EY Entrepreneur of the Year international finalist: Denise Tormey, PlanNet 21

Denise Tormey is the president and co-founder of PlanNet 21, a specialist integrator of technology solutions.

After graduating with an honours degree in business studies and IT from the University of Limerick, Tormey spent 10 months working for CIE Tours International, negotiating and planning tours for groups and individuals wishing to travel to Ireland.

She then joined Digital Equipment Corporation where she qualified as a chartered accountant. There, she specialised in several finance roles including treasury management, financial accounting and management accounting before crossing over into ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems and business analysis.

Tormey co-founded PlanNet21 in 1998 to help global US companies establish or expand their operations in Europe and Asia.

She spends most of her days in Silicon Valley and San Francisco focusing on building bridges between US companies and their overseas operations by offering technology solutions to businesses expanding into EMEA and emerging markets.

The company is headquartered in Dublin, with operations in the UK, France and US. It deploys unified communications, data centre, wireless mobility, virtualisation and networking services on behalf of companies such as Dell, Cisco, NetApp, Polycom, VMware, Zendesk, and Palo Alto Networks. PlanNet21's global client base includes many of the Fortune 100 companies, and it helps them manage planning, design, procurement and deployment processes.

What is your greatest business achievement to date? Growing the Galway company from a self-funded, Irish indigenous start-up to global organisation servicing the largest companies in the world. While we have had challenges like the dotcom burst in 2000, the recession in 2009 and huge exchange rate fluctuations in 2014/15 that affected clients' budgets and ability to release projects, we have been shown consistent growth in our 17 years.

Describe your business model and what makes your business unique: Our unique selling point would be our ability to adopt new technologies in our area fast and effectively become market leaders. Customer focus is our creed. We combine agility, technical excellence and market intelligence to make the customer experience as easy as possible. Our customers' needs and business goals are always paramount.

What is the hardest thing you have ever done in business? Expanding operations to the US, personally, was difficult. Moving and settling the entire family to a new country as well as establishing the company was quite a chore. Building both personal and business networks from scratch takes time.

What is the most common mistake you see entrepreneurs make? Underestimating the importance of managing their cash flow. Also, not staying focused with a clear business plan and understanding of the market. Entrepreneurs should always consider if there is a market for what they are trying to sell. Finally, it's really important for businesses to get their sales model right.

What would make you a better leader? I like to lead by doing. I like to communicate with the team, empathise, teach and explain our shared goal. I recognise I have not had much training in formal presentation and am working on that. Outside of that, there is the challenge of continuing to nurture our team, keep abreast of industry trends and validate strategic direction.