Sharing the savvy

Successful firms are often happy to share their secrets. An Irish venture is helping companies to make the right connections, writes Caroline Madden

Trying to figure out how your company could cut costs and remain competitive? Perplexed by a staffing issue? Overwhelmed by the digital content revolution?

Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, Philip McNamara of Inspire Nation advises that the best way to overcome these sorts of challenges is to visit and get inspiration from companies that have already figured out the keys to success.

To this end, Inspire Nation organises study tours for small groups of top executives to visit thriving cities such as Seattle and San Francisco and inspirational companies such as Google, Apple, Nike and Starbucks.

"I help companies to learn about globalisation, and the challenges of globalisation, by taking them around the world to learn about some of the most advanced companies and what they're doing," explains McNamara.

These trips can cost anything from €5,000 upwards, depending on the destination and duration of the visit. The group normally includes the chief executive and the chief financial or information officer, and they meet their peers in the various host companies that they visit.

"I usually try and take the top people because that's the best way for both groups to learn," he says.

"You've got a visiting group and the hosting group, and it only makes sense if both can learn from each other - it's no good if it's only a one-way conversation."

As well as whisking executives around the globe to meet some of the most impressive business leaders in the world, Inspire Nation also includes several governments on its client list.

In fact, one of the company's first trips was "The Tiger Tour" in 2003, which saw government representatives from the UK and Dubai visit the Republic to try to "capture the roar" and figure out how to recreate our successful economic model.

McNamara scored a major coup in the lead-up to the tour when he persuaded Mary Harney, then minister for enterprise, trade and employment, to meet the group.

Telecoms entrepreneur and billionaire Denis O'Brien also agreed to impart his wisdom to the visitors.

Once these headline acts were signed up, plenty of other key players came on board, with the result that the visiting group met an impressive line-up of key movers and shakers in the Irish economy, and the trip was a resounding success.

Of course that was in 2003, when the Celtic Tiger was still in its prime - but is our economic allure now on the wane?

McNamara doesn't think so. "I think we're still an example for lots of other economies," he says.

"I talk to [the equivalent of] the IDA of Sweden and Denmark and I always ask them who do you look up to in Europe?

"And they always say Ireland, they always say - 'The IDA has done a fantastic job. If we could have half the success the IDA has had, we'd be doing really, really well.' So there's still a lot of strength in the economy."

However, that's not to say that the Republic can rest on its laurels and shut its eyes to the examples being set in other countries.

An Inspire Nation trip to Denmark last summer with a group from Forfás, the national advisory board for enterprise and innovation, examined how the Danish companies and unions were dealing with the prospect of losing a lot of their manufacturing jobs to India and China.

"They've done a lot of work in helping unions and helping smaller companies to understand that they're going to have to upskill and they're going to have to become more innovative," says McNamara.

The study group learned how this had been achieved, and examined how greater labour market flexibility has helped the transition from manufacturing to services and IT.

Inspire Nation organised roughly 12 tours last year and continues to go from strength to strength.

An upcoming trip to Sweden will explore the pressing issue of climate change and will examine the huge leaps made by the Swedes in addressing their energy needs. "By 2020 Sweden is going to be oil-free, which is a huge step," says McNamara.

Sweden is changing everything, he says, from running entire cities off biofuel to using ethanol to fuel their buses.

But although the delegation heading to Sweden will include government officials, these will be representing the UK.

No Irish government representatives have signed up, even though the Republic could benefit greatly from taking a leaf out of Sweden's book, he says.

"We're really, really in trouble," McNamara says of the Irish energy situation.

"We import 87 per cent of our energy and it's going to take a huge crisis for the Government to realise that they need to change. In Sweden it's not going to take a crisis, it's going to be ok. They're planning now."

So although our economy has served as a shining example to other nations, unfortunately our response to the looming energy crisis is far from inspirational.