Archive for the ‘Public Speaking’ Category
We hate Being Told We’re FAT!
One of the most talked about issues this summer has been the Stop the Spread Campaign from Safe Food, the State’s public health promotion and monitoring unit. Safe Food has boldly stated that two out of three of us are unhealthily overweight. In previous summers when they spent tax payers’ money politely and meekly telling us to make sure we cooked the food thoroughly on the barbeque, they were great folks.
But this year they have had the audacity to tell us to measure ourselves around the middle and for women, if you are over 32 inches, or men over 37 inches, this indicates you are probably harming your health through being chronically overweight.
Some journalists have questioned the one measurement fits all approach sanctioned by the WHO, the World Health Organisation. But is this further proof of our denial. Do we simply hate to be told we are FAT?
When the WHO recently pronounced that mobile phone use is injurious to our health not one journalist questioned it. But because we are in denial about our weight some of the journalists have even questioned the independence of the WHO.
So let’s be clear what the WHO says, and in turn, what safe Food is promoting. They are asking us all to measure around our middle. That is not what we commonly call our waistline. So, measure around your middle at your navel or bellybutton. If a woman measures more than 32inches or a man measures more than 37 inches, that means there is an indication that your belly is protruding because so much fat has already built up around your heart, lungs and intestine that on top of that it is now forcing your tummy to protrude.
Now we can continue to deny it all day and all night long but they are the facts according to the WHO. With that much excess fat around your internal organs you are more likely to suffer coronary disease, diabetes or cancer. One third of all cancers are weight related.
But because of our state of denial we start claiming, “I have heavy bones” or “I retain a lot of water”. When the WHO stated brain tumours can result from excessive use of a mobile phone no one was daft enough to say “but I have heavy bones, my skull has an above average thickness so the electro-magnetic field won’t get through my thick head as much”. However these are the very arguments many of us use to resist accepting the fact that we are overweight.
Unbeknownst to ourselves our nation and our children are getting fatter and fatter. Safe Food has stuck to its guns and told us to measure ourselves as instructed. It is merely an indicator and if you are over the 32 or 37 inches but you believe you are not overweight, the best thing to do is to go to your Doctor and get that verified. If your doctor, who will also take into consideration your age, fitness, height etc, tells you you’re not overweight isn’t that fantastic! Keep up the good work but don’t attack a public health agency when it is merely trying to draw our attention to a serious and costly health issue for our population.
World’s Most Famous Heads of State in Ireland.
The Queen has arrived and so too has a milestone in the process of reconciliation between our two countries. I warmly welcome the British Head of State and believe her visit is long overdue.
I am very privileged to be meeting both Queen Elizabeth and President Obama at functions I will attend in the next few days. The Queen’s itinerary has been published but the final details of President Obama’s visit is a ferociously well guarded secret.
In a professional capacity I am working the members of Moneygall community. Normally this too should have stayed secret until Ollie Hayes the publican in Moneygall told RTE’s John Murray on his radio show last Friday morning. Now everyone knows, thanks Ollie.
Anyway what is my role? For Henry Healy, a relative of Barak Obama who lives in Moneygall, for John Donovan, who owns the ancestral home and for Canon Stephen Neil, the genealogist who established the link between County Offaly and the US President, next Monday is monumentous. These three men will each be interviewed over a thousand times by the world’s media between, say, Saturday and Wednesday next.
I don’t think people have any idea how big an international story this is. My team and I will be on the ground in Moneygall to help them cope with the media tsunami that is about to hit them. It is important that the spokespersons in Moneygall do themselves, their village and Ireland justice. It will be a fantastic few days for Ireland having the two most widely recognised heads of state in the world meeting the warm and friendly people of Ireland and pictures of it all beamed around the world on TV.
As a result of my involvement I have been invited to attend an “intimate function” with the US President but if I told you the details of that here now his secret service would have to shoot me so I will tell you all about it in my next bog update!
Is our economy turning the corner? A February election in the offing
Independent Group Local Papers Column 26th July 2010
That is the question I am most frequently asked as I speak to various Chambers of Commerce, Business Associations and Companies around the country. Sadly, the best answer I have given is, I sincerely hope so.
I know it sounds weak but it would be worse to tell people recovery is underway if I have seen no evidence of it. However, for the first time I am beginning to see hard evidence of the initial steps of a recovery.
I am part-owner of Ireland’s largest, privately-owned, recruitment company, the HRM Group.
HRM is what is termed a very large, general recruiter and therefore a good example of the ravages of the economic meltdown. In the boom years the company earned millions in profits and then simply fell off a cliff in the second quarter of 2008.
Fortunately during the Tiger years the company had built up millions of euro in cash reserves so when the crash did come we had enough money to run it for a number of years even with zero revenues.
Luckily it never got that bad. The company still enjoyed strong revenues during the last two years, but the crash has cost the company millions. When we do come out of this recession we look forward to being one of only a handful of recruitment specialists who are left in the sector. What we have lost will be made back in time.
Another question I am frequently asked is “how does this recession compare to the 80’s?” My answer is always that this recession is far worse. On our books are hundreds of highly qualified accountants and young, bright solicitors who have lost their jobs.
I don’t remember those types of jobs being lost in the eighties. And of course losing your job is awful but losing it and having a large mortgage to meet is a living hell.
So I am delighted to report that companies are now coming to us in significant numbers looking to recruit new staff. It started in May when we saw a dramatic jump in companies looking to hire people.
The growth is coming entirely from the multinational sector and is mainly in the sciences and pharmaceuticals sectors.
We are seeing no evidence whatsoever of any significant growth yet in technology. Yes there is some activity but nothing to get excited about. This makes me wonder about our politicians who are making a big play of the smart economy.
The view I am beginning to form is as Ireland is a small open economy it is only a global recovery that will take us out of our mess and already the multinationals are beginning to do that. Throughout the crash remarkably our exports have stayed strong.
So where do we go from here? Well, we can make things a lot worse or a lot easier for ourselves. How we handle our national debt and our budget deficit in December’s budget is now critical.
It will be the most important budget in our nation’s history. We can take heart from the fact that the more pain we take now the faster we will move on the road to recovery.
Discounts
With money tight everyone is looking for a discount these days. This guy phones the dentist early in the morning to avoid the poor receptionist he had plagued for two days seeking a special price for a tooth extraction.
The dentist answers and the caller asks, “what’s your very best price to take out a tooth that is causing awful pain sir?”
The Dentist, annoyed says “speak to my receptionist when she is in at nine o’ clock.” The caller replies, “I did yesterday and she said €130 but I am asking you what is your very best price?”
The Dentist impatiently states, “I suppose I could do it for €120”. The caller explains it is not a big molar but “only a little one beside the left fangy one on the bottom. “You’d whip it out in two minutes so for a little one like that what’s your best price?” Reluctantly our dentists says “I suppose I could do that for €100.”
The caller demands, “what do I get for the €100?” The Dentist can’t believe he is here trying to justify his “modest” fee and starts to list out, “well there’s the nurse in attendance then there are the two anaesthetic injections..,” The caller interrupts. “we don’t need a nurse. Say, I make the appointment early in the morning so your nurse can set it all up the night before how much would that cost? The dentist now anxious to get this nut off the phone says, “Alright without the nurse I will do it for €80.’’
He is shocked when the man enquires, “do we need the two anaesthetics? Can we do it without them for €50?” The dentist concedes, exasperated, “OK we will do it for fifty euro,” and asks, “when do you want to come in sir for this procedure?’’
The man on the other end of the phone replies: “Oh it’s not for me, it is for my wife.”
A February election in the offing
TDs on all sides of the house are beginning to anticipate a general election is likely to take sooner rather than later.
The surest indication of that is when the Deputies start to break ranks and put their own profile in their constituency ahead of party loyalty.
The latest sinner was Lucinda Creighton of Fine Gael. She condemned Enda Kenny’s judgement over Fine Gael hosting a golf classic attended by and contributed to a property developer whose loans are being transferred to NAMA.
Her party had just gone through the worst bloodbath imaginable over the leadership of Enda Kenny and all sides had decided to pull together and present a united party with its troubles now aired and behind it.
But up pops Lucinda, never a lady to miss an opportunity for self promotion.
She is clearly more concerned about positioning herself as a tough, no-nonsense politician in her Dublin south east constituency prepared to question the leader.
Of course, as Enda is very low in the polls in Dublin it suits Lucinda to take this stance.
She can claim she represents a united party but also present herself as not being a Kenny supporter.
The three main political parties now all have deputies who have broken rank and in both Fianna Fail and Labour have also lost the whip.
When you see folk getting into the lifeboats you know the ship has started to sink. However my call is we won’t have an election in the Autumn as many predict but it will happen in February when the Government fail to get through their Finance Bill.
The Entrepreneur Show
What a weekend, last Friday and Saturday and the Entrepreneur show. As a first time event it was a real success and congratulations to entrepreneur, Darren O’Toole who created and executed the show.
The exhibitors I spoke to were all quite pleased with the show but I thought there were far too many talks going on. It has to decide for the future is it a conference or an exhibition?
Too Many Talks
For those of you who didn’t get to the show it was in the main Hall 8 of Simmonscourt, so it was a very large exhibition space, larger than the Ideal Homes the previous weekend. On top of that you had four very large arenas for speakers like myself and my fellow Dragons and some Dragons from the BBC.
Why four arenas? It meant the crowd was being divided by five all the time, i.e. the four arenas and the exhibition hall. It would have been so much better to have just one arena or theatre with half hour talks. But as in business you have got to start somewhere and this was a brilliant start. I look forward to Darren and his team doing it next year.
New Ideas
At the show, everywhere I went, people came up to me with business ideas. I was only too delighted to stop and chat. We have enjoyed a great season of Dragons’ Den on TV and the Irish public have been so supportive so I, and my fellow Dragons, were keen to give a little back. I actually did see a few ideas with real potential. A anti burglar device for sliding patio doors, a gift wrap alternative and a new twist on a scissors.
But coming up with a prototype for a good idea is so long away from an actual successful product. Through the Dragons’ Den people have seen that I am a marketing person who can take a product from an idea to mass market and fast. Becuase it is on TV I actually pay to do that. I invest in the company.
But I assure you the real investment is my time. To bring the Toilet Pipe Cover, the HidBin or TanOrganic to mass market success requires a huge time commitment.
I am very fortunate that the very large Corporations will pay large fees to retain me to advise them on their strategy and launch of new products or brand extensions. But this leaves me with hardly anytime to look at ideas other than those I have invested in on Dragons’ Den.
The Cost of Going to Market
What I am saying is if somebody came up to me with a brilliant idea I can tell you to get it to a ploace where people are aware of it and are looking to buy it in a shop takes at least €250,000 on marketing. And with marketing you need the very best advisors so as little of that spend is wasted.
Look what I am saying is, a good idea is only the very start. Imagine where TanOrganic would be now if Noelle O’Connor had not been brave enough to go on Dragons’ Den. I still believe Noelle is such a trooper that she would have got the product to market but it wouldn’t be the household name it is going to be by the end of 2010.
All the creativity that goes into inventing something is fantastic but you need to spend more time thinking about how are we going to get people to buy this product?
It all begins and ends with Marketing and Sales.
Finally – Best Speakers
Doug Richards who resigned from the BBC version of Dragons’ Den after two seasons to go off and manage one of the world’s big venture capital funds was at the show and was a great contributer. He is an expert in Technology but was alos great fun.
The speaker that impressed me most was Ian McDonald of weedle. Ian was one of the team behind Perlico and he has taken the money he made from its sale to Vodafone to now have a go at a skills version of Linkedin.
I didn’t get to hear it myself as I was speaking in the various arenas all day but Rachel Elnaugh’s talk was considered by many to very inspiring.
Keep it touch with my blog, next Blog Friday.
Article in today’s Sunday Indepedent.
I don’t know about you but as a business person I get really frustrated with all the negative media coverage of our economic crisis. Of course it has to be reported but over and over? I question that. Anyway I wrote this article. It has nothing to do with Dragons’ Den but I hope it might give you some food for thought. Apologies to the many international followers I have here on the blog as this is very much about our Irish Poliutical system.
Our nation faces its gravest, darkest crisis. Our banking system has collapsed. It is on a life support system of unsustainable national borrowings. When the banking system collapses that means the Political Establishment itself, the First Estate, has failed. The very proof of that is, not only have we lost confidence in Brian Cowen, but we appear to have little faith in an alternative Fine Gael and Labour Government lead by Enda Kenny. The Irish People have just lost all faith in the Political Establishment. The First Estate is now a bigger zombie than all the combined zombie banks it is propping up with our money.
The second Estate – and in Ireland that means, the Catholic Hierarchy – “has lost (all) credibility”. The degree of credibility lost depends on which Archbishop you are listening to, Dublin or Canterbury. So we can’t look there for moral leadership in our valley of tears.
The Third Estate, the Judiciary, fails us because the wheels of Justice move ever so slowly. We, the people, clamour for Justice to be seen to be done in regard to those who are deemed responsible for bankrupting our nation.
So the country is in effect being run by the Fourth Estate, the Media. “It is very bad and wrong and demoralising. We are dominated by Journalism.” This statement equally applies today to our national crisis as when Oscar Wilde said it in 1891. The very phrase, the Fourth Estate, was coined by another Irish man, Edmund Burke in 1787. Of course Burke was referring to the four elements of British Parliament, the Lords Spiritual, Temporal, the Commons and the Fourth Estate, the Press Gallery.
When the Political Establishment totally fails, the default option is real power transfers to the Media. This is not always a bad thing and sometimes in history was necessary. The very soul of the United States of America was saved by the Fourth Estate when Woodward and Bernstein exposed the corruption of Nixon leading to his resignation in 1974.
Good Friday’s Late Late Show featured “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, journalists, Matt Cooper, Kevin Myers, Sarah Carey and Ger Colleran. They told us yet again, as the media does on an hourly basis, the country is financially and morally bankrupt and endemically and incurably corrupt. Fitting for a Good Friday they crucified any hope or prospect of a resurrection for our little nation.
Most depressing was you could not actually argue with one word that was said. But how often do we have to hear this? This caused even the mild mannered Ryan Tubridy to ask his audience, “why don’t we take to the streets and protest?” No one asked Ryan, “to achieve what?”
The problem with the Fourth Estate calling the shots is journalists are first and foremost reporters. They report brilliantly on what has happened but the nature of their work means it is always a look back rather than a look forward. It is not in their DNA to tell us how to get out of the hole.
It is their job to compete with one another telling you how awful the hole is. And they see their job primarily as finding out who is responsible for creating the hole. So who dug it? Did they have planning permission? Where was the Regulator for holes? Was the hole planned in the Galway tent? Who ignored the signs warning us to avoid the hole? Was the contract for the warning signs awarded to the Minister’s brother-in-law? And a whole raft of FOIs about the hole.
Eventually as they all race to the bottom of the hole, one will break rank and call for those who supplied the shovels to dig the hole to be taken out and shot. The defence, I was only reporting what the people think anyway. The question is never asked could the people be thinking like that because for two years they’ve been told nothing else other than they have no future and the country is doomed?
The media also peddles the propaganda it was obvious the hole was there. It is frequently claimed that George Lee forewarned us. Well not loud and clear enough for his employers, RTE, who seemed more than a bit surprised and badly caught out with the very large €85 million hole that appeared in their advertising revenue last year.
Now you may have a pain in your own, you know what, listening, watching and reading all of the reports of what a hellhole it is. But one fact remains, we owe it to ourselves and to our children, whose future we are mortgaging by about €70m per day, to climb our way, as a nation, out of this hole.
If we are to really pull ourselves out of the hole, we have to wrestle control back from the Fourth Estate, the Media and put the First Estate, the people, back in control. The answer – a Grand Coalition. This occurs when a National Crisis is so serious it dictates that the two largest Political Parties form the Government. In history, at least fifteen countries in their darkest hours have seen their Politicians not just talk about putting the country first but actually do that and enter Government with their sworn enemies. In Germany, Canada, India, the Nederlands, Austria, too many to mention, it has achieved spectacular results.
This Government is on its last legs, it may fall any moment or may waddle, as a lame duck, for the rest of this year. But there will be a General Election in 2011. We need to debate now the issue of a Grand Coalition. Surely, faced with our Nation’s greatest crisis, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail should work together. The international support there would be for a solid Grand Coalition would knock at least half a per cent off our debt interest charge. That factor alone makes it worthy of the most serious consideration.
The Grand Coalition taking office in 2011 with a Five Year Programme could complete the job of doing all the heavy lifting for putting our country to right by 2016, a fitting way to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising. Here before us, after almost 100 years, we have the perfect opportunity to once and for all bury civil war politics in the interest of the people.
But why would Fine Gael make such a generous offer to its old enemy Fianna Fail? Because it would not be the “old” Fianna Fail. In 2011 it would be the new Fianna Fail, bruised, battered and beaten having suffered the wrath of the electorate at the ballot box. It would be the ethnically, electorally cleansed Fianna Fail. But it will still be a party of at least 55 TDs.
So here are the alternatives to a Grand Coalition:
The Expected Result – A Fine Gael and Labour Coalition. Do we really believe with massive economic issues to be resolved that such a coalition of compromises is the best option? If anything Fine Gael and Labour have grown further apart ideologically in the last two years.
The Not To Be Unexpected Result – A Hung Dail or a Minority Government, meaning further, deepening crisis.
The Unexpected Result – A series of elections and Fianna Fail back in power with the aid of Labour, Sinn Fein, The Greens and/or the army of Independents that will get elected in 2011 and any subsequent re-runs of that election.
But what if the Fourth Estate, the Media, has got it wrong and Enda Kenny is actually a real leader? Could he be the Taoiseach at the head of an historical and truly dynamic, progressive and successful Grand Coalition? Of course there will be Politicians and Hacks who will say that it will never work as they did about Paisley and McGuinness. But for our Island nation there is within our grasp the prospect of marking the 1916 centenary with Sinn Fein and the DUP in Government in the North working peacefully and Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in Government in the South working productively.
Even his detractors say Kenny is decisive and thinks outside the box. He won’t welcome it but he certainly won’t rule out the prospect of a Grand Coalition because it creates a real headache for Fianna Fail. If they say “no way” it means they are being small minded in the face of such a big crisis causing the loss of even more seats. If they publicly consider it they are accepting Fine Gael as an equal. So expect silence but deep down both parties know if they could stop digging in the past they could actually start building the future.
For Fianna Fail, ever the pragmatists, there is the prize of establishing itself as the one real party of Government. It would see them actually putting the country first and preparing the ground to be in with a fighting chance to win the subsequent election and be in power for the centenary of the birth of our Nation in 2021.
If Padraig Pearse, James Connolly et al died to give us self determination by the people, the majority of the people probably now want the biggest ever Irish solution to the biggest ever Irish problem – A Grand Coalition.