The Musings of the Big Red Car

The View From Afar — Ireland #8

We are canvassing the world to take its pulse post-pandemic and post-American election. We have been to Spain, Israel, Chile, South Africa, California, Germany/Spain, Japan/Singapore, and comes now a gentleman from Ireland who is an accomplished and seasoned medical device entrepreneur.

He has a finger on the pulse of Ireland and the European Union and has traveled extensively to the States, so his view is quite attuned and subtle. They even speak a form of English in Ireland. He is also a lot of fun to deal with.

Full disclosure: I am Irish (Brennan) on my mother’s side and feel very Irish in temperament. I used to give this client an “Irish Discount.” True fact.

Please see earlier posts from:

Spain #1

Israel #2

Chile #3

South Africa #4

California #5

Germany/Spain #6

Japan/Singapore/Asia #7

You will recall the questions we threw at the correspondents:

1. How are you feeling — optimistic, pessimistic — about business, the world, your country in general?

2. What is the world’s biggest challenge from here on out?

3. Anything that you think I need to know?

So, here we have it:

Our Irish entrepreneur is “predisposed to be an optimist or else I wouldn’t survive long in the startup world.” He lauds his homeland as a nation that has “great survival instincts and community spirit” which has lessened the impact of the pandemic. The community spirit has carried them through the typical harsh Irish winter. He lives along the coast.

On a personal level he has “never been busier or more productive” and his business endeavors “have made great progress in 2020” through adaptation to a shifting external regulatory environment that they navigated because he employs “smart, independent, flexible, ambitious” folks who “want to succeed.”

He, personally, hasn’t been on a plane since March 2020 and says the benefit has been “more time with family, less impact to environment, more time to exercise, no commute.”

Ireland will fare better than the balance of Europe with Ireland seeing a 0.5% hit to GDP whilst other Europe Union countries will not fare as well with Spain taking a 10% hit and Germany looking at 6%.

While typical Irish sectors like hospitality, tourism, and retail are taking a sharp downward turn, “exports of pharmaceuticals and computer services have accelerated, and these have a greater weighting in . . . overall GDP.”

He expresses a bit of concern about Brexit.

Our Irish correspondent says that “Europe breathed a sigh of relief when Trump lost the election” and has harsh words for Trump who “who tried to retain power despite losing an election . . .” The “attack on congress” exposes the brittle nature of the American democracy. He applauds the absence of the daily Trump “negativity” but does not support or agree with Big Tech’s muffling of Trump’s voice. He sees this triggering a debate on the control and power of Big Tech.

Our world has changed forever as it relates to discreet things like vaccine development and the shift of work to home which leaves our biggest challenges being:

How shall we “successfully integrate working from home into daily working life?”

How shall we “avoid/manage/navigate future pandemics?”

How shall we avoid a “two tier recovery” wherein white collar works thrive whilst hospitality, tourism, frontline, lower paid jobs are devastated and “struggle to survive.”

He marvels at and is fascinated by the “grip that America has on the world, the recent election was played out on a nightly basis on national Irish news and TV.”

He doubts the usefulness of the American two party system and its ability to serve the “diverse American public” and decries the legislative gridlock that ends up with governance by Executive Order with each administration rolling back the predecessor administration’s Executive Orders.

He suggests that former President Trump should start his own party and says, “Now that would be interesting.”

So, there you have it, dear readers, the view from afar from Ireland.