How ready is your company for Brexit? A new online scorecard will tell you

10 Apr 2017

From left: Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland; David Moffitt, CEO of Enterprise Ireland client company Kayfoam; and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD. Image: Fennell Photography

As Irish companies and SMEs prepare for business post-Brexit, a new online scorecard has been launched to help them see how ready they actually are.

As recent movements of UK businesses to Ireland indicate, the effects of Brexit on the Irish economy are set to be substantial.

For SMEs in particular, questions are now being asked about what is in store for the next few years when Ireland’s largest trading partner adjusts to living outside the EU.

To make things a bit easier for Irish businesses, Enterprise Ireland has launched what it is calling the ‘Brexit SME Scorecard’, an interactive online platform for businesses to self-assess their exposure to Brexit under six pillars.

Based on answers supplied by the user, the scorecard generates an immediate report, which contains suggested actions and resources as well as information on events for companies to attend, in order to prepare for Brexit.

The six pillars that will determine a business’s score are: business strategy; operations, innovation, finance, people management, and sales and marketing.

While it does not claim to determine a company’s definitive future post-Brexit, it is a starting point for SME management teams looking to develop an action plan to help mitigate risks and leverage opportunities that may arise.

Countdown is on

Exporting client companies with Enterprise Ireland will also get a sweetener worth €5,000 to fund the development of a business action plan.

Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, said: “Now that Article 50 has been triggered, a two-year time frame counting down to the UK’s exit from the EU has been set.

“Irish companies should start preparing for a hard Brexit, and be fully equipped to meet both the challenges and the opportunities arising from Brexit head-on.”

Last week (7 April), Enterprise Ireland was also named in a collaboration with Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to fund 37 research projects as part of a €4.6m commercialisation drive.

Nearly 50 research positions will be supported through the provision of the projects, now backed by SFI’s latest funding initiative.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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