ISME, The Irish SME association and Griffith College, the independent third-level institution based in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, are partnering to support Ireland’s small and medium business sector in response to the COVID19 Crisis.
Commencing on 6th April and facilitated by Griffith College’s Graduate Business School, industry experts will lead a series of FREE workshops, entitled ‘Restart your Business, Rethink your Strategy’, aimed at helping the many businesses struggling during the COVID-19 crisis. The workshops will take place from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm, three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) and will be available to view for FREE online from anywhere in the country on registration through ISME’s and Griffith College’s websites.
The aim of the programme is to support businesses in coping with the difficult and unplanned issues that they are now facing as a result of the impact of COVID-19 and to help them to put strategies in place to recover when the time comes. Leading industry experts will host the sessions and cover a range of topics that are pertinent to small and medium sized businesses during this time. Presenters include: Economist, Jim Power, who will provide insights on the global economy post COVID-19; Pádraig Ó Céidigh, former CEO of Aer Arann who will discuss building a new reality for Irish SMEs and a panel of expert practitioners who will discuss optimising supply chains and operations for smaller business. The full schedule of programme workshops is available on the Griffith College and ISME websites.
Adam Weatherley, Head of Learning at ISME, said: “The business world has been hit by a tornado and is in severe shock as a result. Approximately 10,000 small and medium-sized firms in Ireland are ISME members or affiliates, and the majority of these are in the services industry – lawyers, accountants, travel companies, small cafés and restaurants. When this crisis first hit, most member queries to the ISME helpline were about business management issues. Most of our queries in the last two weeks relate to lay-offs and liquidity. However, there is hope on the horizon as the majority of our members who are able to do so are looking at temporary lay-off strategies, that will enable them to rehire their staff as soon as the Crisis is over. Griffith College’s agility has enabled us to put this idea into reality. Together, through these workshops, we can assist businesses with managing the immediate crisis and position them to kick-start and recover when the time comes.’
Dr Tomás Mac Eochagáin, Director of Programmes at Griffith College said: ‘This is a time for everyone to step up and help each other. Never before has it been so important for all of us in business to use our creativity, knowledge and expertise and come together. We are well practiced in delivering programmes to exacting standards at Griffith College and our team at the Graduate Business School have a huge wealth of knowledge, experience and contacts that they can lend to this particular and extraordinary situation. We have a long-standing partnership with ISME and together we can rally behind businesses in Ireland to help them navigate and ultimately recover in these unprecedented times.’
Dominic Burke, ISME member and Managing Director of Travel Centres added: ‘The travel industry has been uniquely impacted by Covid-19 as not only has business come to a grinding halt but any sales in respect of future travel that had been captured in the past 12 months are now being lost due to cancellations. This double whammy is being further exacerbated by the fact that even though no new revenue is coming in the doors, travel companies are still obliged to keep staff on the payroll so that clients can be repatriated from abroad or future travel arrangements re-booked where possible. Such exceptional trading conditions are presenting many challenges for the industry so we are delighted to hear that we will be able to benefit from the support and expertise of ISME as a beneficiary of their new Business Recovery Programme.’’
Registration for the FREE ISME / Griffith College training programme is now open on www.griffith.ie and on https://isme.ie/learning/.
