DEVELOPED economies can no longer compete with Asian manufacturing locations, such as China, the group chief executive of Ireland’s largest private company, Glen Dimplex said yesterday.
Sean O’Driscoll said for most worldwide industries, China was the benchmark by which international competitiveness was measured.
“The reality is that we cannot compete with them on functional, low cost products,” he told the Cork Chamber of Commerce/Irish Examiner monthly business breakfast briefing.
“In Ireland, we must be more innovative and create the products of the future – this is what will give us a significant competitive advantage. In our group no one gets credit for complaining about difficult or competitive markets or reminiscing about the good old times. There is no point in talking about the past, the future was never intended to be about the past. Our attitude is that, we are determined and committed to being the best in our industry in the future,” he said.
Successful businesses he added will shift away from low margin products, which can be copied easily, by a private label retailer or a Chinese company and will move to higher margin innovative products.
“For brands and businesses to remain relevant, they have to stay ahead of their competitors. Complacency has no place in today’s marketplace. The successful businesses of the future will not wait for change. They will both imagine and create it. Change should be encouraged by all of us – not prevented.” Mr O’Driscoll said the importance of change could never be underestimated. “Ignore change and it will consume you,” he said.
“In general, however, people are afraid of and uncomfortable with change – this attitude guarantees failure. Today’s leader can be tomorrows has-been. Successful enterprises are those that do not just think of the future – they imagine what it will be like and they help create it,” he said.
Kmart was market leader in the US 15 years ago when Walmart was just beginning. Today Kmart is in bankruptcy and Walmart is biggest group of its kind in the world. Likewise Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury were the dominant players in Britain when Tesco was set up. Today they are struggling and Tesco is the main player. It makes €3 billion in profit a year, is the largest florist in the world, Britain’s number one newsagent and gets €1 in every €9 spent by the British consumer, he said.
From The Irish Examiner