Today we were honored to have a site visit at Guinness Enterprise Centre where we learned about how they operate business, work with their partners, and their future plans. GEC is an organization that supports entrepreneurship and innovation in Ireland. For example. the office provides space and facilities for high upside startups, secures funding through angel investors, provide networking opportunities between businesses and entrepreneurs, and helps Irish companies to internationalize through market research.
One takeaway form the wonderful presentation was how much opportunity stemmed from their founding partners Diageo, Dublin City Council. Dublin City Local Enterprise Office, Enterprise Ireland, Furthr, Irish Strategic Investment Fund, and The Guinness Worker’s Employment Fund. Having this many partners allows GEC to expand into so many industries such as healthcare, climate, gaming, B2B SaaS, 5G, Analytics, and Aviation. I was impressed by the 90% occupancy rate after the pandemic in the office that can hold +900 workers, so I asked the presenter what steps were taken in order to get mostly everyone back to work. It was not an easy process she said there was a long period of trial and error after the pandemic because everyone was enjoying their better work life balance. Constant efforts were made to get workers into the office and over time pandemic polices became less severe.
To have an entrepreneurial mindset there are several transferrable skills that are valuable to success. Entrepreneurs take calculated risks, think creatively and innovatively, work through step backs, seek opportunity, being adaptable to change, and having a strong focus on getting results. An example of my entrepreneurial mind because of my adaptability to change in in work environments and school environments. I am in internal transfer student who has adapted by future plans several times, and even while I am in Ireland I am open to more future considerations for what I want to do in my life and i’ll be ready to adapt to any new circumstances needed.
