Stakeholder

This morning , as a guest of the Chairman of Harbour Commissioners Len O’Hagan, I had the honour of having breakfast with Leslie Buckley, along with a few dozen other guests from across Belfast. Len introduced Buckley as one of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs and in an interesting address he passed on some nice nuggets to keep us entertained before the fancy version of the Ulster fry which was served up, (lovely it was too).

Leslie has been at the helm in Smurfitt, Digicel and more recently at Irishjobs.ie and NIjobs.com. In May this year he was appointed to the board of Aer Lingus, good luck with that one Leslie.

When Digicel entered the Carribean markets their approach was simple, expensive as well but it paid off. They went were Cable and Wireless had a monopoly and where they also a had a track record for bad mobile phone coverage and a poor service. Denis O’Brien and Leslie employed scores of sales people, invested in the right infrastructure, secured coverage for rural as well as urban areas and provided a 24/7 call centre for customer support. They also invested heavily in sponsorship and advertising. It paid off – in Haiti their target was to sign up 100,000 subscribers in 12 months, they reached 150,000 in 6.

But the big message today was about the poverty which is prevalent in Haiti and the massive impact of the cruel hurricanes which swept through the tiny country in 2008 and left thousands of people homeless. Buckley is intent on doing something practical to help Haitians regain their dignity, and a roof over their heads. Read about  the Haven here, www.havenpartnership.com.

Reading the literature Leslie brought along today, hearing with speak passionately about the suffering he has witnessed puts our own problems into some perspective.

Oh, and if you are in the habit of taking advice from successful business people, Leslie’s message

was, grab market share now, whatever your sector. I think he may have mentioned the value of PR too……