Preparing for the Future: Strategies for Building a Resilient Toolkit
I was MC today for the #PreparingForTheFuture conference with Waterford Chamber Skillnet, County Tipperary Chamber Skillnet and Carlow Kilkenny Skillnet at Mount Congreve Gardens.
Here is a summary of insights:
Macro:
👩💼 2/3 of people who work in the State are employed by an SME.
👨🎓 12% of people engage in lifelong learning in Ireland (and that is half the rate in Sweden).
🤔 9/10 people want to learn a new skill in the near future.
👉 There is a plethora of state funded supports available for businesses and the Supporting SME tool (https://lnkd.in/ej62FaES) can help navigate.
Finance
💸 Ask yourself where your last ten sales came from and whether your marketing efforts are being invested wisely based on this snapshot.
🔢 Do you know your profit margins on each of your products and services? Do you need to make changes to pricing, budgets, resources or strategy based on this?
🥅 What are your financial goals (in relation to revenue, profit, cashflow, marketing budgets, product lines and/or scale)?
Sustainability
💚 Sustainability offers the opportunity to be a differentiator in the market with customers, staff, stakeholders and senior management.
👨👩👧 It's important for intergenerational justice and can set the stage for businesses to become more lean, efficient and environmentally effective.
🔴 "It's hard to go green when you're in the read" and there must be consideration given that sustainability costs money.
🎤 Communicate internally and tell your story with your industry, society and the world.
Resilience:
🗣 A team needs clarity in its communication, trust, integrity and a leader who understands their role.
🔃 Resilience is about "bounce back ability" as well as the ability to deal with change.
🎭 People with purpose don't do drama. They remember who they area and why they're there.
😯 What is your "mistake culture" and do you give yourself the same leeway?
👐 Be open, honest and get stuck in!
👱♀️ Learn how to breathe properly.
Thank you sincerely to each of our speakers Paul Healy, Ray Goggins, Níall Ó Murchú, Dr. Amanda Greer, Mike Shields and Ann Crowley for sharing their insights with us as well as Denise Whitmore for capturing the moments as the morning unfolded.
A particular shout out to Ashling Ward, Louise Haughney and Tommie Ryan for giving me the opportunity to be part of the occasion today.
