An IMI development programme gives entrepreneurs practical guidance on how to grow their business in a contracting market, writes FRANK DILLLON.

THE CHANGING business landscape is one that calls for fresh ways of thinking. Entrepreneur Rocky Wall certainly believes this and has taken on a challenging third-level education programme to help him steer his way through the conundrum of growing his business in a contracting market.

Wall runs Wink, a firm that design and installs high-end lighting solutions for public sector, commercial and residential clients. The firm, established in 1989 by Wall and his business partner, Patrick Collins, has a turnover of €2.5 million and eight staff.

Wall trained as an electrician in the 1980s and developed a specialisation in theatre lighting. He emigrated to Australia for a while, where he spent time touring with David Bowie, Mick Jagger and others before returning to establish his business here.

The company has grown steadily in recent years on the back of the construction boom and increased design consciousness of residential clients. High-profile installations include the Dublin docklands, University of Limerick, Light House Cinema, Farmleigh and Cork Public Museum.

Wink is currently designing and installing a lighting strategy for Kilkenny’s urban centre and a public art installation due to be erected on the M1 later this year.

The firm has also enjoyed international success. In 2005, Wink designed and managed the lighting strategy for a medical university in Bahrain and in 2008 it won an international tender to design the lighting for Paris’s newest pedestrian bridge, the Passerelle des Grand Moulins.

While Wall says the business has been “holding its own overall” despite the downturn, he acknowledges that the residential side has experienced a fall-off. At the high, “one-off” houses end of the market, “everyone is aware there is a deal to be had”, while middle-market clients are reining in their spending.

It is an ideal time, then, to take stock and see if there are ways of doing things differently. Wall has enrolled in the Irish Management Institute’s (IMI) business development programme, a practical one-year part-time course that leads to a Hetac-accredited diploma at level seven in the National Framework of Qualifications.

Now in its 25th year, the business development programme is the IMI’s flagship small and medium-sized enterprise programme and is designed exclusively for business owners and successors.

The programme involves two consecutive days a month, with modules covering subjects ranging from strategy to the practicalities of debt collection, negotiating with banks and implementing redundancies. “The course reflects the realities of the current market and most of the lecturers are businesspeople themselves so there’s a practical edge,” says Wall.

Among the aims of the course are providing a clear direction and future focus for a business with a three- to five-year strategic plan, and moving entrepreneurs from an operations focus to a customer and market focus. There is also a strong emphasis on how to realise new business opportunities and grow exports, if possible.

Participants are put through a Dragons’ Den-style process where they present the case for their business and this is then dissected by the group. They are also assigned a mentor, who visits their company and speaks to staff to get another perspective on the business. There are 25 participants in the current programme, which began in September, with backgrounds ranging from medicine to plumbing.

“There’s a loneliness in being an entrepreneur in that it can be difficult to share things with people you work with, so I’ve found great benefits in talking to the other participants,” says Wall.

“You realise that everyone has their problems but the people on this course are all optimists so you develop a very positive support network.”

Wall adds that he has made changes in his management style based on what he has learnt from the lecturers and his mentor, and he believes he has developed a more strategic rather than a hands-on operational approach in recent months.

He has also abandoned his previous marketing strategy. “I used to spend a lot on advertising, but one of the lecturers pointed out to me that mine was a three-dimensional business so it needed a different form of communication,” he says.

“We stopped the advertising and invested in a public relations consultant instead. Now, we have a clearer communications strategy for the markets we’re aiming at.”

Applications are being accepted for the next IMI business development programme, which starts on May 19th. For more details, see www.imi.ie