Chamber Q&A: Rising to the Challenge in Cork
As featured in the summer issue of InBUSINESS, we caught up with Conor Healy, Chief Executive of Cork Chamber, to hear about the issues facing Cork businesses and the key objectives for the rest of the year.
You have been CEO of Cork Chamber for over a decade now. How is Chamber life?
It has certainly been an interesting, challenging and enjoyable ten years, particularly with the economic environment transitioning significantly throughout that period. In more difficult times we focused on providing as much assistance and service as possible to the more vulnerable businesses in our membership. That strategy served us well with membership growth and greater value recognition of the Chamber achieved. On an ongoing basis we are driving the economic agenda in Cork forward and continue to be the leading representative voice of business.
What are the burning issues currently facing businesses within the Cork region?
One of the key issues right now, particularly for businesses with a growing workforce who are welcoming staff to new roles in Cork, is the challenge of identifying suitable accommodation. While Government quite rightly needs to tackle the wider housing issues, there is also a requirement to ensure the environment is in place to facilitate new development of rental based accommodation in locations with good public transport.
In terms of leading the Chamber, where do you draw your inspiration from?
I would say I have three main sources of inspiration. Firstly, I am fortunate in my role to have a really outstanding team of professionals working with me who continuously go the extra mile to meet the needs of our members. Secondly, I have worked closely with six excellent Chamber presidents, each of whom brings a different perspective and value to the organisation. Finally, the outstanding businesses and business leaders the Chamber supports across our membership.
What accomplishments are you most proud of to date?
As we are all aware 2008 to 2015 was a most challenging period in our economic history when many businesses failed to survive. Equally, many Chambers of Commerce across the world struggled to survive with falling membership and severely reduced revenue forcing them to cut staff and services. Collectively at Cork Chamber, we adopted a strategy whereby we invested in our services and through that period we actually added to our team, grew our revenues, grew our service offering and grew our membership.
What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given?
Show respect for everybody you engage with in business, both inside and outside the organisation. I also have a personal mantra that you can always find those few minutes to engage with somebody even if it may not immediately seem like time well spent. The wheel is always turning!
Any up-and-coming Cork-based companies to watch out for in the near future?
Thankfully we have a thriving enterprise base in Cork across a range of sectors with some really exciting companies in both start-up and more established phases of development. While it’s always hard to pick one above the other, some of our recent award winners such as Platform Avenue, Teamwork.com, Technically Write IT and Xanadu are all showing great potential.
What are the key objectives of the Chamber for the latter part of 2016?
Continuing to deliver the best of services and business development opportunities for our members is always to the fore but considering the new political environment and Government, we are particularly focused on ensuring the key business needs of the Cork region are to the forefront of policy and thinking across the political spectrum.