3. Competing Through Productivity (continued)

• Homepage
• Chairman’s Statement
• Chief Executive Officer’s Report

• Section 1
  Achieving Export Sales
• Section 2
  Investing in Research and Innovation
• Section 3
  Competing Through Productivity
  • Productivity Improvement Fund launched
  • International Mentor Network
  • Kayfoam Woolfson
  • Butler Manufacturing Services Ltd.
• Section 4
  Starting and Scaling Companies
• Section 5
  Driving Regional Enterprise

• Membership of the Board & Committees
• Organisation Structure
• Corporate Governance
• Financial Statements
• Office Network

Building Management Capability

The Enterprise Ireland strategy identifies enhanced management capability and skills as major contributors to achieving success. In 2005, the Management Capability & Training Strategy was developed and a new Business Unit, Client Management Development & Mentoring, was established. The strategy offers client companies support in building their management teams, developing their capabilities and improving their access to external expertise.

Graduating Class, MSc in International
Business Programme 2003-2005

Building management teams: Enterprise Ireland offers a range of supports designed to help clients build the current and future management capabilities they need for growth. A new Management Capability Service for High Growth Companies has been piloted. This initiative helps clients to identify the management teams they need to grow their businesses.

Developing existing teams: Strengthening the existing human resources of a company is achieved through a wide range of management development and strategic change programmes. In 2005, 116 client managers participated in long-term development programmes.

This includes a number of sectoral programmes with a focus on strategic change management. A particularly strong feature of these programmes is the involvement of Irish and international expertise. For example, the Danish Meat Institute and the Irish Management Institute deliver a programme for the pork and bacon processing industry and the Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education is involved in the joint Enterprise Ireland/Bord Iascaigh Mhara programme for the seafood processing sector.

Developing international sales and marketing capabilities: In 2005, 27 managers graduated from the MSc in International Business and a second programme commenced. The MSc provides owners and senior managers with a practical understanding of how to compete in international business and to develop strategic management capabilities. It is delivered by Trinity College Dublin and the Institute for Management Development in Switzerland.

Enterprise Ireland, in co-operation with the Irish Software Association and FÁS, concluded the third year of Sales STAR (Sales Strategies and Tactics to Accelerate Revenue). In 2005, 26 Chief Executive Officers of high-growth software companies completed the programme. In April 2005, a new programme designed for senior sales executives, Sales STAR for VP Sales, commenced with 20 participants.

In direct response to the Enterprise Strategy Action Plan announced by Minister Micheál Martin in February 2005, a unique export development programme has been launched to help Irish companies win international sales and sustain export growth into the future. The International Selling Programme is being delivered for Enterprise Ireland by the Dublin Institute of Technology. It caters for manufacturing and internationally-traded service companies that are currently exporting or have advanced plans to do so, and is aimed at executives who have responsibility for growing international sales.

First Flight, developed in conjunction with the Irish Exporters Association, provides clients who are new to exporting, or who export very little, with a systematic process to prepare for selling overseas. The United Kingdom programme had 101 participants in 2005 and on the strength of this continued success, First Flight Asia was launched. This involved 92 participants and focused on the key markets of China, Korea, India and Japan. First Flight North America will be launched in 2006.

Accessing External Expertise: Enterprise Ireland’s Mentor Network provided 268 clients with access to the wide ranging knowledge, connections, experience and advice of expert mentors. In 2005, the Mentor Network was expanded to include international mentors in the Lifesciences and ICT sectors, based initially in the United Kingdom and United States. Dr. John Monahan, one of the international mentors is profiled here.

Source: Forfás/Enterprise Ireland Annual Business Review

Legal | Contact | Sitemap