‘WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO SUCCEED’
THE Vice President of Flex Operations in Europe, John Scanlan, enthralled the large audience at the Duhallow Business Awards, even thoug the fact that he was in attendance “was unfortunate”. He said the person who was supposed to attend was Caroline Dowling from Millstreet who is President of the largest division of Flex. However, her much loved father, David, (Daithi) passed away last weekend quite suddenly. Mr Scanlan said his colleague, Caroline was looking forward to the event and he asked that the attendees accept her apology.
He pointed out that both he and Caroline have much in common. They both joined the company two decades ago and more importantly, they both hail from small towns in rural Ireland.
“Now, unfortunately, I am not from North Cork. I am actually from a small town in East Clare, called Killaloe. It’s an interesting place with some fabulous scenery, overlooking the Shannon, but like many small towns in Ireland, not too many jobs, so I am now in exile in Cork city,” he said.
He said he grew up on a small mixed farm and after graduating from UL with a degree in engineering in 1986, found himself in a dark economic climate as unemployment was at an all time high and out of his class of 25 graduates, 20 packed their suitcases and left the country.
Despite this economic bleakness, both he and Caroline were fortunate to secure positions in multinational electronics companies, which at that time were just beginning to set up in Ireland due to low labour costs, cheap property prices, the availability of skilled labour, and more importantly, the tax benefits which Ireland had to offer.
Both joined Flex in the 1990s, which was founded in Silicon Valley, California, in the 1980s and which went public back in 1993.
Since then, Flex has become one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world, with over 130 sites in 30 countries on four continents.
Mr Scanlan said their annual turnover is in excess of $25 billion and they have over 200,000 employees.
“We have over 30,000 people in Europe and over 700 in Ireland,” he said.
Flex, he said call themselves a “sketch to scale company,” and pointed out that their logo or brand doesn’t appear on their products, but some of the largest companies in the world go to them with ideas or sketches.
In turn, Flex takes these product ideas, complete the design, undertake the manufacturing, distribution and the after sales support.
“We have hundreds of customers but some of our customers include brand names which you all know such as Dell, EMC, HP, Ford, BMW, Nokia, Ericsson, Nike, Bose, Johnson and Johnson,” he said.
By way of example, he said Flex manufacture everything from mobile phones to computers to networking equipment to medical devices to wearable electronics to running shoes.
“I would say that in the average Irish home and car, there are at least seven items which we have manufactured,” he said.
He said both he and Caroline have been fortunate to rise to senior positions at Flex. The journey, he said has been the reward. “We have travelled all over the world, managed diverse cultures, worked with great customers and learned from some remarkable people. However, we both attribute our success to our upbringing in a small rural Irish town, and that is why I am so delighted and honoured to be here,” he said.
Regarding the economic road ahead, he said the development of small local companies has never been more important.
He said everyone is hearing messages that the UK and the US plan to reduce corporate tax. This, along with the election of Donald Trump and Brexit may have impacts – especially for Ireland.
“But never forget, we have the educational system, the skills and the culture to be successful, regardless. We recovered from those dark days of recession in the 80s, the banking crisis in 2008, and with our work ethic and our culture, I am confident we can overcome any political or financial challenge,” he said.
Mr Scanlan said many of the great companies in the world today, such as Apple and Ford started in sheds or garages with one or two people.