OPINION
word here. Networking and choosing a few best friends to affect change and results is a core Irish trait, and I see it inside my own company and indeed in many of our large customer base.
We’re doing pretty well. The top 15 global medical companies operate here, along with the top five pharma, top five digital. I see us evolving from creating entrepreneurs, not just great executives and leaders, to visionaries. This will continue to grow and I think that’s our stage.
I’m a big supporter of ‘apprentice’ type training, perhaps biased as that is the way I learned. The current trend to entice large companies to move to hybrid apprentice/college model is a wonderful thing to see. You get the best of both worlds; super education from our universities and the ability to apply it real time through work placement. This is powerful.
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ I was once told. We Irish possess an innate belief in ourselves and what we can achieve. We take responsibility, act and deliver results. For such a small island with five million population we’re heavy influencers across the globe. When the ECB and IMF arrived in Dublin we cried out; I actually did cry at home that evening! We paused as a people and stepped back. We reflected, took responsibility and started to piece it back together.
Look at us today; we’ve had the highest GDP growth in EU four years straight. We were called out by The Economist and a nominee for Country of the Year. We reduced unemployment. We thoughtfully responded to BEPS and G20 questioning on tax structure. As an open economy we are dependent on FDI which is a smart and thoughtful move. For the fourth year in row, Ireland is the top ranking country in the world in terms of the quality and the value of its investments, as a result of the IDA’s proactive activities in attracting companies to Ireland.
Ease of doing business and the education system are, and will continue to be, important. The investments and collaborative environment we have created between our universities, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland are powerful. Investing in geo-special analytics, energy, Agri 2050, cloud and financial services, results in continued inflow of direct investment, the second highest per capita in EMEA - no small feat.
Our demographics have changed. We have increased our multi-language capabilities and have the youngest population in Europe where 40 per cent are under 30.
Learning on the global markets has tremendous value. Sharing this learning is sharing gold. We see it with many start-ups whereby their sponsors are typically folks that have worked in American OEMs for decades. This is evidenced in the unprecedented number of start-ups in Ireland today; up nearly 500 per cent in the past seven years.
In the Valley, the most common Irish trait I see, alongside smart people who work hard, is style and smart collaboration. Smart being the operative
Education and on the job experience are not mutually exclusive. To be successful you must continually educate yourself. Flex is a strong believer in this. We have an extensive internal education programme that allows our employees to continually develop their skills, along with the opportunity to work in a global environment with over 200,000 employees in 30 countries. A company’s success is also attributed to the strength of its culture, it’s people are the true differentiator at the end of the day. It’s people that make the difference.
The digital economy; an intense technological revolution which many refer to as ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’ excites me. This completely transforms the way we work, live and interact with each other and is underpinned by the Internet of Things (IoT). The scale, scope, speed and complexity of this is something we have not experienced before.
IoT analysts predict that up to 50 billion devices or ‘things’ will be connected to the internet by 2020. This is a period of rapid transition and transformation, full of disruptive new technologies and business models. Many of our customers face a future that requires connectivity and intelligence in new products across almost every industry. This represents both big challenges and opportunities.
Flex, with our full range of services from sketch-to-scale™ is ready to help customers manage the challenges and capitalise on these opportunities. A $25 billion company in existence for over 40 years, it is probably most widely known as a company that provided electronics manufacturing services (EMS). Over time, our strategy evolved beyond simple electronics manufacturing as we started to provide our customers with more complex services and solutions. Today our name is simply Flex to reflect our company’s evolution as a leading sketch-to-scale™ solutions company that designs and builds intelligent products for a connected world.
58 INNOVATION IRELAN REVIEW
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