FEATURE
World Class Belfast Drew Nesbitt, Partner at Wilson Nesbitt
Drew Nesbitt, Partner at Wilson Nesbitt, has been talking to Belfast’s most successful business pioneers and organisation leaders, to find out their insights, how they are helping to deliver a World Class Belfast and what support they feel is needed. Nigel Wright, CEO of Converge Technology Specialists, is part of the growing diaspora to return to Northern Ireland. From his new base, Wright explains that he was born just down the road. He decided to start a business in Manchester aged 33 and, with £2,000 in his back pocket, began to build what is now CTS, one of the largest providers of IT services to law firms in the UK. What sets Northern Ireland apart on the world business stage? “It’s an attractive, friendly place: career skills, low operating costs, a business-friendly Government, a great place to live and work. Our biggest strength is our people. We just need to believe that we could do something exceptional - we have the opportunity to be world class. Our people are at the core of our potential success, the people that you
Nigel Wright, CEO of Converge Technology Specialists
employ here will be more loyal to making you successful, because you’re bringing them into a small area and giving them a great opportunity to succeed. People like doing business with us. They love our honesty, our openness, and the craic. It’s a compelling proposition to the world.” Is it a matter of encouraging businesses to flourish in a free market? “It only works if more of our people have a growth mindset. The lack of that ‘yes we can’ attitude is going to be a challenge to any entrepreneur starting a business here. One of the things I would love to see is us fostering that growth mindset in schools, at university, and with young business people.” Will it take a vision and a force of personality to make this happen? “We need an identifiable brand - a great value proposition - for who we want to be on the world stage. There needs to be a really clear, communal focused aim across the board, which we bring to the table, that resonates round the world. We are small enough to be able to do something collectively, and we’re
big enough to be able to do something that puts us firmly on the world map.The whole success of my business has been about specialisation. Our aim, fundamentally, has to be global. We have to state clearly, we want to be the global leader in these areas, not the best in Ireland, the UK, or Europe, but the best globally.” What else is needed? “Ecosystem building has to be part of the picture. The stronger the ecosystem, the more innovation is derived. There’s an exciting cyber cluster growing here, we need more examples like that.”
Wilson Nesbitt will be hosting its second webinar in the series; ‘Growing a World Class Belfast’ focusing on Entrepreneurship, on Wed 11 Aug at 2.30pm. Register your place via the Wilson Nesbitt website/ Linkedin / Eventbrite.
“It’s an attractive, friendly place: career skills, low operating costs, a business-friendly Government, a great place to live and work. Our biggest strength is our people. We just need to believe that we could do something exceptional - we have the opportunity to be world class 78
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