WHEN I started at Queen’s University in October 1988, it was in a joint honours programme in economics and accounting. The following summer, having been narrowly knocked out of the Ulster Championship by Monaghan at Casement, I did what most inter-county GAA playing students did at the time and headed to America for the summer. I went to San Francisco to play for the Young Irelanders but unlike most, I didn’t end up in an apartment with a bunch of lads from home in the middle of the Irish district.
My closest friend had taken a year off and he was already living in San Francisco’s Mission district, a racially mixed, quite bohemian quarter on the other side of the city from the more traditional Irish areas. I moved in with him and a hippy guy called Tony who was studying Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.
If you’re not aware of it, Berkeley was one of the great hotbeds of the hippy revolution and student radicalism in America in the 1960s and 70s. Tony was straight from that generation, he looked like a Hare Krishna, read Nietzsche for pleasure and played Chopin on his little record player. That summer, as well as having a great time, I had some great conversations with Tony and I got to think about the US undergraduate system and the value it places on more general fields of study.
So much so that when I went home at the end of the summer, I switched out of the BSc Economics and transferred into the closest thing Queen’s had to a more general degree, the Bachelor of Social Science. I held onto the Economics but as only one third of the overall degree, another third was in European Politics and for the final third, I picked up philosophy.
Back in 1989, I didn’t realise it, but I was effectively studying PPE, a very popular degree choice these days for aspiring politicians and as it turns out, one that has served me pretty well in the business of public relations. At the time though, I just wanted to study what I was interested in.
I’m telling you this because that choice came back to me fairly vividly at the weekend having attended the excellent Londonderry Chamber of Commerce President’s dinner on Friday night at the Everglades Hotel. The current president of the chamber is Gerry Kindlon who is a senior guy in Seagate. While the always polished Arlene Foster and the really superb Professor Neil Gibson were also speaking, I thought Gerry really nailed it with his speech.
He told of the history of the chamber and the issues being faced by businesses in the north west. He challenged our politicians to do better and called on business to support them. He flagged some of the great new economy initiatives in Derry like Imagine Create, Culturetech and Digital Derry as well as summarising very well the massive contributions being made by the port, the university and other major assets.
But where he really got me was with his references to practical philosophy. Gerry, who also happens to be a GAA man from another ‘minor’ county, Louth, said that in philosophy, it is suggested there are four paths to reason. He reflected on these in light of what he called the ‘political and economic crossroads’ we are now at.
Path one he said is to be mindful and aware, to see ourselves as others see us and see our assets for what they are and be aware of the incredible change that is taking place. Path two he said is to read the ‘wise words’ and given we have never had access to knowledge like we have today, then, he said, wisdom can come from using that knowledge effectively. Path three he said is to ask questions. He said that now that we have the tools to interrogate data like never before and data analytics and personalised medicine are the new high growth sectors, the north west should find ways to compete in these industries. He also said we should ask questions of ourselves, to hold each other accountable and engage at every opportunity.
Finally, Path four he said is to keep good company, he concluded that this has never been more important. He said that business needed believers to band together and in doing so, the economy in Derry could again compete on a global level. He quoted Harry Truman when he said: ‘it is amazing what you can get done if you don’t care who gets the credit’.
Wise and very well delivered words to a room which was full of every important and relevant person in the business and political community in the north west including the two MPs, Gregory Campbell and Mark Durkan, the deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness and the environment minister, Mark H Durkan.
Given I get few enough opportunities to go to Derry, it was a privilege for me to be there and myself and a small gang of very committed fellow diners, including Gerry and his wife Mary, debated the speeches, sport, education, politics and business long into the night. It was one of those evenings where positivity reigned supreme and a lot of credit has to go to the Chamber executive team led by Sinead McLaughlin, the CEO, for creating that and for putting such an excellent event together.
I’ve thought about that choice I made back in 1989 to take up philosophy and step back from economics and accounting, it was probably career-defining but I certainly don’t regret it. And it was very refreshing to hear Gerry so capably apply philosophy to commerce in the practical ways he did, it was a pleasure to be there.
:: Paul McErlean (paul @mcepublicrelations.com) is managing director of MCE Public Relations Ltd.
