Press Release

Strong Management is Key to Businesses Success

Thursday, 29 November 2007

“The effectiveness of management is a key determinant in the success of any businesses”, commented Minister Micheál Martin addressing the recently appointed the Management Development Council (MDC) today, Thursday 29 November.

“Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are significant drivers of our economy and enhancing the quality of their management teams is critical to driving the growth of sustainable enterprises. We need to ensure that there are no barriers to our companies gaining the additional management skills that they need to give them a competitive edge in trading both at home and abroad. The ability of an enterprise to launch innovative products and services and to expand successfully into international markets depends heavily on the capability of the company’s management team. Given the importance of innovation and export trade to the Irish economy, I have established this Council of experts to give us a greater understanding of what businesses need to allow them to invest further in management development” continued Minister Martin.

“The value of management development to businesses cannot be overestimated. Professional development gives managers the vision and confidence to deepen their contribution to the success of their organisation, and to empower their management team. This is illustrated by recent studies in both the UK and Canada, which have found that formal management development and training can reduce business failure and bankruptcy rates by half.” said Professor Frank Roche, Chairman of the Management Development Council.

“The Management Development Council will work to understand what programmes and supports are available in Ireland, and to understand if these are the right programmes for our managers and if they are delivered in the right way. The Council has a vision of Ireland as a country internationally recognised for its excellent business managers, where all SME managers have access to high quality management development which meets their needs and we believe that this vision is achievable.” continued Professor Roche.

The Management Development Council is tasked with submitting an action plan to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, recommending how the State and the private sector to make management development programmes and supports more attractive and relevant to SMEs, and stimulate increased demand for management development amongst SMEs. It is anticipated that this will be completed by November 2008.

Forfás, the national advisory board for enterprise, science and technology will provide research and administrative support to the MDC. The Board of Forfás have welcomed the establishment of the Council, whose work they see as important to Ireland’s future economic success.

Call for Submissions To understand the needs of business the Council has launched a call for submissions inviting the public and enterprise to provide their comment and views on how to best support and encourage SMEs to invest in developing their management capability. The Council is especially interested in the views of SMEs and of organisations engaged in the provision of management training and development services. For further information on how you can make a submission please visit call for submissions.