Recently I’ve been busy with bringing to completion one project and starting another.
During 2008 I worked with Kilkenny County Enterprise Board in designing and facilitating a BIN (Business Innovation Network). This was comprised of 12 business owners who came together to experience new creativity and problem solving tools and develop a strong network through which they now continue to support each other and develop new ideas. A great group of people whom I thoroughly enjoyed working with.
Happily, I’m looking forward to starting work on a new BIN in Kilkenny - this time they are all food producers, and together with a number of other consultants we will be working towards helping them to develop new products. All good stuff - positive and challenging. The ethos behind these networks is about getting people collaborating, working with and for each other and finding the opportunities that this recession will provide.
My hope is that people everywhere will see the downturn in the global economy as a chance to sharpen their thinking skills and their creativity. Whether it’s coming up with new ways to save money, make resources stretch further, find new careers / products / services, or better ways to run a country. As long as you’re not on the breadline and have a roof over your head, as long as you and the people who are important to you have good health, then these can be seen as exciting times. Challenging, but exciting. Networks make it easier because more heads are better than one.
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
Ken Blanchard