February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Ernst & Young, an international accountancy firm, have been running an Entrepreneur of the Year competition in Dublin for the last six years. The shortlist for the competition was announced on June 16 in Dublin. The competition, which takes part in all six continents, will include over 9,000 entrepreneurs from 34 countries this year.
The Irish program, with one of the highest per-capita entry rates, is run in association with the Irish Times and the national broadcasting station, RTE, and is supported by Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development.
In total, 24 Irish entrepreneurs have been selected from sectors as diverse as food processing, health care, pharmaceuticals, software and digital media, to compete for the title. Half of the nominees are based in Dublin.
John O’Dea is one such nominee. Up for the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year category, the 40-year-old from Dublin has high hopes for the second year running.
“I was in the final last year,” he said. “One of the engineers in the firm brought me the forms and said I should enter the competition.”
The company O’Dea co-founded, Caradyne, is based in Galway and makes respiratory-support equipment for elderly patients with emphysema. In the U.S., it hopes to break into the pre-hospital market, a sector that includes ambulances, for example. O’Dea, who has a PhD. in engineering from the University College Dublin, has plenty of experience with the technical side of the business.
O’Dea is delighted with the extra attention the nomination garnered for his company. “The competition is great for publicity,” he said. “Ernst & Young do a fantastic job.”
O’Dea believed that the main benefits were the contacts made. “It’s a great way to meet other people you wouldn’t normally get to meet,” he said.
“Last year we had a roundtable with Denis O’Brien, this year will be with Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy,” he said, adding that it may be the entrepreneurs who give the finance minister advice, rather than the other way around.
O’Dea has already been featured in one of three half-hour RTE TV programs devoted to the categories, in advance of the awards broadcast on Sept. 25.
Last year, on it’s second only showing, the competition was watched by approximately 21 percent of Irish viewers.
Victor Coleman, the marketing manager for the competition in Ireland described how the nominees are shortlisted.
“We go and meet and interview them,” he said. “We get their story and put together a judging report.”
He added that they look for something unique, to set the person apart from his competitors.
An example Coleman gave was the winner of two years ago who designed a forklift truck with a special four-wheel feature, which enabled the machine to turn around. This meant boxes could be stacked closer together and in fact doubled the amount of stock in the warehouse.
Nominees must meet certain criteria to be eligible. They must be owner-managers who are primarily responsible for the recent performance of a company that is at least 2 years old.
Alternatively, for a younger e-business where business-model planning and execution show a strong trend toward profitability.
Founders of public companies are also eligible, provided they are still active in top management. Anyone associated with the entrepreneur can nominate or entrepreneurs can nominate themselves.
This year’s judging panel is made up of business leaders, representatives from the public sector and previous winners including Denis O’Brien and Padraig O’Ceidigh.
A shortlist is decided by the panel and comprises eight nominees for each of three categories. They are — Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, Industry Entrepreneur of the Year and International Services Entrepreneur of the Year.
The winner for each category will be announced at an awards ceremony in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, on Sept. 25. One of the three will be selected as Entrepreneur of the Year.
The winner will represent Ireland in Monte Carlo at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Event in May and June 2004.