Saturday 24 – Druids Glen resort
The CEO retreat kicked off with a day in Druids Glen in Wicklow where the 32 2014 finalists got to know each other and listened to inspirational speakers such as Denis O Brien and Jim Brosnan the founder of the Kerry group. We recorded a Down To Business special which went out the next day early as our usual Saturday slot made way for the local and European election coverage which so nimbly handled my all in sundry back at Digges lane.
Our show started with Ernst & Young Partner Frank O'Keefe who gave us the history of the competition and told us what awaits the finalists on their visit to Seattle & Vancouver on the CEO Retreat. We then chatted to three of the finalists who told us about their respective businesses and what they hoped to get out of the week away.
Sunday 25th – Travel to Vancouver Canada
Left Dublin with a group of 32 highly charged EY finalists of the 2014 competition. The group was also joined by Entrepreneur of the Year which is made up of a host of previous winners such as Michael Dawson, Liam Casey and Liam Griffin. We travelled in two separate groups and arrived in Vancouver pretty shattered after the 9 hour flight and 8 hour time difference. It’s all go on this trip so we had a nice dinner where some of the finalists stood up and gave an elevator pitch to the group which included something unusual or funny about themselves. We then went to an early nest as we were all pretty beat and a big day awaited us on Monday.
Monday 26th Vancouver Canada
Unable to sleep as often happens with Jetlag I went for a 6am 10K with Newstalk Down To Business producer Brendan Howard. We ran down along the shore and we saw a wonderful waterfront where we saw Sea Planes waiting to kick start their day to the thousands of islands that are inhabited in these parts as well of Gaggles of geese who were going about their business along the waterfront. We saw one family of geese following each other in single file walking across a main road.
Breakfast was followed by an update for the group on the advantages of being part of the EOY Alumni which we were told is an exclusive club of Entrepreneurs who can learn from each other in a confidential environment. You can’t buy your way into this group you can only participate if you have been lucky enough to become a finalist.
Then we went off to the University of British Columbia where we had a two hour lecture from Anne Stone a brand and marketing specialist who has previously worked for well-known brands such as Coca Cola and PepsiCo
Anne Stone told us about personification of the brand where you need to talk to real consumers not just stats such as 35 – 55 Male Hispanics or 25 45 Female afro Americans. She told us of Brands that got it wrong in Asian and Indian markets as they failed to take local needs of consumers into account. She talked about the importance of culture around brands. The culture of your organisation is really important when building the brand. She also demonstrated how real story telling in a company was important to consumers understanding of the brand. The “about us” section of most websites was a lost opportunity to tell a great company story.
Monday 26th Vancouver Canada
In the afternoon we had a lecture from Kent Langley Adjunct professor at Singularity University who was an expert in big data. Singularity is an amazing concept in that it only accecpts individuals who can impact the lives of 1 billion people over a ten year period. The key issues that singularity focus on are:
- Global Health
- Supply of fresh water
- Environment
- Food supply
- Education
- Security
- Energy
- Poverty
Kent talked about the doubling of data on line every 2 years. There were 1.2 billion people on line in 2010, this is now 3 billion today and expected to be 5 Billion in 2020. This will have a great effect on mankind as we know it. He said there is also going to be a huge displacement of labour across the world and that there will be far less jobs in the future. He seemed to predict that large volumes of people will have to learn new skills and it would not be uncommon in the future to be taking on apprenticeships when we are in our 40s or 50s. Fascinating stuff.
Later in the afternoon we paid a visit to EA Sports the company behind sports games franchises for Xbox and PlayStation such as FIFA and Tiger Woods golf. This company is less than 20 years old and has a turnover of about $3 billion.
This was an interesting environment which employed over 1500 people in a really cool space that included a basketball court, and a full size soccer pitch. I got to interview David Rutter an English man and he told me that they work really hard at making sure the detail in their games represents the sports stars in a really authentic way. The workforce work in teams and the workspace was adorned with hockey and football merchandise. One company representative said “The great thing about working here is you never have to go home.
Dinner that night was in the Salmon place a restaurant perched high on a mountain which gave us a wonderful vista of Vancouver which is truly a wonderful city.
