Preparing for the Future: Strategies for Building a Resilient Toolkit

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.