Flying the flag for Waterford.

I often have people asking me “What is going on in Waterford City?” and I also tend to get asked the following supplementary, “How come you know so much about what is happening in the City?”

The simple fact is that due to the nature of my own business, bizBoost, and the various groups and committees I am involved with I need to “have my finger on the pulse” to coin a well worn phrase. I go out of my way to read ALL the local newspapers, listen to the local radio stations, attend as many Council meetings as I can, keep an eye on the social media traffic and of course I make take time to meet and network with a huge volume of people. And it is when I have the opportunity to meet with people that I take time to listen first and then answer the many questions I inevitably get asked.

Today is Thursday the 19^th March and the last two weeks have shown Waterford City as a beacon of positivity and a series of one good news story after another. These stories have been covered by ALL our local media and across the various social networking platforms. But just in case you missed these here as some of my highlights of the last two weeks (in no particular order):

1848 Tricolour Celebration, covering the 6^th to 9^th March; over 110 guests attended a Gala Dinner on Saturday 7^th March in the presence of the Mayor, Minister Coffey, Ambassadorial representation from the US, Canadian and French Embassies, and members of the 69^th Infantry Division (New York). Sunday 8^th March 1500 people attended the flag raising ceremony on The Mall with musical accompaniment from the Thomas Francis Meagher Fife & Drum, Barrack Street Band and the Island of Ireland Peace Choir. All of these events were organised by the voluntary 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee.

Naming the Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge; on Thursday 12^th March, in the presence of President Michael D Higgins, the Suir River crossing was formally named The Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge in a closed ceremony, in horrible weather conditions, in an area just off the toll plaza. This really was a mammoth team effort on behalf of the 1848 Tricolour Committee, and the Councils of both Waterford and Kilkenny.

Lions Club National Conference; over the weekend of 6^th to 9^th March the Tower Hotel hosted the National Conference of the Lions Clubs of Ireland. Over 400 delegates from all over Ireland and further afield attended this national event.

 

VLM announce flights from Waterford Airport; on Monday 27^th April direct flights from Waterford Airport to London Luton will resume. The new Belgium based airline will fly 12 times in each direction every week from April. These flights replace the FlyBe routes.

President Michael D Higgins is greeted by 1500 school children; on Thursday 12^th March President Michael D Higgins presides over the launch of Flag Week. A programme by the Thomas Francis Meagher Foundation to educate the Irish school children around the history of the Irish Tricolour and the connection with Meagher and Waterford City. Over 250 schools attended this event and each school received a Tricolour flag that was flown at 33 The Mall, Waterford City. This event was attended by a whole host of dignitaries and perhaps my abiding memory will be everyone, and I mean everyone, participating in a Mexican Wave!

St.Patrick’s Day on Tuesday 17^th March; we were once again witness to a magnificent parade on St.Patrick’s Day and full credit must be given to those who organised the event and more importantly a big thank you to those who marched in the parade. The Waterford influence was not confined to the City as members of Spraoi also provide costumes and support for parades in Dublin and Cork.

Glanbia opens €180 million facility in Belview Port; the opening of the state-of-the-art facility by Glanbia should contribute around €400 million to the Irish economy and will create around 75 directly related jobs and 1,600 indirect jobs. Currently Ireland produces around 10% of the world’s infant milk formula but the future hope is that this will rise to over 60% with plants such as the one in Belview coming on stream.

Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal gathers strength; over the last two weeks we have seen an increasing number of local events raising money for the Brick by Brick Appeal and money is starting to come in to fund for many projects that will rise out of the ashes. There is so much local support for the Appeal that it you cannot fail to notice the momentum this is gathering.

 

Waterford United hosted the Irish Football Manager Martin O’Neill and Assistant Manager Roy Keane on Thursday 12^th March for a club fundraiser with John Delaney also present. Over 200 people supported this event and efforts of the fundraising committee.

These are just some of my own memories of the last two weeks and I know that there are so many more good news stories out there as well.

Sometime we have to actively look for the good news and it is just such a pity that we cannot lead with good news stories ALL the time. As they say in the newspaper world “Bad News Sells Newspapers” but the good news stories make us feel much much better in ourselves and in our communities.

Waterford as a good news story had unprecedented local, regional and national news coverage over the last fortnight and just imaging if we could replicate that over the 52 weeks of a whole year. Attitudes to this City would change instantaneously and investment would flood the City, County and Region.

Good news stories do so much more for the moral fibre of the City we live in than the bad press we seem to always focus on. We are ALL responsible for finding those good news stories and promoting the good in our City, County and Region.

If we ALL ensured that we could regularly replicating the last two weeks of positive press coverage the City and County has received then Waterford City would in no time at all get back its rightful place as Ireland’s fourth City of the Republic. This in turn would lead to lower unemployment, better third level attainment, higher wages and so on. It really is a win win!

It is all about OUR positive attitude to make Waterford the very best that it can be and looking forward with a positive mindset is something we all need to do.

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose” (Lyndon B Johnson).

Thank you to Paul Dower for his photographs.

Building Bridges!

On Thursday 12^th March 2015 the Suir river crossing was named The Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge by President Michael D Higgins.

The naming of the bridge was an idea spawned a number of years ago from the 1848 Tricolour Celebration and the voluntary committee who organise the Celebration also reached a milestone this year with the organising of the 5^th annual Celebration that commemorates the first ever raising of the Irish Tricolour by Thomas Francis Meagher at 33 The Mall, Waterford City. The flag raising ceremony took place on The Mall, in Waterford City, on Sunday 8^th March and was attended by Minister Paudie Coffey, Mayor James Tobin, Mayor Lola O’Sullivan, Ambassador Vickers (Canadian Embassy), Ambassador Thebault (French Embassy), Lt Col Sean Cosden (US Embassy), 69^th Infantry Division (New York) and many other dignitaries. Approximately 1000 members of the public were also in attendance.

The annual Gala Dinner took place on Saturday 7^th March in The Granville Hotel and 110 guests attended the dinner where they were entertained by the Island of Ireland Peace Choir. The key note speech was presented by Col James Tierney and the subject topic was “Building Bridges” a very apt theme bearing in mind the bridge naming ceremony that took place on Thursday 12^th March.

The theme of “Building Bridges” has been fostered by the organising committee for the last five years and during those five years a considerable number of friends, family, Ambassadors, Governors and politicians from all sides of the political divide have attended the weekend events. There can be no doubt that the Celebration is now a recognised National Event and there are significant plans to make the 2016 Tricolour Celebration a very special event.

Organised by a voluntary committee who annually manage to attract high level delegations from the United States and in particular the 69^th Infantry Division (New York), also known as the “Fighting 69^th”. The 69^th Division have annually send at least five serving members and during Col James Tierney’s speech he explained the impact the organising committee and the people of Waterford have had on the members of the 69^th Infantry Division.

Col James Tierney spoke about the fact the Tricolour Celebration committee had without doubt helped the Infantry Division reconnect with its Irish heritage and therefore reconnect with so many of the Divisions past traditions. The reaching out of the Committee to connect with the 69^th has in so many ways been beneficial to both side of the pond.

In 2014 a delegation from the Waterford branch of Irish Naval Reserve and a number of Committee members self-funded a trip to New York to march in the St.Patrick’s Day Parade and I was lucky enough to be part of that delegation who, to a man and a woman, represented Waterford City with pride, dignity and passion.

It was only when I returned home did I realise the significance of what we had just experienced. Through the friendship we have built up with the 69^th we literally marched at the head of the parade and we marched in front of all the senior politicians, mayors and other dignitaries. We were without doubt being treated as guests of honour.

I should really have noted just how big a role we would play in the Parade when we attended St.Patricks Cathedral, just off 5^th Avenue, for mass early on the morning of the 17^th March 2014. We were seated with the members of the 69^th four and five rows from the front, just behind the An Taoiseach, the Mayor of New York and other political figures. We would then play in integral role in the Parade itself. And after a long march up the length of 5^th Avenue we and the members of the 69^th got on our very own private subway train and we thundered back to the barracks with green lights all the way – now that is a very impressive level of “pull”.  

I have to say that 17^th March 2014 will also be remembered as one of the coldest days I have every had to wear my kilt on and almost one year later I am still waiting for some bits and bobs to come back down.

Away from the formal involvement of the Parade we received unprecedented access to the 9/11 Memorial Site to lay a wreath, on behalf of the people of Waterford City. The wreath was laid with a naval honour guard of the men and women from the Waterford branch of the Naval Reserve and hundreds of visitors to the site also participated in the wreath laying ceremony. Access was also given to the United Nations building and the tour we received took us to every debating chamber and to all the areas you would occasionally see on the national news channels. We really were being given the full VIP treatment.

Our trip to New York in 2014 has certainly left me with wonderful memories and also built bridges of friendship across the Atlantic Ocean.

The naming of the Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge really has been a huge team effort on behalf of Waterford and Kilkenny and in many ways the significance of these two sporting rivals working together on the bridge naming cannot be lost.

As a region we do need to work more cohesively and work more closely. The South East has a population of circa 500,000 and yet we are still under achieving in terms of employment, third level attainment, international tourism etc etc. And perhaps the bridge naming will be that start of many other coordinated projects and programmes that will benefit Waterford City, the County and the wider region. By pulling together we can accelerate the development of the City and the wider region.

But to do this we will have to build bridges and we will have to compromise.

We need to position Waterford City as the economic driver for the whole of the South East and that will mean finding the right people to drive the right projects that will position the City as a place of investment. To do just that we will have to work with people and partners that perhaps we feel we should not even be talking to. But failure to find a common ground will be far more disruptive than taking no action at all.

 

We have to be mature enough to start “Building Bridges” and we have to look at which voluntary groups are getting it right and how we can learn from and foster their success.

Maybe more people should be looking to the voluntary group called the 1848 Tricolour Celebration as there can be no doubt they have a successful formula and they are flying the flag Internationally for Waterford City and the wider region.

It is Team Work that really counts!

It was with much disappointment that I watched my beloved Scottish rugby team lose yet another Six Nations rugby match in 2015. That is now three loses in a row and there is a very real chance that I will be adding one more “Wooden Spoon” to my ever expanding collection.

I once again found myself shouting expletives at the television set on Saturday afternoon and in the dying minutes of the match I began to look for scapegoats. Unfortunately, I started blaming the Irish referee Mr Georgio Clancy-Cappuccino-Cinquecento for what I felt, in the heat of battle, were some very unjust decisions and the awarding of the penalty try in the dying minutes was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I could not believe that I was to witness another defeat on the back of some very dodgy and biased refereeing decisions!

How could Scotland be so unfairly treated by two consecutive referees in two consecutive Six Nation’s matches?

I was of course feeling hard done by and was naturally looking for someone else to blame, as often happens when poor performance is witnessed and experienced. I should have just accepted that Italy were the better team on the day and out muscled and outsmarted Scotland. In the cold light of day they deserved to win and I should not have been looking externally for excuses and I should have been focusing on how poorly the Scottish team performed.

“Honourable in victory and gracious in defeat”, my Grandpa once told me as a wee boy on holidays in the North East of Scotland in the beautiful City of Elgin. This mantra takes pride of place in my sporting life and yet sometimes due to passion and adrenalin I do wander off this track and become the ubiquitous bad loser. My family and friends will testify to that.

It is very clear that in sport and business we should be benchmarked by our own performance and to succeed on and off the field of play we do need to perform at the very highest possible level. This often means working as part of a larger team and knowing what you are or perhaps more importantly what you are not contributing to any given set of goals. To succeed as a team all the constituent parts have to work together for a common cause and every cog, wheel and motor must work in unison and work as one. Should any part malfunction then the whole mechanism will grind to a halt or break and subsequently fail.

It is therefore important to have very clear goals aims and objectives within any organisation or when attempting a project.

My disappointment at yet another Scottish rugby false dawn was soon forgotten when the Waterford Business Group (WBG) “Night at the Dogs” followed on from Saturday’s Six Nations climax with Wales beating France in Paris. The “Night at the Dogs” was a fundraiser for the WBG, with a pledge of money going towards the Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal.

A cold crisp evening awaited the WBG, the dogs, the race punters and the supporters of the Appeal at Kilcohan Park Greyhound Track. We had 11 great sponsors supporting ALL 11 races on the night and the highlight of the evening was the Waterford Business Group Sweepstake with a €1000 prize available for the winning dog.

The whole evening went by extremely smoothly and without a hitch due to the teamwork of the WBG Committee, support of Willie Moore and his Committee, and the great work of the staff at Kilcohan Park ably led by Carl Pallas, the Stadium Manager. Like a well oiled machine everyone knew what they had to do and what was expected of them and the success on the night was simply due teamwork and planning.

There were no scapegoats and no one to blame, as nothing went wrong on the evening because everyone performed to the very best of their ability.

And this ability to perform at the very highest level leads me on to ask these very simply questions “Is Waterford really performing to the very best of her ability?” and “Are we ALL really pulling the right direction or are we pulling in opposite directions?”

These two questions really should initiate considerable debate and if the answer is “No” to the first question and “No” to the second question then how do we turn that around and how do we ensure that we are all, to use a well worn phrase, “Singing off the same hymn sheet?”

When we see so many of our competitive towns seemingly stealing a march on Waterford City is it because they have a more cohesive approach to working together or do they simply get projects over the line by “Hook or by Crook”. Do our competing towns take the attitude that this will be good for our town so we will make the project work?

It does seem that getting projects off the ground in Waterford is difficult and securing support also seems to be rather laboured and full of ever-present barriers. Yet when driven people have the strength and determination to keep going the rewards are there. And projects that are lead by driven people do come to fruition, but why oh why does it have to be so difficult?

There are many great projects, schemes and developments going on in and around the City and yet there could be so many more if we just fostered a culture of being willing and able to identify what projects will put the City back to its rightful place as Ireland’s fourth City of the Republic.

We need to encourage those with drive, vision and determination and help them deliver for the betterment of ALL. We need to see REAL teamwork at play and REAL strength of mind to work with the right people who can deliver for this great City of Waterford.

By finding the right people and creating the right “Team Waterford” we will not have to find scapegoats such as I had to do towards the end last weekend’s Six Nations rugby match. Instead we can create a well oiled machine that delivers for Waterford City, County and the South East.

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm,” said Winston Churchill, maybe secretly he was a Scottish rugby fan.

ENDS

LE Aoife a sad loss for Waterford City.

It was with great shock that I read last week that the Government had decided to “gift” the LE Aoife to the Maltese Government to help with the humanitarian crisis currently faced by this small island nation strategically situated in the Mediterranean, and an ideal target destination for those having to flee North Africa.

Whilst I applaud the Government’s rapid response to the crisis currently affecting many Mediterranean countries, surely there should be a coordinated Pan-European response to the problem and it cannot be the sole responsibility of Ireland to come up with an individual solution. There are many, many asset rich Mediterranean and European countries that are far better placed than Ireland is to offer relatively modern patrol vessels suitable for the Maltese Armed Forces exacting needs.

The fact that it now appears the Maltese Government and the Maltese Armed Forces deem the LE Aoife “unsuitable for the role” begs the question why was the LE Aoife offered in the first place? Was there sufficient pre-offer discussions? Or was the Minister genuinely offering help in response to the crisis? I believe the Minister indisputably wanted to help and in his eagerness to do just that offered the LE Aoife without completing a suitability study. 

What is absolutely sure is that the decommissioned LE Aoife is 100% suitable for a proposed plan to bring her to Waterford City to play a central role in a proposed nautical museum piece and would also play an essential role in a South East, 170 kilometres, Maritime Trail around some key South East’s maritime destinations.

This plan was put together by me, James Doherty and Eddie Mulligan (now Cllr Eddie Mulligan) who due to his career association with the Irish Navy took the lead role in the project.

The Maritime Trail project, with the LE Aoife at its very heart, was launched in July 2013 to the then Mayor of Waterford City and the Minister of State at the Departments of An Taoiseach and Defence. Additional presentations were made later that year and a full final business plan was due to be presented to Waterford Council this week. The business plan to bring the LE Aoife to Waterford City had been researched and benchmarked against similar projects in Ireland and in the UK such as the Dunbrody (New Ross) and Jeanie Johnston (Dublin), The Mary Rose (Portsmouth), The Discovery and Unicorn Frigate (Dundee) and HMS Belfast and Cutty Sark (London). The project would have been supported by volunteers and the manufacturing and engineering firms of Waterford City.

There can be no doubt that the LE Aoife would have been a significant tourism draw to Waterford City and would have tied in with the Viking Longboat and possibly a restoration project for the Portlairge dredger.

Three iconic ships on display, on The Quay, in Waterford City – now that would be a mouth watering prospect.

We still hold out hope that the decision can be reversed and the LE Aoife can now be “gifted” to Waterford City for the maritime project. If she does have to sail away to Malta then we wish her Godspeed.

Should we see the LE Aoife sail off into the sunset we have to be very cognisant that this is yet another potential project that Waterford City has once again missed out on. A project that would have had a significant social and community contribution, as well as generating much needed local income.

We have seen recently a repeated story of projects leeching out of Waterford City all too often, I am afraid.

Only last week we read a statement in the local media that a Dublin based architect had “won” the rights to the design for the Michael Street shopping centre development. Apparently, this company had been engaged for some time and possibly as far back as 2013. I understand that the original design and planning work for this development was done by a Waterford City based architect.

Do we not have to ask the question why was the Waterford based company not engaged to finish a project they had been involved in for so many years?

I also learned last week that the new fire station design work had also been “won” by a Dublin based company and low and behold one of the suppliers for internal furniture comes from Northern Ireland – now where is the sense in that!

You have to applaud the Office of Government Procurement for working towards getting best value for money for tendered projects and therefore our taxes. However, there must surely at the very least be a social aspect to accepting tender bids that must take into account local businesses and the simple fact that a local business will put money back into the local economy.

Rest assured the Dublin based companies are taking money OUT of Waterford’s economy and is there ANY contribution coming into our local economy from the appointment of a company from Northern Ireland?

One of the biggest Government contracts has been “won” by a company from the USA and they are working from a European base in the UK. So just how is this company contributing to the Irish economy? Is there any money coming back in terms of vat, taxes and other contributions?

When tender projects are conceived surely there has to be an acknowledgement to local companies to allow them to tender and then take into account the fact these local companies employ local people, who spend locally, pay local commercial rates and other forms of local taxes.

We must ask ourselves are we happy to let more and more contracts go outside of Waterford?

Someone must take a lead role in ensuring that Waterford companies can at the very least compete with other larger organisation for Government contracts. There has to be a built-in social aspect to any tender and we do need our leaders to stand up and fight for Waterford businesses.

I am constantly reminded that if your company is the wrong side of the Jack Lynch Tunnel you will not secure business in Cork. If you are outside of the M50 you will not secure business in Dublin.

Can we not write local government tender contracts that require a business to be “on site” within 30 or 40 minutes? This would at the very least ensure a local company can compete for a contract.

What we do need are people who want local companies to compete for local projects and we need them to put their hand up and proactively ask local companies to step up to the mark.

As Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success.” Maybe this is where we should start? 

ENDS

Why we need €100 million to fix infrastructure in the region.

I was fortunate last week to be asked to speak on Newstalk’s morning breakfast radio show with Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue. My wife, Oonagh, took a call late on Wednesday night and directed one of the programmes researchers to call me on my mobile. I took a subsequent call during one of our weekly 1848 Tricolour Celebration committee meetings having recognised the number as a one of Newstalk’s generic numbers and having noticed a couple of earlier missed calls.

I dutifully excused myself from the meeting to make a return call, in private, from the Granville Hotel. The Thursday morning’s Breakfast programme was dealing with the latest announcement, by Minister John Bruton TD, of further Government income being directed to bodies such as the IDA for further regional development – yet another report it would seem!

Having commented before on Newstalk Radio I was told that the programme wanted my observations on the announcement, the report and as an Entrepreneur and founding member of the Waterford Business Group I was asked to give an honest commentary. As with all these types of pre-interview research processes you really need to nail your colours to the mast so that the researcher is impressed with your dialogue, the tonality in your voice, your clarity of speech and your reasoned arguments, and if they are happy they will recommend you for a live interview.

My interview was duly scheduled for 07:45 on Thursday morning.

During the course of Wednesday evening a number of texts were exchanged altering the times of the live broadcast to around 09:00. As always I was trying to be accommodating, but to complicate matters the 1848 Tricolour Celebration committee had arranged a press briefing and press launch of the 2015 events programme at 08:30 on Thursday morning. All the local media were to be represented including support from the Mayor Tobin and Waterford Council. As PRO of the committee I was under a wee bit of pressure to make sure the launch was organised professionally and also ran smoothly.

But as I have always said “Pressure is for tyres and turbos!” So roll on Thursday morning.

I arrived at the Granville around 07:45 to meet with the Chair of the 1848 Committee, Ann Cusack. Some last minute printing for additional information to be included with the press packs and I was good to go for the press launch and the Newstalk interview scheduled for 09:00.

Our guests started to arrive for the 1848 Tricolour Celebration breakfast press launch; The Munster Express, the Waterford Today, the Waterford Mail, The News and Star, WLR FM, The Independent, Mayor Tobin, Waterford Council and so on. Everything was running smoothly and on time.

Phone call from Newstalk at 08:13 – live interview will now not to go ahead. Relax. This would give me more time for the press launch.

Phone call from Newstalk at 08:44 – interview back on and scheduled for 09:30. Radio head back on.

This new live interview time would give me just enough time to arrange the necessary press pictures for all the media, a few WLR FM radio interviews and then give me time to slip away, find a spot where the mobile signal was excellent and more importantly find a quiet spot just in case I had to raise my voice.

I took my last call from Newstalk at 09:30 from the sound engineer. Two or three sound checks later and I was good to go.

I never like to over prepare for live radio interviews, but I do try to map out what I want to say in my head and I know the key points I wish to reinforce. I also try to pre-empt the questions I am likely to be asked. And having been on before with Ivan Yates I knew that he would ask one relevant question at the start and then ask me one or two other questions that would perhaps be slightly controversial, just to see if I would bite back. But above all I try to make sure that I can do an interview in “one-take!”

The whole interview took just 7 or 8 minutes.

I that time I was asked just three questions and having mapped out my responses in my mind I was very happy with what I said.

The jist of what I said was that for regional policies to work in Waterford we simple need €100,000,000 to spend on the infrastructure so sadly lacking in Waterford and the South East. We need the airport runway finished but not on a shoe-string, we need the extension to be built in such a way that it future proofs the airport for generations to come. We need the north wharf developed and the necessary infrastructure built so that his part of the City can become a silk purse and not the pigs ear we currently have to look at today. We need to deliver University status for WIT and this promise was in the Programme for Government (another report I have propping up my desk), but will almost certainly not be delivered in this Governments lifespan.

These three projects alone will finally put Waterford on the map in terms of IDA investors and will make the City, County and South East a better option for future investment consideration.

As a side it has always staggered me that as Ireland’s fifth City Waterford does not have University status. A tag that is universally known to stand for investment in research and development, and a tag that says to everyone that our City is one of the best in the World. It is such a shame that the youth of Waterford and the South East have to leave (as my daughter Saoirse will have to do) if they choose to go onto third level University education.

Once upon a time Waterford City was earmarked as one of Ireland’s gateway Cities. This was supposed to give Waterford a chance of additional investment, better third level attainment and so much more. That tag is now a dim distant memory and I fear that yet another half-hearted effort to develop this region is on the cards.

I believe that the solution to regional development is very simply. Give the money to people and businesses in Waterford that will actually spend the money on the right projects that will directly benefit the region.

Do we need to create a Waterford Development Agency? Perhaps we do. But in the meantime deliver €100,000,000 to Waterford and let the Waterford People make our City the economic hub of the South East – simples!

ENDS

Sometimes a simple word of thanks can be the best bonus.

We see many businesses and organisations put in place reward structures that focus predominantly around a receipt of a cash reward. And we hear periodically about groups of individuals from specific industry sectors, particularly investment bankers and banking in general, earning huge cash bonus rewards. In some cases these can be referred to as “balloon payments” and these are more often than not measured in the hundreds of thousands of Euro.

When I worked in London one of my friends was employed by one of the world’s largest merchant banks and to this day he is still employed in this industry sector. I recall one year, in the late 1990’s, whilst driving to Cardiff for a Wales versus England rugby match, we started talking about the how well each of us were doing in our respective areas of employment. Three of us in the car thought we were being gainfully employed until we heard of the yearend “balloon payment” our banking friend was about to earn.

It was an unbelievable £250,000!

Well to say the car went quiet was an understatement. We were simply dumbfounded and yet the amount was such a regular payment in this industry that our banking buddy stated the amount with such little excitement and enthusiasm that we had to ask again just to make sure we heard the figure correctly.

When asked how he could justify such a large bonus payment and how he could have earned such a vast payment, the story I was told was trapped in my memory forever.

As a Senior Fund Manager he would gamble, his words not mine, people’s pension funds on the open market and was given leeway of plus or minus £5,000,000 a week! If a profit was being made then the company rewarded his gambling with massive end of year bonus payments.

I ask if he had any concerns that he was gambling people’s retirement funds and his answer was simply “No”. He told us that he was so far removed from the source of the money that it was just a process to him and the money was therefore not “real”. As he worked away on several computer screens he never actually saw any of the money transactions he made or lost, and as a consequence it was just like a computer game to him and I suppose a bit like online gambling today, but with absolutely none of the obvious risks.

Initially, I would have been more than a wee bit jealous. As would the other two friends in the top of the range BMW paid for on the back of balloon payments. It had started to rain, as it always does when you drive towards Wales. And as the westbound carriage of M4 motorway was heaving in a sea of George Cross clad English rugby fans, and we crawled ever nearer the Severn Bridge (the old one and not today’s shiny new bridge), I was so glad not to be involved in an industry that rewarded such high risk strategies and created a culture of greed, dishonesty and a breed of sales people that in my mind had no scruples and or ethics whatsoever.

That journey was almost 20 years ago and yet we regularly read and hear about the very same over inflated bonus culture that still exists within the banking industry. Despite the collapse of banks, such as Barings, bailouts and many other financial scandals these International institutions facilitate. We just do not seem to have learned the lesson that over rewarding staff based on large monetary bonuses can be counterproductive and in fact can often be incredibly destructive.

There are so many other ways to reward your staff other than simply taking the easy option by making additional monetary payments to them.

I would always be concerned that monetary payments, over time, not only become expected, but to a certain extent become rather meaningless. And by meaningless I am implying that the staff member or members in receipt of regular bonus payments more often than not forget the “Why” and the “What” are the core values of the company or business they work for. They merely do what is necessary to earn that yearend bonus payment no matter what the consequences are.

It sometimes does quite evidently become a race to the bottom with no real vision as to what a bonus culture is doing to a company’s brand image. And remember every single employee is a brand ambassador for the company and business they work for. So by creating a bonus grabbing culture within a company or business this can be very much counterproductive.

You would think that it would be relatively easy to set up a sales function within a company or business. But getting the right structures in place and getting that sales function working smoothly, is one of the core fundamentals that so very often is incorrectly planned and more often than not not set up at all.

Many businesses focus on rewarding their sales staff based on achieving, meeting and surpassing targets. Targets that are often set without applying any real thought and science to the process.

There is far more to motivating staff to sell correctly than just a monetary reward. Clever companies put a great deal of consideration and energy into coming up with creative strategies on just how to reward their staff and when to reward their staff. I have even come across some reward schemes that acknowledge and reward an employee’s wife or husband and their family. These schemes build a unique relationship with their staff and make sure that employees see a bigger picture when working for the company. They are more likely to go that extra mile if they know that their employer is taking an active interest in what goes on “outside the factory fence”.

In many instances there does not even have to be a monetary reward to motivate and encourage staff members. We are social animals and in general we like the one to one human interaction we have been designed to receive. And we have been blessed with two ears and one mouth; I always say that we should be listening twice as much as we speak. Communicating messages of encouragement is something that must happen more regularly in our day to day business lives. A simple acknowledgement of good work and a verbal “Thank You” is often all that is needed to bring the very best out of many staff members.

Unfortunately, this is missed on far too many senior managers and business owner and those who cannot even be bothered verbally thank their staff will see this indifference seep into and trickle down to ultimately affect how customers are dealt with.

And finally, remember that a balloon always bursts when it comes into contact with just one little prick. 

ENDS

Everyone must be a brand Waterford Ambassador!

I attended the decommissioning ceremony for the Irish Naval vessel La Aoife. This vessel is in fact twinned with Waterford City. The ceremony took place at 15:00 on Saturday 31^st January, at Forde Wharf, in the presence of the Minister of State at the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe TD, Rear Admiral Mark Mellett DSM, friends and family of the many crew members (past and present of the La Aoife) and many other dignitaries too numerous to mention.

I also spotted representation from the 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee, Waterford Business Group, Waterford In Your Pocket as well as many of our very supportive local media.

Maybe due to the absolutely bitterly cold wind blowing right down the Suir Estuary, making my eyes run constantly and preventing me from wearing my kilt, that I failed to notice any significant representation from our 32 Councillors. I did see the City and County Mayors (we have two Mayors in Waterford) and two additional Councillors, but very few others. I understand that there was Mayoral Civic Reception held the night before but surely the decommissioning ceremony, in the presence of a Minister of State, with national TV coverage should have been attended by a significant number of Councillors and not the scattering I and many others noticed and commented on?

It was also great to see RTE South East, with Damien Tiernan and his dedicated crew fighting the elements, filming the decommissioning ceremony and managing to get the whole service from the cutting room floor to being broadcast on RTE Six One News only a few hours later. Well done to all.

You simply cannot buy the sort of publicity and branding the La Aoife has generated for Waterford City. The La Aoife has been one of the City’s greatest ever ambassadors and we owe a great big thank you to her last Captain Marie Gleeson, and her dedicated crew, who worked extremely hard behind the scenes to ensure that the La Aoife was decommissioned in Waterford City and not Cork.

We must also acknowledge the work of Councillor Eddie Mulligan who in his capacity as a new public servant and in his role with the Naval Reserve (Waterford) also worked away in the background to bring this vessel eastwards, away from Cork, for her final official ceremony here in Waterford City.

Over the last number of years the La Aoife crew have raised in excess of €35,000 for our hospital and this has been done without fuss or ceremony or publicity. We owe a huge thank you to all those who raised funds over the past numbers of years.

But what of our future relationship with the Irish Navy now that the La Aoife is decommissioned? Will Waterford City be twinned with another of the Navy’s newer vessels or will we simply be forgotten?

I do know that a number of official requests have been lodged and submitted requesting that the new vessel, Le James Joyce, be twinned with Waterford City once the vessel is commissioned later in 2015.

As we are all too aware “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray!”

So we ALL need to ensure that our relationship with the Irish Navy, as maritime City, continues and if readers are interested in continuing this relationship then please lobby your local TD’s and Councillors to ensure that the Le James Joyce does in fact become twinned with our wonderful City and we can continue to see the name of Waterford City promoted and literally carried around the vast seas that surround this island.

On Friday last I had the immense pleasure to spend some time with three Committee members of the Ballybeg Brick by Brick appeal. We got in touch with each other on the back of the Waterford Business Group organising its own fundraising night on the 28^th February, at Kilcohan dog track. The Waterford Business Group unanimously decided at our weekly group meeting to give part of the nights fundraising directly to this appeal. So coming along and support if you can.

The three committee members I met must also be considered as brand ambassadors for Waterford City. What happened in Ballybeg was nothing short of horrendous and yet only a few days later a committee was founded and action plans were being drawn up.

The appeal has been promised the earth, moon and stars by a vast number of political representatives and it will be the responsibility of those who have made these many promises to deliver and deliver within a timescale that is appropriate and suitable for Ballybeg. There are large numbers of community groups relying on a renaissance that must happen within a period of weeks and not over a period of months. The longer the rebirth of this area takes the longer it will simply be forgotten and the citizens of Waterford City cannot allow that to happen.

I saw a determination and drive in the three Committee members that tells me they will make sure Ballybeg rises from the ashes - just like the mythical Phoenix does. But this group will need help, encouragement, guidance, advice and much much more. It is everyone’s responsibility to be a part of the rebuilding process and I would urge that we make the regeneration of Ballybeg a good news story for the whole of Waterford.

In business every staff member is a brand ambassador for that business, whether they like it or not. Even when you are not at work you will always be associated with your company, business or place of work. Like the La Aoife, its crew, and the Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal committee we need to work very hard to create the right image and right impression if we are to flourish as businesses. This means being constantly aware how we act and more importantly how we deal with our customers.

There is absolutely no point in Waterford working hard creating a brand image of the City if once you come here you experiences something completely different. Good customer service builds your brand image and bad customer service destroys your brand image.

The businesses across Waterford need to be aware of their brand image and through better customer service we will build a better brand Waterford. In light of this the Waterford Business Group are providing FREE customer care workshops to members starting from Monday 9^th February and taking place in Lady Lane Library every Monday and Friday morning throughout the month of February. See www.waterfordbusinessgroup.com 

Finally, I often find that it is those who work hardest to make a project come to fruition that never seem to get the credit they deserve. Strange but true!