cayman funds are actually very familiar to the Irish hedge fund industry in that the vast majority of Cayman funds aren’t administered in Cayman because Cayman doesn’t have a large administration business. The work is delegated back to Dublin.

So your typical Cayman funds and your typical US manager of a Cayman fund, they’ll have their fund audited and administered out of Dublin already. So when we’re bringing them to Europe, they’re able to continue with those existing providers, and have that commonality and that familiarity.”

Having been established in Cork, where they were primarily providing support for the company’s London managers, DMS upended to Dublin in 2010. Their office has since grown to nine employees and they are currently looking to fill three new positions.

“We [decided] we’re going to expand and we’re going to offer Irish services, and we needed to be in Dublin.”

Delaney believes the growth of their operation is down to converting a global client base to Dublin, ie. bringing managers

night, the Hong Kong office is in.

So having those operational teams spread out globally, it’s far easier for us than for our competitors who are singularly based in Dublin.”

As the Irish-based office continues to grow and fill more positions, its role will become increasingly important in DMS’s work internationally. According to Delaney, this can only benefit both their clients and Ireland as a whole. “We are converting our existing client base from a global basis to an Irish basis and bringing work into the country,” he says.

“So we’ve done it primarily from a ‘This makes sense’ from our clients perspective.” g

B io : D erek delaney

Derek Delaney, Managing Director of DMS Offshore Investment Services Europe.

to a domicile that creates work for administrators, for legal, for auditors and for custodians.

“I think we’re in a unique position in that we’re not here in Dublin looking to other service providers in Dublin to give us work,” he asserts.

The group fundamentally focuses on providing fund governance to hedge funds, and Delaney believes that DMS has become the leading provider of governance to Cayman funds. “To understand why we’re successful you’d have to understand the approach that’s taken,” he explains. “So a lot of people work on the basis of directors being stand alone directors, where they act on their individual capacity.

DMS works on a basis where there are 80 of us working together as a fund governance team, so each director within DMS, they tend to be qualified accountants. We have people who have qualified as lawyers, we have directors who worked as investment managers; we bring together a broad remit of skills, and then they’re supported by associate directors which are basically directors in training, and they in turn are supported by associates.”

Operating on a global scale throws up some practical difficulties for many companies, and DMS is no different. Liaising regularly with their offices worldwide, the company is established in seven countries including Brazil, the USA and Luxembourg. But Delaney believes the mechanics are in place to ensure procedures move smoothly not just for their own offices, but for clients too.

“What DMS have done is they have put an operational team in Hong Kong, they’ve put one in Ireland and they’ve put one in Cayman. So that means that any hour of the week there is a DMS contact you can ring. So if you’re a US manager, let’s say you wake up a 3 o’ clock in the morning, Dublin is in at 8. If it’s 12 o’ clock at

Derek Delaney, Managing Director, DMS Offshore Investment Services Europe Ltd. Derek Delaney is a member of the Waterford Institute of Technology alumni having earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Studies and Accountancy at the college.

He began his career as a fund accountant at International Fund Services Ltd, working at both its Ireland and New York offices.

Prior to joining DMS, Delaney served as Global Product Manager with BNY Mellon (Dublin). He was Head of Business Solutions within the European Alternative Investment Services (AIS) division, with responsibilities that included developing and implementing bespoke solutions for existing and prospective clients.

In addition, Delaney has served as a Senior Fund Accountant and, later, Senior Manager at Citco Fund Services.

He has written articles for several publications, including Cayman Financial Review, HFM Week and Reuters Hedgeworld.

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11/09/2013

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With the experience of Eversheds on your side, you can get the best possible result in the shortest possible time. Using our complete grasp of mediation we will lead you through every stage of the dispute, helping you make the right choices and stay in control.

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The streets are paved with...granite.

Grafton Street is set for a â‚Ź4 million facelift with the laying of a new granite street surface. Colm Gorey spoke to Paul Heffernan from Dublin City Council about how this will affect the infamous street.

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rafton Street has long been seen as the heart of shopping in Dublin where some of the biggest names in retail

trade their wares. However, in the last number of years, the economic difficulties in the country have been impossible to avoid for some of the

shops on the infamous street. Recent store closures like HMV signalled a worrying trend for other retailers on the street and raised questions about whether there would be any change of fortune down the line.

Now, however, Dublin City Council took a major step towards breathing new life into the street by laying a totally new pedestrian

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Feature grafton street redevelopment

“This means that the street will remain open to shoppers and pedestrians throughout the repaving which is scheduled to finish in November 2014.”

surface to replace the ageing redbrick pathway which was showing signs of serious deterioration in parts. The current brick surface has been a familiar sight to the people of Dublin for over 25 years when the street became pedestrianised.

Dublin City spokesperson, Paul Heffernan, says that the original paving surpassed its expected life expectancy: “The street had not been repaved since the existing red brick was put down in 1988. It was never envisaged that this surface would be on the street as long as it has been and had been in a poor state of repair. Extensive repair works were being carried out and it was generally felt that a repaving was overdue.”

The announcement was made

last May that the Grafton Street Improvement Scheme, at a cost of €4 million, was going to bring the shopping street back to being one of the most fashionable of its kind in Europe. With such a large investment in the project, some people’s obvious concerns were regarding how exactly the taxpayer’s money was being spent? Dublin City Council confirmed that the granite was almost entirely sourced from the nearby Dublin and Wicklow Mountains.

Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Naoise Ó Muirí, speaking at the launch of the scheme in the famous Bewley’s Cafe on Grafton Street said: “Grafton Street is the premier street south of the Liffey – when Grafton Street looks well, the city does well.

The repaving is great news for businesses, shoppers and tourists.”

Because of the importance and high-profile status of the project, many companies were in negotiations to take on the lucrative project. After much deliberation, KN Networks were awarded the €2.9 million contract. An Irish company which are based in Dublin, KN Networks have worked on many large-scale projects in Ireland for companies like Veolia and UPC. u Balancing

business and culture

While the aesthetics of the street were considered important to the general public, the businesses on the street were initially worried about the potential knock on effect that the major operation of construction would have on them as pedestrians might not be able to access their stores. According to Dublin City Council, both themselves and Grafton Street businesses were engaged extensively with local businesses and stakeholders and arranged for the repaving to be

carried out in five separate stages.

This means that the street will remain open to shoppers and pedestrians throughout the repaving which is scheduled to finish in November 2014. As Heffernan explains, the development is vitally important to the flow of the city, financially and culturally: “Grafton Street is one of the city’s most important commercial streets. It also plays a unique role in the city’s social and cultural life. The goal is to ensure the physical environment supports this. This can be a positive catalyst for growth and support the street and the wider area’s unique place in the city’s life. The business community are very much in favour of this being done now.”

Towards the end of July, after much anticipation, the first segment of the new surface was unveiled to the public, with worrying results.

Many people across the city found that following the construction, a lot of dirt and grime was left behind by the construction crew which seemed to fall considerably lower in people’s expectations. However, Dublin City Council’s official response states that once all the work is completed, the street will appear as it was intended: “As granite is a natural material it is normal that stains appear initially. Use and weathering will reduce the appearance of stains,” while also saying: “Stains are more noticeable because of the recent very dry weather and the lack of rainfall, which in normal circumstances would wash away much of the staining.”

Over the coming months and years the true effect on the Grafton Street area will be seen but this development will be one of the major projects, including the connection of the Luas in 2017, that will look to truly modernise Ireland’s capital. g 39

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Shooting the Breeze Business Ireland Motoring Editor Michael Sheridan test drives the Mercedes Benz CLS Shooting Brake and finds the estate version a stylish addition to the family.

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he 2nd generation Mercedes Benz CLS is an impressive machine with its coupe-like styling. The substantial four-seat, rear-wheel drive machine offers big car looks with a youthful attitude and now an estate version joins the family. The CLS Shooting Brake is a strange machine, in as much as nobody was asking for it to be built, but now that it is here the roads are a nicer place for it.

So why is the five-seat estate called Shooting Brake? It may sound a little odd or even pretentious but in fact shooting brake, as a motoring term, is quite historic. It describes a two-door, estate-type car. Seeing as CLS has four-doors, we’ll chalk the name up to the slick MB marketing team.

The sleek exterior reminds me of the Pink Panther’s car. The rear end and side profile are strikingly different to the conventional estate body form. Shooting Brake is only marginally longer than

the regular CLS and about 95kgs heavier. The front end is aggressive and purposeful while the flanks feature sculpted panels that distract from the very large roof. The frameless doors are cool but the large B pillars can restrict vision at junctions. The prominent rear wheel arches take your eyes into the rear lights and the well resolved, muscular rear end.

Inside, shooting brake gets a three-seat rear bench which is great news for practicality. You will get complaints from the middle seat passenger as they have to spread their legs either side of the massive transmission tunnel. The dash layout and switchgear is as you’d expect from Mercedes Benz. The foot operated parking brake and its hand release persist. The automatic gearshifter stalk is found on the right handside of the steering column while on the other side you’ll find the cruise control/limiter stalk sitting below the combined

indicator/wipers stalk. There are paddle gear shifters too if you wish to drive more enthusiastically than the ‘S’ sport gearshift setting allows.

Shooting Brake’s boot is very big with a capacity of 590-litres. The roofline is low and this is seen in the boot area. with the back seats down the cargo area increases to an Ikea-friendly 1,550-litres. for Ireland, the entry level 250 CDI (diesel) makes the most sense.

It uses MB’s tried and trusted fourcylinder, 2.2-litre (204hp/500nm).

The 250 CDI delivers useful performance on the open road, at the same time it is capable of returning relatively impressive mpg. A fire-breathing petrolpowered CLS63 AMG version with an optional performance package is available as is a 4Matic version (in petrol or diesel). ‘AirMatic’ air suspension is an option that I would recommend over the standard set up. If you have deep pockets there is a stunning American cherry wood boot floor option.

The E Class estate may be the established German load lugger but for style and exclusivity the CLS Shooting Brake is hard to beat.

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Test drive motoring

A classic facelift Tweaks to the latest Škoda Superb Combi enhance its status as a value for money machine.

Š

koda has become a huge success story in Ireland since Volkswagen bought out the Czech firm in 2000. Founded in 1895 by Václav Klement and Válclav Laurin it is one of the few truly historic carmakers. Škoda originally launched Superb in 1934 as a luxury car and it stayed in production until 1949. In 2001 Škoda launched the all new Superb as its flagship model. It was built on a strecthed (+100mm) version of the Volkswagen Passat’s platform and featured more interior space than you could shake a stick at!

The second generation came along in 2008 – this time based on a stretched version of its own Octavia’s platform.

Superb had a new party trick with a brilliant tailgate/boot called the ‘Twin-Door’ that was double hinged - so it could open like a hatchback or saloon boot lid depending on buttons pressed. ‘Combi’ came along in 2009 with a simply vast cargo area.

Just this summer, the Superb range

has got its mid-life facelift. There is an updated cabin, new logo and other tweaks that enhance the car’s almost legendary status as a great value for money machine. The front end is all new although very similar to the outgoing version. The tailgate features some crease in the metal that we first saw with Škoda Rapid and then on the new Octavia.

The original Superb had an optional kick through passenger seat back that allowed the rear seat passenger to rest their legs. The latest version has a electric controller that allows the rear passenger to adjust the seat in front, to give even more legroom if needed!

The Combi’s boot holds a phenominal 633-litres (595 in the standard Superb). Drop the seats and there is an outrageous 1,865-litres of cargo space – that’s big enough to rent out as an apartment! An electric option is available for the tailgate.

On a fuel test I managed to do over 90mpg in a pre-facelift Superb

‘Greenline’ with three other adults in the car, so it is no surprise the Superb is capable of delivering very good fuel consumption in day to day driving.

The big seller will be the 1.6-litre TDI ‘Greenline’ (€28,060) with 105hp and 250nm of torque. 0-100km/h takes 12.5 seconds, which is average enough. 4.4 litres or 63mpg is the claimed fuel consumption and CO2 is a low 109g/CO2. A 2-litre, 170hp, TDI provides perhaps the ideal match of performance and economy with a 0-100km/h time of just over 8 seconds and over 61mpg ability.

A petrol powered 1.4-litre TSI (€26,695) is the entry level Combi.

It produces 125hp that does an adequate job of hauling the huge machine around.

Active, Ambition and Elegance are the main specifications with a special version that includes the kitchen sink called L&K (after the founders) the range topper.

The Superb is not a dynamic handler, but with that long wheelbase, the car delivers big car cruising comfort on the motorway.

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ICONIC

The new Toyota Corolla delivers on a promise to the compact family car customer.

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ith 200,000 sales in Ireland since the Corolla went on sale, it is safe to say the Toyota is an iconic car.

The 11th generation Corolla has gone on sale and the four-door saloon is now, as you’d expect, bigger and better than ever. Back in ‘60s it wasn’t hard for Corolla to grab the headlines with luxuries like integrated front headrests and a push button stereo as standard.

Over the years the competition has caught up and now Corolla has to work hard to dismiss the motoring cliché that it is a dull machine.

This popular perception is helped, in no small part, by the motoring press and driving enthusiasts. The early cars were streets ahead of the competition in terms of value for money. forty million Corollas have been sold worldwide and if Toyota Europe hadn’t changed the hatchback Corolla’s name (to Auris) the car would be number one in the sales charts. Regardless of the critics,

Corolla is adored by owners and worth its weight come trade-in time.

The new car features a handsome exterior that is clearly built with the uS and Chinese markets in mind.

The large saloon look is achieved using a long wheelbase (almost 10mm longer) that gives the new Corolla better proportions. The front end gets a new grille that adds a new level of sophistication that is echoed throughout the bodywork and lights.

Inside the cabin is vast for its class.

Corolla can seat five in reasonable comfort. The straight dashboard is an evolution of the ones seen in the new RAV4 and Yaris and the opposite of the wrap around design themes we have become used to. The result is a spacious, uncluttered, front passenger area.

Toyota has spent a few quid on improving cabin materials and improved sound insulation too. Rear leg and headroom is impressive also. The boot has increased in size to tackle its rivals and improved

gadgetry features prominently in the new Corolla. Toyota may not offer the best entry-level, headline grabbing specification but tells me that it’s happy to give buyers a very competitive starting price (Terra, petrol at €20,995) with higher specification available on the higher grades; Aura and Luna. from launch two engines are available in the range: a 1.33-litre, petrol, VVT-i and a 2-litre D4D (diesel).

On the road the new Corolla is comfortable without being wallowy in a straight line. Cornering at moderate speed reveals a suspension set up that needs a bit more tuning.

There is excessive body roll but, for non-enthusiastic driving, the front-wheel drive Corolla delivers a predictable driving experience.

The new Corolla is a good looking, smart machine that delivers on a promise to be there or thereabouts in terms of the compact family car class. It certainly looks the part.

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Test drive motoring

Testing time for tyres Continental and Maxol carry out survey on drivers’ tyre habits.

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he four round black things, found at the corners of our cars, that always cost a heap of cash to replace are back in the news. Tyre and car technology firm Continental undertook a survey recently with Maxol, the fuel company, to see just how much the average motorist cares about their tyres – especially tread depth and air pressure.

The shocking headline statistic to come from the survey was that one in six of the cars tested were running on tyres that were at or below the minimum legal tread depth of 1.6mm. Independent tests have shown that cars driving on tyres at the 1.6mm legal tread limit demonstrate a dangerous lack of control in

cornering and seriously increased stopping distances on both dry and wet roads.

Commenting on the survey results, Tom Dennigan of Continental Tyres Ireland said: “We know that in the current economic climate motorists have been cutting back on their motoring expenses and some may have been tempted to push their tyres to the limit. However, as your only

Earning its stripes The latest Volkswagen Scirocco GTS is satisfying the appetite of those seeking driving thrills.

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he famous Golf-based Scirocco three-door coupe has received what may be its last makeover. GTS comes with a choice of engines; a 210hp TSI (petrol) engine and two TDIs with 140hp or 177hp. The desirable car features a host of extras to beef up the already good-looking machine.

The most obvious GTS detail is the massive go-faster stripe, running from bonnet tip to the top of the rear bumper. The bumpers by the way are from the Scirocco ‘R’. The colour of the stripe depends on which of the four available exterior colour options is chosen. There’s a large sunroof (that only opens up and slightly at that). Chunky 18-inch ‘Thunder’ alloys fill out the bulging wheel arches and give Scirocco

GTS an aggressive, purposeful look.

The four-seat cabin is understated, but the golf-ball styled GTI gear knob (six-speed manual), GTS multifunction steering wheel and

contact with the road, tyres are such a critical element of your car’s overall performance, so our advice is don’t gamble with your family’s safety by neglecting your tyres.”

In relation to tyre pressure, 53 per cent of the cars tested were found to be on tyres with incorrect tyre pressure. In the vast majority of cases they were under-inflated.

Meanwhile, 41 per cent of cars were found to be dangerously inflated.

seats enhanced what has always been a subtle interior. A six-speed automatic DSG gearbox is available too. We took the diesel for a test and enjoyed the strong low-end urge that the four-cylinder engine produced.

The GTS cornered, gripped and handled twisty routes with vigour, helped by those chunky tyres.

Scirocco GTS is a great bit of fun and capable of delivering driving thrills when asked. Prices start at €34,845 and rise to over €42,000. g

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PENSIONS Zurich

Restoring Confidence

in Pensions Joe Creegan, Head of Corporate Life and Pensions at Zurich explains the various challenges facing the market today, and what can be done to restore confidence.

When it comes to pensions and assisting people in providing for their retirement, what is Zurich’s main mission/ aims? Why do people need a pension?

The biggest challenge that we all face is ensuring that we have an adequate income in retirement and the earlier we start making contributions to a pension, the better chance we have of providing sufficient income during retirement. Encouraging provision for a pension can only be achieved through increased awareness and providing pension scheme members with relevant and informative communications at appropriate times in their working lives. At Zurich, we provide market leading member communication to scheme members each year as well as online access to the current value of one’s pension fund, a projection of future value and the likely income in retirement.

Have you noticed an increase in confidence in the pensions market this year? Is the pensions market showing signs of recovery?

At Zurich, we have seen an increase in customer enquiries as they look for better options when it comes to saving for retirement. Equally, they are looking for a provider with financial strength and expertise in whom they can trust to manage their investments securely.

What can providers such as Zurich do or have been doing to restore confidence among consumers? What would you encourage the Government to do?

Zurich has invested heavily in promoting the importance of starting pension funding from an early age, both through advertising and helpful online tools and calculators. It is good that the Government last year settled on a tax incentive basis that will be positive for the vast majority of lower and middle income earners.

However, we still believe people will need further encouragement to get over the inertia that works against them starting a pension.

Zurich has long advocated the use of Auto-Enrolment to get workers into pensions and it is salutary to see that the newly introduced UK plan has had an excellent start in terms of worker acceptance. We would encourage the Government to move quickly to follow the UK’s example.

Can you give a brief overview of the types of pensions you provide?

Which types would be the most sought after, has this changed in the past few years?

At Zurich, we provide retirement savings for a broad spectrum of workers, whether self-employed and running their own business or employed and working in small to

large enterprises. We have a range of fund options with different characteristics depending on whether people want a secure investment or an investment with more risk attached.

Does Zurich have any plans for expansion/ upgrade of pension services/advice etc in the near future in Ireland?

We continue to review our product offering to meet the changing demands of our customers and in particular, we are focused on continuously improving our communication and using technology creatively to inform, build trust and highlight the importance of thinking long term when it comes to saving for retirement.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

The good news is that we are all living longer and can expect to spend more years in retirement than ever before. However, we all need to take individual responsibility to ensure that we start contributing to our pension arrangement as early as possible ensuring that we maintain our living standards during retirement by replacing income from work at an adequate level.

This does not constitute advice, financial advice should always be sought from an appropriately qualified professional. This information is based on Zurich Life’s understanding of current Revenue practice as at September 2013 and may change in the future. Zurich Life Assurance plc is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. g 45

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pensions Independent Trustee Company

SELF-ADMINISTERED

PENSIONS

Taking control of your pension is proving ever more attractive, writes Independent Trustee Company’s Sean McLoughlin.

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recent pension survey published in August 2013 highlighted the ever deepening pension crisis. Out of 1000 people surveyed only four people out of ten have a private or company pension plan. Despite these numbers, we have seen some positive moves by the Government towards helping people provide for their own retirement and the tax case for pensions is still compelling.

• Income tax relief on employee and employer contributions remains at the higher rate of tax.

• All income and gains within pension schemes remain exempt from income and capital gains tax.

• The Minister for Finance has confirmed that the temporary 0.6 per cent annual levy is coming to an end as intended.

• On retirement, an individual may take 25 per cent of the value of the pension funds as a lump sum, of which €200,000 is tax free.

uSelf-Administration

Mixed returns, complexity and lack of transparency have all been cited as reasons why people opt out of traditional pension schemes.

However, the majority of pension savers do not realise that they have the option to take absolute control over every aspect of their pension affairs and do so more cheaply than they may realise. This can be achieved through a self-administered pension scheme, which is a pension

account for you and you alone with the following key features: 1. Control. You control all investment and contribution decisions.

2. Choice of Investments. Rather than delegating the responsibility for the investment of your own money to a fund manager, with a selfadministered pension scheme you can create a personal investment plan that fits your appetite for risk, your budget and your retirement target. You can keep it simple by keeping your contributions in an interest-bearing bank account or you can take advantage of the wide range of investments available for self-administered pensions.

In addition to the standard quoted shares and investment instruments, you can invest in lower-risk investments such as cash or government stocks, or in higher-risk investments such as private companies. The Finance Act 2004 provided for the possibility of buying property into your scheme with the assistance of a mortgage.

This obviously made property purchases much more attractive.

3. Transparency. In contrast to other pension arrangements, selfadministered schemes and their charging structures are transparent with regular bank statements and annual accounts.

4. Flexibility. An individual’s needs and circumstances shape the investment strategy and the level and timing of contributions. If your salary has been cut you can reduce or stop the contributions to a self-administered pension scheme at any time. You also have

the flexibility to plan how your eventual retirement benefits are taken, to suit your circumstances.

5. Security. One of the perceived drawbacks of a pension scheme is that it is generally inaccessible until retirement. The corollary to this rule is that pension assets cannot be seized by creditors and in particular financial institutions – as confirmed by the recent High Court case of Hefferon & Kearns v EBS. They are also completely segregated from the pension administrator’s assets, other clients’ assets and an individual’s employer’s assets.

6. Cost. Contrary to most reports, self-administered pensions are cheap (and certainly cheaper than insured pension schemes), with annual charges from 0.25 per cent of funds and no hidden charges.

Notwithstanding the demands made on pension schemes by the Government in recent years, the Government still recognises how critical private pensions are, not only to individuals, but also to the State’s own finances. So they are here to stay and, given that they are here to stay, it makes sense to take advantage of the considerable benefits offered by pensions in general and selfadministered pensions in particular. g Independent Trustee Company is one of the leading providers of self-administered pension structures in Ireland. For more information please contact Sean McLoughlin on 01 614 9220 or email sean.mcloughlin@independent-trustee. com. Independent Trustee Company Limited, as part of the ITC Group, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

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PENSIONS Pensions B oard

Paying attention to your pension The Pensions Board is encouraging people to pay closer attention to their pension.

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he Pensions Board is encouraging everyone to give more attention to their pension situation, including those with and without pensions as well as trustees; look up www.pensionsboard. ie to find the information you need.

The ‘Understanding Your Pension’ section of the site allows you to submit your basic information and in return provides pension information relating to your circumstances. You can also access the calculator, checklists and videos on this section of the site.

The Board is also encouraging

pension members and contributors, trustees and those looking to start a pension to ask about the cost of charges to your pension. To help you when discussing this with your provider, broker or trustees, read the Board’s Investment, Fees and Charges checklist on the website for the types of questions you should ask.

The Board last month commenced its consultation on the future of defined contribution pensions, with the publication of a paper on the topic.

The paper will provide the basis for discussion at two public consultations ahead of the deadline for responses to the paper on 30 October 2013. These consultations will take place in Dublin on 30 September and in Cork on 3 October 2013.

These public meetings will be an ideal opportunity for trustees, scheme members, providers, managers, advisers and other interested stakeholders to express their views and hear the alternatives as to how future defined contribution schemes could and should look in the future. g For further information check out www.pensionsboard.ie.

“The Board is also encouraging pension members and contributors, trustees and those looking to start a pension to ask about the cost of charges to your pension.”

“I’ve got my pension” www.pensionsboard.ie

Pension calculator

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Information booklets

Pension checklists

An Bord Pinsean

The Pensions Board

18/09/2013 13:55:09

BI Survey TMG Corporate Services

Corporate Intelligence Effective debt management is a highly useful tool. TMG Corporate Services offers a valuable insight into the debt recovery sector in Ireland.

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he debt collection services sector in Ireland is fragmented, with services being offered by many different types of provider. At the entry level, and arguably with the least attention to professional standards, are those former or current members of the organised crime fraternity who use their personal negative publicity and ‘shame’ tactics to encourage debtors to clear their liability. Due to negative publicity regarding the tactics of these service providers, legislation is being considered to regulate the industry. This regulation is welcomed by the vast majority of providers of debt collection services.

traditionally done but some specialise specifically in the area. Volume debt collection is growing due to the willingness of organisations to outsource their credit control functions. These volume collection firms follow a process of tracing absconding debtors, escalating collection letters and the issuance of final demands which in the absence of an agreement to a satisfactory payment plan will lead to an application for judgement. Upon receipt of judgements, these firms will pursue the debtor in the courts and apply for examination of means, instalment orders and committals in some cases.

uDebt

uOnline

collection

Collection services are also offered by a number of dedicated debt collection service providers who employ a conveyor belt process of escalating demand letters to stimulate payment by debtors. These firms employ some telephone contact but are mainly focussed on non disputed, micro debt collection services in the lower debt range. Trade creditor insurance providers also provide a collection service to insured clients who have made a claim regarding a delinquent debt. They employ telephone contact as the main collection mechanism as they look to reduce their liability further to the insurance claim and encourage debtors to make reduced full and final settlements or agree to payment plans.

Many law firms offer a debt collection service as they have

investigation

Increasingly, corporations are hiring investigators to trawl social media sites for intelligence about competitors and to watch for insider leaks, product complaints and evidence of employee misconduct.

Investigators still use the oldfashioned ways but today’s corporate investigators spend more time mining the mass of information people put online about themselves.

Private equity firms and hedge funds regularly hire externals as part of the process of due diligence. More than 82 per cent of companies use social media to find out information about their competitors, according to Forrester research. Corporate investigators use social media to look for illegal activity, undisclosed business interests and CV puffing.

uIntelligence

By blending information from Google, Facebook, Twitter and geo location sites FourSquare and Gowalla, corporate investigators have identified which clients a competitor’s salespeople spoke with and what potential deals were occurring. It would have been quite possible to phone the clients and confirm the hunches – and possibly disrupt ongoing negotiations if contracts weren’t signed. That’s why many consider such tactics unethical.

Most corporates use this data as an experiment and the data is meant to be used as a cautionary lesson to their employees about posting sensitive information online. As the effect of social media becomes more intense, companies have begun monitoring their internet footprint.

Reputation.com is designing software that understands human language enough to sift for positive and negative sentiment. The computer analytics are daunting. But when it comes to human investigators sniffing the internet for specific companies or employees, the hunt for fertile tidbits is in full swing. uAsset

management

Jurisdictions vary wildly with respect to the protection afforded to creditors when they seek to enforce their rights regarding missing, misappropriated or over held plant and machinery assets. Normally, if the original lease or loan agreement was executed in the jurisdiction in which the

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BI Survey TMG Corporate Services

repossession is sought or the asset resides then the challenges faced are usually less acute. The difficulties arise in particular when the asset has been moved out of the original jurisdiction of purchase. In cases where this has been done without the permission or knowledge of the asset owner, the repossession firm can in some cases enlist the support of local police authorities or law enforcement, but only if the original owner has reported the matter as a theft or has been granted a local court order that compels action by the local authorities. uLegislation

A common misconception is that the law enforcement community are obliged to assist in such a scenario but this is not necessarily the case. It is normally their concern to ensure that trespass by the repossession agent on private property does not occur during the attempt to repossess assets, that no damage is done to private property when trying to gain access to machinery that has been positively identified or to assess claims by debtors that methods have been used which are unfair or even threatening. The last accusation by debtors when repossession is imminent is frequently used to avoid this inevitability and can result in an instruction by law enforcement that the matter is civil in nature and, until the local courts make an assessment on the claims of the debtor, that repossession cannot occur.

If the local police authorities determine that there is any value to the claims of the debtor then all expenditure on asset tracing, surveillance and the cost of labour and equipment can be lost. Surprise is the main advantage when repossessing vehicles, plant or machinery - and any pause which arises as a result of decisions by the local police may then allow the debtor time to once again conceal or move the asset and previous investment in locating the asset is as good as valueless. Unless the asset is a high ticket item the cost

justification for initiating local legal proceedings and again attempting to locate the asset if these are successful; is prohibitive. There are also a variety of complicating factors when dealing with the unauthorised movement of high value vehicles and machinery: the asset may have been sold to a third party who now disputes ownership, the asset may have been moved to another jurisdiction and then sold, with local laws finding in favour of the new owner, for example. uTracing

data

There are several services that sit well with the general objectives of augmenting trace data which fall into various categories such as: augmenting credit score information; determining the veracity of information supplied on a credit agreement request; VAT number validation; pan-European electoral register information and general intelligence on directors. Aggregating this data can be challenging as many sources are unstructured. Sources such as Bureau van Dijk and Who Talking offer what we call ‘structured’ access in that the information is clear and concise; based on a discrete input and a defined output. Developing a feed to an internal system to analyse the data would be less onerous than say offering unstructured searches on the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – although there are possibilities there too. However,

due to the unstructured nature of the search results from these sources it would be a more taxing task to implement and there could be problems relating to ‘false positives’ and the data protection issues are problematic. uThe

Mediator Group

TMG Corporate Services/The Mediator Group are a well established and highly regarded multi-disciplinary professional services provider. Since 1994, they have been providing well planned and professionally executed solutions for clients. Operating globally and at ease serving clients whether they are based in Europe, the USA, Asia-Pacific or Africa, they have achieved results in tens of thousands of diverse assignments.

TMG Corporate Services offer scale, reach and maturity and a proven strategy and approach. The firm provides investigative services; specialist surveillance services; asset recovery and repossession; alternative investments; due diligence; analytics and business intelligence; insolvency support services; tracing, profiling and lifestyle reporting; summons and document services; debt recovery, insolvency and outsourced credit control. g For more information on TMG Corporate Services log on to www.themediatorgroup.org.

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BI Survey Safetica

Are company contact lists

safe in the hands of employees?

One in four Irish employees would take their company’s contact lists on departure, one in eight knows someone who did, and one in twelve admitted to having taken such lists themselves. Should companies and organisations therefore be worried?

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afetica, a provider of employee monitoring and data leakage protection software, has commissioned a survey which would help understand how Irish employees treat (confidential) contact lists of customers or business partners, belonging to their company. We asked a thousand of them a multipleanswer question about their attitude towards taking contact lists when leaving the company. These are the replies we got:

Gathering self-incriminating data is always difficult, as most don’t want to admit they did something bad, so we expect the numbers of those that actually took data are probably higher than were admitted, but the demographics breakdown shows additional results. The age group 2534 has admitted to taking contact lists the most (12 per cent) while 45-54 year-olds have done this the least (5

per cent). On the other hand, the 55+ group were the most disapproving of such practices (44 per cent), while among our youngest 15-24 only 16 per cent disapproved. How does that bode for our future? The geographical breakdown shows that employees in Dublin would be most likely to take company data, with 10 per cent admitting to having done so and 29 per cent saying they would in a similar situation. In Munster only 6 per cent would do, but at the same time leads with 14 per cent when it comes to knowing someone who did.

It is also interesting to compare the statistics to a similar study we did in the UK. There 30 per cent heard of it, but do not approve, 31 per cent have heard of it and would do the same, 26 per cent have never heard of it, 16 per cent know people who have done it, but only 4 per cent admit to having done it themselves. Does that make them more honest employees, or better liars about their practices? uEvaluation

Numbers games aside, every company would have to evaluate for themselves what their contact lists

of customers or partners mean to them. Whether it can be damaging to them if they end up in unauthorised hands and if it is even fair for an ex-employee to benefit from the resources of their former employer, each organisation is responsible for their data, as there are many scenarios in which this data could end up being misused. In many cases customer lists already fall under the legislation of existing data protection and privacy laws and regulations, so their loss could put a company in legal difficulties, but the evolving EU data breach legislation also requires companies to monitor and report data loss incidents.

Safetica therefore recommends that all companies which handle contact lists and other similar data put a policy of data handling in place. An even better option is to ensure their contact lists are properly protected from unauthorised copying, emailing, editing, etc., with adequate software measures. Safetica Technologies is a pioneer in the market with internal IT security – protection from employee negligence and malicious actions. Safetica is the world’s first software providing a complete protection from threats resulting from inattentive behaviour and harmful intent of employees. g More info at www.safetica.ie

“Whether it can be damaging to them if they end up in unauthorised hands and if it is even fair for an ex-employee to benefit from the resources of their former employer, each organisation is responsible for their data, as there are many scenarios in which this data could end up being misused.”

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BI SUrvEy ESEt IrELANd

keeP youR business sAfe

fRoM CybeRCRiMe

Ensuring your organisation’s IT security can be an intimidating task, but one which is completely manageable, according to ESET Ireland.

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riminal hacking is making headlines with depressing frequency these days, so the task of securing your business against cyber criminals can seem daunting, particularly if your business is of modest size, the kind of place that does not have a crack team of cyber security experts on staff. Bear in mind that defending your organisation against cyber criminals is not a project; it is a process, one that should be ongoing. too often we see organisations suffer a data breach these days because the security measures they put in place a few years ago have not been updated, leaving newer aspects of their digital activities undefended. you can make the task of getting a handle on cyber security more manageable if you break it down into a series of steps.

The following six-step programme can help you get started, or revive previous security efforts.

u ASSeSS

Your ASSetS, rISkS, reSourCeS

The first step in this process is to take stock. What kinds of data does your organisation handle? How valuable are they? What threats exist? What resources do you have to counter those threats? If you don’t know what you’ve got, you can’t protect it. List out the data that makes your organisation tick and the systems that process it. Be sure to include the systems receiving data and outputting data as well as those that process and store it. ubuIlD

Your polICY

The only sustainable approach to cyber security begins with, and depends on, good policy. your

organisation needs a high-level commitment to protecting the privacy and security of all data handled by the organisation.

For many companies, information security policy is not optional, no matter how small the firm. u CHooSe

tHe ControlS to enforCe Your polICIeS

u eDuCAte

emploYeeS, eXeCS, venDorS AnD pArtnerS

Information system security professionals use the term ‘controls’ for those mechanisms by which policies are enforced. Limit access to specific data to specified individuals by requiring employees to identify and authenticate themselves to the system. require identification and authentication of all employees via unique credentials (e.g. user name and password).

Security education is too often the neglected step in cyber security. your goal should be a ‘security aware workforce’ that is self-policing.

In other words, employees are empowered to say “No” to practices that are risky and report them to management.

u

DeploY

Step F on the road map is by no means the end of the line; in fact, it is a reminder that this process is continual. Once polices and controls are in place and education is under way, it is time to reassess security, by testing and auditing. you can do some of this in-house but you may also want to engage an outside entity to get an objective perspective on your efforts so far. g

AnD teStControlS

Putting controls in place is the deployment phase but this also includes part of the next phase, education. you will also need to test as you deploy, to make sure that the controls are working. When testing a control, you need to make sure that it works technically, but also that it ‘works’ with your work, that is, does not impose too great a burden on employees or processes.

u furtHer

ASSeSS, AuDIt, teSt…

More info at www.eset.ie 51

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88x130mm_leaderchess_17thJuly.pdf 1 17/07/2013 12:51:14

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To discuss TUPE or workplace investigations (including training) with

EUGENIE HOUSTON BL contact

01 602 4740 or 086 8032 983

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Thought Leadership ESRI IreLand

Open Data:

do you have a strategy?

Paul Synnott, Country Manager with Esri Ireland, explores the open data phenomenon and how it can have significant impact on how we collectively do business and make decisions.

W

hat if data collected

by Government and businesses was open?

What if citizens, political parties, academics, NGOs, private businesses, technologists, inventors, investors, in fact all of society had access to the same information on which to evaluate the decisions being made by public and private sectors organisations? This is what the open data movement strives to achieve; but what does this actually mean for the business community?

A recently published article by Deloitte, entitled Open Data: Driving Growth, Ingenuity and Innovation, states that publicly available resources contributed by Government, and a growing number of businesses and citizens, have reached the critical mass necessary to trigger a step change in business attitudes towards open data.

Businesses in all industries can now find relevant open data (and spatial data) and use it to improve the quality, completeness and use of their own data and to look for opportunities to develop new products and services.

For example, insurance companies can incorporate mortality, health, traffic, transport, environment and crime data;

retailers can use demographic, population, wealth and wellbeing, property and footfall data.

The UK Government has now opened up over 8,000 unique datasets, most of them accessible through data. gov.uk, the UK’s official open data site, and more are being added each month. It is estimated that the value of this data to the UK economy in 2011 was £16 billion. Ireland, however, has a long way to go, but, from the bottom up there are people that are making a difference here. We are seeing initiatives such as the Fingal Open Data Hub (data.fingal.ie) and Dublinked (www.dublinked.ie) starting to put certain Government data into the ‘open’ domain. More recently we have seen Ordnance Survey Ireland launch Geoportal.ie (www.geoportal.ie), which starts to bring spatial data into the open data discussion and debate. These initiatives have adopted a ‘build it and they will come’ approach in trying to stimulate and attract interest in the economic potential of open (spatial) data to the Irish economy.

Opening up data will help drive more collective and collaborative business behaviours as unexpected links, connections and opportunities emerge between different datasets.

More collective purchasing schemes and new sources of revenue streams will emerge through new opportunities

for creativity and innovation.

By providing data-related capabilities to analyse open public data, businesses will help Government reveal underperformance and pinpoint inconsistencies. Such partnership and collaborative work between private and public sectors will stimulate a bottomup data economy where 24/7 citizenled scrutiny will help revolutionise public services which will ultimately benefit all of society.

According to the Deloitte report, businesses are now starting to open up discrete data to government, to other businesses and to their customers.

This helps them comply with legal or regulatory obligations, to sell data related services to other businesses or to build trust. It improves reputation and moral standing.

Open data is rapidly growing in terms of its commercial significance.

The ever increasing volume of public and private sector data available will require a strategic response by the business community. Ultimately there are many ways the business community can leverage open data; by releasing its own data to change how it competes; by using data to help better customer engagement and by working with Government to establish new ways of collaborating and sharing information in a transparent way.

The concepts and philosophy of open data challenge us all. It’s a new way of thinking and behaving. However, it also represents an exciting reality in the context of both public and private sector data – and a real opportunity to embrace change for more informed decision making that will benefit everyone. g 53

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18/09/2013 13:55:24

BI Survey Century Collections

Debt Recovery with a Difference

As many businesses find their cash flow affected by the failure of debtors to settle their bills, Business Ireland speaks to Jean Cullen of Century Collections about how the company can help creditors to recover their debts and the hidden benefits of utilising their service.

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or many businesses in Ireland, the recovery of money owed by debtors has become a struggle and directly impacts a company’s cash flow and profitability. Century Collections, established in 2011, is a small, family-run company dedicated to providing an efficient and effective pre-legal debt recovery service on a ‘no collection, no fee’ basis.

Having previously worked together in another collections agency, Jean and Leah Cullen established Century Collections in 2011 and brought their combined 16 years of experience in debt recovery - plus vast experience in other areas of the sector - to the young company. “Leah is our Collections Manager and has 14 years’ experience in credit control, the past 8 years of which has been in debt recovery,” says Jean Cullen, Office Manager. “I have more than 30 years’ experience in a wide range of businesses across a number of business sectors as well as accounts practitioners and I have been involved in the management of debt recovery businesses for the past 8 years.” Additionally, Jan W Cullen, another director of the company, is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 40 years’ experience in both finance houses and general practice.

Although some businesses may feel that the cost of outsourcing debt recovery will be a further drain on

their resources, Cullen believes that delaying the recovery of bad debts can cause much more damage to a business than many realise. “One thing that a lot of people are unaware of is the enormous cost that bad or long outstanding debt actually has on their business,” she says. “A lot of the time it is a significant, but hidden, cost.”

Many businesses who understand this expense use debt recovery as a fundamental part of their credit control process which brings many benefits, as Cullen explains: “Once a debt gets to a certain age, it will be automatically sent to us for action. The result is that our client’s debtors are kept under control while releasing resources for more frontline services. Using staff to constantly chase up old or bad debts is not something that most companies can actually afford to do,” she says.

Additionally, Cullen believes that the introduction of a third party can often be beneficial in repairing relations between creditor and debtor.

“Most people who work in credit control are under too much pressure and sometimes the relationship breaks down between a supplier and a debtor who owes money for a long time,” she says. “Using a third party can often reopen the lines of communication and help resolve outstanding issues.”

The importance of maintaining a good relationship between our clients

“One thing that a lot of people are unaware of is the enormous cost that bad or long outstanding debt actually has on their business”

and their debtors is of paramount importance to Century Collections and Cullen empathises with debtors to a degree. “The vast majority of people actually want to get their affairs in order,” she says. “Many companies go through temporary cash flow difficulties from time to time and often as they struggle with their cash flow the relationship with their supplier may break down. When Century Collections engages with a debtor we are always courteous and deal with people in the way in which we would like to be dealt with ourselves if we ended up in the same circumstances. That being said we can be extremely firm when the situation requires a firm hand.”

A good relationship with their clients is very much a priority for the company and will remain so into the future. “We’re looking to grow in a controlled way so that we can continue to offer a first class service to our clients and maintain our relationships with them,” Cullen says. “Relationships with our clients are key.”

Century Collections is a company that is invariably the opposite of the clichéd view of debt recovery services.

This enthusiastic, professional and client-oriented business has one main aim and that is to engineer a positive and welcome solution for all parties. “We see our role as a facilitator between the debtor and the creditor and our mission in every case is to get a bad, long outstanding issue resolved as quickly and effectively as possible; while recovering as much of our client’s money as possible. Our clients work hard for their money and our job is to ensure that they reap the benefits of that hard work because they’ve earned it.” says Cullen. “That way, everybody can sleep a bit better at night.” g

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18/09/2013 13:55:24

BI Survey The O2

The Audi Club

at The O2

The O2’s Audi Club offers something extra at one of Ireland’s foremost entertainment venues.

Audi Club members.

Audi Club Membership features include; • Twenty four complimentary tickets across the year • Priority purchase on up to 8 centre stage tickets on every show day • Inclusive membership of The Circle Club at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre • Complimentary car parking on every show night • Guaranteed access to every show at The O2 and Bord Gáis Energy Theatre • Full transferability of membership across your organisation

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he popularity of live performance and concerts as a source of entertainment is undisputed in Ireland. The O2, named as one of the top five busiest venues in the world in 2012 is testament to this popularity and is recognised as Ireland’s premier music venue, playing host to world class artists week on week. The Audi Club at The O2, a private members club at the heart of the venue, provides a membership that allows organisations to entertain in a flexible, stylish and personal way.

The Audi Club, established in 2003, is in its 10th year of operation

and continues to be a popular investment for both corporates and smaller businesses as they strive to compete in today’s difficult market place and build relationships with current and potential clients.

The Audi Club, sponsored by Audi Ireland since 2007 is an ideal location in which to dine, entertain and relax. With luxurious interiors, members enjoy personalised service and an unbeatable atmosphere on every show night. Audi Club membership guarantees access to centre stage tickets for every show at The O2 and at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. A show is never sold out for

With a world-class line-up of artists scheduled over the coming year including Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Bruno Mars, Barry Gibb and many more still to be added for 2014, Audi Club membership is a great entertainment investment for you and your organisation. g For further information on how membership of the Audi Club at The O2 could work for you, visit www. audiclub.ie or contact the Audi Club team on 01 866 3484

“The Audi Club at The O2, a private members club at the heart of the venue, provides a membership that allows organisations to entertain in a flexible, stylish and personal way. ” 55

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18/09/2013 13:55:27

BI Survey the Marker

Laying down a

Marker

Dublin’s newest luxury design hotel, the Marker is located on Grand Canal Square, right in the heart of the city’s vibrant business and cultural quarter.

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ublin newest and brightest business community, Dublin docklands has undergone significant change over the course of the past decade or so, transforming into a bright and vibrant cultural and economic centre. With worldrenowned firms such as Google and Facebook calling the area home, the latest addition comes in the form of the Marker Hotel on Grand Canal Square. Its architecture is unusual and eye-catching, drawing on the elemental nature of the Irish landscape from the rugged Burren in Clare to the unique and world-famous stones of the Giant’s

Causeway in Antrim. The notion of style and function has been continued right across the hotel’s extensive facilities, from the stunning cocktail bar on the ground floor to the popular rooftop garden where the view stretches across Dublin city to the mountains and the sea, and the unique geometric layout of the hotel’s 187 bedrooms which lie in between, the fully equipped fitness area and the popular spa and wellness area.

Successfully combining elements of nature with urban architecture, the Marker also fuses the present with the past - it’s all in the name.

Once one of the great inland trading

routes, the Grand Canal was Ireland’s link with mainland Europe, and its 82 miles of waterway was lined with cast iron markers; milestones which showed travellers how far they had to go before they reached the end of their journey. The final marker once lay in Grand Canal Square where the hotel now stands, as a mark of respect. “Aesthetically, it’s a nice area to be in,” explains Charlie Sheil, General Manager at the Marker. uServing

Business

Located in the Silicon Docks region of the capital, and with neighbours such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn,

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BI Survey the Marker

Accenture, Oracle and PWC, it’s hardly surprising that one of the Marker’s fortes lies in event management and catering for the business customer. “We are experts in creating exclusive events for every occasion. Whether it’s a wedding celebration, a new product launch or a conference, the Marker has a choice of different spaces to suit your event. With the highest specification technology at our fingertips, plus an innate sense of what will work for you, each element is carefully considered and delivered to the highest standard – superb food, exceptional service and a genuinely personal touch,” says Sheil. Conveniently located on the building’s ground floor, the hotel’s meeting space measures 700 sq metres in total, consisting of nine meeting rooms of varying sizes. Designed for businesspeople who need to work faster and smarter, discrete technology is employed in each space, from video conferencing to LCD drop-down screens and projectors. The largest function space is The Marker Suite which mirrors the hotel’s unique architectural features, with a floating ceiling and a natural flow in a room with no columns. Natural daylight is a key element in these spaces which overlook the local urban landscape, with three of the meeting rooms incorporating direct access to Chimney Park. A business home from home, the business centre has fax, photocopying and internet facilities, with complimentary wi-fi running at uncongested speeds of 100mb throughout the entire meeting space.

“We have hosted a fantastic range of high profile events since opening in April,” says Shiel. “VIP style awards, Restaurant Association Awards and a collection of corporate events.” uLeading

Hotels

It also comes as no surprise to discover that the Marker is also a member of Leading Hotels of the World. Established in 1928 by several future-orientated European hoteliers, the current largest luxury hospitality organisation in the world began life with just 38 members. Customers

of the organisation have always demanded the highest levels of quality and experience and so to be considered for inclusion, hotels must adhere to strict standards and operate at levels of extraordinary hospitality.

With over 430 members today, Sheil and the Marker are proud to be part of the organisation. “Our philosophy is simple – we believe that the mark of a truly exceptional hotel is having an intuitive sense of delivering the best. For us, exceptional service is a given, what really matters is understanding that everyone is different. We take the time to get to know you, to make sure we can bring you a genuinely personal experience during your stay with us. The partnership with Leading Hotels of the World reinforces and strengthens our ability to deliver on this philosophy.” uFeedback

Despite the certain difficulties which inevitably follow the opening of a new business, particularly these days, the Marker has been a beacon of excellence from the very beginning, as asserted from those who pass through its doors each day. “It’s been really positive – great support from the neighbourly corporate community. We timed the opening of the rooftop bar perfectly so lots of people have got to enjoy it due to our nice summer. Any snags or challenges that we’ve come up

against, we’re dealing with them quickly and efficiently, to ensure that we resolve them and move forward,” Shiel says. “Certainly the first six months is always a learning curve and growing time in the business.

This is my third opening now. It’s different to others, but in many ways there are similarities.” uPositive

Future

Looking toward the remainder of 2013 and beyond, Sheil remains cautiously optimistic about the future.

Leading accountancy and business advisory firm Crowe Horwath has recently released the results of its 18th annual hotel industry survey, which yields some positive information.

With an island-wide increase in room occupancy and average room rate, revenue per available room is on the rise, particularly in the capital.

“It’s early days, but we’re performing better than we expected to be, and we anticipate that would be the trend to the year’s end. We’re not being complacent, but at the same time we are optimistic that we will achieve better than expected performance by year end,” he explains. “In terms of the Dublin market, there is certainly positivity there – there seems to be more tourists coming in and there has been an uplift in the US market too. There’s so much to offer here in Dublin, there is good value for money but it’s an attractive place to visit as well,” Sheil concludes. 57

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18/09/2013 13:55:32

BI Survey NUI Maynooth

Connecting With China Having been awarded the Science Foundation Ireland International Strategic Collaboration Award (ISCA) in March 2013, NUI Maynooth’s ISCA-China initiative is gathering momentum.

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UI Maynooth is currently leading a joint collaboration between the 3U Partnership, Trinity College Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology to exploit joint research opportunities with universities in China. This venture has been made possible by a Science Foundation Ireland International Strategic Collaboration Award (ISCA) to develop and strengthen existing partnerships with leading Chinese institutions in the research areas of ICT, biomedical science and nanotechnology. One of the programme’s aims is to establish and build links between Irish and Chinese business, to promote the reputation of Irish research and provide further collaborative opportunities. “Having returned last year from working in China to take up my current role as international officer at NUI Maynooth, I welcome this joint approach to link research networks and contacts in Irish higher education to support Irish companies already based in China or seeking to enter the market,” says Noreen Lucey, International Officer at NUI Maynooth. “Having lived in China and experienced the challenges businesses face in the Chinese market, I believe this is a step in the right direction to explore how Irish institutions can provide support to Irish companies in the market.”

uChina

Relations between Ireland and China have been steadily growing since they were first established in 1979.

The past few years have witnessed a welcome increase in contact between the countries, and larger scale cooperation in economic, educational and technological terms. Figures from the Chinese Embassy here in Ireland back this up – bilateral trade reached US$5.87 billion in 2011. Yinya Liu

is Programme Co-ordinator for the ISCA-China Programme, working from Beijing. “The ISCA programme is a team of pioneers, exploring the scientific research funding opportunities of China, as well as providing a platform for NUI Maynooth and the International Strategic Collaboration research institutes Programme (ISCP). Pictured at the event were, from left, Professor Bernie Mahon, Vice-Pres for Research, NUI Maynooth, Shelly Xiong, and companies Senior Partner, Haoliwen Partners, Bernard Durkin, TD, Vice to better Chairman Foreign Affairs Committee, Xiaochuang Wu, Chinese communicate Embassy, Brian Harrison, Science Foundation Ireland. Pic Iain White. with Chinese partners,” she that can be of value to Irish businesses. explains. “The Beijing office of the We are prioritising partnership with programme helps to assist Irish China due to the Chinese government’s research institutes and companies strategy to target investment in research to approach Chinese research and and development to ensure long-term, funding opportunities. The office sustainable, economic growth. Through will offer services like international conference organisation, contact points research collaboration with universities and businesses in China, we hope to for both Irish and Chinese institutes create a sustainable partnership of and companies and funding or economic benefit to both countries.” investment news, support etc.”

Looking forward, the possibilities for u Creating a positive and beneficial relationship Connections between Ireland and China are quite Most recently, NUI Maynooth substantial. “China is the world’s facilitated a ‘Connect to China’ second largest economy and the event, a gateway of information and most populous country in the world. opportunity for Irish businesses With a population of over 1.35 looking towards the Asian country. billion, the sheer scale of the potential “The purpose is to exploit existing consumer market in China offers research networks and contacts in enormous opportunities for Irish Irish universities to support small companies,” says Liu. “Ireland will also export services, chemicals, businesses in China,” says Kirsten Paterson, Research Officer at NUIM. pharmaceuticals, office machinery “Irish universities have strong links in and software to China in the next industrial research in nanotechnology, thirty years. Generally speaking, information and communication China and Ireland are in a mutually technology and biopharma sectors beneficial relationship.” g

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18/09/2013 13:55:35

BI Survey KPMG

Choosing Leaders

Choosing a CEO or similar senior position in a business is fraught with risk. John McCullough of KPMG considers some of the issues in getting it right.

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n looking for a new CEO it’s useful to consider two fairly basic principles as a worthwhile starting point. In most organisations there is a need for the leader to have some fairly well defined skills in both opportunity identification and opportunity execution. Keeping these points in mind can be useful in simplifying the search for a CEO by helping set some initial broad criteria.

u What

Makes a Good Leader?

It is possible to identify a number of key requisites which are common to all leadership roles. Some of these are personal or personality focused and the others are technical or skills driven. It is obvious that a CEO must have a sharp intellect to analyse and conceptualise, to debate and formulate.

This is essential in opportunity identification. Experience shows that many of the best CEOs have both the financial understanding to assess the value of projects but also the creative and idea generation skills to deliver worthwhile commercial opportunities.

A CEO must also have good levels of self confidence to make decisions and they must be able to instil this in others. A good leader will be able to sell the vision to the team and be a strong communicator who can generate support and energy.

Critically they must have the ability to allow others to manage the detail of opportunity execution.

uKnowledge

It is often asked if the CEO must have relevant technical or sectoral knowledge. In some industries it can be desirable, however I generally advise clients to try and keep an open mind. Obviously if you are not limited to a particular sector then the pool of relevant candidates becomes bigger. Try to focus on the key skills required of the CEO and on the key issues facing the organisation over the next three years and search for a match to these. The vital technical or sectoral knowledge and experience should be available within the existing management team and the incoming CEO should have the skills to access it.

If this resource is not already available then you are in serious trouble and it is hard to imagine how your business either is or will remain viable!

There is no point in focussing on particular skills if you already have them within the organisation. Very often an organisation has strong technical skills for example, but is missing direction. Some businesses are very sales-focussed but have regular delivery failure and as a result suffer losses. You can make good use of your recruitment consultant as they will bring an objective and independent view in helping build a valuable job description. uProfile

Building a leadership profile is essential to help match the job

“A good leader will be able to sell the vision to the team and be a strong communicator who can generate support and energy.”

John McCullough is Managing Director of KPMG Executive Search and Selection.

description. Many of the desired characteristics are straightforward e.g. a proven track record in finance.

What about some of the so called softer skills? Leadership skills and cultural fit are all harder to define – again reinforcing the value of external objectivity. Leading and building strong teams is about complementary strengths and weaknesses. The fit or chemistry at senior levels is vital as individuals must have the ability to debate and influence while also being able to accept opposition and resistance. You do not have to love each other but you do have to work together. Very often at senior level the ‘fit’ is the key component of the search as the harder skills are more readily verifiable through profiling and background checks. g 59

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18/09/2013 13:55:36

BI Survey Mediation

Mediation Going Mainstream

The Irish mediation landscape is growing in Ireland, but not without undergoing significant change.

Dermot McEvoy, Partner at Eversheds and John Madden, Madden Mediation, provide an insight into mediation as a dispute resolution process.

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ediation, the most effective form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a process whereby an independent mediator assists two opposing parties in coming to an agreement.

Mediation is quite different to court proceedings – the mediator does not have decision-making power, as he or she is simply there to ensure all issues and reservations are highlighted. It’s all about resolving disputes as quickly and efficiently as possible, at considerable less cost when compared to litigation.

The use of mediation, which is already mainstream in countries such as the United States and the UK, is growing in Ireland. Legislation is due to be introduced early next year which will solidify the position of mediation in Ireland, and encourage its use.

“The MII welcomes Minister Shatter’s commitment to publish the Bill in ‘early’ 2014,” said Gerry Rooney, President of The Mediators Institute of Ireland (The MII). “The enactment of the Bill has the potential to divert many civil and commercial disputes from our courts and save billions in the process. The MII has concerns regarding certain aspects of the Draft Bill, particularly in relation to some of the obligations for Mediators but we view the Bill as a very positive step in encouraging parties and their legal advisors to consider mediation for Civil and Commercial disputes.” uEversheds

Dermot McEvoy, a career commercial litigator and partner in Eversheds, 60

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BI Survey Mediation

turned to mediation in the early 2000s. Dermot has actively advocated the use of mediation to his clients over the last decade and more. Dermot views positively the legislative changes coming down the tracks with the forthcoming mediation Bill which is due to be passed into law shortly.

He believes that the Government is sending out a strong message with this Bill that mediation is a genuine alternative to litigation. Regulation is necessary to ensure certain minimum standards are adheared to but not to over formulise a simplicistic process.

‘Soft touch’ regulation or no regulation is no longer acceptable within Irish commerce. Even ad hoc mediations will have to comply with the basic minimum standards articulated in the draft legislation.

The legislation will provide the basic structure within which practioners and parties must operate.

The process will still remain flexible enough to allow parties to resolve their own disputes, using creativity and entrepreneurial flair that is not encouraged in more regulated dispute resolution fora. The legislation will oblige solicitors to both provide information and advice on mediation, and to advise clients to consider mediation before commencing civil proceedings, and solicitors will have to provide a statement attesting to this before proceedings begin. In a smilar way, barristers will also have to advise clients of mediation and certify same

Dermot McEvoy, Eversheds.

in writing. This is a positive outcome and will ensure that the parties to the dispute understand the options and alternatives open to them before heading down the expensive road of litigation.

Sensible and simple obligations will be imposed on mediators to outline before the process begins their terms of engagement, the process and costs involved. Mediators must also identify at the outset any potential conflicts of interest that they may have. Mediators are given certain protections, and are permitted to withdraw from the process, without explanation, at any time. Mediators are also given immunity from suit save where there is bad faith or similar egregious behaviour.

This is a positive step in the right direction but only if the regulation remains consistent with the commonly accepted goals of mediation providing a viable, effective and efficient alternative to court proceedings. uMadden

Mediation

Since chairing his first mediation over 20 years ago, John Madden (Civil Engineer / Solicitor) of Madden Mediation and Arbitration Limited has become a voice of experience in Ireland’s mediation scene and always encourages the continuing growth of alternative dispute resolution within companies, both indigenous and international. Here he explains why the mediation process really works.

As an experienced mediator working in Ireland and the US, I have seen first-hand the benefits companies have experienced by choosing to engage in mediation as a dispute resolution process.

One of the benefits of mediation is confidentiality - by allowing companies to avoid the publicity of a courtroom and negotiate towards an agreed settlement in a private environment.

Mediation is also proven to be far more time and cost efficient than litigation, and cost-saving is essential for companies now more than ever.

Companies do not want their key management tied up in a court case

John Madden, Madden Mediation.

that might take months or years to complete, with huge financial risk and emotional cost to the company.

Time and again I hear “John, you said it would work and I couldn’t see it – and then as the day went on there it was, surprisingly enough, we had a settlement – the process really works.”

As an internationally experienced mediator, I encourage companies to embrace mediation and engage it as part of their culture in resolving disputes. One proactive way to achieve this is by committing your company to exploring the use of mediation in the event of any external or internal dispute within its organisation.

The Irish Commercial Mediation Association (ICMA), of which I am a council member, has partnered with the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR) in the US to develop the ICMA Corporate Pledge in Ireland.

Large US Corporates, with business across the globe including Microsoft, Shell, IBM and Johnson + Johnson have adopted the CPR Pledge as part of their dispute resolution culture.

ICMA’s Corporate Mediation Pledge acknowledges that mediation is an effective way to find creative, relationship-building and long term solutions, as well as being a confidential and cost effective process. I would encourage Irish companies to look towards mediation and this Mediation Pledge as a progressive and beneficial move in dealing with disputes. g 61

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18/09/2013 13:55:43

BI Survey Young Social Innovators

innovation skills for

the 21st Century

Encouraging innovation in youth education will drive new thinking, solutions and change in society explains Rachel Collier, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Young Social Innovators.

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n the midst of enormous societal and financial challenges, Ireland has an unprecedented opportunity to use the potential of social innovation to drive new thinking and change, see new opportunities and create new solutions. The good news is that Ireland has millions of innovators – it is part of human nature to innovate, but we need to nurture that talent and develop these skills as part of our education and youth development systems. Ireland is now gradually developing an infrastructure for innovators to learn, practice and develop. A whole system of innovative training, development and capacity building is being advanced

by Young Social Innovators with its partners and associates.

platform to energise, motivate and provide opportunities to engage young people to contribute in positive and new ways to society. To ensure that every young person is given these opportunities, Ireland needed a national programme of engagement which would be supported within and outside the education system. This was the goal which YSI strived to achieve. uCivic

Innovation

u Young

Today YSI is the largest civic innovation programme and movement of youth in Ireland. By 2015 and with its official partner, the Vodafone Ireland Foundation, it aims to have 100,000 young social innovators in Ireland and it is well on the way to achieving this. In the past 12 years YSI has made a huge difference to problems at local, national and even international levels, creating:

Young Social Innovators (YSI) began building this infrastructure and creating a new generation of social innovators in 2001. The organisation works at grass roots level, in partnership with schools, youth organisations and sponsors.

YSI believes that young people are empowered through socially innovative activities, not only to shape the world around them, but to discover their own potential and humanity. To date, over 47,000 young people have taken part in social innovation action projects and another 15,000 have been part of YSI’s Communities of Social Innovators programme. YSI began as a small idea with just 11 schools and 100 young people. The organisation believed Ireland needed a national

• National campaigns to remember missing people, promote organ donation in education, campaign for teen parents’ access to education, improve facilities for people with disabilities, combat poverty awareness and various road safety campaigns.

• Local campaigns to combat cyber bullying, promote positive mental health awareness, save energy, buy local produce and create and save local jobs.

• New services and facilities at local level, such as intergenerational programmes, peer education on issues such as literacy, autism, substance abuse and energy. They have undertaken town face-lifts, park installations, defibrillator provision in schools and towns, up skilled

Social Innovators

Rachel Collier, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Young Social Innovators.

groups in technology, provided support to teachers and hosted local Special Olympics and mental health community conferences.

• Facilities abroad from India to South America and Africa building water wells, schools and classrooms.

• Social enterprises like youth cafes, second hand clothes markets and shops, book writing and sales, sex education programmes and fair trade enterprises.

• Political lobbies at national and international levels around sex and human trafficking, educational disadvantage, child protection issues, allergy awareness and access to different health care provision.

More than 350 innovations are now created each year with some 6,000 teenagers the driving force behind them. They collaborate with literally hundreds of other organisations. To maximise its impact, YSI has developed

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BI Survey Young Social Innovators

an understanding and model of social innovation itself, the 4Cs of Social Innovation: care, co-operate, communicate and change. This model aids learning, action and reflection and instills self-confidence in young people. uSharing our learning

YSI is building an insight into how practising social innovation helps to develop crucial life and work skills amongst youth, and has identified a positive cycle in the learning and doing of social innovation, for example: • No matter what level of ability you have in academia, all young people can engage in socially innovative activities.

• When they follow the social issues of concern to them, they immediately want to increase their knowledge around it.

• The more they understand, the greater their passion grows.

• The greater their passion, the more ambition, belief and determination they have to make a difference.

• The more belief they have in what they are doing and their ability to deliver, the more engaged they become in their learning and skill development.

• The more they commit to their work, the better they communicate, persuade and convince others of the change needed.

• And ultimately, the more success they have in carrying out their innovative action.

While this sounds reasonable, too often teenagers are seen as inactive rather than proactive members of local communities. If Ireland needs innovators, we need to change how we think about young people and their potential. uVoice

YSI gives young social innovators a voice to advocate, gain support and promote their work at provincial and national levels. Some 20 Speak Out events, attracting up to 400 young people, are run across Ireland each year and their passion, persuasiveness and

commitment is contagious. So much so that both their peers and the YSI organisers want to move mountains to support their innovations and more importantly, YSI believe that together, we can do just that! YSI developed the Den, (on the lines Annual Showcase of Young Social Innovators, the largest civic and social of TV’s Dragons innovation event in Ireland.

Den), to help who take part and of course some young people receive assistance in the 20,000 young people each year. form of money, means or mentoring.

Another important calendar event is u Creativity and the Annual Showcase of Young Social innovation Innovators. This is the highlight of the Ireland needs social innovators. It year for approximately 5,000 teenagers needs people who proactively use their who come together to showcase creative thinking to find solutions that their innovations, have fun and gain recognition for their achievements. Last help improve society. Skilled innovators are people, young and older, that look year, Vodafone employees raised funds for opportunities, see possibilities, themselves to expand the reach and collaborate with others to come up with scale of the Den and helped organise new solutions services and applications, and run the Annual Showcase giving it new ways of being and doing. By a great festive atmosphere.

YSI is building an ecosystem for becoming a skilled social innovator, social innovation and entrepreneurship you have an edge that means whatever you do, you will innovate with a education for teenagers in Ireland. Its special ‘social’ lens which focuses your programmes, events, online digital innovation on the potential benefits platforms, professional development, for others and wider society, benefits sponsor resources and educational that can inspire generations of social resources all combine to enable young people to experience and develop their innovators to come.

YSI is sustained through a public and innovative skills. These skills are for private partnership. Our official partner the 21st century - empathy, creativity is the Vodafone Ireland Foundation. Our and innovation, self-awareness, critical thinking and problem solving, lead public partner is the Department teamwork, media and ICT literacy, of Environment, Community and Local Authorities, Department of communications and collaboration – Children, HSE, Irish Aid, Department skills many workplaces need whether business, scientific or social innovation. of Education and Skills and Department YSI is also currently introducing an all- of Social Protection. Other companies involved in our companies network Ireland Social Innovation Partnership scheme include: Pfizer, RSA Insurance, Awards scheme for schools and youth organisations. This will recognise our Sony, CRH, Guaranteed Irish and Penco. g schools and youth organisations (70 per cent of second level schools have To get involved in the promotion of social taken part to date) and acknowledge innovation education in Ireland, contact their commitment to civic and social us at www.youngsocialinnovators.org, innovation. It will also recognise the Email: info@youngsocialinnovators.ie hundreds of YSI Guides and educators or 01-6458030 63

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18/09/2013 13:55:48

BI Survey Cyberbullying Law Conference

Cyberbullying Law Conference:

CPD accredited half day event

With anti-bullying experts reporting that children as young as six are being taunted regularly on social media websites, the issue of cyberbullying presents new and complex legal challenges that must be addressed in order to identify solutions to the problem.

I

rish Law Conferences are hosting a half-day seminar on the 17th of October in the Radisson Blu, Golden Lane, Dublin 8, on the legal challenges associated with cyberbullying and the difficulties of drawing a legal line that determines who is culpable when online bullying occurs. An expert line-up of speakers will provide delegates with practical advice on a myriad of issues associated with this timely issue.

This event will be of benefit to businesses who want to know how to deal with cyberbullying issues that arise in the workplace and the steps an employer needs to take before disciplining an employee for abuse of social media. Conference content will also focus on whether an employee should be held responsible for offensive comments posted by employees on social media sites outside of work. The Cyberbullying Law Conference will also be of interest to law firms, in-house legal teams, solicitors and barristers specialising in employment law, technology and media law and other areas affected by online bullying.

uSpeakers

(further speakers to be confirmed) • Dr Aisling Parkes, Lecturer in Law, UCC • Peter McInnes, Partner, McDowell Purcell Solicitors • Jim Friars, CEO, Irish Computer Society • Dr Sinéad McGilloway,

Senior Lecturer in Psychology, NUI Maynooth • Murray Smith, Anti-Bullying Centre, Trinity College Dublin u Topics

to be discussed

• What legal remedies exist for an employee who has been cyberbullied at work?

• Can an employer monitor an employee’s social media or internet usage at work?

• Tackling Cyber Bullying from a Children’s Rights Perspective • No specific law governing the area of cyberbullying in Ireland today – should there be or should existing frameworks be amended?

• Social media sites – criticised for failing to protect users but will efforts promised by some sites go far enough to prevent online bullying?

• Posting exploitative pictures online – recent cases and legal implications in relation to cyberbulling and child

pornography.

• Dealing with cyberbullying issues that arise in the workplace • What steps does an employer need to take before disciplining an employee for abuse of a social media or e-communications policy?

• Can an employer be held responsible for offensive comments posted by employees on social media sites outside of work?

• Can an employer discipline an employee for posting offensive comments on social media outside of work? g To book your place email denise. maguire@ashvillemediagroup.com or call 01 4322238 Date: Thursday 17th Oct 2013 Time: 9am – 1pm Venue: Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8 Fee: Early Bird rate €195 (book before 27th September) CPD Hours: 4

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18/09/2013 13:55:55

Age of the Smartphone Report ready for mobile

Ready For

Mobile

Businesses should ensure they don’t lose customers simply because their mobile website isn’t user friendly.

W

ith the proliferation of both smartphones and internet-capable mobile phones, now more than ever it is important to ensure that your organisation’s website functions equally as well on a mobile device as it does on a more traditional desktop or laptop computer. Research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) published earlier this year has shown that 57 per cent of the top 100 brands in the UK now operate a mobile-friendly website, a figure which has undoubtedly risen since then.

According to research from tech

giant Google, having a mobilefriendly website, and ensuring an optimum experience for browsers, has several highly positive effects, particularly for SMEs. For example, mobile-friendly sites have a higher level of engagement, on average 75 per cent per visit, in terms of page views, revenue etc. Visitors are also more likely to take action on a mobile site; the research found that one in five visits leads to an immediate call to the business. In an era in which the world is going mobile, this is a crucial step for the survival of many organisations – Google’s research into mobile websites has also shown that

61 per cent of users will go back to the search engine to look for another site more easily readable on a mobile.

The question, therefore, doesn’t revolve around if you should prepare your business for the mobile arena, but when. Though it isn’t a simple process, it is one which can be accomplished by setting out your goals and objectives on your end, and ensuring an easy to use medium for the consumer on the other.

Up next, the knowledgeable people from Mobileready.ie share the stats on mobile penetration in Ireland, and make the case for all Irish businesses to become mobile ready.

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18/09/2013 13:56:07

Age of the Smartphone Report MobileReady.ie

Becoming Mobile Ready With Irish consumers turning increasingly to mobile internet for their research, businesses need to ensure their websites are mobile-ready.

There are reams and reams of research churned out on a daily basis concerning mobile phones. That’s hardly surprising as ComReg’s Key Data Report for 2011 shows 5,432,182 mobile subscriptions in Ireland – a penetration rate of 119 per cent of the population. That’s a quite remarkable statistic, and almost the definition of ‘ubiquitous’. Have a quick think about this: what would you rather give up over your mobile phone? Amazingly, 36 per cent of mobile users would give up chocolate rather than their phone and 43 per cent would give up beer.

If so many people are willing to give up such things as chocolate and beer, this must have a serious impact on businesses because people are now naturally turning to their phones to find the information they need on local businesses. uMobile

Search

Globally, mobile search is expected to surpass desktop by 2014. In Ireland, 30 per cent of all Google searches are made on mobiles. There are only 1.4 million smartphones in Ireland, so many searches are being conducted on feature phones with web browsing capabilities. Research also shows that 45 per cent of Irish mobile phone users will access information while out shopping. Clearly, this has a major impact on when users will shop and how much they will pay since they will be able to look up specifications, price comparisons and coupons when ready to make a purchase. Desktop internet users would mainly be researching, comparing and window shopping

from home or office, but now the mobile phone is taking the research to the streets and in real time. u Taking

Advantage

So what do businesses need to do to take advantage of this?

The answer may seem obvious: make your website mobile-ready.

Businesses spend a great amount of time, effort and money to ensure their websites work well on a variety of different browsers for the computer. The same attention needs to be given to the user experience on mobile devices. Taking an approach of ‘my website looks fine on the phone’ is potentially a major mistake. As many as 57 per cent of mobile users will not recommend a business with a bad mobile site. Also, 40 per cent of mobile users will go to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience. uMobileReady.ie

At MobileReady.ie we have studied this problem and how users interact with mobile websites versus desktop sites and created a product that will take your website and convert it to a ‘mobile optimised’ site. We understand that users of mobile

websites are mainly interested in connecting with the business either through a call, email, map or booking engine so those features are brought front and centre of the new mobile site. In addition, the mobile site will work on over 12,000 different devices, smartphones and feature phones so the user experience is not compromised and businesses have a better chance to convert these leads. When you know that a bad mobile experience will lead 40 per cent of visitors to a competitor’s site, then that human design touch is worth the extra effort. Our designers will help create a positive user experience and polished mobile site. g Visit MobileReady.ie to find more facts and figures about mobile websites and how you can make your website mobile ready.

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18/09/2013 13:56:15

BI Survey Airport Club

Putting the pleasure in parking Airport Club is delighted to announce the launch of the Parking Plus card.

I

n line with the ongoing development of our services to our Airport Club members, we are actively working to enhance and expand the range of services in a relevant and meaningful way.

Our current members regularly communicate with us to advise and recommend services that they feel would be of benefit to them. One such recommendation was for a parking product that would eliminate the need to pre-book car parking, prepay an annual amount and reconcile one parking expense per annum. And so,

BI Autumn 2013 44_88.indd 68

Parking Plus was born.

Airport Club, in conjunction with our car parking team, have responded to our members’ request with the launch of the Parking Plus card.

Parking Plus offers members all the benefits of the current Airport Club membership plus a great car park offer. The benefit of purchasing a Parking Plus membership is that you never have to pre-book your parking again, annual unlimited parking, payment upfront and only one parking expense per annum. Entrance to the car parks is automated by registration recognition for speedy entry.

In consideration of the varying needs of business travellers and frequent car park users we have

developed three Parking Plus offers: Green Parking Plus offers you annual parking in the Red Express long term car park plus speed through the fast track security channel and more.

Silver Parking Plus offers you annual parking in the short term car parks in both terminals plus all the benefits of the standard card.

Gold Parking Plus offers you annual VIP parking in the Collins Town executive car parks in both terminals plus all the benefits of the standard Gold membership. g Contact us: Ph: +353 1 8144898 Email: airportclub@daa.ie Web: www.airportclub.ie

18/09/2013 13:56:18

Dublin chamber NEW MEMBERS

New Members AJP Worldwide (Ireland) Ltd

www.ajpworldwide.com Catherine Monaghan Commercial Director catherine@ajpworldwide.com

Auction Xchange www.auctionexchange.ie Andrew Hamilton, Managing Director ahamilton@auctionxchange.ie

Buildcost Quantity Surveyors www.buildcost.ie Jason Tully, Director jtully@buildcost.ie

CBS Outdoor

www.cbsoutdoor.ie Lorna Carroll, Direct Sales Manager lorna.carroll@cbsoutdoor.ie

CIPS Sustainability Index

www.cips-sustainabilityindex.com Mark Quick, Director mark.quick@cips-si.com

City and Guilds

www.cityandguilds.com Philip Sheridan, Sales/Marketing philip.sheridan@cityandguilds.com

Cristina Stamatescu Solicitors

www.cssolicitors.com Cristina Stamatescu, Business Owner cstamatescusolicitors@gmail.com

DB Computers

www.dbcomp.ie Howard Murphy, Sales Director Howard@dbcomp.ie

DeCare Dental

www.decare.com Maureen Walsh, CEO Maureenwalsh@decare.com Ger Gavin Chief Dental Officer ggavin@decare.com Steven Moran Financial Compliance Manager smoran@decare.com Gavin Greaney Sales Manager GGreaney@decare.com Edel Jordan Communications and Marketing Manager ejordan@decare.com

DID Electrical

www.did.ie Barry Gardner, BDM barry.gardner@did.ie

Digital Realty

www.digitalrealty.com Gary Keogh, Sales Director gkeogh@digitalrealty.com

Energie Fitness Clubs www.energiefitness.ie Anita Donoghue, General Manager anita.donoghue@energiefitness.ie

Ergonomics

www.ergonomicsonline.ie Fintan Ardagh, Managing Director fintan@2go.ie

Escher Group (Ire) Limited

www.eschergroup.com Liam Church, CEO liam.church@eschergroup.com Fionnuala Higgins SVP Sales & Marketing fionnuala.higgins@eschergroup.com Jonathan O’Connell, CFO jonathan.o’connell@eschergroup.com

FDS Worldwide Express

www.fdsworldwide.com Michael McFadden Business Development michael.mcfadden@fdsworldwide.com

Finance Ireland

www.financeireland.ie Laurence Flavin Finance Director laurenceflavin@financeireland.ie

Gorta

www.gorta.org Malachy Cardiff Head of Finance & Administration malachy.cardiff@gorta.org Adrienne Dunne Head of Fundraising & Communications adrienne.dunne@gorta.org Noel Keogh Corporate Partnerships Executive noel.keogh@gorta.org

Hall Recruitment

www.hallrecruitment.ie Vivienne Hall, MD vivienne@hallrecruitment.ie

CurrencyFair Limited www.currencyfair.com Brian Monaghan Head of Online Marketing brianmonaghan@currencyfair.com

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Dublin chamber NEW MEMBERS

New Members Host Ireland www.hostireland.com Ben Kitchin, Director ben@hostireland.com

John O’Donoghue Print & Stationery www.johnodonoghue.com John O’Donoghue Managing Director john@johnodonoghue.com

Jordan Media Ireland

www.jordanmedia.com Graham Sellors Managing Director graham.sellors@jordanmedia.com Tracy Aslam Sales and Development Director tracy.aslam@jordanmedia.com Michelle O’Rourke, Business Development Manager -Europe michelle.orourke@jordanmedia.com

Just Search Ireland www.justsearch.com John Purcell, Country Manager j.purcell@justsearch.com

Kanchi

www.theaislingfoundation.org Nikki Hegarty, Network Manager Nikki@kanchi.org

Keaney Insurance Brokers Ltd

www.kib.ie Terry Keaney, Managing Director tk@kib.ie

LivingSocial

www.livingsocial.com Katharina Callaghan Sales Director katharina.callaghan@livingsocial.com

Lyzop Ltd t/a EazyCity

www.eazycity.com Julia Lynes, Owner/Director julia@eazycity.com

Rothco

www.rothco.ie Richard Carr Partner richardc@rothco.ie Zara Flynn Managing Director, Rothco Social + zaraf@rothcosocial.ie Meghan Elward-Duffy Social Media meghane@rothco.ie

McCreery Sales Limited

Safetic

Merrion Private Vaults

The Ireland China Association

NICC- Nigerian Irish Chamber of Commerce

The Loc People Ltd

www.mccreery.ie Gerard Martin, Managing Director gerard@mccreery.ie

www.merrionprivatevaults.com Seamus Fahy, Director info@merrionprivatevaults.ie

www.nicoc.ie Ade Dare, Director ade.dare@nicoc.ie

O’Connells Restaurant

www.oconnellsballsbridge.com Tom O’Connell, Managing Director info@oconnellsballsbridge.com

Philip Morris

www.pmi.com Ed Simkiss Country Manager Ireland ed.simkiss@pmi.com Brett Cooper Director of Corporate Affairs UK & Ireland brett.cooper@pmi.com

www.safetic.ie Susan Tomelty Business Development Manager susan.tomelty@safetic.ie

www.irelandchina.org Ken Duggan Chairman kenjduggan@gmail.com www.locpeople.com Janet Suarez Director jsuarez@locpeople.com

TMP Worldwide

www.tmpw.ie Rob Leach, Account Director rob.leach@tmpw.ie Joanne Mullins Account Manager joanne.mullins@tmpw.ie

U-Learning

http://www3.ul.ie/ulearning/index.htm Michael Hennessy Communications michael.hennessey@ul.ie

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Dublin chamber MEMBERS Profiles

Members Profiles

u Berrymans

Lace Mawer LLP (BLM)

Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP (BLM) is a leading insurance and dispute resolution law firm specialising in advising insurers, Lloyd’s syndicates, underwriters, MGAs, brokers, corporate policyholders, public sector organisations, professional indemnifiers and other market organisations. We are instructed on a broad spectrum of legal issues and act for clients in key sectors such as construction & property, healthcare, leisure & retail, transport and logistics, professional services, education, the public sector,

manufacturing and in the London Market. In October 2012, BLM opened its office in Dublin prompted by numerous requests from UK insurers writing business in Ireland, brokers working with multinational corporate clients and self-insured corporate organisations, expressing a desire to receive the same clear and concise advice BLM already provides in England in respect of their Irish matters. uCafé

en Seine

Café en Seine is ideally located on Dawson Street in the heart of Dublin.

Boasting the city’s most stunning

art deco interior, Café en Seine is a multi-level bar experience. Any of our three floors are perfect for relaxed corporate entertaining. uCity

& Guilds

City & Guilds is a charitable organisation and world leader in vocational education and training.

Working with more than 8,500 centres and training providers in 81 countries, we offer more than 500 qualifications across 28 industries and award almost two million certificates each year. With over 130 years’ experience in designing 71

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Dublin chamber MEMBERS Profiles

Members Profiles qualifications and providing skills development solutions for educators, employers and governments, we play a vital role in establishing and shaping vocational education and training internationally. Our purpose is to enable people and organisations to develop their skills for personal and economic growth. Find out more at: www.cityandguilds.com uFinance

Ireland

uGriffith

College

Finance Ireland is a privately owned, broadly based financial services group. Our focus is to exploit opportunities in changing and challenging markets.

Established in 1974, Griffith College is one of Ireland’s leading private third-level institutions, with campuses in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

The College has more than 7,000 students enrolled on a full-time and part-time basis, including over 1,400 international students.

Griffith College offers taught, careerfocused undergraduate, postgraduate and conversion programmes in accounting, business, computing, design, journalism and media communications, law, drama and music production. Griffith College has over 140 international collaborations with universities and colleges in Europe, Asia, USA and South America. For more information on our courses please visit gcd.ie or call Admissions at 01-4150415. uTeam

Solutions

Team Solutions helps businesses develop and operate best practice services, from commercial operations to employment terms and conditions to dealing with commercial and employment disputes to offering dispute resolution procedures such as Mediation.

uThe

Buff Day Spa

The Buff Day Spa provide a whole range of beauty and holistic therapies such as dermalogica facials, image peels, various massage, maternity treatments, specialised waxing, manicures, pedicures, spray tanning and makeup all in a beautiful setting.

There is a sauna available to our guests for complimentary use as well as a tranquility room and a relaxation area where guests can enjoy herbal teas or simply take in the view of the busy street below. Due to its large spacious interior, bridal parties and corporate groups are comfortably catered for. All spa therapists are fully trained and specialise in giving the very best treatments possible.

For more information on all spa packages and treatments, go to www.thebuffdayspa.com or call 01-6774624. We guarantee you will enjoy your treatments with us! uThe

Corkscrew

Established in 2004 by Colm Douglas, Paul Foley and Peter Foley, colleagues from what was one of Ireland’s most prominent wine merchants, Berry Brothers

and Rudd, and subsequently by Christopher Gifford in 2008. Our philosophy is quite simple: to select wines that demonstrate the character and independence that we demand, wines which deliver quality and individuality regardless of price. We launched our site in September 2010 and in 2011/2012 we picked up three awards for our website: an Eircom Spider Award, a Nokia Digital Media Award and an Irish Internet Association ‘Net Visionary’ award.

Three from three ain’t a bad haul! uTrain

Ability

The key aim of Train Ability is to provide Disability Awareness for staff in the private industry. If you are a restaurant, hotel, shop or bar you are increasing your sales and social awareness by having and promoting your business as disability aware. uWatt

Less

Watt Less provides an auditing and implementation service to capture the achievable savings in lighting through alternative light sources and lighting controls. Training in auditing to optimise the business opportunity. g

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AUDI CLUB MEMBERSHIP PUttIng YoU CEntRE StAgE

A Private Members Club at The O2

T / +353 1 866 3425 | E / info@audiclub.ie | W / www.audiclub.ie

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Q3 2013

TALKING THEATRICS

H BUSINESS IRELAND Q3 2013

Dublin’s theatre scene during festival season

Method in

MEDIATION The commercial mediation option for businesses BI cover 2013 Q3.indd 1

TRIED AND

TRUSTED

Independent Trustee Company’s Aidan McLoughlin on the need for pension sector reform

18/09/2013 11:57:53