Written by Henry Daly, Head of Marketing at Glandore
“When this is all over, I’m going to…” is a statement that you’ve likely heard a lot since lockdown was issued or maybe even said yourself. Long days indoors self-isolating have the country dreaming up a list of habits they’ll take up once normality returns. Dinner tables and Twitter feeds alike are witness to the revelations of Covid-19 and the promises we’re making to our future selves.
As we take a moment to revaluate our priorities, it’s also an important opportunity to figure out where Northern Irish business will be once this is all over. Northern Ireland has overcome many difficult economic challenges in its past, and many will remember times during the Troubles when we saw businesses struggle to keep the lights on. But that same resilience that saw us through those times, is still very much alive in our local companies today as we’ve already seen companies moving fast to innovate their way through this current challenge.
Henry Daly, head of marketing at Glandore
Some in the generation before me who lived and worked through that time still struggle to believe that Northern Ireland is now a hot bed of highly skilled talent which is attracting global companies, particularly US businesses, to set up here. On a recent trip to Texas and Georgia in the U.S. our Managing Director, Michael Kelly and I, saw first-hand just how attractive Northern Ireland is to US businesses who are looking to hire great people and expand into Europe.
What makes Texas unique is that it has two of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. within its borders. Austin and Dallas, both quite different in their own right but both equally accommodating and open for business. Austin is the more liberal and culture driven of the two cities, with Dallas having a big focus on corporate growth and the expansion of the city’s limits up north through Plano and west through Fort Worth.
Austin is a city that ebbs and flows to the sound of music coming from all of its welcoming bars and BBQs and it is growing at a rate of knots. We’ve heard anecdotal evidence that the city is growing by up to 110 people per day and this is something I would believe based on my recent visit. With Texas having no income tax and Austin having a huge talent pool for companies to pick from, we could see why some of Silicon Valley’s top CEO’s are looking at it as a base for a Southern HQ or a market in which to set up new business.
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It might not be an obvious comparison but there are many similarities that these Texan cities and Northern Ireland share. The best prospects coming from Texas are technology, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, computers and electronic products, aircraft and power generation technology, medical devices and larger electrical equipment. Many of these industries already have some of its giants working out of Northern Ireland. With the wealth of knowledge from a resilient history of industry and the talent from the globally recognised universities in NI, the CEOs of many US companies brought in over the years by Invest NI have shared just how impressed they are to find a likeminded home and great people for their business in Northern Ireland, the same as they might in Texas.
Glandore & Austin, Texas centre for global trade
We at Glandore, have seen first-hand how beneficial US companies have found locating their European base in Belfast. Glandore has been home to many indigenous US companies including, Austin-headquartered Bazaarvoice.
Why do I mention this now during our current situation? It’s because we have no doubt that more will be looking to find a home in Northern Ireland once this is all over. The attributes and assets that have made Northern Ireland a beacon for FDI companies – our skilled people, our friendly business environment, our connectivity, our quality of life – will all be primed to get moving again when it is safe to do so. It’s important we remember that through this period of uncertainty.
The most important thing is for everyone to pitch in and help one another handle this. It will not be the last global crisis of the new decade and may not be the worst, but we cannot let it affect how we do business. We need to adapt and learn and use some of the amazing digital platforms that we have to hand to allow us to continue to build this global market.
It might not quite be a case of being “open for business” for everyone at the moment, but I’m confident NI has all the right fundamentals in place to come back stronger when the worst is over.
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Glandore provides high-end private serviced offices, co-working space and shared workspaces to rent in Dublin, Cork and Belfast city centre.
