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 NEWS-TRENDS-ANALYSIS
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EDITORIAL FEATURE
Pointing Fingers Will Not Aid Recovery 
Michael Maguire is Managing Partner at Quintus Management. Author of 'It's Our Thing - 300 Years of Irish Brands,' he is a regular columnist on business matters in several major newspapers and business magazines. Thumbing through various newspapers and magazines while waiting in an airport business lounge a few weeks back, I was struck by the scale, focus, and treatment of journalistic output on our continued economic woes and what I read fills me with anxiety. The fact that it is a rolling story of global significance that merits hectares of column centimetres is not what concerns me. It is our collective failure to focus attention on how we restore our wealth and commercial prowess is what's wrong. The media has tracked the evolving economic crisis and the public outrage on disproportionate payments to senior banking executives with some relish just as it had the perpetually defensive response of the former UK Labour government and that of Fianna Fail in the Republic of Ireland to a worsening situation. The blame game has been in full swing for nigh on two years now. Politicians point fingers at the bankers, the financial institutions and the multinationals demand ongoing taxpayer intervention of host countries to offset commercial losses with everyone heaping blame on 'global economics.' Meanwhile the SME sector which is the driver of the economy has to shoulder the burden of maintaining employment. This is like Nero fiddling on his lyre while Rome burns! Enough already! There will be a time and place to bring the architects of our current economic failures to account and for us to put in place new early warning measures to protect against future difficulties. What businesses need right now are clear strategies for recovery and growth that place the principles of market driven revenue generation at the heart of company planning. Recognising that some sectors will find the climate more pressing than others, for Northern Ireland companies the depreciated value of Sterling will continue to provide a short term export cost advantage over other currencies and in the right circumstances can offset the impact of recession in Europe and North America throughout 2010. The same is true of Northern Ireland's tourism and retail industries. Indeed, Northern Ireland currently provides considerable value to those in the Euro zone. The world does not stop buying simply because credit is tight. There are many business opportunities out there if we have a mind to grasp them, and frankly I think that we owe it to our shareholders, our customers, and to our community that we do so. That said, it is important that businesses review their skills mix, particularly marketing because of all the business disciplines employed by companies, marketing is the only one that is wholly concerned with revenue generation. So here is my plea. Let us concentrate our intellectual resources and marketing skills on generating revenue for our businesses. If we can achieve that over the next year, many of the wider problems including government cuts, can be put in perspective. Governments cannot create wealth. That is up to us. So let's get on with it.
You may contact Michael Maguire at:
© Quintus Management (2010) |
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