Cutting through all the investment and business jargon, using simple and easy to understand language, we try to make is as easy as possible to understand what it takes to be an Entrepreneur and to grow a small business into a multi-national global enterprise:

This manual is not the be-all and end-all of being a successful Entrepreneur. But the methods have worked tremendously well for me over the last 20 years. And better still they have worked where many thousands of others have failed…

My own system is not infallible either. But if you read this booklet to get more information on the subject of what it means to realize the dream of being a successful Entrepreneur and cannot spend all the time needed, to collect all the information – then this is the answer. After you read this and decide that starting a business is right for you, go and get the 10 Lesson Course “How to write a successful Business Plan” on page 3 of the booklet. There is no charge. Call it payback or pay it forward for getting to here….

The second article I read was in the David Mc’Williams opinion “A matter of life or debt” where he relates the struggle of a businessman on reduced turnover battling it out with the local council who insist on a higher rent for land that is rented to the business. The businessman is unable to pay the increase and the council refuses to reduce their demand.

Is there perhaps compromise and a win-win opportunity to be had in all parts of society if there is a more open and innovative approach to resolving problems rather than trying to plug the cashflow issue of businesses or social welfare fraud reduction?

What if the businessman were to undertake to provide the services of the machinery that are lying dormant on the disputed council rented ground and offer the use of that machinery in lieu of the extra cash being sought by the council. What is more that same machinery could be loaned out to the “Community Welfare to Work” sector of the community in which the businessman operates and the community benefits.

In marketing terms the businessman gains much more than a reduced rent bill for the land, but a high profile within the community as his machinery is exposed on a more regular basis within the community and as such is more likely to be hired by members of the community as they need it in the future.

You’re responsible to your community, to your customers, to your employees and to your suppliers. Serve them all and your rights thing tends to take care of itself.

The human bit has a lot to do with being on boards of directors and travelling to the companies they invest in. If you consider the cluster mentality of investing locally, or at the very least investing conditions based on an investee company moving to a cluster area (i.e. Silicon Valley) means that companies who want investment had to move to the investors.

This is perfectly natural if you have 15-20 companies to oversee and you want to manage them it is natural to seek to have them locally or at the very least regionally rather than look further afield.

I refer specifically to the professional service structure of the VC community. Unlike Accountancy or Law firms where you can have multiple partner offices in many cities operating independently, but collectively responsible, VC’s could look to form such structures where the core is not necessarily limited to local or regional offices. To achieve this they need to think in terms of McKinsey, Accenture, E&Y or even the Airline industry “Star Alliance” as a visual illustration of collective responsibility whilst remaining independent.

There is enough due diligence undertaken in the VC sector so finding the right partners cannot be that difficult.

This is not the same as participating in syndicated deals which they do already. There is plenty of scope for such operations. The VC world has changed very little over the last few decades. They are still very proprietary small operations and could themselves achieve economies of scale if they franchised their business model. They could gain access to local knowledge without risking be cut out of a good proportion of any deal and more importantly allow for local culture issues to be resolved locally.

Instead of demanding cultures in growth companies comply 100% to “cluster” based culture places such as Dublin, Warsaw, Zagreb and Prague may not be Silicon Valley, but they are a hive of technology innovation.

Without an extensive study by analysts and having been involved in the pharmaceutical industry for the last 15 years this is a sobering back of a napkin calculation. Lipitor will account for €7-€8 billion in sales this year, maybe, down a couple of billion since Zocor, a competitor, went generic. When a statin comes off patent the company that makes the proprietary version should see a sales loss of 80% or more.

Depending on how much of that profit it retains in Ireland as all production is here so we can see that the revenue in 2012 for Lipitor could be best case at €1.5-2 billion profit which is potentially a drop of €700 million of tax revenue. Take in the Viagra active ingredient production which also goes off patent and you could see a drop of tax revenue in 2012 from Pfizer alone of €1 billion.

This will put a serious hole in the tax receipts which may not be included in the Department of Finance numbers for that and subsequent years.

It strikes me that with a computer, mathematics is probably the easiest subject to be provided as an application on an iPhone. I am not talking just about a complex calculator with Sine, Tan, CoSine etc. I am talking about taking the same skill set that is being put into the likes of Google linguistics capabilities and delivering the results that anyone would need under any circumstances to make appropriate calculations.

The paradox is of course that to get there we need good mathematicians in the first place and there are millions out there already. But if we are to make a leap forward perhaps removing the basic necessity to undertake an unnecessary chore of learning mathematics is to provide a hand held solution.

Thanks to Chris Horn who directed me to Wolfram|Alpha and here is the application that takes the headache out of asking a mathematical question. A sort of Math for dummies..

So the insiders will stiff the outsiders…. Shift happens. I am not in any way condoning the mess that was made, but the fact is that the mess is made and it needs to be fixed.

Now what are the ideas to go about doing this? Well the Greek 10% off everything is a big idea. It is not far off the old Dunnes Stores concept of “pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap”. We are all getting used to the campaign to reduce our carbon footprint. Everyone has to do a little more to use a little less of fossil fuel.

A private sector currency can not only reduce the cost of Irish goods and service by 10% but can encourage consumers to spend more on Irish goods and services, reward tourists for coming to Ireland in the form of vouchers and possibly start to reduce unemployment.

At least “your country, your call” is a campaign to stop whinging and get on with doing a little to the power of ‘one’ as opposed to complaining into your pint of beer on friday about how tough it is and how much less you are worth this year compared to last.

Are you prepared to take on an intern, inconvenient or not, for free to teach them the ropes when they leave college?

What about a campaign of “Green Shield Stamps” where you charge the full rate, but take 10% in vouchers to be redeemed from another contractor or shop, restaurant who is also in the scheme? It won’t get you a cheaper 56 inch LCD TV, but it will support a student who is able to work in a restaurant because you are using your voucher as a discount and perhaps spending a little more than nothing which would have happened if you avoided the restaurant in the first place.

According to the CSO figures published yesterday there were 6.9million visitors who spent (Failte Ireland) on average €600 euro in Ireland last year. What if every visitor were given €10 euro worth of vouchers to spend on goods and services made and provided in Ireland while they were here? They already pay €10 in taxes to land here and if we are to be seen to make a contribution, why punish them for visiting? Let’s make them welcome with the private sectors contribution. This takes it away from the RyanAir complaints department and spreads it around the country.

It is likely that every visitor with their average of €600 will continue to spend that €600 but we are helping the tourist industry as this system can easily spread to the Irish population itself. This is a private sector currency and does not undermine the Euro at all. It is likely that it would encourage more spending on Irish goods and services.

..do people expect to pay premium for all services in airports? Why?

I thought that perhaps it better to ask why should people be expected to have to pay an inconvenient premium for a convenience store at an airport?

Every airport store is a micro competitive economy.

They attract, or lose, freely travelling migrants to contribute to their economic wealth and in return customers expect to be rewarded or at the very least feel they belong to the store. The premium paid at these stores should convey a privilege.

Look at how a tourist board makes visitors get the sense of experience they would have before visiting the country. There is a sense of anticipation about making a trip to another country because there is a preconceived idea of what is in store on arrival and it is of course that experience that the visitor leaves with after participation in the trip. So each village (airport store) must have their own tourist board and the promotion must ensure that new visitors arrive with an expectation and leave with a sense of belonging.

Starbucks is a good example of why customers want to return again and again and happily pay a premium for the “privilege” and not feel inconveniently isolated with limited options?

How do you convey privilege to your customers and why would they want to belong to a store?

Social marketing media is the tourist board of any retail outlet and the results of a study today on UK retailers not making the most of social media makes for interesting reading. Only 26% make use of twitter while 24% make use of facebook and a mere 8% use blogs. Twitter is a means of broadcasting to followers while facebook allows participation and a sense of belonging.

Interaction with users need not just be in an airport and encouragement of participation in requests for users experience in facebook or immediate tweets on user experience currently in a store provides instant feedback and gives customers a sense of belonging or participation in the brand.

Social Media marketing for travellers

One of my favourite social brand examples are Wi-Fi providers for airport travellers “Boingo“. They actively encourage participation by offering rewards in return for contribution. For a catering company asking about their best experience at an airport store is rewarded with a free coffee. Customers need to feel they are getting more in return and achieving this need not require more than a friendly coffee next time they pass by, or better still stop by and remain loyal returning visitors.

We used tax incentives and low cost educated english speaking employees to attract FDI. Now we need a much more refined solution for a much more complex opportunity. If we expect our “Smart Economy” to get Ireland out of the mess it is in, practical alternatives are needed.

Chris Horn in his Sunday Business Post article and his blog refer to Foreign Risk Capital being needed and should be encouraged is absolutely right. This is our way out if we have the vision to implement the necessary steps to encourage more of it to come to Ireland. FRC providers would fall over themselves to get here if the environment and opportunities exist. What is needed is to create reasons for FRC to come here.

To achieve it we must start from some other point than just making it attractive. Attractive is an abstract without detail and focus. A comment that is nothing more than useless rhetoric.

1. We need to fight and bid for risk projects to be located, or relocate here.
2. We provide package deal projects for risk capital to participate in those projects.
3. We must sell those projects or syndicate them to FRC providers.

In fact Ireland becoming the equivalent of a Corporate Finance operation for innovative projects is a logical evolution of the IDA.

Royalty tax incentives on patented products developed here by subsidiaries of foreign owned companies. Write-off tax incentives for up-front investment allowing for risk, so instead of grants, allow 125% of risk capital against taxable corporate income for 10 years and allow tax free bonuses to be paid from royalty receipts for patent owners.

These are opportunities outside of the corporation tax net that should not pose any significant threat to tax revenues if they are wealth and job creators. Their only effect is to encourage higher value employees that can be attracted to Ireland, contribute greatly to the economy and directly and indirectly help to grow the Smart Economy from within.

The IDA has a role, not just in attracting FDI with incentives as a tax funnel for call centres and pill producing low-cost and highly mobile production plants. The Taskforce recommendations to Government due in January 2010 will have many good recommendations to provide a green and smart economy. Let’s hope the government have the courage and vision and are “Smart” enough to implement many of them.

Innovation is the outcome of a definable logical sequence of developments within an evolved creative process, derived from an abstract idea or desired alternative to the perceived reality of an existing problem

Innovation is beneficial but not necessarily required to be economically viable. We may benefit from the research of the Hedron Collidor but may not recoup the financial investment. It is still an innovation.

An Architect has an Abstract idea he can visualize building the tallest skyscraper 101 in Taipei 200 metres from an earthquake fault line and in the path of many typhoons. The perceived reality is that anything this high would be destroyed by a big earthquake and blown by 200 kilometre winds.

Evolved creative processes occur for each challenge faced from the beginning and sub-creative processes for problems arising as the building progresses. Each stage creates its own challenge and each contractor evolves their solutions for problems they face along the construction process.

Ultimately you may define the creative processes as logical sequences of developments, but only after it’s completion just as we write up scientific papers for experiments in a laboratory, but only after we complete it. This makes Architects, Scientists and Entrepreneurs as much artists as any 4 year old child.