Time to support your future generation!

As our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews prepare to sit Junior and Leaving Certificate exams, we can all I am sure, remember just how we felt as the exams’ deadline approached. We can all recall fretting and worrying about whether or not all of the information we had stored and crammed into every corner of our brain could be regurgitated in the right order, for the specific questions we were answering.

I know that some, uh hum, thirty odd years ago, I was studying hard in my bedroom in Pitlessie Village, just a few miles from my secondary school, Bell Baxter High School, in Cupar, in a wee county called Fife. I very quickly realised that I was not the brightest match in the box and that if I was to succeed in my future life, I would have to work very, very hard and more importantly I would have to find a study system that worked for me and the limitations I had personally identified in the various subjects I was studying.

Strangely enough, the subject that I found the hardest was English and those closest to me will know that in my whole life I have probably read, cover to cover, just a handful of books. Such was my inability to like this most necessary of subjects, that my parents invested in tutoring and by some minor miracle, or divine intervention,  I managed to pass, with a sufficient Higher Grade, enabling me to go further on to third level education.

Little did I know that in my future careers and work life, I would need English probably more than any other subject I studied?

Despite having an almost complete hatred of the whole subject of English, I now find myself writing more and more in my everyday life and I owe a very big thank you to both my parents, for persevering and investing their time and energy in me, to ensuring I passed that most dreaded of English exams.

As those nearest to us prepare to go through the very same exam pressures, I know that we as parents must give the necessary support, encouragement and guidance to allow our children to perform to the very best of their abilities. We must become coaches and perhaps more importantly mentors so that they know they are not alone in the difficult journey they are about to embark on. As exam mentors, we need to be cognisant of the fact, that we all learn and study in different ways and our children will differ in the way they study, the way they retain information and the way they set down that information on an exam paper.

Luckily, today’s children are assessed throughout the school year and their performance is not all based around just one examination. We all know that a one-off examination will suit some children but will not necessarily suit others. The fact that children are now assessed, will bode well for future careers in the workplace, where they are continually learning and benchmarked. The ability to continually perform and improve is a hard lesson to learn but a necessary one if our children are to continually improve.

The pain and concern all our children are going through this exam time, will stand them in good stead for third level education and their future careers. The more as parents, we can relate to the fact that we too suffered, panicked and bombed some of our exams, will help them through this tough period of their lives. We must find a way of relating our own experiences back to them at the right time and in the right place.

I would wage a bet that the best bosses are in general those who are less gifted, those who found exams very hard, those who may not have a degree and those who had to find the means to get across the line.

It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Perception is everything!

When marketing or branding a product or service, that is predominantly aimed at members of the public, our perception is all encompassing to the process of actually successfully buying that product or service.

In circumstances where we have a poor perception of a product or service we are pre-programmed to avoid at all costs and to a greater degree we imagine, rightly or wrongly, that said product or service is inherently poor or inferior, regardless of what the marketing messages might be telling us.

By definition, perception is the process in which we use our senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment or a particular situation.

And how does this exactly relate to Waterford City.

It is very simple. Everyone’s perception of Waterford City varies in an ever so slightly different way because we all sense experiences in slightly differing ways.

To my mind the City still has a huge untapped potential that needs to be realised in the short and medium term to get the City back as the economic hub of the South East. In my current work role and through my involvement with various groups and committees I see firsthand the enormous amount of work being planned and being carried out. This work will, without any doubt, benefit the many businesses and therefore all the people of Waterford City and County in the very near future.

However, as I am so immersed in these processes my perception more often than not differs from that of my family, my close friends and my business colleagues. I just constantly see that the City and County have not really scratched the surface of what is possible to drive the region forward and for Waterford City to regain its rightful place as the fourth City of Ireland (in economic terms). 

I am always a glass half full person.

I do often feel that I am sometimes alone in that positivity or at the very least I am one of a very small minority that sees a positive future vision that will literally put Waterford back on the map.

I have advocated on many occasions, both in print and on radio, that every voter in Waterford should attend at least one Council meeting in their lifetime. This will give voters the chance to see at firsthand how Council runs, functions and operates through our locally elected representatives. It will also help people understand how the City and or County are perceived through the eyes our elected representatives and the council executive.

Is your vision of the City the same as that of our elected representatives?

With an ever improving retail offering we must encourage even more people back into Waterford City Centre to experience these new shopping opportunities and with the proposed additional shopping centre to come on stream we must take every opportunity to drive up footfall in the City Centre.

It is more important than ever to get this right as we now see out of City Centre retail villages offering a real carrot to attracting shoppers – lots of free car parking!

The many City Centre retail shops can encourage people across their threshold with sales, end of season sales and lots of seasonal special offers. So why can we not look towards opportunities that offer a similar enticing promotion based around parking your car?

Monaco where the first hour of car parking is FREE!

Will further reduced car parking rates or specific car parking offers, similar to those in Cork, Limerick, Dungarvan and Kilkenny, bring increased footfall back into to the City Centre?

Well, we will not know until we have tried and until we try we will always be perceived, by the people of Waterford and many of our visitors, as an expensive place to park a car - no matter what the car park sign states the hourly rate might be.

Have we misplaced our shovel?

Don't hold your breath. 

Waterford City Centre was literally buzzing last weekend and this in part could be attributed to the current promotional programme that is “Summer in the City” and of course the good weather helped also.

This is a cooperative effort by the Waterford Council, Waterford Chamber and the Waterford Business Group who have combined with the Council’s Art Department to organise a series of free entertainment events every Friday evening and Saturday afternoon right through until Saturday 12^th September. In addition there will be a concurrent ArtBeat project that focuses on young emerging local talent playing in New Bailey’s Street.

These two projects are truly a collaborative approach to making the City and its Centre a viable and attractive place for us Waterfordonians and our many summer visitors to congregate and enjoy some excellent entertainment. ArtBeat is also an “edgier” option for the younger members of Waterford at explore budding talent and New Bailey’s Street is certainly swinging to a different beat every Saturday afternoons right through until 29^th August.

It is by working together that we will move Waterford forward and create a product that we can all be proud of and to a certain extent we can all shout about in a positive manner.

But like so much positive news stories there is always a wee word of caution.

Whilst the City Centre is busier at the weekends we are seeing the start of the week becoming increasingly quieter. This is a concern to the many businesses and employers around our City Centre. The need to get increased footfall into the City Centre has to be a priority and increased footfall on the weekends cannot be at the detriment to the start of the week. This imbalance of peak shopping times needs to be looked at and, dare I say, we need to incentivise shoppers to come into the City Centre at the start of the working week.

In fact we need to incentivise shoppers to come into the City Centre on every day of the week!

With another large development about to open in Ardkeen Shopping Centre we will see further erosion of the possible market share for the City Centre and there can be no doubt that this will have an adverse effect on the footfall. We know that there are so many people who have simply gotten out of the habit of venturing down the Dunmore Road or down the Cork Road or coming across the bridge to access the City Centre and this has to be of immense concern to everyone.

Are we now inadvertently creating our own City Centre doughnut and are we ever so slowly strangling the life out of the City Centre?

I would be concerned that we are not creating enough incentives for people to come into the City Centre and this always brings us back to the age old problems and fiery topics of car parking and retail mix. When we hear and read about proposal to spend money on the North Quay and other areas “outside” the actual City Centre we must ask the question would such large sums of money not be better spent addressing the South Quay car parking. Is not the solution staring us in the face?

We need to “take back” the South Quay and reinvent this space/area as public realm space thus allowing us, our visitors, our tourists and alike to actually access this wonderful piece of real estate. I am sure the costs involved in claiming back these areas would be much less than any investment into the North Quay and would an attractive South Quay ensure an accelerated development of the North Quay. This proposition along with a radical solution to cheaper and more affordable car parking would drive up footfall in the City Centre and encourage a better retail mix. After all no big retailer will invest in an area that does not have the creative potential to deliver ever increasing numbers of shoppers and therefore income. 

Yes, the proposed Michael Street development will help our retail mix but just how long will this project take to come to fruition and will it come on stream in time to help boost the footfall to the City Centre. A North Quay development will also help in attracting “business people and suits” to the City but again just how long will we have to wait for this development, and judging by how long it has taken to knock down the old mills I would not be holding your breath.

Groundhog Day.

Surely, we need to be acting now and we need to be acting collaboratively to get our City Centre re-energized once more and the clock is ticking extremely fast and if we and the powers that be are not prepared to act in an accelerated manner surely it will be too late. And in years to come will we all be lamenting that we “should have done this and we should have done that” way back in 2014 and 2015.

Well, we are now halfway through 2014 and still we waking up to the same “Groundhog Day” issues and concerns that have been dragging on for years and years. Surely, we no longer need to wait for another consultants report or another enquiry. Rather we need to act now and we need to act radically once and for all to get the people of Waterford and our visitors back into our City Centre.

The very heart of Waterford’s future plans has to be the City Centre and if we are serious about positioning the City as an economic driver of the south east, as a future University City, with a University Hospital and so on, then we need to be proactive in our solutions in tackling the falling footfall in the City Centre.

Why can’t we introduce a creative car parking solution and give free car parking to support promotions such as “Summer in the City” to attract even more people into the City Centre? Why can’t we have reduced car parking rate rates at the start of the week and so on? Why is taking back the South Quay off the agenda?

Only three possible suggestions, but suggestions that will have real economic impact and at a time when all we will be hearing in the run up to the next budget and next general election is “this will create REAL economic impact” then that economic impact needs to hit Waterford pretty fast and very hard.

You don’t have to dig too deep to find those creative solutions. Maybe we have just misplaced our shovel?

The worst "since records began!"

In meteorological terms the 1^st of June always marks that start of summer.

Irish weather forecasting!

This date is the reference point that is used by meteorologists to allow year on year comparison with weather related statistics and probably allows comparisons “since records began”. Not that many of us actually understand what this phrase really means. We apparently had absolutely no records of any weather patterns until one day some bright spark started writing down what the weather was like on any given day they woke up, and so “since records began” started. That first date must have been an amazing date when it was simply the hottest, wettest, driest, windiest and coldest day on record!

Not that the weather this week has felt anything like summer and as we all hope that, that one day of wonderful weather we had back in May was not summer, we all keep our fingers crossed that this summer will be the best “since records began”.

The compiling of statistical information is hugely important for businesses when they need to refer back to weekly, monthly and yearly key performance indicators. This inevitably leads to direct comparison and more importantly details a statistical evaluation of how the business is performing. This can then allow for real time adjustments to strategy to get a business back on track in terms of the annual budgetary goals that would have been set at the start of the financial year.

Using the correct statistical information is also a fundamental if we are to assess accurately how we are performing.

I heard only last week a lot of commentary that Waterford is now “moving in the right direction” in terms of its economic recovery. Well this is and is not true.

Footfall!

Yes, we are seeing some great economic news on the jobs front, particularly in the pharmaceutical and service sectors. And these positive news stories will no doubt bring greater attention to the City and hopefully more investment.

But our retail sector continues to struggle with falling footfall (stagnant at best), very low disposable income per household, high commercial rates, high cost of planning regulation and years of neglect. As we are selling Waterford Inc to potential investors the very heart of Waterford, its City Centre, MUST develop at an accelerated pace in order to keep up with other industry led expansion.

The lowering of the cost of operating a business in the City Centre will bring in a better retail mix and will, I am sure, give additional impetus to the Michael Street and Apple Market projects. Both of these projects incidentally have been championed by the Waterford Business Group for the last two years and it is refreshing to see this level of commercialism from within the Council. However, the caveat to this is to have the Council drive the project at a commercial pace and deliver for the City in a shortened time frame. There are far too many examples of Local Government and National Government moving at a snail’s pace when a cheetah’s pace is needed. Waterford is a prime example where not only is the clock ticking but we will very shortly need a Doctor Who like time machine to catch up.  

By the end of the first month of the summer we will be halfway through the financial year for many companies in Waterford. There will be much soul searching and pressing of calculator buttons, as businesses right across the City Centre realise that the financial predictions made at the start of the year are falling way short of what is needed to actually keep trading and stay in business.

Apple Market artists impression.

This is the actual position many of the businesses in our City Centre find themselves in today. They are not worried about lasting to the end of the year or lasting to the end of the summer, they are worried about surviving to the end of the week!

Reality bites when as a business owner you have no salary to take home and you are sacrificing your own wellbeing in order to keep your staff employed. Yet there is an assumption that the business owners of Waterford City are somehow making absolute fortunes at the moment as we hear more and more misplaced commentary about the economic recovery across Waterford City. 

Yes, there are astonishingly rapid recoveries happening in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick but these four Cities are not in the third tier of economic recovery. Waterford and the South East are and this is a fact. You only have to look at the Pobal HP Deprivation Index, as used recently by Mr Browne and his boys, to understand just the scale of the economic recovery needed across the South East. Just to catch up with the likes of Galway and Limerick there is a massive amount of work needed and it is not as though the Pobal information is old. The Pobal HP Deprivation Index was generated in 2011/2012 some four summers ago!

So how are the City Centre’s businesses going to survive this week, this month and this summer?

The very minimum that is needed is a further 20% reduction in the commercial rates for City Centre businesses in 2016. A 20% reduction was enabled two years ago when Minister Hogan was lobbied by the Waterford Business Group.

There are now more commercial rates going into the City’s coffers with the many new industrial premises being built and the various expansions taking place. This increase in industrial rates must be offset against a reduction in City Centre commercial rates and every Councillor in the City and County must start working on driving the cost of operating a business in our City Centre DOWN.

 Omnishambles or Dr Who?

Our City Centre can only be at the heart of our City and County if we have a progressive commercial rates structure, which in turn will attract a wider variety of retailers, which in turn will increase footfall, which in turn will increase employment, which in turn will increase commercial rates revenue for the Council and so on. It is very simple and is a WIN, WIN for all.

If we do not want this summer to be the worst “since records began” for our City Centre businesses we must act now or it will simply be too late and even Doctor Who will not be able to help.

Unity equals strength: my tip from Table 16!

Who can remember this?

There can be absolutely no doubt that Waterford City, Waterford County and the greater South East Region (SER) need a unique holistic approach to getting us back on track and in line with the rest of the Republic’s economic recovery.

There is a three tier recovery taking place across Ireland no matter what spin Government put on it. With Dublin and its own greater region running well ahead of the rest of Ireland, then coming along hotfoot close behind is the West/Cork/Shannon/Galway areas and taking the rear is the South East Region (SER) and the North West Region (NWR). If we are really to spread the vast majority of industry investment, outside of Dublin, then we must do it now just as Ireland Inc is beginning to show a better shock market price, when compared to our competitive countries across the rest of Europe.

Accelerated investment outside of Greater Dublin must happen sooner rather than later. I read a report last week that stated there is a very real possibility that 60%-70% of jobs, and therefore the population, could migrate to the Greater Dublin Region in the next number of years if there are not investment policies put in place to make areas such as the SER more attractive to business and therefore investment.

It consequently follows that to make the SER more attractive for jobs and job creation we must be in a position to make the SER the most attractive place in Ireland to invest in.

But how do we do this?

For a start we need to make the cost of doing business in the City, County and SER as cost efficient as possible. A simple starting point would be to reduce the huge burden placed on businesses through the local payment of commercial rates. Commercial rates are needed and are quite rightly a local tax that pays for local services. However, the collection of commercial rates takes absolutely NO account of how a business and or local economy is performing. And therein lies the huge problem. Our local businesses that are struggling to generate turnover and cannot employ additional staff because the fundamental cost of being in business is crippling in terms of the commercial rates contribution.

I have for a long time now advocated that a commercial rates system similar to that operated for VAT payments should be introduced, and we know that the VAT collection for 2014 and at the start of 2015 is now well ahead of budget estimates. As a business becomes more profitable then the commercial rates income can increase but when times are harder this imposed burden placed on businesses must be consequently lessened. This in turn will go some way to ensuring unemployment is kept to lower levels as businesses can afford to retain staff members.

Following on from lessening the cost of being in business in the SER we had a visit last week from The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, and supported by Enterprise Ireland with a road show in the Tower Hotel that focused on the SE Jobs Action Plan. I had attended two previous meetings and expected much of the same.

However, this was to be a very different event with circa 160 people from around the SER sitting at tables of 8-10 with each table or “Innovation Cafe” (as it was termed) specifically tasked with investigating and exploring a specific theme. Our table, Table 16, was looking at the “branding” of the SER and how we could make a difference to the current perceived representation. Other tables were looking at education, clustering, innovation etc.

Table 16 was made up of people from right across the SER – Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford and we even had guest from neighbouring tables visit us who included people from Tramore and Limerick. Our “branding” table were to look at the current image of the SER and what a future image should look like.

We all agreed that the SER is not only a great place to work, there are good educational establishments, pockets of significant engineering and manufacturing companies, terrific scenery, superb beaches, many important ports, an excellent road network, magnificent rivers, great hotels, great food, brilliant restaurant etc etc.

My notes from Table 16

In fact Table 16 could not see any reasons for investing anywhere else!

And yet we lag so far behind in terms of inward investment, job creation, and third level attainment and so on. We need to find the fundamental reasons as to why we are not competing with other areas of Ireland and why we are not landing many more multi-national companies or FDI.

It became clear to Table 16 that the branding of the SER is all wrong with too much reliance and emphasis on the tourism industry and not enough focus on industry, education, manufacturing, access, infrastructure etc etc. We do very, very well with the indigenous Irish tourist but appallingly badly at attracting the International Tourist. And it is the same with trying to attract more businesses into the SER – we are doing ok but could be doing so much better.

I also had the opportunity to speak on behalf of Table 16 to share our views and findings with the wider audience in the room and this was done with my usual gusto, delight and hopefully positivity. In fact the facilitator in his final summary came back to reference Table 16 and what we said to the wider audience.

The challenge will now be to ensure that the circa 160 people in the room now go away from the “Innovation Cafe” and actually make a difference and go that extra mile to put the SER on the investment map, so to speak.

All of us at Table 16 know the next step in our journey is going to be the hardest as the main population areas across the SER need to work together as a region. And like it or not Waterford City has to be at the very heart of that region. That is not to say that the City should have a monopoly on the jobs and investment but rather the City must be the main economic driver if the SER is to see substantial investment over the next few years.

Real South East Regional teamwork is now required and old sporting boundaries do need to be put aside for the betterment of all the 500,000 who live and work across the SER of this Island. We should ALL be prepared to work together and at the right time come together to relax and enjoy each other’s company.

And remember “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”