Students urged to start own business
That was the question at the 32nd annual UCC Commerce Conference, which heard from delegates who advocated everything from sponging off your parents and starting a business to joining a ‘Big Four’ accountancy firm.
Entrepreneur, author, and investor Bill Liao thanked the audience in languages ranging from Urdu to Irish before encouraging them to start a business while still young.
Mr Liao said Ireland was underpopulated to the point of being unsustainable and needed people not only to stay, but to bring others here.
“When I look at the population numbers for Ireland, Ireland is underpopulated, vastly underpopulated to the point where it may not be able to be a sustainable nation,” said Mr Liao. “There is a huge debt hanging over us. The best way to pay a debt? Spread it around. If we are going to be paying off this debt, we should invite other people to pay it off with us. Why would they do that? Because Ireland is a great place to live.”
Mr Liao detailed the success of his campaign to develop the Open Ireland initiative, which has made visas for people with valuable skills much more accessible.
KPMG’s leading partner in Cork, Barrie O’Connell, said travelling had helped him learn about the cultural differences in doing businesses around the world. He said that, in China, how somebody reacts to being handed a business card can be key to securing a deal, while in Japan the key is in respecting silence.
Mr O’Connell pointed to Ryanair’s new chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, as an example of somebody who had left Ireland and come back to help run one of the country’s most successful PLCs.
Mr Liao encouraged all students present to set up their own businesses, imploring them to start today.
A final-year student asked Mr Liao what to do if you do not have a start-up idea. Mr O’Connell reassured students it was all right not to have a start-up idea.
Among the speakers was Alan Gallagher who, in his previous job at Visafirst, personally sent around 250,000 Irish people abroad, but atoned for the exodus by working for ConnectIreland to bring expanding companies to Ireland.
Other speakers included entrepreneurs Lisa Domican of the Grace App and Dee O’Leary of IDME.
