The U.S. Connection

Because the majority of target corporations were located in the U.S., the close historical and emotional links between America and Ireland (sometimes referred to as the 51st state) also played a part. Ireland has always been extremely receptive to American ways (the first MBA program to be set up outside the U.S. was at University College Dublin in the 1960s). The Irish are flexible and adaptable and had no problem operating under the supervision of U.S. managers. Local Irish managers could also be appointed with confidence that corporate procedures and methods would be applied and respected to the letter. So it's not surprising that a quarter of Europe-bound investment from the U.S. lands in Ireland.

Brendan Halpin is international media and marketing manager for IDA Ireland (The Investment and Development Agency). He discusses the advantage that Ireland offers to U.S. companies, the new European economic reality that the public need not be served exclusively by their own nationals, and the emphasis on value-added services that has given Ireland a competitive edge over its European counterparts.

Brendan Halpin

In terms of access, networking, and getting to the starting line, the links between Ireland and the United States are extremely important. Ireland has a very good reputation worldwide as a high-skilled, forward-looking, technological society, with a lot of young, exciting people. And we're English speaking; for Americans that's a particular attraction. Americans prefer to recruit management locally, managers who understand how business operates in Europe. We have enormous experience, over a long time of being true international businesses, compared with the U.K. where they are more inward-looking because of the huge internal market. The managers of these plants in Ireland have virtually no internal market. So they have developed vast experience and know what it means to manufacture or to have a service product in Ireland that is traded throughout Europe. They also know all the difficulties, cultural differences, and other aspects that go along with doing that business.

The information, communications, and technology (ICT) industry is dominated by the U.S., which will continue to provide our main source of investment.

The proof is that Microsoft has its European operations based here; Intel is putting its European manufacturing in Ireland; Dell has its European headquarters in Ireland. You don't have to be in all these countries to sell into all these markets. It is becoming less nationalistic. For example, we have continued to get a lot of German investment in Ireland. Companies may be headquartered in Germany, but operations need not be based in Germany. A German customer today is different from a German customer 20 years ago; they are beginning to demand more quality and more service than in the past. Service in a lot of companies in Europe was nonexistent. Many on the Continent would say, "There is the product, there is the price. It is high quality. If you want it, buy it; if not, fine." But the Japanese and the U.S. companies coming in focused a lot more on service.

Ireland was more service oriented because of the American influence. Most of the businesses in Ireland were run by Irish people. They learned a huge amount about international business, especially in Europe, and they learned pretty quickly. Their American counterparts did not have this experience. So U.S. companies were recruiting Irish people who did have it. They became expert, especially in really sophisticated services like freight. In Europe, you sent it to your local railway station, and just put it on the train. In Ireland, there were all sorts of value-added services to compete . And there are very sophisticated and creative ways to do this.