Not so Joined up thinking
HAVING recently written about the Irish auctioneering firm which was selling properties in Budapest on the basis that "the locals are like the Irish were 10 years ago, young, well educated, talented and motivated", it was good to read in full the IDA's rebuttal of this insinuation of fiscal flabbiness and all-round decline. According to its full page ad in 'The Economist' this week, the post-prosperity Ireland is "flexible, agile, with a unique capacity to initiate and innovate - always thinking on our feet".
"Adapting and improving, connected by a dynamic information infrastructure. In Ireland, everything works together."
I visited some online Irish business forums to test whether the verbiage was justified.
Enlightenment came on the useful askaboutmoney.com, where one small businessman was asking his fellow cyberchatters how best to prise payment from a number of tardy creditors.
It turns out that the chap in question was owed about €450 by a series of small shopowners, tradesmen etc for a promotional service he undertook.
Most people were advising him to suss out debt-collection agencies etc, until one more pro-active entrepreneur suggested the following.
"Don't get mad - get even! Run off a few cheap photocopies of your last letter requesting payment and stand outside the business asking (his) potential customers to hand-deliver to the owner!
"I only did this once before but he paid up after the third copy (5-7 minutes)."
Is this the type of creative Irish business thinking the IDA is referring to?