Mayo business's succession planning lauded
THE founder and chairman of Irish tech giant Ergo has lauded two well known west of Ireland businesses during his visit to Platform94 headquarters in Galway.
John Purdy was a guest of Platform94 where he led an event entitled 'From Start-Up to Tech Giant - Navigating the Scaling Journey', organised in partnership with Flynn O’Driscoll.
During his presentation, Mr. Purdy singled out Pat McDonagh of Supermac’s and the Hughes family of Portwest in Mayo for their excellence in business acumen.
Across two days at Platform94, he also met privately and shared his experience and insight with several members of Platform94’s scaling community from across Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal.
Addressing a captivated audience of more than 100 business people, Mr. Purdy shared his fascinating entrepreneurial story. Speaking candidly, he told of his first-hand experience of the many challenges in business and how he navigated the international scaling landscape to build one of Ireland’s best known tech empires.
On the Supermac’s empire, Mr. Purdy said Pat McDonagh has built “a phenomenal business” but stressed that “it didn’t happen overnight”. He praised the Galway businessman for many years of “hard work and sweat equity”, noting that sustainable growth - no matter what the business - happens day by day.
Speaking about succession planning, he singled out Mayo’s Portwest for special mention.
“Portwest is now in its third generation but there is a huge amount of planning around succession within the company. If someone in the family wants a position, they must go and achieve a relevant university degree and then spend a number of years working with a competitor outside of Ireland.
“After that, they can join the company but they must work their way up. That’s how succession planning should be viewed,” he opined.
Aside from family divides, the biggest destroyer of company value is ego, according to Mr. Purdy.
“I’ve never met an entrepreneur in my 30 years in business who could turn water into wine, but I’ve met plenty who think they can,” he smiled.
Continuing, he said great leaders need vision, growth mindset, passion, emotional intelligence, empathy, humility, and exceptional execution resilience.
“A lot of people confuse management and leadership. As business leaders, it’s always important to remember that you manage processes and situations, but you lead people. The job of a CEO is a lot like a football manager and it’s always about putting the very best team on the pitch. That team needs to be looked at on an ongoing basis and the reality is that not everyone will make it to the next level within a company,” he explained.