UCD Business at 100 - University College Dublin

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UCD BUSINESS @100 ENTREPRENEURSHIP Astrong base for entrepreneurial careers ANYONE WHO recalls the telecoms revolution in the 1990s will remember Sean Melly as one of its leading pioneers. He established one of the first independent telecoms operators to take on Eircom in its own back yard, later selling to MCI Worldcom in a multimillion-dollar deal. That was his first foray into entrepreneurship in acareer which had already seen him work for Citigroup, Dermot Desmond’s IIU group and aUS private-equity fund following his graduation from UCD Smurfit School with amasters in business studies (MBS) in 1987. “I had done abusiness degree in Trinity and that was very good too, but the MBS has been agreat calling card throughout my career,” Melly says. “When you get to work for people like Citi, you are playing at adifferent level and you get very intensive and specific training for the job. But the MBS gives you the knowledge base and the background to get in there in the first place.” He worked for Worldcom for afurther year and ahalf, before leaving to start up another business. Repeating the successful formula, he focused on the telecoms markets of eastern Europe, Continued from page 22 “In the learning area, too, we have to look at things differently,” he says. “E-learning, when it is used appropriately, has the capacity to reduce costsand improve efficiencies and that has particular relevance at the moment. “Back in the 1990s, we saw the advent of low-cost operators inmany sectors such as retailing and air transport. We hadpeople like Albert Gubay setting up his 3Guys retail warehousing chain here and companies like Ryanair being established. There are also significant opportunities today to offer lower cost or better value.” He describes the downturn as abit of ahothouse for entrepreneurship. “Ongoing creative destruction goes on in markets all the time, it’s just more evident in adownturn, and you see people developing greater value propositions as aresult. The downturn can speed up the innovative development of these value propositions,” says Roche. On the question of whether entrepreneurship can actually be taught or not, Roche believes this is not really an issue. “More people will be voting with their feet and looking totake up entrepreneurship as acareer,” he says. “They are seeing it as aviable alternative career path and it is our job in the university to prepare them for that career path and communicate to them that entrepreneurship is valued.” 24 | THE IRISH TIMES UCD Business at 100 |April 24, 2009 which were undergoing liberalisation in 1999, and he established his new company eTel as aforce in five countries in the region before selling it to Austria Telekom 18 months ago in a deal worth ¤100 million. But he is not resting on his laurels, and he remains actively involved in entrepreneurship. “For the past two years, I’ve been running my own private equity company, Powerscourt Investments, and arelated BES fund. We focus on seed capital for high-potential start-up companies and we have aportfolio of investments in a broad range of technology-related companies in areas such as telecoms and healthcare. “I would certainly recommend UCD to anyone thinking about either acareer in business or as an entrepreneur,” he says. OWEN MURPHY of ACT Venture Capital attributes part of his entrepreneurial streak to his time at UCD. “I think you can definitely trace the seeds of it back to then,” he says. “I did aBComm in UCD in the late 1970s and in 1979 Iwas in Frank Murphy’s first enterprise development programme – that certainly had an impact on me.” He qualified in 1979 and stayed on in UCD to do apostgraduate diploma in accounting before joining Craig Gardner –now PricewaterhouseCoopers –in1981 and qualifying as a chartered accountant two years later. He joined Allied Irish Investment Bank in 1984 and almost immediately got into venture capital. “The venture side was called ACT even back then and Niall Carroll ran it,” says Murphy. “I stayed with AIB with abreak of about ayear until 1994 when AIB decided the venture capital business was not acore activity for them. I organised the spin-out of ACT ‘I’m really impressed at how interactive the classes are’ STUDYING IN Dublin for the spring semester, Caroline McNeal has found life in UCD the perfect complement to ‘A breath of fresh air’ UCD INTERNATIONAL Caroline McNeal (BComm) University of Denver her studies in the University of Denver. “I wanted to go to auniversity abroad that still had the college aspects [such as] the social activities and student organisations,” she says. “I also wanted afun, bustling European city and aplace where my classes could transfer over easily. UCD just fit that really well,” she says. The academic side of life in UCD and the manner in which classes are taught have impressed McNeal. “A lot of the professors are top notch, and I’m really impressed at how interactive the classes are,” says McNeal. “The local students –and the with the backing of AIB, and Niall Carroll came back to join the business then.” Murphy and ACT have since helped fund more than 100 entrepreneurs and businesses, including Cahill May Roberts, Poldy’s Fresh Foods (Goodfella’s pizzas), Belfast Airport, DirectSki and technology companies CR2 and Kainos. “My time at UCD was hugely influential,” he says. “When Iwas doing the BComm, we had John Teeling as a lecturer and he was abreath of fresh air. He really was inspiring and like abolt from the blue. “Also, the entrepreneurship programme probably had abig influence on my staying in the entrepreneurial space all these years. I’d certainly recommend UCD to any would-be entrepreneurs.” Owen Murphy (right) with members of the ACT team. Photograph: Robbie Reynolds/ MacInnes international ones, too –are really active and willing to speak up.” She finds the ability to discuss topics with lecturers makes for amore comfortable and informative educational environment. It’s not all about studying, of course. McNeal has found life in Ireland is at the right pace for her kind of lifestyle. “I really lucked out with my living situation. Ilive in the city centre and my room-mates are really great,” she says. “Dublin’s abustling city but it’s close enough to take day trips to other places along the coast.” –Emmet Ryan
Soft seller “ AHUNDRED YEARS Icannot do, but I can go back to the middle of the last century. In 1964 Ireturned from the US, having completed my doctoral studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, to find the position Ihad hoped to fill (marketing manager of the Pigs and Bacon Commission) had already been taken by my good friend Dr Michael Deeney. He had finished his graduate studies at Penn State University afew months before. Michael, who went on to become the highestranking Irish official in the UN system in Geneva, has been of great assistance to UCD in recent years as avisiting faculty member, both in Dublin and in La Coruña in Spain. Iwas about to return to the US when Imet Michael MacCormac. In 1964, Michael was planning to launch the first executive MBA in Europe and he persuaded me to join him. Michael MacCormac is agreat academic entrepreneur who drove the development of business education inIreland. To overcome the initial inertia and institutional barriers then existing, heexercised extraordinary judgment and patience. Innovation in the UCD School of Business became the norm and new successful programmes, both undergraduate and postgraduate, set the standard and models for the whole of Ireland. Packing alot into the last 12years. In the last 12years, Repak’s 2,300 members have contributed €180m to help fund the recovery and recycling of Ireland’s used packaging. This investment has seen Ireland’s packaging recycling rates grow from 15% in 1998 to 64% in 2007. Now that is something to celebrate ! Innovation in UCD School of Business became the norm and new successful programmes, both undergraduate and postgraduate, set the standard and models for the whole of Ireland Prof Anthony Cunningham pioneered marketing education in Ireland –aone time lonely pursuit Iwas fortunate to be the first appointed university lecturer and subsequently professor in the area of marketing in the country –anexciting if initially lonely position. Rapid networking with UK colleagues and bright students soon removed any solitary feelings. In the middle of the last century the majority of the undergraduates applying to the UCD Faculty of Commerce were interested in acareer in accountancy (one survey put the figure at 90 per cent). This was amajor challenge for a new subject such as marketing. Marketing, in the eyes of the establishment –and parents – was an unfamiliar career prospect. Indeed, the first three chairs in marketing in Ireland were funded by the business community, there being little official encouragement at that time. One of my great rewards is the fact that the majority of the marketing chairs in Ireland are occupied by former students of mine. As to the future, there is much emphasis on the development of a“knowledge economy”. I do not believe Ireland can ever match the might of such technological and research-based powerhouses as MIT, Harvard or Stanford. But what we can do is become an even better “learning society”. As asmart learning society we can rapidly assimilate new technologies, wherever developed, and adapt them toour circumstances. Support collection of 1million household recycling bins “That which can be taught directly to another is relatively trivial – things of significance can only be learned UCD BUSINESS @100 MARKETING MATTERS 4.4 million tonnes of packaging recycled WORDS BY PROF ANTHONY CCUNNINGHAM Society is racing into an ever more complex and disruptive future and lurches from crisis to crisis. Managing in such an environment calls for outstanding competencies in all professions. Developing such professionals is the remit of the educational system. Unfortunately, our current system is still largely dominated by the logical positivist paradigm (“build abigger telescope”). While such areductionist approach, which typically directs students down the route of asinglesubject discipline, may be appropriate for some of the “hard” sciences, it is of little value in dealing with issues in the “soft” areas of human behaviour. The major challenge will be to develop graduates capable of problem solving in the most appropriate manner dependent on the societal issues being addressed. Acurriculum largely based on design principles of problem solving using action-learning methodologies and a multi-disciplinary approach may be one solution. As Carl Rogers wrote: “That which can be taught directly to another is relatively trivial, whereas things of significance can only be learned.” The recently announced UCD/TCD joint research venture is amajor step in this direction and the next 100 years will be even more interesting. �180m raised for recycling ” Increased packaging recycling from 15% to 64%
Page 1 and 2: THE IRISH TIMES SPECIAL REPORT FRID
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Page 5 and 6: MY UCD MBS Harry O’Rourke THE COM
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Page 9 and 10: Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) is aworld
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Page 17 and 18: JOHN TEELING Founder of Cooley Dist
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UCD Business at 100 - University College Dublin

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