Management opportunities report: Marketing Institute of Ireland
The decline of foreign direct investment will leave a skills gap which must be filled by homegrown, entrepreneurs prepared for this work through our education system, writes Tom Trainor.
A strategic objective for Ireland's economic recovery and future prosperity is the development of what is termed the smart economy.
One of the government's five key action areas to bring this about concerns innovation, and this was the subject of a significant piece of work published in March by the Innovation Taskforce.
The Marketing Institute of Ireland has long had an interest and involvement in education and skills development, since the early 1960s, in fact. It has recently released a response to the innovation report in which it calls for certain actions to be taken in order to ensure results in this area.
We have seen a big increase in third-level education in Ireland. CSO figures show that in the period 2000-2008, the total percentage of the population aged 25-34 with a third-level education increased from 29% to 42%.
It's interesting to also note that in this same timeframe, the number of females with third-level education rose even more significantly, from 30% to 50%, reflecting the increasing tendency for females to remain in education for longer than their male counterparts.
This level of education places us well against many other European countries. However, while OECD data shows our education system to be strong in reading, we are only average in science, and poor in mathematics.
This certainly presents challenges for our innovation strategy.
Given that we are not the only country on this track, it is interesting to look at others who are making strong progress and use these as benchmarks. Finland, for example, is considered a front runner in innovation, and it has opened up its innovation system to international benchmarking.
In 2009, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs pinpointed how our second-level education system impacts negatively on the creativity and innovation capabilities of Irish students, and they attributed these serious and intractable problems to the influence of the public examinations system.
Whilst acknowledging the efforts of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in tackling this challenge, the expert group warned against the process becoming derailed by defence of the status quo, by excessive tightness on funding, or by over-reaction to stumbles that are inevitable in any transformation programme.
Colm McCarthy in his 2009 report warned that the evidence for impact on actual economic activity of State investment in science, technology and innovation (STI) is not compelling. We would appear to require some refocusing to ensure we achieve value.
Our R&D investment level lags behind our key competitors in many instances. The case for investment in R&D should surely be determined by results. If the R&D is happening within businesses, then it's more likely people will have more confidence than one might have in remote university-based R&D. The difference is in the focus on monetising it.
If R&D is happening without the full involvement of the marketing people, it's much less likely to translate into business. So one would expect R&D success to manifest itself in the development of new products and services that people will buy.
The reality of our economic situation is that Ireland's education system must be marketing-led.
We must create a real basis of competitive advantage for Ireland, one which is not easily copied by our many competitors. The current proposition, such as an increasingly average education system, speaking English (a claim which continues to highlight the relatively poor language skills of Irish graduates), and an attractive tax regime (easily copied) is no longer fit for purpose in an intensely competitive global market.
The smart economy strategy seeks to develop an exemplary research, innovation and commercialisation ecosystem - making us a European hub for such activity. The commercialising of the idea is a marketing competency - the link between the product or service innovation and the customer insight that enables it to be offered at a premium.
The marketing-related recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce focus largely on marketing communications, such as the marketing of Ireland as a location for business and innovation, a one-stop-shop website for Ireland, or Ireland's brand identity.
Whilst this use of marketing as a tactical communications tool has its place, there are more fundamental strategic uses of marketing that will strengthen the innovation process.
If commercial acumen is key to completing the process of innovation, then we must ask to what extent we are educating our population to fulfil this task. Whilst there is a wide range of marketing programmes on offer at third level, there is also a need for the more basic commercialisation thinking at second level.
In addition to learning about science for example, our young people will learn to think about how it might be deployed to make new products and services. This is the cornerstone of entrepreneurship, and in the coming years we will desperately need home-grown entrepreneurs to fill the gap left by the decline of foreign direct investment.
Most of our young people finish their second-level education without any meaningful instruction in commercial business. Surely there should be a more fundamental commercial element in the curriculum?
Tom Trainor is chief executive of the Marketing Institute of Ireland. For more information log on to www.mii.ie
