An engineer at your service

The spring in the step of young people in Grafton Street gives Brian Kearney the same good feeling he gets walking down Fifth Avenue in New York.

The chairman of Project Management, Ireland's biggest engineering services company, always believed in the American way of doing business and he is quick to highlight the lessons Irish firms have learned in the past 30 years from doing business with US multinationals.

The Celtic Tiger At Your Service aims to offer advice on performance in the service industry and delivers this in a straightforward, no-nonsense fashion. There are no startling revelations here. But what makes The Celtic Tiger different from run-of-the-mill management books is that it is written from personal experience of building a successful Irish business from scratch.

Kearney shoots from the hip, writes with conviction and even has a sense of humour. Approached by Foster Wheeler at the end of 1987, a 10 per cent shareholding in Project Management was offered instead of a joint venture. Project Management learned the latter option could be approved in Foster Wheeler at a less senior level, but a shareholding investment had to get the OK from the chief executive and was therefore the better option. "We certainly succeeded in getting their attention."

Mr Kearney makes useful points about non-executive directors, working with a much project partner, confidence, persuasion, adopting a quality standard and running a board meeting. Mr Kearney will no longer be active in the running of the company, remaining as a non-executive director for three years. Maybe he will tackle what might be his toughest challenge yet and try to get his golf handicap down.

jmulqueen@irish-times.ie