Olympic coach to give firms advice on winning attitude

WATERFORD’S leading business people hope to pick up a few tips from an Olympic coach and some of the country’s leading entrepreneurs tomorrow as a major retail conference gets under way.

The Bulletproof Your Business conference, which aims to show those in the retail, tourism and service sectors how to protect and expand their enterprises in a climate of rapid change, is being organised by Waterford Chamber.

The conference at the Tower Hotel held tomorrow afternoon, will feature talks by retail expert and former Olympic coach Dennis Reid, Patrick McCormack, joint CEO of Sam McCauley’s Chemists chain and David Fitzsimmons CEO of Crest.

Michael Coyle CEO of Galway Chamber will also address the conference on how Galway’s experience of festivals has benefited its business community.

Waterford Chamber CEO Monica Leech said competing in a global market is getting tougher for everyone. “The concept is while we can’t beat China on cost, we can focus on customer service.

“We’ve brought in people like Dennis Reid to give his insight into how to compete. We will also examine the Philadelphia story and how they have transformed their market in the past 15 years,” she added.

The former Olympic coach Dennis Reid will share his philosophy about life. His simple message is: play to win.

“Nobody lines up at the start of a race without knowing which way to go and how fast they need to run if they’re going to win, yet many of the retailers I have worked with over the last 25 years are doing just that.” he says.

“Running a successful retail business requires complete clarity of purpose, a winning game plan, and a lot of hard work. Too many retailers think that hard work on its own is going to deliver the results,” he added.