25 January 2001
FARREN: BUSINESS LEADERSHIP VITAL TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
"Business leaders and managers must change just as rapidly as the environment in which they operate if Northern Ireland is to remain competitive," the Minister of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment, Dr Sean Farren, said this morning.
The Minister was speaking at the opening of "CREATING THE FUTURE – LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE DIGITAL AGE", a major business event organised by the Training and Employment Agency at the Culloden Hotel.
Addressing over 200 of Northern Ireland’s senior business people, Dr Farren said: "The knowledge-based economy, which is vital to our future economic prosperity, is about creating new sources of competitive advantage.
"The ability to innovate, to create new products and exploit new markets is well recognised, but central to this happening is an investment in people and the development of managerial and leadership skills. That is even more important given the increasingly educated nature of our workforce and the development of information technology.
"The simple fact is that the changing business environment calls for better leadership and management and that means leaders and managers need to adapt to the rapid changes taking place in the Information Age. If they do they succeed, if they don’t they fail.
"That is why improving leadership and management is high on the agenda of the Training and Employment Agency. That is why they have organised today’s conference. It gives our local business leaders the chance to learn from some of the world’s leading authorities about how they can help create, and share in, Strategy 2010’s vision of a fast growing, competitive, innovative, knowledge-based economy.
"Despite the decline in fortunes of some dot.com companies, the pace of change in the digital world is unstoppable. Northern Ireland must go with it, or be left behind."
Other speakers at the conference, organised by the T&EA in association with ICL, included Nicholas Negroponte, described as the world‘s pre-eminent speaker on information technology, who provided a glimpse of the future and what is still to come in the digital world; Jeff Peel of Amacis, one of Northern Ireland’s most successful companies in the software industry; Fons Trompenaars, a leading authority on leadership issues and author of "21 leaders for the 21st Century – in the Digital Age"; and Bro McFerran of Northbrook Technology, and Colin Reid Group Chief Executive of Task Group.
For further information please contact Simon Burrowes on 028 90 257831 or 07799 711524.