Month: January 2009

Evert Bopp writes:

“Dell in Limerick, Ireland announced that they were making 1900 employees redundant over the next 12 months. After discussing the news at our local Open Coffee Club meeting I posted an offer of help to these (soon to be ex-) Dell employees. An offer to assist them with advice and guidance if they were interested in starting their own business.
…
I would like to take one of the many vacant office buildings in this region and set up an business incubator
…
I also need a property developer with a vacant office building and a forward looking vision. If you know one point them in my direction.“

He makes an excellent point:

“It has become apparent to me that there is an inherent conflict in expecting a public sector body to stimulate private sector enterprise. The involvement of a public sector body in a private enterprise (a start-up in this case) brings along a large amount of bureaucracy and red tape. It’s simply a fact of life and not a negative reflection on the public sector.”

We know this – this is what Digital Circle is all about – enabling the private sector in the digital content creation, management and distribution industries to tell InvestNI what they need, to educate Skillset of what skills they require, to inform the Government of the steps they should be taking.

Evert’s plan is exactly what is going to be needed in Northern Ireland and contains many of the ideas we posted in our (rejected) CoWorking Belfast bid for funding from the Creative Industries Innovation Fund. With Nortel going into Chapter 11, there’s a possibility of 600-odd people going to be released out of the workforce in Newtownabby before the year end. (This assumes Nortel doesn’t sort out it’s finances in the next six months – something they have failed to do consistently in the last 7 years).

We’ve had the vision for more than a couple of years (the first business plan was 2006), we’ve seen what’s needed and there need to be interest from other people with vision!

The “problem” of finding a property developer/owner with vision is the tough one. Engaging directly with one who had a long term empty property in the centre of Belfast resulted in a stalemate as it didn’t matter the worthiness of the cause, it didn’t matter the length of the lease – the price on the building would not budge (demanding £13 sq ft despite the area being as low as £8.) If a property developer with vision walked in the door today, I think we’d jump at the chance. IT seems odd that property owners would rather have offices empty than filled. Part of this is likely to be the sustaining of high rents in low rent areas – an estate agent boasted at me that he was able to get £13.50 psf in a region of Belfast that is £9 psf on average and slowly dying due to the current downturn in the economy. Well done on that front, you’ll get a business which will pay that high rate and then go bust owing others money. So much for a socially responsible economy.

So, what’s the vision part?

How about the social equity involved in fostering startup businesses?
The opportunity to be in at the ground level with potential startups?
The possibility of even investing in these companies and directing their future?
How about keeping startups focussed on profit and sustainability?

We’re not asking for anything for FREE. The tenants in these places would be rent-paying, but it’s the construction of the organisation itself and the initial months to get started (and fill the desks) that would require the vision.

Vision.