THE subject of business exit strategies was discussed in these pages only last month, with the point being that too many businesses in Northern Ireland set themselves up like beef cattle farmers - breed, calve, fatten and sell.
The latest news from Chain Reaction Cycles shows just how devastating to our society this approach can be. It’s the curse of geographically peripheral economies and it manifests itself in almost every sector.
Ambitious and talented journalists, footballers, medics, artists and business leaders are poached by bigger organisations in the UK, the US and around the world who can offer them so-called benefits which they believe they will not find here in Northern Ireland.
Even though many come home after “making it” overseas, the fact remains that this phenomenon is a blight.The Republic of Ireland has succeeded in recent decades to put a stop to this brain drain and the reverse is now true with foreign direct investment growing alongside indigenous firms and businesses.
Northern Ireland may claim to be good for business. But is it? Do we provide support for our home-grown businesses to develop a culture of being the acquirer rather than the acquired?
We should be looking more closely at courses on how to grow your business through acquisition rather than fattening up that business for sale to someone outside the country. It’s time government looked at incentives for businesses to maintain ownership or to sell locally.
Earlier this year I wrote that while there was much hand wringing and heartache over Brexit, that there was a far more pressing concern regarding the exit sign over the Northern Ireland economy’s front door.
That’s the one through which too many businesses here are heading - selling our creativity, innovation, ideas and ambition to external investors. This is the exit that takes businesses away from our entrepreneurs, away from local communities, away from Northern Ireland.
We want more companies here like Glen Dimplex, First Derivatives, Norbrook and Galen. These are companies that did not sell out, who stayed the distance, who are now rooted in Northern Ireland. They create jobs and prosperity here. We all want more of these, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for our entrepreneurs to hold on due to challenges competitor nations do not face.
Northern Ireland needs to take a long hard look at this. It’s all very well letting a free market operate without constraint, but surely some regulation is needed to prevent the Chain Reaction Cycles syndrome from repeating itself until there is nothing left to motivate Northern Ireland firms except fattening the calf?
Women in Business as an organisation is very aware of this phenomenon and we appeal to the Executive to urgently consider the implications of our position on the edge of Europe.
Brexit has few redeeming features. One was meant to be “taking back control”. It’s time in that case for the Executive to look at us what protections we could put in place to safeguard our business sector and to start thinking like an innovative society which wants to maintain and grow its own, unfettered economy.
:: Roseann Kelly (roseann@ womeninbusinessni.com) is chief executive of Women in Business (www.womeninbusinessni.com), the largest and fastest growing business network for female entrepreneurs and senior women in management in Northern Ireland. Follow Women in Business NI on Facebook at www.facebook.com/women- inbusinessni or on Twitter @wibni.
