Thinking Small? We're Experts!

[Oppenheimer]

It really is up to us to get ourselves out of this mess, and the research in the area would support that. This is the kind of lecture we need to help incentivise us. Rest of the article is here.... Best to think small when looking for big ideas

CONTRARY TO common perception and much of the media focus, it’s the small-scale entrepreneurs not the big firms that you need to turn to when you look for those who will lead us out of the recession. So argues Prof Erkko Autio,

“During downturns large firms lead job destruction. They react quicker to changes in the market and put a greater emphasis on cost cutting,” he told The Irish Times .

The top 3-5 per cent of entrepreneurial business are responsible for 75 per cent of value creation, as measured by a range of metrics such as profit, market share and employment creation, he says

My only disappointment in the article is the finish with the axiomic "We must invest more in research". Whilst I agree this, I believe the focus should be more on extracting value from the research and therefore the focus of funding should be new business creation.

[HanleyS]

Sounds highly inefficient to me. Then again, efficiency doesn't create jobs. I was in Indonesia last week for work, they had a financial meltdown in 1997 and the IMF had to come in. Everyone in Indonesia gets a job apparently, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It seems odd at first but you get used to having plenty of people running around looking busy. Security must be one of the top employment generating activities there. If you saw how they conduct the security you would know what I mean.

[Oppenheimer]

Sounds highly inefficient to me.

What is? Thinking small? Yes, it usually is, this is why we are good at it.

[Christine Murray]

We are good at niches and developing them; but in order for that to be workable its necessary to have stimulus at educational and academic level.

Consistently highlighting the mediocre at the expense of encouraging Irish Graduates into such concerns at CERN under FF/PD has ensured an R+D workforce wholly dedicated to utilitarianism rather that dedication in areas of International interest and research. Whilst Ms Harney was in trade and enterprise her focus was indeed utilitarian, highlighted admirably by a pal of mine in an essay on the Hamilton year.

anyway CERN discussion on here:Ireland, CERN and the LHC Antimatter

[farnaby]

What is? Thinking small? Yes, it usually is, this is why we are good at it.

Our thinking small has been more to do with getting on the property ladder and adopting an i'm alright jack attitude while house prices escalated beyond the reach of many. Me Feinism. Trying to push an idea that could have a small but global impact isn't thinking small, it's thinking that is all too easily dismissed as hubris here.

[Oppenheimer]

We are good at niches and developing them; but in order for that to be workable its necessary to have stimulus at educational and academic level.

Consistently highlighting the mediocre at the expense of encouraging Irish Graduates into such concerns at CERN under FF/PD has ensured an R+D workforce wholly dedicated to utilitarianism rather that dedication in areas of International interest and research. Whilst Ms Harney was in trade and enterprise her focus was indeed utilitarian, highlighted admirably by a pal of mine in an essay on the Hamilton year.

anyway CERN discussion on here:Ireland, CERN and the LHC Antimatter

I tend to agree that the organisation of R&D and the focus is still too political here and although focus on strengths or weaknesses of Ireland do get brought up in taskforce activities, they seem to be derailed by political agendas, "nuclear" being probably the best example.

My disappointment about the last phrase in the article is that it deflects the discussion from the point "OK we have done a lot of research now - what can we sell?" Many academic researchers give short shrift to the commercialisation of research, technology transfer personnel at the universities are asymmetrically influenced by this view, and the process of creating value from the research is downgraded by a mental image of the Marketer's job being seen as "easy". Arguably, existing at the human interface, it is more difficult than the absolute world of the scientist.

All of this has skewed the agenda of Universities to focus on the large companies who have already inordinately benefited from windfalls from the Irish taxpayer, such that, I believe, there are many commercial opportunities in the Universities, of a scale that suits a Small Business model, gathering dust. Getting these off the shelf and in to the hands of small business starters, is what needs to be funded, and it is a difficult task, requiring many more resources.

[MortgageBroker]

I wrote on that here
Irish Mortgage Brokers | Mortgage Brokers Dublin

'microventures' where you get small business going (enterprise is the largest employer in ireland) and small investors, I think the idea could work by getting money to flow to business ideas, in particular if people were able to put small portions of pension investment into it as the tax relief of investment would make the proposition more attractive

[Oppenheimer]

I wrote on that here
Irish Mortgage Brokers | Mortgage Brokers Dublin

'microventures' where you get small business going (enterprise is the largest employer in ireland) and small investors, I think the idea could work by getting money to flow to business ideas, in particular if people were able to put small portions of pension investment into it as the tax relief of investment would make the proposition more attractive

That's more of what we need alright, the more of these businesses that can be funded the more resilient the Irish economy will be to large swings due to our over-reliance of FDI. We can still remain an Open Economy but not be devastated when a foreign owned company decides to pull from a region, for instance.