BUSINESS LESSONS

What advice would you have for creative businesses who might look to China or India for new opportunities? There is no shortcut to relationships. Local partners are crucial. The right one can be transformative. The wrong one can be the opposite. If you’re going to go into a partnership of some form, make sure you don’t do so permanently.

There is no short cut to being on the ground, learning about the markets. Relationships won’t come easily. It’s about time and persistence. Help potential partners. Be co-operative. You’ll get tested. It might not pay off for three or four years.

Ireland and India have a lot in common. It’s about family, extended families, communities, and all of those kind of values we’re familiar with in Ireland. And that resonates in China as well. Do you have any leadership or management secrets to pass on? It’s by no means a secret, but sometimes when you’re a CEO, it’s easy not to listen. My civil service role taught me about the importance of that. My colleagues all readily tell me what I’m doing wrong and what the company is doing wrong. I’ve no shortage of shortcomings.

It’s about knowing the right moments to listen, and then when it’s the right time to stop listening and make a decision. What are the next big things in your industry? Mixed reality is going to be enormous, both for consumers and in industrial applications. China and India have burgeoning middle classes and four billion potential consumers of movies, games and other content.

With AI, we’re seeking inspiration outside of our own industries. We don’t invent tech, but we do invent how tech is applied to the CGI and visualisation work we do.

We also take a consultative approach, with strategic thinking to designing data visualisation solutions for businesses outside of our own sector. It’s a way for us to discover how they are innovating. We learn from each other.