Success is sticking to creativity

8/7/2019 Success is sticking to creativity

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ANFP FUND VALUATIONS

Fund Tranche NAV Valuation Date

Census Investments 26 plc (8) 8G 126.19p 07 Oct 2010





Census Investments 26 plc (19) 19A 101.81p 07 Oct 2010















Census Investments 26 plc (40) 40g 105.81p 07 Oct 2010




Technology&InnovationTECH

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KARLIN

LILLINGTON

CompiledbyCiaraOBrien

Somesoul-searching isneededif weareseriousabout developing anentrepreneurialculture

NETRESULTS

BESTINVENTIONS LISTFROMTIME MAGAZINE

DOES IRELAND have asufficientlyentrepreneurial culture?That question is

regularly mulled over at variousevents. Recently, the issue has

had its highest profile in the formof debate and discussion at threemajor venues.

Firstly, at the Global IrishEconomic Forum at Farmleigh

just over a year ago. Secondly, asa key plank of the considerationsin the Governments InnovationTaskforce report. And finally, as abackdrop to the Dublin WebSummit and its sister event,F.ounders, just over a week ago,which attracted some of theworlds leading technologyentrepreneurs.

Farmleigh is proof that this

State can produce entrepreneurs.While many of the attendees weresecond or third generationdiaspora and thus their businesssuccess could not be seen to haveany immediate connection toIreland there were others whocame through the Irisheducational system, builtcompanies here or succeededabroad.

F.ounders and the Dublin WebSummit, meanwhile, focused onthe current spread of smallerIrish tech companies andcompany founders, although themajority of press and publicityaround both events was moreabout the internationalentrepreneurs coming here.

The latent hope is that some either the ones whove alreadymade it or the ones who mightmake it some day wouldeventually consider Ireland as abase for their companies.

And then there was theInnovation Taskforce report, a

massive tome of 160 pages thatexamined numerous aspects ofinnovation and entrepreneurship,and how to foster the rightenvironment within Ireland.

All three of these projects areultimately quite similar in some oftheir conclusions and intent. Allthree recognised the importanceof the multinational presence andthe possibility it creates for asupport ecosystem for indigenouscompanies.

All three delved formally orinformally into issues aroundhow best to promote and support

entrepreneurship, includingelements of education;mentorship; government support;and finance, from angelinvestments through to high-level

venture funding.All encapsulated in various

ways the yearning to see Irelandturn into a mini powerhouse inthe area of technology, innovationand entrepreneurship.

And yet. And yet. Over theyears, Ive seen some fantasticsuccesses in the technology sector some large-scale, some moremodest, some barely noticedbecause the company story playedout mostly outside of Ireland.

And while I am convincedthere are superb individuals whowill always climb the ladder, buildcompanies, create jobs, and dowhat an entrepreneur can do, Iworry that there is somethingwithin Irish culture that is deeplyanti-entrepreneurial. I believe it isevident even within Irelands ownbusiness community, the very

community and sometimes thevery individuals who say theywant a Silicon Valley-likeentrepreneurial culture here. Somuch so that most who achievesuccess do it outside Ireland(witness Farmleigh).

The business community hereis still too ready too eager totear down Irish companies andentrepreneurs publicly andprivately. And while so many liketo quote that line about failurebeing a badge of honour in Silicon

Valley, the sad truth is that failurehere is still mostly Failure, with a

capital F. Witness the blogs,discussion forums, Twitter,private conversations at businessevents, and theres still a bit toomuch barely disguised glee atcompany crashes, a belief thattheir leaders deserve to fail.

I wonder too about where thetechnology entrepreneurs willcome from and how they willbuild their companies when ashighlighted in one of the Sundaynewspapers last week many ofour leading home-grown andmultinational technologycompanies cant get people withthe education or work experienceto fill the jobs they have lying

vacant.Talk to those trying to hire, and

they say too many graduates havecookie cutter, bland IT skills, poorindependent reasoning and,thanks to the recent boom, didntbother going abroad to get anyinternational experience.

This is not the random IT jobhere or there that cant be filled.

We are talking about tranches ofjobs of 50 to 100 at singlecompanies lying open during aneconomic crash; its nearlyunthinkable. Ive been hearingthe same story for months andspoke to people in recent weekswho told me about up to 50developer jobs unfilled at severalindigenous IT companies.

Last week, I talked to awell-known Irish entrepreneurwho is trying to find an individualto take on a senior engineeringmanagement position within astart-up the individual would get

equity in a promising companythat has already received one ofthe largest equity investments onthis island.

Candidates would have seen asignificant advancement in theirown career by taking the position.But the company has been unableto fill the role because people areturning it down as too risky.

Too risky? At a time when nojob is guaranteed?

Even setting that aside, thefinances are there to keep that

job running for long enough tosignificantly improve someonesrsum even were the companyto collapse and the individual tofind him or herself back on the

job market.In Silicon Valley, it is such

senior management figures whotend to be the next round ofentrepreneurs after theircompany is sold. If Irish-qualifiedindividuals fear even going intomanagement, how will they havethe guts to start their own

companies?We should definitely be

focusing on how to create aninnovation culture and anentrepreneurial environmenthere our economy depends onit. But some nationalsoul-searching is in order.

A country gets the businessculture it creates which is areflection of its own values andultimately, that it earns [email protected];Twitter: @klillington

Time magazinepublishesanannual listofBestInventions.PastluminariesincludeNasafortheir Aresrocket (2009),Applefor the iPhone(2007), YouTube fortheirvideoplatform(2006) andAppleagain forthe iTunesmusicstore (2003).

Otherinventionswhich

havemadeit tothelistand crossedintothepublicimaginationincludethe Large HadronCollider (left),theinvisibilitycloak,the Mars rovers,

cameraphones andtheworldsfastestcomputer.Someinventionswhich arestillawaitingthebig timeincludethe Airgo (2001), an

air-poweredPogo stick,andtheBow-lingual dogtranslation device(right,2002)forinter-pretingcaninespeech.Unfortu-nately,it wasneverreleasedoutsideofJapan.

Weget thebusiness culturewedeserve

ITS A brand of goo. Sounds like glue.Spelled S-u-g-r-u. Inspired by the Irishword sgradh, meaning play. But whatdoes Sugru do?

Its basically a bit like plasticine ormodelling clay, explains Jane N Dhulchao-intigh (31), the inventor. When you take it outof the packet, you have 30 minutes to shape itintoanythingyou want.Then,youleaveit over-night and it will set into durable siliconerubber.

It doesnt sound that interesting until yourealise that Sugru moulds to most of the othermaterials in your home. Working with metal,glass, ceramic and hard plastic, Sugru isextremely versatile stuff.

It started with the idea, What if a materialexisted so that everything in the world couldbe more flexible, explains N Dhul-chaointigh. A graduate ofNational College of Artand Design in Dublin,she had the idea forSugru while studyingfor her masters at theRoyal College of Design inLondon. She wondered,what would happen if peoplesaw everythingintheir house as unfinished and they were the

ones to finish it off?From the outset, she wanted to design auser-friendly and accessible product. Thatswhy it has certain properties like being dish-washer-proof, it looks good, is durable and issafe to use.

It is design-led all the way but Sugru isbacked upby somehard-corescienceand tech-nology. To design a new material fromscratch does not happen overnight, says theKilkenny native with understatement. She col-laborated with a team of experienced mate-rials experts through countless experimentsover five years of research and developmentbefore they were ready for market.

Is the market ready for them? I realisedvery early that in order for people to think asdesigners, as I hoped they would, they wouldneed to be inspired, explains Jane. Itwas notabout the material so much as about howpeople perceived it.

Word about Sugru spread through internetcommunities. Something that encouragespeople to share their ideas becomes very pow-erful, she says. Because we use the internetmore and more, we expect everything online

tobe customisable. Whenit comestoour phys-ical world, we just dont have that flexibility.

The e-tail channel on her website (www.sugru.com) displays the slogan Hack thingsbetter. In this context, the word hack con-notes innovation and i mprovisation.

Shoppers can browse a gallery of Sugru

tricks submitted by users from all over theworldsuchas patching upWellington, custom-ising lamps from Illinois and adding colour tobikes from Edinburgh.

People protect their gear with it, such asmobile phone and make the world a little bitsafer and softer if there is a baby around.

Its not just for sticking your iPod backtogether after you boogie too hard though.Only about 25 per cent of the things we seepeople do are repairs, claims N Dhulchao-intigh. Most people use it for improvementsand modifications.

The only limiting factor is human inventive-ness. It sounds absurd, she says, but thereare hundreds and thousands of things thatpeople do. Despite its recent online fame, theidea for Sugru (2003) predates social mediaplatforms Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005)

and Twitter (2006).When we started off, itwouldnt have been pos-sible to build an onlinecommunity for Sugru like

we have now, she says. Butnow all geographic barriers have

been wiped away. I can get a message [inLondon] from somebody sitting at the kitchentable in Alaska working on their headphonesand we have a bit of banter about favouritesongs.

Social media makes the shopping experi-ence more like browsing in an old shoe shopora record store. Butone that reaches outto any-where. People dont normally expect to beable to speak to the managing director of a

company but its all so easy that we canoperate like that. I absolutely love that.

Sugrualso retailsthroughsmallcraftstores,science museums, bike shops and hardwarestores. The upshot is, theyre selling 5,000packs a month.

The company had two employees lastChristmas, with six this year but there are noplansto super-sizethe businessby going withamajor retailer.

Its a very organic growth strategy for abusiness but it also is quite solid because,

through those feedback loops, youre makingiteractive improvements all the time to yourproduct, customer service and distributionsystem. Youre learning all the time and its allbased on evidence.

Sugru has enjoyed extensive coverage inForbes magazine and the British newspapers.Even Time magazine is getting in on the act.Today Sugru is being nominated as one of themagazines Top 50 Best Inventions of 2010,rubbing shoulders with the rocket scientists ofNasa and the gadget gurus at Apple.

If you could wrap publicity like that in foilpackets, you could sell it for a fortune. So, doesSugru have a special PR machine next to themagic gum mixer? N Dhulchaointigh laughsand denies any such machine exists. Its

timing, she believes. Theres a mood. Its not just the recession, its a post-consumeristmood which is complicated.

In some respects, its not because peoplecant afford new things, its because, due toenvironmental concerns it suits them to wasteless and conserve more.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, she sees e-tailas the way to go. If you can forge a connectionwithpeople,youcantrade withthemfromany-where. Creativity is free, she points out.The people who know their thing, love whattheydo,whethermusicians,designersorwhat-ever, have a massive opportunity ahead.

AndSugruis growing.Webelieve ithas thepotential to be as big as Blu Tack.

As a reference point for the future, itsworth remembering that another great brandbased on the native word for play is Den-marks Lego.Jane N Dhulchaointigh will be telling the storyof Sugru (www.sugru.com) at the Paccar The-atrein Dublins ScienceGallery todayat 1pmaspartofScienceWeek.Admissionis free.See:www.sciencegallery.com

Kinect149.99

Kinectis theatestin video

gamestechnology,a motionsensingdevicethat turnsyourbody intothecontroller.TheXboxsensor usescamerasandmicro-phonesto trackyourbodymovements andranslatethat into

commandsforthe game.Youneeda bitofroom

aboutsix feetbetweenyouandthesensor,plusplentyspace toallowyoujumparound.

Themorelightthereis, thebetter.Youalsoneedtobecarefulwhereyouplaceit, nottooclosetonoisyfansorspeakers.

Thatsaid,Kinectisactuallyquite good.Itslaunch gamesincludetitlessuchas

DanceCentral,KinectSports

andKinectimalsa virtual

pet.Andalthoughitsa little

moreexpensive thanyouraveragecontroller, onecontrollercovers twoplayers.

www.xbox.com

Theres stillabit toomuchbarelydisguisedgleeatcompanycrashes

amsungalaxyTabrom79 onelected billpay tariffs

The newestchallengertopple inthe tabletmarketisamsung.TheGalaxyTabunsonAndroid,so ifyou aresedtousingGoogle'system,thiswillbe a breeze.

ThedeviceissmallerthanniPad,witha seven-inchcreen,butyoucan holditroperly inone hand,whicha definitebonus.It

multitasks too,and runslash soyou canwatch RT

Playerand otherFlash-basedcatch-upservices.

Youcanget onlinevia WiFior through3Gnetworks,andyoucan shareyourownmobiledata connection byturningthedeviceintoawirelesshotspot.Surprisingly,it alsoworks asaphone.

http://galaxytab.samsung-mobile.com

AKilkennywomans gumproduct is nominated today asoneof theinventionsof theyear,writesKevinCasey

Success issticking tocreativity

Above: Sugruinventor Jane NDhulchaointigh. Thesubstance can beused to tidy cables,pad your bikeshandlebars orprotect your phone,among countlessother applications.

6 THE IRISH TIMES Business This Week Friday, November 12, 2010

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Success is sticking to creativity