We must keep evolving to survive in business

The decision of Tyco, world leader in fire protection and security systems, to locate in Cork and create 500 jobs is cause for celebration.

Over the past six years jobs have been hard to come by. Mortgages and bills became even more difficult to pay as the Government seemed to dream up a new way to tax us every other day. For many, emigration was the only solution.

Every so often we’d hear about this light at the end of the tunnel that our politicians were able to see quite clearly, but somehow we couldn’t see it.

So this is one occasion when maybe even the most cynical among us might start to believe that we are beginning to see a flicker.

This jobs announcement is very good news, for a variety of reasons.

As a country, we have been singularly successful in the attraction of foreign direct investment and are often in the top three most successful countries at attracting investment.

We have been fighting way above our weight and can count many major multinational and international companies among the many hundreds of such operators that choose Ireland for their European manufacturing and operating facilities. When we started on this journey back in the 60s and 70s, we were seen as a low-cost location. We attracted companies that employed a lot of people but operated in highly competitive environments.

As we moved up the value chain and as greater emphasis was placed on higher education and we acquired the necessary skills, the low- cost jobs were lost but, thankfully, were replaced by more valuable ones.

As we all know, there is a cycle in everything and in industry and business, in general, the cycles are getting shorter. The pressure for change is coming around much faster as global competitiveness increases, as our choices grow, as the world gets smaller and our ability to move around it becomes easier.

Tyco operated in Ireland before and had several facilities in Cork. However, its operations were primarily in manufacturing and assembly. Many of us will remember companies such as Tyco, M/A Com Eurotec in Mahon and Sensormatic in Bishopstown. They came, they provided valuable jobs and when this location became too expensive they left. They had no other choice if they wanted to remain competitive.

During these years, agencies such as IDA Ireland continuously sought to identify the needs of the industries of the future and worked with the educational and training facilities both locally and nationally to provide those skills. UCC and CIT, for instance, made extremely important contributions. The success of this project is down to all of these organisations and others like them.

This new Tyco project is not in manufacturing. It is to operate a global business service centre.

IDA Ireland’s Barry O’Leary has described the jobs as high-end and another report predicted that the average salaries will be in the region of €50,000, while a sizeable number of graduates will be employed.

At this time, the future is in providing global business support services. According to reports, 100 top global firms have decided to locate such operations here. Tyco must surely rate among the biggest.

Undoubtedly, a key to this success was the fact that a small Tyco operation continued to operate in Cork after the major parts of the operations moved on. We have form in that regard. The Apple plant in Cork bears no relationship to the Apple plant that once existed in Cork, manufacturing what were novel computers back in the early 1980s. Its managers saw an evolving industry and adapted to it.

Long may our ability to attract such companies to Cork and to Ireland continue and long may we continue to adapt to changing circumstances.