World class Irish companies have rising ambition levels for Japan

World class Irish companies have rising ambition levels for Japan

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Pat O’Riordan, Overseas Manager for Japan and Korea at Enterprise Ireland, describes what Irish companies need to succeed in one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated markets.

Irish exporters are waking up to fresh opportunities in the Land of the Rising Sun. While the country may not have regained the stellar growth rates it enjoyed in the 1980s, Japan remains the world’s third-largest economy. Japan’s corporates, driven by the stellar performance of the export sector, are cash rich with strong balance sheets.

It’s also highly attractive, as a “rich, advanced and sophisticated market. It is respectful of intellectual property and open to world class innovation,” O’Riordan adds.

Growing our ambition in Japan

If we have in the past “lost concentration” on Japan, it may be because of the considerable barriers to entry. We are now fortunate to have an increasingly sophisticated and globally ambitious base of client companies, and a market which is more open to external trade.

“Companies best positioned to win in Japan share particular attributes,” O’Riordan says. These are world-class technology, products or services; high levels of innovation, and management that is committed to – and able to handle – the lengthy sales cycles and demanding customer services levels common in the market.

“Companies really need to be strategically interested in the market to engage. For those who do, the prize is a market of scale and sustainability.”

A ‘hard sell’ rarely works. “Companies coming in here sometimes don’t appreciate how serious the Japanese are about detail. They will want to know who is funding you, how long you have been around for and how long you’re likely to be around for. Your first presentation slide should not be about your technology, or your value proposition, it’s about your heritage and sustainability as a long-term partner,” says O’Riordan.

Be ready for Japan’s most pressing questions

Expect demanding technology and customer service requirements. “Japanese people will ask multiple questions before they buy. They are data-driven, technology-driven, and very service driven. Take the questions as a compliment, they are investing their time in you,” he adds.

While there is potential across a variety of sectors, from fintech to travel tech and medtech, opportunities often emerge as a result of policy and regulatory changes. That has occurred in relation to eldercare, as the country’s aging population generates demand for both assisted living solutions and medtech innovations. In relation to renewable energy, opportunities can be found in Japan’s search for ways to reduce its dependency on nuclear power.

Changes in its visa rules have opened it up to unprecedented levels of tourism, with numbers on track to reach 40 million visitors per annum by 2020, driven also by the arrival of low-cost carriers into the country.

Plan your market entry strategy for Japan

Between 2014 and 2018, companies backed by Enterprise Ireland saw year-on-year growth of 14.5%.

“Companies that get it right can and need to scale up in Japan. To succeed you need to be resilient on the way in and have an ambition and scale agenda to realise a return on investment.”

Read how Connolly’s Red Mills became the largest importer of premium horse feeds in Japan

Irish companies considering a market entry strategy for Japan should undertake high level-research and then carefully verify and validate it. Once you have established a good product/market fit, look for partners – Enterprise Ireland can assist with both.

In Japan it’s not just the language that creates an additional barrier, but the business culture, which must be appreciated and understood. As such, we advise companies to expend shoe leather in market.  There is no substitute for visiting repeatedly to understand the nuances of the market. Ultimately it makes the decision to invest in an on the ground presence a much easier one.

The recent EU Japan Economic Partnership Agreement provides for a much-improved free trade environment between EU and Japan across several categories, which “will add significant momentum to Ireland and Japan trade relations, not least in the food sector,” he says.

Taking the time required to win your first customer will pay dividends. “If you can point to a satisfied Japanese customer, there is no more powerful reference customer across Asia,” says O’Riordan.

The overarching message on Japan is that it very open to and welcoming of world class Irish companies with good product market fit and an ambition to scale. It is proving to be a very rewarding market for committed Irish companies, as is evidenced by the export performance of our clients in recent years and rising levels of ambition for the market.”

Kitman Labs wins with Leinster Rugby, Everton FC, and now Japan

Kitman Labs wins in Europe, US and now Japan

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Supporting the Irish team driving some of Japan’s biggest sports teams.

Kitman Labs is the leading performance and health analytics provider to the global sports industry.

The Irish sportstech company was established in 2012 by Stephen Smith, former injury rehabilitation and conditioning coach for Leinster Rugby. Its software has fundamentally changed how the industry uses data to increase its chances of sporting success.

When Smith began working with Leinster Rugby, he inherited a system in which training information, game information and medical information were all managed separately.

Developments in data science inspired Smith to build a performance and data analytics system that combined all three, with a view to increasing athlete availability and boosting team performance.

 

Focus on innovation enabled Kitman Labs to scale around the world

Until Kitman Labs launched in 2014, no other system merged performance data with medical information, in order to unlock fresh insights. “We’re very focused on innovation,” he explains.

The system’s success has enabled the company to grow and scale internationally. In 2014, it signed its first customer, UK football club Everton.

Success there saw Smith move to the US to raise investment to fund further growth. It signed its first US contract the following year. “Today we have 250 teams across all sports, from Mixed Martial Arts to soccer, rugby and baseball,” says Smith.

Kitman Labs’ product is translated into 29 languages and sells across all five continents. “Our marketplace is still fragmented, insofar as a number of companies collect athletes’ data, and some provide either performance analytics or medical information, but no one combines all three. We see huge opportunities in front of us across the insurance, corporate health and digital health sectors too,” says Smith.

The company has offices in Dublin, Silicon Valley and Sydney and is active in 41 global sporting leagues. These include the English Premier League, the Bundesliga, Premiership Rugby and National Football League.

 

How Kitman Labs got big in Japan

It also has a presence in Japanese rugby’s Top League. One of its newest client acquisitions on this front is elite Japanese rugby team NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes, based in Osaka. It selected the Kitman Labs Athlete Optimisation System to enhance its performance and medical programmes.

Kitman has a number of clients in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand and China.

“We entered Japan via initial interest from Toyota Verblitz, a professional rugby team in Japan’s Top League, who had seen Kitman Labs coverage in the media and made contact with us.”

In 2018, Smith travelled to Japan to speak at the Sports Tech Tokyo conference. “We used it as a test bed for the market and began an outreach programme on the back of it, to get some initial conversations started. Out of that we got two new deals, with NTT DoCoMo, and the Yokohama BayStars, a professional baseball team.”

 

Learning to do business in Japan

The business culture in Japan is different to that in other markets. “There are a lot of formalities and structure to meetings, for example, and the hierarchy in organisations is very different,” says Smith.

Enterprise Ireland’s Japan team is on hand to support Irish companies interested in stepping into the market and emulating Kitman Labs’ success.

Smith describes his experience: “Enterprise Ireland has been of even more help to us because Japan is so different. Their team has helped us with translation services and organised for us to have translators present at meetings. They have helped us by, not just setting up events, but getting the right people in the room.”

Support also helped Kitman Labs to gain a deep understanding of the business culture. “We could probably have set up meetings ourselves but if you don’t understand the nuances, you could burn those opportunities just as quickly as you make them,” he says.

“They also helped us to understand what kind of follow-up is required after a meeting, by explaining what level of detail is required in that follow up. That has been a game changer for us and one of the reasons we have managed to grow quite quickly there.”

Japan will be an extremely significant market for Kitman Labs in the future, Smith says.

“For a start, it has some of the largest corporate names in the world, and corporate health is a growing area of opportunity for us. Japan is unique, in that all its major teams are owned by corporates, so no other country offers that same level of opportunity in terms of corporate health for us.”

 

Using edtech to prepare businesses and students for impacts of AI and more

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Jason Dineen, educational technologist at the UCD Innovation Academy, shared his insights at Enterprise Ireland and The Learning Forum’s conference: Impacts and Future Trends in the EdTech and Corporate Learning Landscapes.

Due to the increasing pace of technological change, a sense of what the work environment will look like in five years is mostly unclear to students now entering higher education. To help build that picture, educators from the UCD Innovation Academy collaborate with businesses to explore evolving trends and to use leading edge technologies to ensure students are as prepared as possible.

 

Role of AI and automation

The impact of trends such as AI, automation and other new technologies, means that workplaces and roles around the world are changing quickly, creating challenges for students, educators, employees, and employers.

Jason described how The Innovation Academy helps businesses to adapt within this environment: “We mostly meet small and medium enterprises – companies that aren’t sure how to define a role that they will need in two years’ time. It’s difficult to create a job description when you don’t know what you will need. Our students and staff at the Innovation Academy consult businesses on what they should be looking for and to understand their concerns and views about the future.”

He highlighted that graduates must develop a range of soft skills, such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, and team work. Having one core skill that you are highly competent at is no longer enough.

Among students, Jason indicated there can be a fear of AI. The task for businesses and educators is to demonstrate how AI will improve the workplace of the future: “That’s why we show students the technology as they study with us, allowing them to see how it helps to minimise repetitive tasks we don’t need to do anymore.”

The Innovation Academy’s social humanoid robot, Pepper (by SoftBank Robotics), was on display at the conference. Students are given the opportunity to programme Pepper “to give them the chance to see how they can use AI to undertake tasks”, Jason explained.

 

How businesses can attract and retain talent in the new world of work

In order to attract and retain talent, businesses will be required to become more flexible with practices such as remote working, Jason predicted. What attracts candidates to jobs is no longer just a salary. With many applicants prioritising their ability to enjoy their job, companies should allow work to complement employee interests: “If your employees have a genuine interest in something, they will do very good things for your business, and they will be loyal to you.”

The task for employees in this new landscape is to ensure they are upskilling to adopt technologies with confidence.

Jason advised that career-long learning is vital to employee fulfilment: “Employees are not going to come into a job after doing a four-year college degree and think that’s it for the next 40 years. They now want to upskill constantly – to learn new skills and see how they can adapt for what’s coming down the tracks in terms of technology.”

How success at home helped Connolly’s Red Mills win in Japan

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Kilkenny-based Connolly’s Red Mills makes scientifically advanced nutrition and healthcare solutions for animal health, well-being and performance.

The fifth-generation family-owned business was set up in 1908. It is led by chief executive Joe Connolly, chief operating officer Bill, and business development manager for exports Michael. The brothers work with the next generation of Gareth, William and John Connolly, and a dynamic management team, to drive the business forward. The company employs 320, working on three main strands: a vertically integrated domestic feed and grain business; the manufacture and sale of pet foods in 40 countries; and the manufacture and sale of premium horse feed into 80 countries worldwide.

 

How Connolly’s Red Mills became a global leader

Its premium horse feed is used by some of the world’s most successful race horses, show jumpers and dressage performers.

“In the field, we are considered a global leader, selling right across the northern hemisphere, and beyond that, as far away as Australia. Enterprise Ireland has supported us significantly with research and development, which was the key to our success, especially in Japan,” says Michael Connolly.

“We received funding from Enterprise Ireland for market research and product development for specific markets, including customisation and localisation.”

Connolly’s Red Mills’ success at home helped it succeed abroad. “Race horses are the best paid athletes in the world. We were able to piggy back on the success of our Irish breeders and trainers, to follow our customers, and their customers, around the world,” says Michael.

The UK was the company’s first export market, which it entered in 1985. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s it grew sales across Europe. In 2004 it entered Japan.

Connolly’s Red Mills initially sought to sell pet foods into Japan but found there was greater opportunity for horse feed. “Japan has a very wealthy racing industry. It has prize money of around 10 times the average amount you’d see in Ireland,” he says.

 

Prepare to do business in Japan

Success wasn’t assured. Connolly found Harvard Business professor Geert Hofstede’s view of Japan, that it is the most ‘foreign’ country from a business point of view, to be true.

“The biggest difficulty is communications. That is not translation, it’s the fact that what is not said in a meeting is what often counts most. But if you don’t know what should have been said, you won’t know what that means,” says Connolly.

If you have the right product and are prepared to put in the time building relationships, you can succeed. “Your business has to hit all the markers they want to see, which is sustainability, profitability and growth, which thankfully align exactly with our own values at Connolly’s Red Mills,” he says.

Customer acquisition takes Connolly’s up to four times longer in Japan than it does elsewhere.

“Where it might take three months in France, it will take 18 months to two years in Japan,” he says.

Business meetings are highly structured and formal. Irish people’s traditional bonhomie can work against us, he cautions. Not handling business cards with due deference is a case in point.

Japan has a very hierarchical business culture, to the point that business teams meeting across a table must sit opposite one another in order of rank.

“Often it is in the après meeting, when things relax a bit over a meal, that deals are really done and compromises are made. Decisions are very much done on the basis of consensus. Trust is hugely important and has to be built up.”

 

Japan rewards right product and right approach

If you have the right product, and approach the market in the right way, you can reap the reward. Today Connolly’s Red Mills is the largest importer of premium horse feeds in Japan, with 30% market share of premium horse food.

Enterprise Ireland’s Japan team provided practical on the ground assistance in relation to introductions, itineraries, and local expertise, including setting up meetings and providing information about how to set up a company in Japan.

“It helped us interpret business culture and ensure business and tax compliance. It was also a keyhole into the Irish business community in Tokyo, which was invaluable.”

Japan is not for the fainthearted, he cautions. “It is an exacting market. It has to be a strategic move and you have to have your research done.”

But get it right and it will pay dividends. “Japan is a homogenous market which means that if you can win a small part of it, you can win a large part of it.”

 

Read more on doing business in Japan and the support available from Enterprise Ireland.

How undertaking an agile project helped create a culture of innovation at two Irish companies

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Innovation is crucial for companies to grow their business and maintain competitiveness. An increasing number of SMEs in Ireland must undertake research and development projects to develop innovative products and services.

Identifying need and opportunity by talking to customers is at the heart of all good R&D. However, many companies are discovering that undertaking the process also allows them to identify further opportunities for growth and innovation.

 

Two strong approaches to launching an agile project

That has certainly been the case for TEAM Accessories and LaserTec, since they availed of Enterprise Ireland’s Agile Innovation Fund to support R&D projects.

Aerospace company TEAM Accessories specialises in the maintenance, repair and overhaul of commercial jet engines at their purpose-built facility in Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin. At the start of 2018, the company decided to target expansion into new sectors.

Speaking at an Enterprise Ireland Agile Innovation Support event in Dublin, Co-owner and Director Pat McEvoy talked about the opportunity they identified: “There was a fairly buoyant market in aviation, so the core business was okay, but we needed to do something new or different. We looked at where a commercial engine is used in different industrial applications – such as in the oil and gas sector, in the use of power generation, on ferries and ships all over the world.

“We set about developing capability in sectors that would give us substantial growth. That was a big challenge because, although it’s the same technology, it’s completely different systems and components. We would have to figure out how to design and manufacture new parts, how to train people, how to develop our capability as a project.”

Basil Cooney, Managing Director of Dublin-based electronics engineering manufacturer LaserTec, spoke at the event about his company’s plan to add 3D capability to their automated testing and validation solutions for the medical devices sector.

He said: “Using 2D vision technology to inspect and measure products was very cumbersome to use and very expensive. The limitations of 2D means that the solutions were application specific – if you want to look at a different product or solve a different problem, you’re almost starting from scratch nearly every time.

“We decided that we needed to come up with something really different; something that was easy to use, easy to communicate with, which could integrate into existing systems, and was affordable. Our idea was to develop a 3D sensor vision system that could scan a product and be able to read depth as well as length and width. You don’t get that with 2D.”

 

How Enterprise Ireland’s Agile Innovation Fund supports agile projects

Both LaserTec and TEAM Accessories applied for support from the Agile Innovation Fund. Designed to make undertaking R&D as easy as possible, it provides up to 50% funding for agile projects with a value of up to €300,000. The main feature of the Agile Innovation Fund is its fast turnaround time, and the applications for both LaserTec and TEAM Accessories were processed in weeks rather than months.

Pat McEvoy said: “At first, we thought that agile wasn’t a good fit for us because we were thinking about design and manufacturing, but we talked to our DA (Development Advisor at Enterprise Ireland) and she reassured us that our project was innovation and would qualify.

“I was so impressed by how quick the whole approval process was. It was very efficient, and we had really good input from our DA all the way through.” Pat McEvoy, Co-owner & Director, TEAM Accessories

Basil Cooney: “Our experience was also very positive. I think engaging as early as possible with our DA was important, and not just a one-off thing but engaging on a continuous basis initially until we were up and running.

“Initially we had a particular set of ideas for the project, but they changed as the project developed. With the Agile Fund that’s okay – it allows that flexibility to really go after what is required to make the project achieve its goals. Without it, we wouldn’t have achieved what we did.”

Perhaps the most enduring impact the agile project will have on TEAM Accessories and LaserTec is the culture of innovation it has helped nurture.

Pat said: “We have a couple of other things we’re looking at now that happened kind of by accident as a result of this project. We set out to develop capabilities in different sectors, now we’re also moving into an area – and this has come from customers and their feedback – which involves improving some of the existing designs of the engines. So agile has opened up different avenues for us.”

Basil Cooney: “We’ve identified a number of products that we can develop from the core technology of a 3D sensor and software platform. The idea is to customise them for a bigger range of applications that use the same technology, such as scanning and checking boxes on an assembly line or verifying a manufacturing assembly as it’s happening.”

Get more information about the Agile Innovation Fund.

Québec Offers Potential for Irish Business, Exports

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Home to nearly a quarter of the Canadian population, the Quebec province includes one of North America’s largest, most vibrant, and perhaps overlooked markets. With world-class universities, a talented workforce, an abundance of natural resources and the lowest operations and energy costs in North America, Quebec attracts a diverse range of tech companies and start-ups to its historical, inviting cities.

A common understanding is that “selling and exporting to Canada, overlooking the province of Quebec would be similar to promoting your products in the U.S. but disregarding California, New York, and Florida, which together constitute a similar percentage of the overall population.” Additionally, The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and Europe means the timing is right to invest more in partnerships with Canada, as benefits for Ireland and Québec based companies include tariff free trade, easier access to procurement opportunities, and much more.

With a populace of more than 4.2 million, Montréal, Québec’s main metropolis, attracts tourists, companies and investors from all around the world. This French-speaking province boasts a high standard of living and a highly-educated workforce that fully embraces cutting-edge technology. Quebec holds excellent potential for Irish business, especially in shared strength areas such as transportation, aerospace, AI, data centers, life sciences, digital media and agriculture.

 

Artificial Intelligence

In Montréal alone, there are eleven universities, sixty colleges, and the highest number of post-secondary students in Canada, so it’s no surprise that the city offers the world’s largest concentration of academic researchers in deep learning. Canada is home to several AI pioneers and their research has attracted a vibrant, international community of data scientists. Not only has this created a diverse talent pool, it has sparked significant investment in bridging the gap between research labs and industry.

 

Data Centres

Attracted by the lowest energy costs in all of North America, the Quebec province draws many large-power customers, including data centers and other tech-based enterprises. Affordable energy benefits most everyone in the province, with Natural Resources Canada noting that in Québec, the residential rates are nearly 1.5 times lower than Toronto and four times lower than New York.

 

Aerospace

Many are surprised to learn that the Canadian province of Quebec is home to the world’s third-largest hub for the aerospace industry. Many large players, including Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce Canada, CAE, Bell Helicopter, Safran, Lockheed Martin, and Thales, and a long list of suppliers and sub-contractors contribute to this critical and vibrant business sector.

 

Transportation

Canada has a booming smart transportation hub with over 1,000 companies in the industry. Drawn to the region by low energy and operations costs as well as the workforce talent, many hybrid vehicles and specialized electric vehicles are now manufactured in Québec, including city buses (Nova Bus); Class 7 trucks (Paccar Open); mining vehicles by (SCP 89’s Minautor); modular industrial vehicles by (Kargo), and small trains and transportation shuttles from (Wattman Trains & Trams), to name a few.

 

Gaming & Entertainment

Since the 1980s, Quebec has brought creativity and innovation to the gaming and entertainment industries. Today, Quebec is recognized as one of the world’s top five video game production cities after Tokyo, London, San Francisco and Austin. There were more than 11,000 people employed in Quebec’s video game industry in 2017. Additionally, Quebec is home to the largest Visual Effects (VFX) and animation hubs in Canada and is regarded as a world leader in VFX development.

 

Life Sciences

Québec’s pool of skilled research personnel positions the region among the world’s best for life science innovation. Built upon an environment of collaboration between companies and research centers, Quebec is the sixth-largest life sciences and health technologies hubs in North America. More than 130 companies in the biotechnology industry employ 4,700 people in the greater Montreal area.

Agriculture & Fresh Water

With an abundance of natural resources, including more than half a million lakes and 4,500 rivers supplying fresh water throughout the province, Quebec supports a robust and thriving agribusiness. With nearly 8,000 dairy farms, Quebec’s dairy industry is the largest in Canada. And the region’s farmers produce nearly 90% of the world’s maple syrup.

 

Mining

One-fifth of Canada’s mining output comes from Québec. The providence is the largest producer of zinc and the second-largest producer of gold and iron in Canada. More than 15 different metals and 13 minerals are mined and produced in Quebec, including lithium and apatite. Québec is one of the rare producers of niobium, titanium dioxide, cobalt and platinum in the world.

 

Parlez-vous Français?

While you may have spent time in parts of Europe where most of the population is comfortable in English despite it not being their native language, this is not the case in Quebec. Only 43% of Quebecers are bilingual, and while younger generations and the business community tend to be more comfortable in English, you will encounter many Quebecers who speak little to no English. Fortunately, Quebecers are exceptionally good-natured and welcoming, and if your French is not strong, they will do their best to communicate.

In all, Quebec is a dynamic, growing market that has adapted to the demands of the 21st century exceptionally well. Canada’s commitment to talent development, strong support for innovation, and low business costs make it a good match for all that Irish business has to offer. Taking the time to understand this market and build a business plan and market strategy which resonates Quebecers will be well rewarded.

 

Transport & Logistics Industry Update – Webinar

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The Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the re-shaping of transport routes brought a very turbulent start to 2021. Logistics and transportation companies involved in the movement, storage and flow of goods have been directly impacted and had to rapidly adapt to changing business landscape. Irish companies exporting their products or importing components or raw materials need to follow and understand these trends to stay competitive.

This Enterprise Ireland webinar identifies these challenges and examines current developments with a panel of industry experts.

The webinar is chaired by Enterprise Ireland’s Director UK & Northern Europe Marina Donohoe with insights from:

 • Gopal R, Global Leader, Supply Chain & Logistics, Frost & Sullivan

• John Ward, Managing Director, Maurice Ward & Co. Ltd Ireland

• Richard Nolan, CEO, Nolan Transport – Nolan Group

 

Register now to attend the webinar.

Enterprise Ireland’s top tips for entering the Singaporean market

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Singapore, the gateway to SE Asia, is the regional business hub for ASEAN and the wider Asia Pacific region, providing stability and highly educated workforce, making it the perfect location to create a base.

If you are considering doing business in Singapore, please be sure to explore our top tips to enter the market below and also be sure to reach out to our team in Singapore

  • Singapore’s English dominated business environment and business-friendly legal and tax systems give Irish companies at every stage of development the opportunity to establish a business presence in Singapore at relatively low risk.
  • Singapore’s highly-educated workforce, political stability, excellent air transport links, developed infrastructure, transparency in business operations and Western business practices mean that many companies adopt a “hub and spoke” approach, using Singapore as a base from which to access opportunities in neighbouring markets.
  • Singapore’s business language is English and it is spoken throughout the island among all ethnic groups.
  • Singapore has the highest per capita spend on healthcare in ASEAN, which averages 4% of GDP, and this is expected to increase annually as the Government seeks to invest in quality healthcare infrastructure and services making it an attractive market for medical device and life science companies.
  • Singapore is seeing increased activity in the Life science sector. There are opportunities for client companies currently selling into the pharma and medical device supply chain in Ireland as many of the same global multinationals also have strong presences in Singapore e.g. Roche, Pfizer, GSK.
  • Singapore is a top-three global financial centre and therefore a key market for companies involved in financial services and fintech. Key activities include FX, wealth management, commodities trading, hedge funds & treasury.
  • There are over 210 banks and approx 1200 Financial Institutions registered in Singapore. Notable changes in the financial sector include the liberalisation of the banking market with the awarding of five digital banking licences in December 2020; the launch of the Variable Capital Company as an entity for new investment funds in Singapore, and the embrace of fintech and automation by the sector in enhancing competitiveness and innovation.
  • Punctuality is a sign of respect in Singapore. It is best to inform your Singaporean counterpart if you will be late.
  • Modesty and humility are key values in Singapore, therefore it is important not to “oversell” during initial meetings with Singaporean counterparts.
  • The decision-making process in Singapore is done collectively and up through the hierarchy, and therefore it may take more time than you are used to.
  • Over 200 Irish firms are already active in this market thanks to EI assistance, contact the local MA here.

For more be sure to check out our Going Global Guide 

If you would like to know what to prepare ahead of your first MA call, click the graphic below

Evolve UK  Report – Local Authority Investment Areas and the impact of Covid-19

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The UK remains the largest export market for indigenous Irish companies. A new focus for Enterprise Ireland in the UK is to support Irish companies looking to enter the UK Local Authorities space.

This report, commissioned by Enterprise Ireland provides an overview of UK Local Authorities to help inform Irish companies of their structure and procurement processes.

Click the below image to view or download the complete report.

 

Key questions to ask at your Dutch Market Advisor meeting

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This is an open discussion between you and one of our trusted Market Advisers, to discuss your business and the export opportunities that lie for you in the region. Below are some suggestions of questions to ask your MA, to learn more about the Dutch market, and the supports we can offer you.

  • What resources do you need? Enterprise Ireland can help entrepreneurs and businesses to scale and reach their potential, let it be from funding support, market insights, or finding the right contacts through international networks. Ask your MA what they can do to help you scale your business and enter the market prepared, confident and supported.
  • What are the opportunities in the market for your business? Ask your MA which opportunities lie within your sector, and how best to leverage these growth opportunities for your business.
  • What should the next steps be? Discuss forming a plan towards global exporting – have an open discussion and together plan objectives, goals and discuss what time frames to expect. Next steps may include further market research and discovery, funding applications or buyer introductions.

Set up a call with our team in Amsterdam and be sure to check out our Going Global Guide.

Enterprise Ireland’s top tips for entering the Dutch market can be viewed by clicking the graphic below.

Why patents will help Neurent Medical crack the US market

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Innovation runs through Irish medtech firms like writing in a stick of rock. It’s in their DNA.

Innovation creates disruption, market advantage and growth – but unless firms take steps to protect the fruits of their R&D, their intellectual property (IP) is vulnerable – and so, too, the advantages it creates.

If you are a small, VC funded, medical device company with disruptive technology that will unlock a US $2 billion market opportunity, an IP strategy from the get-go is almost as important as the product itself.

 

Neurent Medical recognised need for IP strategy from the start

Neurent Medical, a Galway-based medtech start-up, is developing a novel office-based device solution for the acute allergic and chronic conditions of rhinitis. It is a market currently served by vested pharmaceutical solutions or lengthy and costly surgical intervention.

“With the size of the market that we have and how disruptive our technology is, we’re anticipating fast followers will emerge and try to move into our space,” says David Townley, Neurent Medical’s co-founder and CTO.

“In our case, It isn’t just traditional medical devices that we’re disrupting; there is also a disruptive pharma interest. So, because of that we’ve gone a little deeper into IP strategy and IP establishment than other medical device companies at the same stage of development, because we have a pretty significant market to address.”

The firm is aiming to address the tension that arises between its IP strategy and its market strategy, while at the same time working on what to patent – and when. Not only that but it also has to determine how long to keep its R&D protected internally as a trade secret and when to roll it out to file patents.

Maintaining a trade secret may give a technological competitive edge but a firm risks having its future market landscape inhibited by a rival showing up who patents in the area first, said Townley.

 

The race for first to file

It is particularly relevant for Neurent Medical because their target launch market, the US, has changed its patent designation from first to invent to first to file, effectively creating a race.

“Historically we were all religious about our lab notebooks and documenting our ideas and our inventions. Signing, dating, countersigning, and so forth. It showed we had a definitive point of proof of origin and date of establishment,” said Townley.

“So when filing a patent, this record keeping was useful in demonstrating inventive origin; It was all about who was first to invent and first to invent used to win.

“But in the last couple of years, the US PTO has converted their approach and transitioned to a first-to-file provision – so now it’s a race to the patent office and whoever gets there first wins, even if you came up with an idea first.”

This has spawned a culture of patent trolling as firms attempt to file and fill areas with patents, many without merit, but costly to unpick for an SME with a genuine innovation.

“It can be double edged because what the first-to-file provision has done is provide absolute clarity on what the disclosures are and simultaneously has established a sense of urgency to file because previously, if you were first to invent you could log and continue developing your innovation internally until it was robust. Then once it’s at a point of readiness you go to the USPTO. Now, because of the first-to-file provision, there’s a higher sense of urgency in getting your content into the USPTO, which creates genuine pressure, particularly for SMEs to file quickly” said Townley.

 

Aligning market strategy with IP strategy

This creates an even greater necessity to correctly align a firm’s market strategy with its IP strategy, he added.

This is why Townley and the senior management team at Neurent spent a serious amount of time and money at the very start of the company’s journey sourcing the best patent attorney advice for their firm. It led them to California and to one of the world’s leading medical device incubators, The Foundry, where they asked them the simple question: Who do YOU use?

“We knew we were novel and had created a world-leading technology and wanted the best attorneys reviewing our IP strategy and working with us on our positioning. When one of the biggest incubators in the world says this is their go-to guy, then it makes sense. An early robust review is important; there are a lot of dangers out there,” said Townley.

Getting the advice and using Enterprise Ireland’s IP Start programme has seen the firm develop a patent strategy that deals in multiple patent clusters that weave together to establish a robust portfolio, according to Townley, which offers greater protection in the market area.

“Our IP strategy is of fundamental strategic importance to us because it enables us to knit and grow our core technologies, R&D, and marketing with our commercial strategy and informs how we develop, deepen and expand our target markets,” he added.

It has helped Neurent Medical grow and develop its roadmap and its latest round of funding raised €9.3 million, led by Fountain Healthcare Partners; including funds from Enterprise Ireland, which Townley in part attributes to having a sound IP strategy in place.

“It’s absolutely fundamental. In fact, what you’ll see from the medtech investment community is that a poor IP strategy or a poor IP position; is simply a hard stop. Although it’s difficult to raise investment exclusively off the back of IP; it’s almost impossible to raise anything without it. That’s how critical this is.”

 

Read how Enterprise Ireland can support your R&D ambitions with our range of Innovation supports.

Webio puts IP at the heart of the design process

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“Every day as a start-up, there is something out there that can kill you.” Paul Sweeney, EVP Product at Webio.

It’s clear that Sweeney does not take the success of his firm Webio for granted. He’s under no illusion that every day is a competition – and every day to come will be a competition. It’s pretty much the life of the start-up.

In the fast-paced world of software development, where product cycles are increasingly shorter and market disruption is a given, a business with a bright idea needs all the support it can get to future-proof growth.

 

How Webio protects its big ideas

The Irish software firm Webio, which specialises in automating messaging, chatbot and voice interactions between companies and their customers, relies on very smart AI and machine learning at the heart of its product. Organisations use its ‘conversational middleware’ solution to process the host of customer enquiries that have migrated to messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Messenger. Companies that have adopted it have seen costly contact centre phone calls decrease and payment and collection rates increase, so it’s no surprise that Webio’s code is in demand.

It’s a big idea – and one that’s worth protecting. The automated SMS market alone is worth €60 billion annually and the market for chatbots and automated voice command CRM such as Alexa is “silly numbers”, says Sweeney. As a result, the firm placed the utmost value on the protection of its code – its intellectual property – at the heart of its design and business process.

Sweeney, Webio’s EVP Product, said the company started early with protecting its intangible assets starting early on with its branding, the first and most visible part of a company’s intangible value.

“As part of your Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) strategy, having a really tight brand strategy is underrated. And when you’ve got a tight brand you can push through some of the noise,” he said.

It helped the company to frame what to trademark and copyright. To further push their visibility and brand strategy they started their sector-specific ConverCon – the Conversational Interface Conference strand, even though the company was in its infancy.

But with one of the core goals to make their software ‘white label’ for use at scale, they had to carefully think about protecting the core part of their IPR.

Webio turned to Enterprise Ireland which has several supports in place to encourage SMEs to address IPR culture within their organisation such as the IP Start Grant and IP Plus Grant.

“When you look at many of the technologies today getting to market you can build on many other different softwares. What the IP Start programme helped us do was focus very specifically on the key aspects of our software that were going to make a difference in the long run and that were going to be IPR defensible positions,” said Sweeney.

“So we used that programme to identify one core thing that we did that was important and once we had that focus, we concentrated on how that bit impacted the rest of our platform and concentrated on being really good at that bit.”

This would allow the firm to make the right call on whether to move from retaining the piece of IP as a trade secret or moving into registration of a patent, he added.

 

IP underpins company growth

It’s a move which, according to new research, is likely to aid the firm’s growth. A new joint study from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), found that SMEs that applied for patents, trademarks or designs early on were more likely to experience high growth compared to those that did not.

The study showed that SMEs with at least one IP right are 21% more likely to experience a growth period and 10% more likely to become a high-growth firm (HGF), compared to those without IP rights. Furthermore, firms with EU-level IP rights, as opposed to national level, are even more likely (17%) to become an HGF.

Sweeney added ‘‘What this programme has helped us to do is focus in on one particular area and understand that on that vector lies IPR potential. And if you concentrate on it, it could turn into either a trade secret – which you’re happy to keep under the hood – or be something that you’re willing to describe and put into a patent.

“As a result, we’ve identified that we can go down either path – and we know now how to cascade that to other parts of the software to make our company more valuable.”

It’s a path that has required management team buy-in from the get-go.

“Make no mistake. Management time is the most expensive time to spend. This is a non-trivial process that requires a lot of knowledge. But at the end of it, we, as a company, had a very clear understanding of our IPR.

“And its value”, added Sweeney.

 

Learn more about the innovation supports available from Enterprise Ireland.