The Friday Interview:Sitting in a crowded and noisy food hall above the departure lounge at Dublin airport, Anne Heraty, the reigning Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, is racking her brain to think of some worthwhile advice she could pass on to those looking at setting up their own businesses, writes Ciarán Hancock.
"What would I say to budding entrepreneurs?" the chief executive of leading recruitment group CPL asks herself. "Em . . . God . . . I don't know, to be honest with you.
"I suppose you just need to have a deep-seated belief in what you want to do and then have an absolute focus on it. Then it's about going and doing it. I'd say to them to have no fear of failure, to go for what you want and take the risk."
Later on, Heraty quotes her age as 46, before quickly correcting herself and adding a year. "Jeepers, I'm a year older than I thought." Her difficulty could probably be put down to an exhausting schedule.
On Tuesday, Heraty took 20 minutes out for an interview before hotfooting it to catch a flight to London. That followed a morning jam-packed with meetings.
On Wednesday, she was on the road between Cork, Limerick and Galway, while on Thursday it was off to Monte Carlo for the rest of the week to represent Ireland at the global version of the entrepreneur awards.
In between, she also had to find time for husband Paul Carroll, who also works for CPL, and two young children. Most people would need a lie down just thinking about such a schedule.
Not that Heraty likes to portray herself as some kind of superwoman. It's just life.
"All of life is a negotiation," she says. "I'm very lucky. I've had the same childminder since Amy [her 12-year-old daughter] was two weeks old. That's an incredible support to us as a family. And the fact that Paul works with me gives us a little bit of flexibility."
Most people would dread the thought of working day after day with their spouse. Heraty smiles and says it's not a problem.
"We do different things," she explains. "We wouldn't be working on the same project together and we have very different skills."
Carroll, whose background is in human resources, only joined the business in 1996, seven years after Heraty had co-founded Computer Placement Limited (CPL).
Heraty is the company's chief executive and biggest shareholder, while Carroll is the company's business development director. In spite of her loftier title, Heraty insists her husband wears the trousers in the relationship.
"You don't have to ask; you know well it's Paul," she says with a laugh, before adding: "We're a team, we're a team."
Whatever the hierarchy, Heraty and Carroll have combined impressively to create Ireland's biggest recruitment agency and the only such Irish company listed on the stock market.
What began as a recruiter for the then fledgling technology sector in Ireland has since grown to become an agency that hires staff across most sectors of the economy and has a stock market valuation of €296 million.
CPL places about 20,000 temporary and contract candidates every year and finds permanent jobs for an additional 9,000.
The group has also dipped its toe into international waters, dropping anchor in Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Heraty wants to add more offices in central and eastern Europe.
"We've had a great wind at our back and that's been hugely important to us," she says.
To be fair to Heraty, CPL was making hay in the recruitment market here long before the sun shone and the Irish economy blossomed.
"CPL was set up with just a desk and a phone," she recalls. "We grew throughout the nineties, even the early nineties when things were really tough. Thank God for the [ boom] but I think we can do well even with slower growth rates.
"Anything over 3 per cent and a company like CPL can continue to do very well."
The good news is that Heraty sees no signs of a slowdown in recruitment, usually a good barometer for activity in any economy.
"I think when there is a slowdown we'll see it first," Heraty says. "We did the last time with the technology sector [ in 2000]. I'd say we saw it about four to six months ahead of the market actually slowing down. I don't have a sense of that happening at the moment."
Heraty is the only woman in the field for tomorrow night's awards bash in Monaco and is expected to survive the early culls as the field of about 45 is gradually reduced to a handful of candidates who will vie for the top prize.
Winning the Irish gong has helped put CPL on the map, she says, particularly overseas, where people have started to sit up and take notice of a hitherto little-known Irish recruiter.
Heraty's success is all the more remarkable given that she spent just three years in the workforce as a sales rep with Xerox and then as a recruiter with Grafton Recruitment before setting up CPL.
Revenues and profits have accelerated sharply over the past few years, helped by some astute acquisitions. Brokers estimate that pre-tax profits of €17 million on turnover of €41 million will be recorded in the current year, which ends on June 30th.
The explosive growth has boosted Heraty's bank balance, too. In February, she sold two million shares in CPL, pocketing €14 million in the process. A year earlier she netted €19 million after selling five million shares.
Heraty still owns 34 per cent of the business, a shareholding worth €100 million on paper. Carroll owns an additional 6 per cent, worth €17.8 million.
Has she considered cashing in her chips and taking early retirement? No chance.
"I love it. I love the business and I love what I'm doing and I really want to grow the business out internationally. There are only a handful of Irish businesses that are growing internationally and I'd like to see CPL being one of them."
On The Record
Name:Anne Heraty.
Job:Chief executive of CPL.
Age:47.
Family:Married with two children.
Career:Graduated with a BA in maths and economics from UCD. Spent short time as sales rep with Xerox and recruiter with Grafton Recruitment. Co-founded CPL in 1989. Took ownership three years later and floated company in 1999.
Something that might surprise:Jumped off a 30ft cliff into a river when holidaying in the Canadian Rockies last year.
Something you might expect:A non-executive director with Anglo Irish Bank and Bord na Móna.
Outside interests:Family, reading and golf.
Why is she in the news? Represents Ireland at the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monaco on Saturday.
