Returning Home - Friday May 1st

I had to get to Monterey, CA by the evening of Friday May 1st. To accomplish this I took a 7:40am flight out of Dublin that connected through London and Los Angeles. Having to wake up at 5am, after going to bed around 2am following the Brookwood Dublin dinner, was quite the challenge!

On the flight home I had the opportunity to really contemplate and take in the program I had just been through, the people I had met and the relationships I had made.

My impressions and takeaways from the Dublin trip:

• Ireland is a beautiful country - despite the ever changing weather, which is beautiful in its own way.
• The people are friendly and welcoming.
• The food (and beer) is great! I've never eaten more potato in one week before!
• Live music in the pubs 7 days a week is amazing!
• The country is booming - with the highest GDP growth in the EU - making it an exciting place to be.
• All the multinational corporations are there for the same reasons: Euro, English, Europe, Tax Breaks, Clusters, Talent, Technology.
• Ireland is the place to be to develop truly global managerial skills.

For all those reasons and more is why I'll be looking for jobs in Dublin post MBA!

On the ground in Los Angeles...

... though several hours delayed leaving London!

I ended up missing my Monterrey flight, and since there are only a couple flights a day to Monterrey, I had to take a flight the next day.

Special thanks to everyone who helped put this program on and to those who were there (below), as they were the people who made this a truly special experience!

Photo by Desiree Williams

The Last Day - Thursday April 30th

The last day of the Pepperdine program had us walk to nearby State Street and then back to the RealEx Payments offices - both of which are close to one another.

State Street

View from atop of State Street's building (looking east).

River Liffey emptying into the Irish Sea

  

Looking west atop of State Street's building

 

State Street is one of the big three (others being Bank of New York Mellon and Northern Trust) financial services companies which specialize in being a custodian of assets. In fact, the company is a custodian to 12% of the world's assets.

We were hosted in one of the company's very large and impressive conference rooms. The table must've been fifty feet long by 25 feet wide! We were also treated with numerous speakers and had an expat employee panel discussion. State Street, like all the other companies we visited, trumpeted very similar reasons as to why it is in Ireland: the 12.5% corporate tax rate, Ireland has a large financial services cluster, it is easy to do business in Ireland and Ireland's membership in the European Union gives State Street access to the markets of the other 27 EU countries.

Returning to RealEx Payments

In the afternoon we returned to RealEx Payments to close out the program. RealEx was recently acquired by Atlanta based Global Payments and the class was treated to Colm Lyon telling the RealEx story and Hank Boughner (President of Global Payments) describing how they are going to keep telling RealEx's story. Overall, it was amazing to see how a small indigenous Irish start-up, that had literally nothing to begin with, in 15 years grow (through the leadership of Colm and Gary) to be acquired for 115 million Euros.

Closing Dinner at Brookwood Dublin

The Pepperdine Global Programs office hosted our closing dinner at the Brookwood Dublin. Here we all congregated for the last time (along with new arrivals Dean Williams and Dean Smith). It was amazing how quickly the week went and how we managed to pack so much into it! Lastly, it was amazing seeing what was a group of strangers become a group of friends in all of about 5 days!

Photo by Desiree Williams

Photo by Desiree Williams

 

Technology Innovation in Dublin - Wednesday April 29th

Wednesday's itinerary took us on the longest walking portion of the program - to the rehabilitated docklands and the offices of AirBnB, Google and Accenture.

Docklands - with new residential and commercial buildings.

 

AirBnb

AirBnb is in the business of hospitality and guest services. Therefore, their lobby has a pub!

The office environment includes enclosed spaces themed after markets AirBnB operates in.

Employees work in an open office environment.

The AirBnB giraffe, which reminds employees to go above and beyond.

AirBnb has only had operations in Dublin for a couple years, starting with five people working out of an apartment. The company has grown its Dublin presence to a few hundred employees on three floors in their current building. Like Microsoft, it is renewing its investment in Dublin with the building out of a new space in an adjacent building that will allow them to grow their employee headcount.

Trust & Safety is a key component of AirBnb's business. The company goes to great length's to educate its hosts and guests about its policies. AirBnb has a $1million host guarantee that goes a long way in establishing trust between the company and its hosts. Hosts know the company has their back in cases where there is a disastrous/unfortunate situation where property is damaged or stolen - something AirBnB has been in the news a lot about more recently.

Google

We ventured over to Google where they hosted us for lunch in their cafeteria. After lunch we were shown around their building and had a panel of Googlers that spoke about the business and global management.

View from atop of the Google building.

(Dublin's Aviva Stadium can be seen in the distance to the right)

Google Dublin is made up of about 2,780 employees and most of them are not from Ireland. In terms of job function, 70% of the employees are in business operations (sales) while the others are in IT operations and overhead.

We were also treated to a discussion of what it takes to be a global manager and the challenges of managing across cultures. Being a manager of a global company, one must have the awareness of the differences in culture not only within your company, but also of the various cultures where the company operates. We were introduced to the Lewis Model and Cultural Maps, which helps managers understand some of the differences across cultures. This awareness is important because, "the more you are aware of the differences the better off you'll be as a manger and the less conflicts you'll have."

Lastly, it was interesting to hear (from other companies) how Google has purchased much of the land in and around the docklands. Seems like Google is becoming a real estate company too? Makes sense as the docklands area keeps getting developed - land values will keep increasing.

Accenture

In Dublin, Accenture only does "complex work" and not transactional. Additionally, it is all about a skilled workforce and not about labor arbitrage; and Dublin provides the company with a very skilled workforce. For Accenture, they are in Dublin for many of the same reasons other companies are: talent, high density of high profile companies, it is an English speaking country, the time zone is favorable to both the United States and Europe, there is easy access to government officials and there is a low corporate tax rate.

Smurfs and Foxes - Tuesday April 28th

Tuesday was the earliest wake up call - 8am - we had for the program. The reason for it was, we had to catch our chartered bus so that we could be driven to University College Dublin (Smurfit School of Business), then to Microsoft and then to an Irish Hooley restaurant for dinner called Johnnie Fox's.

University College Dublin

Enroute on bus

UCD

In the morning, we had presentations from three faculty members:

 

Dr. E. Tippmann (Global Strategy)

• How does a subsidiary become successful?
• Each subsidiary must meet and exceed performance targets.
• Every subsidiary competes with others and third party groups.
• Subsidiary management behavior is key to success.
• How you set-up your corporate culture determines how knowledge gets spread.

Prof. E. Walsh (International Tax)

• Dublin is the "capital of tax avoidance."
• Double Irish - can be registered as a corporation in Ireland and can pay taxes elsewhere - like the Cayman Islands.
• Ireland being thrown into the same category as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands puts them in the cross-hairs of international regulators.
• One of the big problems is everyone wants a piece of the profitable companies but none of any that go bust.

Dr. L. Muzellec (Digital Marketing)

• Brands bombard consumers with messages that trigger values (brand promotion/awareness)
• It has become harder to reach consumers through traditional methods
• Need to tap into the emotional need of the "stomach" to get the best result

Cohort convening outside the UCD Smurfit School

Microsoft

Class arriving in front of Microsoft's offices

We were treated with a panel discussion

Microsoft is celebrating 30 years in Ireland and it did so by announcing a reinvestment in its position in Dublin with the groundbreaking of a new campus. Originally started as a manufacturing presence, Microsoft has shifted its Ireland offices into its European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operations HQ.

Currently, the Dublin facility's core business is: product development, sales & marketing, cloud operations and an operations center.

Microsoft is in Ireland because:

• It is easy to do business in Ireland -  access to government in unparalleled
• Can get visas easily for foreign employees
• Ireland is English speaking
• Tax Credits: R&D credit, R&D Grant, 12.5% corporate tax rate
• Ease of travel to the United States

Johnnie Fox's

View of the countryside outside of Dublin (with sheep!)

 

Class arriving at Johnnie Fox's

Our evening entertainment!

 

Class enjoying appetizers!

 

Some of the decor of Johnnie Fox's

Video of the band.

 

Video of the dancers

Bus ride home. It is safe to say we were all exhausted from the day! ;)

RealEx Payments and "Why Ireland?" - Monday April 27th

Across the River Liffey from Jury's Inn Custom House was our base of operations - RealEx Payments.

RealEx Payments

Class walking over a pedestrian bridge on the way to RealEx Payments

 

 

RealEx was co-founded by Colm Lyon, a good friend of Professor Mooney. We were hosted in one of their conference rooms where we would spend most of the day.

Class taking in lunch and the nice view from RealEx's office.

(RealEx COO Gary Conroy center of picture)

Upon entering the RealEx office space, one can't help but notice the open floor plan. Every employee of the company has an open workspace - there are no closed offices. The same is true for CEO Colm Lyon!

There a several of these nearly complete circle group meeting spaces throughout RealEx's office. They are designed to encourage creativity, innovation and teamwork.

IT Operations at RealEx - monitoring the RealEx IT Infrastructure

 

Throughout the day at RealEx we were treated to numerous guest speakers: Gary Conroy (COO of RealEx Payments), Carol Murphy (Ernst & Young), Conor Simpson (IDA Ireland) and a gentleman from the Bank of New York Mellon who's name escapes me!

Each of the speaker's spoke of their career journey and why Ireland and Dublin is a good place for business. A few of the highlights from a few of the speakers:

Gary Conroy - COO RealEx Payments

• RealEx is a Financial Technology (FinTech)
• Specialize in online payments
• Provides payment services to mid-size companies
• RealEx doesn't take any credit risk
• RealEx is a software as a service company
• RealEx is the middleman between companies and banks

Conor Simpson - IDA Ireland

• Industrial Development Authority (IDA)
• Agency of the Irish Government
• Establishes the Foreign Direct Investment strategy - attracting multinational corporations to Ireland
• "We are a marketing agency and specialize in relationship building."
• Three E's: Education, Europe, English
• Four T's: Track Record, Talent, Tax, Technology

Bank of NY Mellon

• "Ireland doesn't have wealth or experience in asset management, they bring in the talent - taking advantage of the 12.5% corporate tax rate."
• Ireland "speaks English and have a copy of UK laws."
• Ireland is a respected jurisdiction

Old Jameson Distillery

To close out the day, many of us ventured over to the Old Jameson Distillery

 

Even after a great tour I still have not acquired a taste for whiskey!

To close out the night, some of us spent the evening within the Temple Bar neighborhood singing and dancing along with the live music. (Wish there was more of this at US pubs!)